AUSSIE NOTES

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XX, Issue 72, 8 March 1930, Page 2

AUSSIE NOTES

Two from Fluency. Some surprise was expressed a week or two back when it was noted that Air. Otway Falkiner had tried to quit his three-year-bld David— Fluency gelding Clan David by auction. The horse himself seems to have taken it to heart, for this week’s mail brings word of his having easily won the Granville Stakes at Rosehill last Saturday week. He started, too, at such liberal singlefigure odds that it would take only a moderate investment to recoup previous betting losses incurred on him. Strange to say, only a few days later Comedy Queen, a five-year-old half-sister (by Comedy King), to Clan David, proved a winner in the second division of the Encourage Stakes at the Kensington Park (Sydney’ “unregistered”' meeting. Hawke’s Bay has some interest in both these winners, as their dam Fluency (Demosthenes —Lop Vegas) was bred at Flax mere and. as a youngster, was presented by Mr. W. G. Stead to Mr. Falkiner, for whom she won a number of good races. Amazing Amounts.

With lOst 21b to carry on a track made somewhat sticky by recent heavy rain and so not to his liking at any time, and with a marble that gave him an outside position aw the barrier, A mounts’s chance in the Futurity Stakes seemed badly discounted. So much was this the case that ho was relegated to third place in tho betting, prices ranging up to 5 to 1 being procurable about him. while Greenline, the favourite, was at less than half those odds, with Gallopade next in demand. Then came the race. “Since its establishment in 181)8 the race had never previously been won so amazingly, says a Sydney exchange. “Amonnis was second last of a strung-out field after going two furlongs. He made up no leeway in tho succeeding furlong, and spectators dismissed him from their calculations, shifting: their

gaze to the struggle between Figure. Greenline, and the lightly-weighted First Arrow. In thrilling style Figure had dashed to the front, and Greenline did not gain her measure until the judge’s box loomed near. J. Pike, on the favourite, was as near being thunderstruck as is possible to a jockey of his temperament when he found old Amonnis sweeping past on the outside. Greenline, though flat out, appeared anchored by comparison, and Amonnis scored magnifi-

cently by a length, Greenline being a neck in advance of Figure. Onlookers burst into frantic cheering before the numbers went up, realising that they had witnessed an epic achievement. Few had caught sight of Amounis until he was halfway down the straight. It is safe to say that the Magpie gelding covered the.last two furlongs at an unprecedented speed. Harold Jones got the winning mount through Pike being claimed for Greenline; obeying Frank M’Grath’s instructions, lie sat motionless on Amounis until the home stretch was reached. Cessation of rain in the early hours of Saturday morning enabled the track to dry up appreciably. Had the weather remained wet, or even if the race had been run at Flemington, which recovers slowly from a soaking, Amounis might as well have been left in his stable.” Odds and Ends. For those contemplating a trip with horses for autumn racing round Sydney it may be as well to remind them that general entries for the A.J.C. meetings both at Randwick and at Warwick Farm close Monday, March 24. ,

Latest Sydney files show that the final day of the Caulfield meeting discovered a new favourite for the Newmarket Handicap. This was the South Australian gelding Taurus, whose decisive victory in the Hawksburn Handicap earned him that position. The chances are that when wo get newspaper accounts we shall find that Greenline went out to win at quite a nice price. Whether Amounis, who is an entrant for the w.f.a. King’s Plate run over two miles at Flemington to-day, will take his place in the race is doubtful. The distance is beyond anything he has as yet attempted, and it may be thought that it will bo best not to prejudice Ins Randwick prospects by overstraining him at Flemington. Still, he has won at 1J mile, and he is in such rare form, that his connections may be tempted to give him another run to wind up the meeting. Chide continues to please in his track work at Randwick. The latest training note to hand about him says: “One of the best efforts was credited Chide. Carrying about 7st, he was associated with Anambah for seven furlongs. The New Zealander had the inside berth, and appeared to be going comfortably at the finish, recording Im 31s for the trip.”

Mr. Leslie Harnett, owner of Greenline, on his return to Sydney from Melbourne, said, “Fifteen yards from the post in the Futurity Stakes 1 would not have taken 19/9 for each £1 1 had coining to me for a win by my horse. However, the best horse we have seen for 20 years beat me.”

Almost an endless stream of horses comes along through the ring at the Australian yearling sales each year. This year’s total is 831, a number that has been exceeded on only three occasions, the record being in 1925. when 843 youngsters were included in the main catalogue. Since 1915 11,559 yearlings have been catalogued by Messrs H. Chisholm and Co., and Messrs Wm. Inglis and Son, Ltd. in Sydney.