AUSSIE NOTES

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVIII, Issue 224, 4 September 1928, Page 2

AUSSIE NOTES

Good Company. Limerick seems to have made a fairly easy job of winning his first race for the season when he got home in the Warwick Stakes, one mile, on Saturday last. His presence in apparent good form no doubt accounts for the smallness of the field, only four others facing the starter with him. The three others whose names are mentioned in the cable were, however, a pretty doughty lot, comprising Winalot and Statesman, who are now quoted equal favourites for the Melbourne Cup, and Jocelyn, who is at the head of the quotations for the Metropolitan Handicap. With tho time, 1.38), no quarrel can be made, especially as Sydney tracks cannot yet have fully recovered from the recent drenchings they have had. The omen is therefore altogether favourable for Limerick’s further engagements, the next of which may be the Chelmsford Stakes, 9 furlongs, w.f.a., to be run at the Tattersail’s Club meeting held at Randwick on Saturday next. It does not seem at all likely that the unnamed fifth starter last Saturday was Raasay. Two-Year-Old Form Sustained, The Hobartville Stakes, 7 furlongs, for three-year-olds, would appear to have been an even easier task for Mollison, last season’s unbeaten Australian champion two-year-old. .He had a bigger field to beat, there being ten starters, but of its general quality we cannot judge, as the names of only the placed horses are mentioned. Ramulus — the full brother to Rampion, who as a three-year-old more than once beat Limerick—had already suffered defeat from Mollison whenever they met, and the New Zealand owned Pjince Humphrey had to give way to Ramulus. We am not told whether Limerick's half-brother Roscrea took a hand in the race, but if he did the result rather discounts his Derby chances, though, of course, there is a lot of difference between 7 furlongs and tho Derby distance. The probabilities are, however, that he would have been named had he been in the race. Whether Limerick and Mollison will meet in any of their coming spring engagements seems doubtful. The best chance of their doing so would appear to be in the w.f.a. Craven Plate, 10 furlongs, on the third day (3rd. October) of the A.J.C. meeting. * * * The Handicap Evcntr It seems strange that, while w« arc given the result of the Glenle..

Handicap, the least important of the handicap events on the Warwick Farm programme, we are told nothing about either the Campbelltown Handicap, 6 furlongs, or the Waifwick Farm Handicap, Im. 3f. The suggestion, of course, is that no Maorilander got a place in either of the two bigger races, and quite possibly none started, although Cimabue, Satrap and Jazz Baby were first acceptors for the shorter race and Satrap and Rawhctu for the longer. There does not seem to have been any great merit about Arikiwai’s third placing in the minor event.

Caulfield Results. Gothic’s easy win in the Memsie Stakes, 9 furlongs, w.f.a. with penalties and allowances, at Caulfield on Saturday, under the steadier of 9st. 111 b., will confirm the English horse in his place at the head ol the quotations for the Caulfield Cup, in which he is weighted at 9st. 71b. He seems to have been able to run away at the finish from Lady Beth, who has recently won a couple of good races, and to whom he was conceding 161 b. There is some local inteiest in the success of Horoscope in the Heatherlee Handicap 9 furlongs, at the same meeting, as the winner is a 6-year-old gelding, by AbsurdLady Ball, bred at Mr. W. G. Stead’s Flaxmere Stud. He, too. is in the Caulfield Cup, weighted at Bst, but the odds on offer against him when our Inst Australian mail left were just five times those against Gothic. A Good Price. The price, 2000 guineas with a contingency, paid for Perception would come to most New Zealanders as an even greater surprise than the double of that amount paid for Raasay. Tho latter may be regarded as a distinct possibility, and that counts for a great deal with the moneyed sportsmen of Australia, who dearly love to have their names attached to that of a “classic” winner. Even with his Australian success thrown in, it cannot but be said that Perception's chance of winning any such an event seems rather remote. At the same time, when a trainer of Marsden's experience and standing took a fancy to him, he must have seen something to impress him, and there is no reason why the Psychology — Amyrin gelding should not prove worth the money. By the way, Mr. Brandon, manager at Mr. T. H. Lowry’s stud, says he cannot understand how the Stud Book gives Perception as being by Grandcourt. It was hy Psychology, and by Psychology alone, that his dam Amyrin was covered during the season in question, besides which the progeny shows all the Psychology characteristics. Spearfelt Redivivus. Spearfelt, the Melbourne Cup winner of 1926, who since his Australian Cup win in 1927 has proved difficult to train, but who is being prepared again for the important events of the spring, was among the runners in the Apprentices' Handicap at Flemington a fortnight back. Naturally he could not be expected to show to advantage over six furlongs, says a Melbourne correspondent, but he beat one horse home and he appeared to pull up well. Of course, a strenuous race over a longer distance may bring to light any weakness, but his trainer, V. O’Neill, is rather confident that the horse will survive a preparation.