RACING NOTES

Evening Star, Issue 22719, 5 August 1937, Page 5

RACING NOTES

[Br Si. Claus.]

RACING. August 7.—Poverty Bay Hunt. August 10, 12, 14. —Canterbury J.C. August 21.—Pakuranga Hunt. August 28.—Otago Hunt. September 2.—Egmont-Wanganui Hunt, September 4.—Taranaki Hunt Club. September 9, 11.—Wanganui J.C. September 18. —Ashburton County 11. C. September 18, 20.—Avondale J.C. September 18.—Foxton R.C. September 23, 25.—Geraldine R.C. September 25.—Marlon J.C. October 2.—Otaki-Maori R.C. October 2.—Kurow J.C. October 2, 4. —Taumarunui R.C. October 7, B.—Dunedin J.C.

JOTTINGS

As the result of a mishap at Trentham yesterday morning, C. tßurgess fractured his right leg, and was taken, to hospital.

HI. Bealo lias been engaged to ride Kelly the Crow in the Enfield Steeplechase on Tuesday.

'After his poor showing at the Christchurch Hunt Meeting it lias been decided not to start Peacock at Riccarton next week.

G. Fielding has a team of four horses in work at Orari, and will do the National Meeting from that centre, where the tracks arc in excellent order.

Wotan’s win in the Melbourne Cup was worth £7,200, and with £l6O collected in New Zealand, placed him at the head of the list for the season in Australia and New Zealand.

The final acceptances for the Grand National Steeplechase and Hurdles and Winter Cup are due at 5 o’clock this evening, also acceptances for the minor events to be decided at Riccarton on Tuesday.

The funds of the Mastcrton Racing Club were last season augmented by the club’s share in a queen carnival which netted it £3OO Is 3d, and enabled the club to show, a profit of £284 on the season’s work.

The Wanganui Jockey Club has an accumulated fund of approximately £3,000, and the liabilities are only £32, declared the treasurer, Mr Geo. Glenn, at the annual meeting of members recently.

Manawatu, who has been more or less unsound for some time, was not started at the Christchurch Hunt Meeting, and he will be sent homo without waiting for the Grand National Meet-, ing.

The first race at Addington on Saturday has been scheduled to start at 11.30, and this will also he the starting time of the first race on each of the days at Riccarton and Addington during the following week.

Polydora and Black Banner can he definitely counted out of the Grand National field, and- Valpeen, Tudor, and Manawatu have been sent home, leaving a possible field of pine starters. The Feilding Jockey Club handed over to the Government £7,303 in the way of taxation last season, this amount exceeding the stakes given by £2,000. The bank overdraft now stands at £2,62G, as compared with over £6,000 two years ago; Ante-post hackers will Lave to await the acceptance lists to find out whether Streamline is to he a starter in the Grand National Steeplechase. It is reported from Christchurch that his owner favours reserving him for the minor cross-country events at the fixture.

Since winning the Homeby Steeplechase last Saturday Cock o’ the North has been pleasing the track watchers at Riccarton, and the race has evidently improved him. Cock o’ the North is a great fencer,. and , on his breeding should stay as well as any horse in the race.

Red Flush, who won five successive races at Nelson. 'Wanganui, and Hawcra, is on 12yds in the Queen Mary Handicap, limit 4.34, at Addington, and if lie is in the same form it should take a good one to heat him.

IT. Scott at Hawei-a showed he was a horse of great possibilities. He claims two engagements at Addington, being on the limit of the Queen Mary Handicap and the Selwyn Handicap. If reserved for the shorter race he will have a solid following.

Nocturnns is held under a lease by the Hon. G. R. Hunter, and it contains a clause that the horse can bo purchased at £250. At that price ho is a cheap horse just now, as it looks to he almost a certainty that he will win one of the three big steeplechases to be decided at Riccarton next week.

After filling the position of handicapper to the Feilding Jockey Club for 50 yeax-s, Mr J. E. Hcnrys has resigned. At tho annual meeting of members tho resignation was accepted with regret, several speakers paying tribute to tho splendid service that Mr Heurys had given to racing in the Dominion.

Red Sun ha.s not been given much fast work since his arrival at Riccarton. He has such a good record over hurdles at Riccarton that ho would bo sure of a strong following if landed at tho post fit and well for next Thursday’s big hurdle race. In the first list of weights for the Lawford Steeplechase, Sunward was on 10.3, which was amended to 9.12, tho same mark as Arctic Star. Sunward was scratched and Arctic Star finished third. In tho Enfield Steeplechase Arctic Star is given 10.2 and Sunward 9.2, so that Sunward appears to have been dropped another 1210.

It is reported from Christchurch that D. O’Connor, the trainer of Royal Limond, will ride that horse in the Grand National Steeplechase next Tuesday instead of Hex Beale, his usual pilot, who has heen associated with the Limond gelding in most of his successes. Royal Limond has started 10 times during the present steeplechasing period, and finished unplaced in them all.

Though the weather lias been good and accompanied by a fair amount of sunsbino during tbo past month, the few showers of rain that have fallen have prevented the ground from becoming any drier, and tbo tracks at Wingatui show little improvement since tbo winter meeting was held. Some good drying winds are required before the end of tin's mouth, or the course will bo heavy for the Otago Hunt Meeting.

