RACING NOTES

Evening Star, Issue 21037, 26 February 1932, Page 7

RACING NOTES

[By St. Claie.]

RACING. February 27, 29.-To Aroha Jockey Club. March 2 3.—Rangitikei Racing Club. March 4, S.-Napier Park Racing Club. March 5 -Banks Peninsula Racing Club. March 5,-Franklin Racing Club. _ March 9, 10,—Dannevirke Racing Club. March 11, 12,—Cromwell Jockey Club. March 12.-Bay of Plenty Jockey Club. March 17.-Opunake Racing Club. March 17.-Waimate Racing Club. March 17, 19.-Wellington Racing C üb. March 17, 19.-Ohinemun Jockey Club. March 19.—Otautau Racing Club.

totalisator investments. On December 31 last five months of the current racing yeawended, and the figures show a sharp falling off sator revenue as compared with the corresnonding period of last year. During the P period the number of racing days was 106, or five less than in the pVeSus year, and the number of races at 838 were forty-eight less, equal to just over 5 per cent. , The totalisator investments amounted to £1,562,746, against £2,356,403, a shrinkage of £793,657, equal to just over 33 1-3 per cent. The amount paid in stakes totalled £147,681, against £215,304, and the total paid in dividends was £1.289,777, against £1,952,435 The Government taxes amounted to £153,871, against £225,638. During the month of December, in winch there were several days of holiday racing, the . totalisator investments amounted to £428,329, against £666,954, a shrinkage of £238,625, or over 33 1-3 per cent. JOTTINGS. "Chief Light has been turned out for a spell on her owner’s farm at LorneTlie lease of Gold Pit from Mrs M. A. Perry expires at the end of tins month, and Mr P. C. Webb has arranged for a two years’ renewal. Roy Reed leaves for Sydney by the Maunganui from Auckland on March 11. Mrs D. H. Jones has donated a valuable whip to be presented to 'the most successful jockey at the Beaumont Meeting next month. The total amount of stakes ottered by the Beaumont Racing Club for the annual meeting to be held on Easter Saturday and Monday is £945 and a handsome trophy costing £ls. ’ It is reported that N. C. Tnllo, the well-known hurdle and cross-country rider, intends leaving the dominion, and has applied for a clearance from the conference. The four trotting races on the Beaumont Racing Club’s Meeting are each saddle events, and between them are endowed with £254 and a silver cup valued at £ls. 1 When C. Gieseler departs early next week en route for Sydney with Admiral Drake, P. M'Grath will assume, charge of the big, team, and will probably have half a dozen horses under his charge at the Riccarton Meeting. Although Mr J. Donald has decided to retire Barbacan to the stud, such an event will have to be postponed till next season, and he may allow her to run on and fulfil engagements made for. her for the balance of the season. These include the Great Northern Oaks. During the Gore Meeting Racecourseinspector Torrance was busily engaged in making inquiries into the interests alleged to be held by a well-known jockey in a horse now racing in the south. ... There will be a hurdle race on the programme at the Autumn Meeting of the South Canterbury Jockey Club. This will he welcomed by owners and trainers of jumpers, whose opportunities at South Island meetings have been restricted during the last few months. An owner writes asking that his name be kept out of this column for business reasons, and concludes his request with the following sentence;—“ I do not like my name in the papers, not even in the births notices—it will be in the death notices soon enough.” The Tapanui meeting early this month resulted in a profit of about £BO when everything was squared up. Had the club been favoured with fine weather for "its meeting the fixture would have been one of the most successful in the long history of the club. Honesty Dillon, the back marker in the principal trotting race each day at Gore, was, at least, consistently backed, as she had the sum of £1 only invested on her chance in each start. She may have more admirers when she starts at the Invercargill Trotting Club’s Meeting next week. The next meeting in the south wall be the Invercargill Trotting Club’s fixture to be held next Friday and the following Saturday. The Invercargill Trotting Cup, a 4min 45s.ee class event, has attracted a good field, and on the handicaps published to-day, Manoeuvre and War Paint appear to be nicely treated. There is just a danger that with the curtailment of hospitality by the clubs to their visitors .that the social side of racing is going to suffer, and visitors nowadays often return from a meeting without even the time of day having been passed to them by the officials of the clubs. There is a lot of good fellowship expressed over an occasional glass—especially if it is at the expense of the club. , Chimer and Manoeuvre are the only two Canterbury-trained horses engaged in the Invercargill Trotting Cup, which '• is to be decided on Friday of next week. This will be Manoeuvre’s first effort over a two-mile journey, but she has been going on. well enough at the end of a mne and a-half to leave the impression that she wall not be troubled by the further distance. As an illustration of the uncertainty of racing, the cases of Peter Locanda and Rokena at Kaikoura can be cited. Peter Locanda went 2min 13 2-ssec from a 2.25 mark in the Kekerangu Handicap, and he was beaten into second place, while Rokena, from a 2.21 mark, registered 2.12 4-5, and she was only third. It would have been reasonable to expect that horses capable of recording these times on the Kaikoura track would have been practically unbeatable, but such is the uncertainty of the sport. At a recent country meeting in Otago two well-known trainers were called before the Judicial Committee to explain why they should not be fined, under sub-section 4 of rule 253, for failing to confirm nominations made by them. The excuses made by these trainers were accepted by the committee,, but the trainers were warned to bo more careful in future. On Wednesday the Gore Committee would not accept the excuse put forward in answer to a similar charge made against W. J. Gallagher, the Omakau trainer, and fined him £1 for the breach. The handicapper for this week’s Gore, Meeting was not present to see the racing on the first day of the Dunedin Cup Meeting, and some of his handiC** fee the first dag si Sore ehowe*

