SPORTING.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 16 October 1924, Page 3

SPORTING.

GLOAMING,-THE WONDER. FIFTY WfNS; IN' SIXTY, STARTS.' ' Save when:( he fell,' Gloaming has never finished further baclc Than. second, and his record of 50 yrins and 9 in 6,0, faees. ,is phenomenal. After liis Spring Stakes-victory on Saturday the, /old - horse was most en- i thusiastieally applauded by The spectators. He wag,. the. hero of .the hour. Whenever Gloaming has been* defeated the horse ih has beeii one of real class. Thus “‘Pilot” in the Sydney Referee of -hist Wednesday. ! When the . horses were going to .the post ,for the; Spring Stakes, T remarked to R. J. Mason: “I suppose you' ar.e sanguine thHs'time. ’’ “No,”, was his reply/ “J am .pot sure that. Gloaming is. ready, even, yet. .to see out a fast mile-and a.half. ‘ His. chance depends . greatly pu That. being liis, opinion, Mason' hadreason to be ; pleased ; at a very ■ early stage. The, other competitors were con- 1 tent to let Davßl niake the running at a slow pace f0r...; the. first -five furlongs,-? with Gloaming andfßaliymena nearest him. The latter was pulling hard, but , C. Reed did nbt sehm : to recognise The slowness of The pace,' and hung on: to Ballymena until’‘he .lost liis position at the sik furlohgs, ’where' Ptirser -headed 1 ■him. After passing the half-mile Gloarii- ‘ 'ing went .up. tQ,,t)'avid. and. passed, him entering th.e { : straight’. “ / Ballymena hnd .Riyoli Then charged-, after tli.e . leaders, but., wereunable to . make muck impression- on ..them. At the Leger Gloaming was bowling,along at the head,'/Of affairs, and he scored . pn easy win from David,, whose good .showing was of' a: surprise.;. Ballymena and "Rivoli were ' next, and. though I do' nof nowTMiik'either would - have beaten Gloaming, no matter how - the race' was run,' it ’is certain' both? }vould 'have !! 'been better’ suited by a' * stronger pace in The'early part. Whatever chance of .success. ’Ballymena possessed was gone immediately. Gloaniiirg slipped ,’frorii. him ' near. Th§“six- - furlongs: ‘ ;\ .... “ • . , V . Eldorado fifth, but Though; ,I ; i heard several; racing mep say that Higblanclervran .well, I failed .- to notice it,. .; Anyhow, the'.belief that : he did gained him additional- support for the Metropolitan, but the result, of J that race shb'tyed it was unwarranted. The demonstration- accorded' Gleam,- “ ing proyed his ; popularity with "Sydney racegoers. He was loudly? cheered wheh 1 he passed the'tvihiiing post,' also when- ; lie returned Vo The -weighing. and 1 again when, lie it*.The dfeniohstra- j tion must have thiiUed owner, trainer and jockey, and. the old horse; deserved all the applause accorded; him. ; , , It was his third, attempt to, win a Spring Stakes, .Poitrel having defeated . him by a head in 192.0,. and Beaufoid a neek two years ago. - A couple of sea l sons ago. Gloaming undoubtedly made a. noise wlieii-he galloped,, and many of us though]; Ills racing career ivas n.e'afT ing its end: "Strangely unough tliasijy: «‘s firmity has disappeiared ; and liis forelegs, which gave TfbUTpie last year, are..; apparently Tight’ -again. Glbaniing' is nine years old,, hhi'.iprbmises; to- stand ] another 'season’s rhmpg least, . . ' 1 Gompilatidhs . of. ’Gloaming’s' .earnings ] differ, but his owner, Mr. G. D. Green- ,i wood, who should,bo able to. gpealc with 1 certainty- on-.tliat pointy plaeoMhem; at < £37,165. , At,. that.,Glpain.ing has - de- ) prived Eurythmie.'Ofi first place in Axis- • < tralia and New: Zealand.’®, greatest Svih- ' ners, the latter - being.••£36,B9l, j the result of 30.4 wins> .6 seconds and, 4 ■ thirds, •• “ < —*‘, ' • 1 A.J.a DERBY. 1 j THE ORACH THREE-YEAR-OLD. 1 .. “ . i SUPERIORITY "NOT SETTLED.... ’] •V • • •. > r-;, “i’.* .1 It cannot be’said the :result of th,o ] A.J.O. Derby definitely proved ’Heroic j superior to Nigger Mipstrei and Spear-. , felt. Cairns ..was“seen at his best on , Heroic, and ...while ..X doubt whether' , there is room for .improvenieht. in-the winner’s condition, there .may be in t that of Nigger Minstrel pud .Spearfelt, 5 a writer says in the .Sydney-Referee. q Last week there . were ' negotiations j for the purchase-of Spearfelt, 7000gns. i being the price reported toTiave been < asked. It is ’a. liiglr figure, : bu't the -j rich w.f.a.-rhceS alone to he won -in Sydney and Melbourne/make a staying / colt much more valuable than a few' years ago. I dp not know whether ne- 1 gotiations have entirely, fallen through, but after the way Spearfelt ran bn Saturday, and with. Victoria Derby and ] Melbourne Cup,.engagements ahead, the ; colt’s joint owners are,-unlikely .to les- , sen their opinion- of his'-value., ..He will ‘ meet Heroic in .Melbourne, but Nigger • Minstrel is not going South. : Spear- / head is unlucky as u sire in being re- . presented by a - minor place-getter in • the A.J.C. Derby in two -successive years. ' ' • COKTEEN, AND HEROIC. CONFIDENCE JUSTIFIED. To sav that : Heroic, is The apple Jack Cor teen’s eye-is: to put it mildly. His son. who was a.' crack oarsman at Melbourne Grammar, is scarcely more to him. An indication! of how inspirationally he bets is fli’at one day. at a suburban meeting-in Alelbourne, in a quandary- what to back,- he put a considerable amount- on- a gelding called Oarsman because liis son. was stroking his crew in the schools* ‘‘Head of the River” races. Both boy and . geldingwon (writes- the Sydney sc-riba- “Poseidon.”) t There was inspiration, Packed, low-' ever, by sound judgment in the purchase of Heroic as a yearling at 1800 guineas. Yet lie must be accounted a fortunate- man'to have got hold of such a magnificent colt to carry his colours for the first time in,a- Derby. • The win for the striking black and blue racing jacket of Jack Corteen was every bit :as popular as that of Lord Derby in England, whose family - had tried for nearly 140 years to find ■ a horse to achieve what Sansovino did last June. Like all handsome horses that win • repeatedly, Heroic has become a hero - with the public, and he carried the confidence represented bv thousands l sterling in The pound and half fiiotes. i But no one was such a firm believer I in him as his owner. 1 RACING AS DIVERSION. Z A Melbourne business man not vet > on the shady side , of, the hill. Mr Oor- / teen took to racing as a diversion from Z the more strenuous life in Little BourkeStreet. For a while he ran his horses under the nom-de-course of “Les, Ramsay,” and in association with Cecil Gcdbv. a leader among the younger r school of trainers, achieved consider--3 able success, which attained fair r heights when lie secured Purser, but 1 has reached its apex through the gall lant efforts of Heroic. Nobody believes more in the capaj hilitics of the chestnut than Mr Corteen. Naturally he won’t hear a word

