OVERSEA NOTES

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XIX, Issue 305, 11 December 1929, Page 2

OVERSEA NOTES

Prlnoe Otto to the Fore. The cableman failed to apprise us of a success that came the way of Prince Otto (Nassau —Dovelet), the five-year-old half-brother to Eaglet, now owned by' the Randwick trainer 0. O’Rourke. This was in the sc cond‘division of the Flying Handicap, 6 furlongs, at Canterbury Park (Sydney; last Saturday week. O’Rourke, who is a fairly heavy backer of anything from his own staole that he fancies, had made a good collection when another of his charges, Ila Tait, won the first division of the same race, in which she itirted a shortpriced favourite. As most of his winnings went up on Prince Otto nt much more liberal odds, the New Zealand gelding gave a handsome return, and has probably more than wiped out the purchase price debited against him in his owner’s books. O’Rourke had Coruscate, the other of his recent purchases from the Dominion, engaged in a later race at the meting, but wisely contented himself with the double success and reserved her for some future occasion. Prine Otto’s time equalled the record for the course.

W. Duncan's Serious ln|uries. Latest, press accounts to hand show that the injuries suffered by the crack Victorian jockey. W. Duncan, when his mount came down with him in a race at Epsom (Vic.) last Saturday week are of an exceedingly serious nature. In fact, they are such as to make it very unlikely that he will ever ride in a race again. X-ray examination showed that one of the vertebrae of his neck was broken and another dislocated by the fall. The doctor who is treating Duncan has said that, although the neck was broken, the break had not been suffi ciently severe to cause death by breaking the spinal cord. Efforts have been made to reduce the dislocation, but when the mail left it had not been ascertained whether these had proved successful. Latest advice, however, spoke of his general condition as having improved.

Eric Connolly’s Illness, Last week’s mail brought us news of the serious illness of this wellknown Australian sportsman. Yesterday’s news about him ig no more reassuring. Indeed, a Melbourne message in a Sydney paper of last Saturday spoke of him as not being However, it may He taken that if this gloomy foreboding had been fu! filled we should have heard of it by cable. During the Victorian spring campaign, Mr Connolly appeared to he in the best of health, and was at all the V.R.C. and V.A.T.C. meetings, but he became suddenly ill a few days after the close of. the carnival. Ho Is known as one of the pluckiest and most successful punters in the Commonwealth. He is reputed to have won £40,000 over Nightmarch’s victories in Sydney, and £25,000 over the success of the same horse in Mel England's Premier Jockey.

The battle for the English jockey premiership did not prove as exciting at the finish as was anticipated. Six weeks before Hie end there was only a small margin between Gordon Richards and the veteran F. Fox, and so spirited was the partisan feeling on the subject that leading bookmakers opened lists on the subject. Richards being favourite at a shade of odds-on. In the last month, however, Richards scored well and, as we learned by cable, finished the season with 135 winners and 101 seconds out of 766 mounts. Fox rode 116 winners out of 446 mounts. This is the fourth year in succession that Richards has headed the winning jockeys’ list. » * • New Irish Betting Law.

A new Bill to deal with the betting problem in the Irish Free State will be introduced in Dail Eireann at the end of the present session, says a Dublin message in the London “Times.” It will contain some drastic reforms. In the first instance it will limit the number of betting shops in the Free State. One shop for every 5,000 people will be allowed in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, and Waterford, while the proportion elsewhere will be one shop to every 1,000 people. There are more than 200 betting shops in Bublin at present, and if the new Bill becomes law the number will be reduced to 90. Every applicant for a license will bo required to have a recommendation from some association or from the Turf Club. The minimum bet which will be allowed will be 1/-. No bets will be accepted from children and winnings will not be paid until the following day. Finally, provision will be made for the closing of all betting shops during the hours of racing in order to prevent the present scandal of loitering. The measure will be welcomed generally, and its passage through the Dail seems to be assured, • » • Odds and Ends. In reply to a verbal inquiry: The official Australian winning sires’ figures we quoted a few days back were, ao then stated, for the first quarter of the season, up to the end of October. Since then Night Raid’s progeny have earned £14,828, bringing his total to date up to £32,206.

With Star God, The Banker and Papatu’s finishing one, two, three in the December Handicap, Im. 3f., at Warwick Farm last Saturday, we have the third Australian event of more or less importance in which New Zealand bred horses have within the last few weeks filled all three prizemoney places. It looks as if the winner, a full brother of Star Stranger, might yet make good in some yet bigger undertaking.

Amongst the English sires Tetratema was an easy first with £52,535 for the flat-racing season that closed last month. He was followed by Blandford £39,101, Hurry On £27,933, Son-in-law £25.728. Phalans £18,343, Stratford £16,700 Diligence £12,957, Abbot’s Trace £12.902, Friar Marcus £12.420, Buchan £11.539, Gainsborough £1Q.893, Craig an Eran £10,225. Spion Kop £10,104, and Lemburg £lOlB. *

Although Gainsborough is well down the list, it is noteworthy that his young stock did best during the hitter part of the season- over the longer distances that then came into vogue. One of his latest successes was with Grace Dalrymple, a filly from Cypher, who won the Dewhurst Stakes, one of the most important of the back-end two-year-old events and run over seven furlongs.