TROTTING. • February 27.—New Brighton Trotting Club. March 4. s.—lnvercargill Trotting Club. March s.—Wellington Trotting Club. March 12.—Timaru Trotting Club. March 12.—South Wairarapa Trotting Club. March 16.—Manawatu Trotting Club. March 16.—Wyndham Trotting Club. March 26, 28.—Hawera Trotting Club. Marcli 26, 30.—N.Z. Metropolitan Trotting Club.

that ho had framed them without due regard to that day’s form. But he did see the racing at Gore on tho first day, and in some instances it was extremely difficult to follow his adjustments. On the first day Thornton, 9st 111 b, bent Silver Salver, 9st 9lb, into third place by four lengths in the Highweight Handicap, the difference _ in weight being 21b. In the race of similar conditions on the second day Thornton was raised 111 b to lOst Blb, and Silver Salver dropped slb to 9st 41b. Thus Silver Salver came in on 16lb better terms, and, as expected, beat Thornton very easily. Mr Hassall did not wait to see tho second day’s racing at Gore.

View Halloo was an outstanding performer at the Wanganui Meeting. Early in the season he began to fulfil tho promise of his two-year-old career, and was-third to Croupier and King Colossus in the Wanganui Guineas, finishing on strongly and appearing unlucky. At Avondale he won the Guineas on a heavy track, but was well beaten in the Ellerslie classic. He was fourth in the Derby at Riccarton, but on the concluding, day, when made favourite for the three-year-old handicap, he failed badly. It looked as if he -was temporarily off form, and lie was wisely given a rest, the Riccarton race last November being his last appearance until last week. He looked a greatly improved horse, and he won his two races with ease. They will not be his only successes before the season closes. It is often remarked what great romance is bound up in the pages of the English Stud Book. In referring to sensational happenings at the ringside, a London writer says; “Atalanta, when a frail foal, was carried into the salering in a blanket and was purchased by Lord Roslyn for 2s 6d. Atalanta, who was a highly-bred mare by Galopin from Feronia, won thousands in stakes for the Duke of Portland, but she was destined to win greater fame. Mated with Hampton, she threw a bay colt, who, known as Ayrshire, won the Derby under the Duke of Portland’s colours, and when he retired from racing Ayrshire’s earnings in prize money amounted to no less a sum than £35,915. Ayrshire subsequently won a good place on the sires’ list. Nightmarch looks in the best of health, and he seems to have derived considerable benefit from his race at the Dunedin meeting, judging from the manner in which he hits out in his work on the track. Arrangements for another. Australian campaign are well in hand, and A. MfAulay expects to leave with the Night Raid horse next Thursday. Nightmarch will have an opportunity to race at Randwick on March 19 at the Sydney Harbour bridge opening celebrations meeting. The race to suit him is the Chipping Norton Stakes, one mile and a-quar-ter, and, having incurred no penalty, as he has not won a race this season, he will have a pull over the best of his rivals, who will have penalties up to 71b. A week later tho Australian Jockey Club’s Autumn Meeting will be commenced, with several weight-for-age events, in which Nightmarch can measure strides with Australia’s best horses, also with Ammon Ra and Compris. Shortly before his death Edgar Wallace spent some time in New York, and one thing that impressed him was the little interest taken in horse racing by the average American. Discussing this he wrote: “ The odd thing about America is that, although horse racing has reached quite an important place as a medium of social recreation, the sport itself has not attracted general interest. Probably not one man in a hundred with whom you talk knows the first thing about it, or even the name of the American champion of the year. On the other hand, you cannot meet a single individual from bell hop to bank president who hasn’t a very scientific knowledge of the stock market. America’s gambling takes that form. There are pool rooms innumerable, but racing in America has not yet escaped in the public mind from the suggestion of being rather a low-down method of speculation, and even in the penitentiaries the fluctuations of some popular stock excite more interest than the Kentucky Derby.”