against him; indeed, he truly’ thinks he is & super colt. Ask him why, and he will tell yog. thae “Heroic’s defeat of Gloaming in a race was the best trial of a Derby colt ever seen in Australia.” Many of the most experienced men at Raiidwick agree with him. . . “And that is hot alk” he adds. “We, of course, know the weights which were carried in his trial the other morning with Purser, and we know that ho English oolt ever did a better,Derby trial than that.” / ■= “But what of the arguments of the breeding students'that lie won’t stay?” he was asked. “We were not worried,” replied the owner. ‘‘We were'hot afraid whether the race was run for pace or for a sprint. Godby was lust as confident as I.” • ' A year ago a yarn was spread that owing to his being inbred, Heroic was going blind, and that was why he was given an apparently heavy programme. A woman scorned could not be fiercer than Jack Corteen in his denunciation of such rumours. He scotched the story very early. ““Do you know,” he said' v .-“w© have i'aced 'him so, much as we have because Tie has such a magnificent constitution. Why,, the colt 'has never left an oat in his manger, not even after his most severe races—when he won with 10.2 at Caulfield, or when he/ was knocked about and beaten in the V..R.G. Sires’ Produce Stakes, or .when he beat Gloaming. .He is a wonderful deer in the: stable, and has liever'been sick or sorry. Inbred, indeed! I would like had a dozen like, him!” “You have his brother. What is he like?” ! . “The image, of Heroic, excent that, 'instead of having two white fetlocks, ,;he has only one. You know what they j»ay, ‘One white foot, buy ’em,’ and all The rest of it. But really he is alitt-le beauty;” . . BACKING HEROIC. . No need now to. enlarge on the. pnntTng...proclivities of Jack Corteen. He was notable, even before he began his plunge on Heroic. He didn’t begin operations either at a double figure pi;iee“ as the backers of Nigger Minstfel did, because his colt was one of favourites throughout the winter, ; hfid the moment real business, loomed inii the offing Brer Brook ran for cover. Ndyextheless, they “set” the owner for ’ thousands. . • \ . r.Tiiey. tell a story about Corteen that may or may not be literally true. What they say is that when he was, in Svdney a fortnight ago, and he heard the-’ inquiries for Nigger Minstrel, he exclaimed, “I am not afraid of him. How’ much more will you lay me about my colt?” He was proud to see him favourite and his pride was justified when he saw the blue ribband placed around his neck.