TROTTING. August 7, 11, 13.—N.Z. Metropolitan T.C, August 28. —Auckland T.C. September 4. —New Brighton T.C. September 11.—Wellington T.C. October 2.—Methven T.C. October 9.—New, Brighton T.C. October 16. —Waikato T.C. October 16, 18.—Westport T.C. October 23, 25.—Auckland T.C. October 23, 25.—Greymouth T.C. October 25.—Oamaru T.C. October 30.—Wellington T.C. October 30.—Invercargill T.C. October 30.—Thames T.C.

A preliminary check oyer the sires of dams of winners in the Dominion this season indicates that the most successful sires of brood mares will probably bo found to have been Solferino, Kilbroney, Martian, and Marble Arch. Catmint has also had a good season in this role, his best yet.

According to a recent English exchange, H.H. the Aga Khan has sold his Eclipse Stakes winner Rustom Pasha, and the horse is shortly to be exported to the Argentine. Rustom Pasha lias been at the stud in France. He is by Son-in-Law out of Cos, and six of his offspring have won races worth over 7,ooosovs in England this season.

Hunting Song’s progeny up to the end of the recent Wellington Meeting had earned £15,470 in the Dominion during the present season. Chief Ruler and Acre were then having a close battle for second, and Paper Money was a handy fourth, with a substantial drop to Balboa. Balboa’s stock are among the best winners measured by number of races.

Ajax, the early favourite for the Melbourne Cup and the Derbies at Flemington and Randwick, will probably have his first race of the season in the Underwood Stakes at Williamstown on August 28, although his veteran trainer, E. Musgrave, is a little undecided about the event in which he will resume racing. Ajax lias not appeared since he carried all before him in the autumn.

Both Horoata and Miss Mimic have slipped twin foals to Cricket Bat this season at tho Stonyhurst stud. Top Score, for the second successive year, slipped twins to Myosotis and she died. Miss Mimic, after being mated with Winning Hit, also had twin foals in 1929 and again last year, after being mated with Bulandshar.

During the season, the Victoria Racing Club distributed in stakes £88.250, compared with £78,200 for the 1935-36 season, an increase of £10,050. The Victoria Amateur Turf Club paid out £66,350, against £64.400 in the previous term, and the Williamstown Racing Club gave stakes totalling £22,671 10s, including £1,900 at two compensation meetings, compared with £20.725 10s.

At Riccarton on Tuesday morning Trench Fight showed that he was not affected by his escapade on Saturday by reeling off half a mile along the back in 50sec, the last three furlongs in 37 3-sseo. He did not give any trouble on going out or on being eased up, and those racegoers _ who have pinned thejr faith to him in the Winter Cup can rely on his being a fit colt to take his place in next week’s race.

Irish Comet, veteran of the Great Northern field, is again veteran of the Grand National field. With Ins 13 years, li© was by two years tlic oldest hors© ever to have won tho Great Northern, the previous oldest having been Dick and Billy Boy, who were 11 at the time. The age record tor a Grand National winner, at least since 1890, is 13 years, which was the span that Paritutu and Snowfall had taken in the vears that they won. Last year Royal Limond was only the second winner in a decade which had entered double figures in years.

It may come as a surprise to many to know that once upon a time, during the seventeenth century in particular, it was quite common to ring church bells to celebrate the victory of a popular racehorse. In tho parish register of St. Edmund’s Church, at Salisbury. appears the following entry:— “ A.D 1646. For ringing on race day that the Earl of Pembroke, his horse, did winne the Cnppe—five shillings and eightpencc.” When Beeswing won the Ascot Gold Cup in 1842 the scene in Newcastle baffled description. The North-country mare, the Brown Jack of a hundred years ago. won the Newcastle cup on six occasions, and when she also succeeded in the Gold Cup the oldest church hells on Tyneside were rung, and the miners struck work for the rest of tho day. Beeswing won 50 out of her 63 races.

There used to he sonic weird methods of breaking in young racehorses 80 years ago, observes an English writer. Underhand, the wonderful stayer who won the Pitmen’s Derby at Newcastle on three consecutive occasions from 1857-59, and finished second _on his fourth attempt, provides an instance of this. When a yearling Underhand was sent to Spigot Lodge to learn tho business of racing. The method used at that time at the Lodge was to turn a pack of greyhounds on to the youngsters. Tho dogs chasod the novices round and round tho extensive paddocks. Underhand was not at all enamoured of the method, and promptly jumped over a wall and landed in a pigsty. Fifteen hands was at that time reckoned a standard measurement for a racehorse, and as Underhand fell just short of that, and his dam was called Contraction, his name suggested itself.

Hunting Song, heading the sires’ list for tho fifth season in succession, was credited with nearly £1(3,000. He had no really big individual winners, but his list included tho following:—Black Frost, Clarion Call, Cyclonic, En Vidotto, Fossicker, First Chapter, Gaelic Song, Gay Hunter, Happy Hunting, Hunting Go, Hunter’s Morn, Huntetto, Hunting Bag, Hunting Cat, Hunting Lodge, Hunting Mars, Huntingmore, Hunting Queen, Hunting Spy, Hunting Star, Jaybird, Jazz King, Jubilee Song, Kentucky Song, Knockfin, Lady Diana, May Song, Maori Song, Nelumbo, Old Surrey, Pakanui, Peter Beclkford, Rapa Waiata, Pennycomequick, Rollicker, Ruinet/te, Sporting Song, Sporting Gift, Tavern Song, and Tupai. When first ho headed the sires’ list in 1932-33, Hunting Song’s progeny were credited with £9,64(3 10s, and in the three following years the amounts were £10,301, £15,194, and £14,013 10s. The Hunting Song clan in New Zealand has won approximately £99,000,