The latest files from America give a complete list of the handicaps for the mile and a-quarter Agua Cahento Handicap, scheduled for March 20. The lowest weight is 6st 61b. The field includes several promising three-year-ods, Gallant Sir being adjudged the best. He has 7st 51b, Cabezo and Lucky Tom, two from New York, having 31b less. The weights are:—Phar Lap 9.3, Plucky Play 8.8, Dr Freeland 8.8, Reveille Boy 8.6, Spanish Play 8.5, Van Der Pool 8.3, Bargello 8.2, Marine 8.2, Geth’s Hope 8.0, Lady Broadcast 8.0, No More 8.0, Brown Wisdom 8.0, Lightning Bold 7.12, My Dandy 7.12, Naishapur 7.12, Up 7.12, Wotan 7.11, Satin Spar 7.11, Alexander Pantages 7.11, Jimmy Moran 7.10, Ervast 7.9, Tote 7.7, Night Patrol 7.7, Royal Ruffian 7.6, Tonto Rock 7.6, Gallant Sir 7.5, Seguro 7.5, Foolhardy 7.4, Whipper Cracker 7.4, Cabezo 7.2, Good and Hot 7.2, Jim Dandy 7.2, Lucky Tom 7.2, Scimitar 7.2, Bahamas 7.0, Blunder 6.11, Hoops 6.11, Nacho 6.11, Tippy Toe 6.11, Whizz James 6.8, Black Fool 6.6, Joe Flores 6.6, Longres 6.6. There will not be an exceptional field for this year’s Liverpool Grand National at Aintree. There are only 58 entries, against 121 in 1929, 84 in 1930, and 85 in 1931. The qualifying conditions have tended to keep the total down. The following table shows the number of starters, number that finished, and value to the winner for the past dozen years;—

la 1911, with 26 starters, only one finished, and in 1913, when 22 started, two finished. There are no entries from France this year, and only three from Ireland. . . „ , Central figures in a recent Sydney ease intriguing race goers were Mr 3;.

C. Trautwcin, well-known publicanowner. F. T. Cush, his trainer, and J. E. Pike, who is widely acclaimed the most capable of Australia’s jockeys. Mr Trautwein’s black and green jacket was worn on Saturday, February 13, by Pike as the rider of Sidney George in the first division of the Canterbury Park High-weight, and the circumstances were such as practically to compel tho stewards to institute an inquiry into the gelding’s running. From the moment the field settled down Sidney George did not appear to have a winning chance. He moved away from an outside barrier position in fair style, but it was not long before he met with interference sufficient to settle any chance he may have had of winning. Seventh was his place at the end. With the betting fluctuation and tho performance to guide them, tho officials had no option but to ask questions. They took statements from the parties concerned, and evidence from certain bookmakers, m an effort to verily claims that the owner had wagered heavily on Sidney George. After bearing further evidence the following day the stewards decided to accept the explanations of the parties concerned.

Year. Han. Fin. Value 1920 .. 19 9 4,425 1921 .. 35 1 7,060 1922 .. 32 5 7,675 1923 .. 28 7 7,850 1924 .. 30 17 8,240 1925 .. 33 10 8,120 1926 .. 30 14 7,535 1927 .. 37 7 8,215 1928 .. 42 2 11,255 1929 .. 66 9 13,000 1930 - 41 5 9,805 1931 .. 43 12 9,385