GENERAL NOTES

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXI, Issue 183, 18 July 1931, Page 2

GENERAL NOTES

Lieutenant-Colonel O. W. Birkm, owner of the English Oaks winner, Brulette, holds a very high opinion ol his filly, who he believes is something out of the common. Brulette is a French-bred filly by Bruleur from Seaweed, by Spearmint, and like her brother, Hotwecd she is a genuine stayer. Brulette did her previous racing in France and was taken across to England only a few days before the Oaks contest. e • «... West Dome is a good mixer, his six successes this season including wins on the flat.’, in hunters’ hurdles and steeplechases. He is only a six-year-old and more should be heard of him. a • • Nightmare, the winner of the Trial Plate at Trentham on Wednesday, is the best of the Shambles stock yet seen in action. This win was her fourth success this season. • • * An interesting fact to record in connection with the A .R.C. Grand National Hurdle Race, says a Melbourne writer, is that Howson was able to keep his seat on Cockcrow simply because he adopts a sensible seat on a horse. Howson rides with longer stirrup leathers than most jockeys, and is better balanced than some of those who adopt the short leathers and the crouch seat. The Manawatu sportsman, Mr. E. Trevor, suffered a stroke of misfortune recently when he lost a rising two-year-old filly by Nigger Minstrel from Sleeping Beauty. The youngster slipped and broke her pelvis while galloping in the paddock and had to be destroyed. Others of the progeny of Sleeping Beauty in Glenrossie and a filly by Bisogno have also been in trouble lately and the latter has had to be thrown out of work on account of unsoundness. Glare, who has yet to prove his New Zealand reputation was warranted, has again been put into work at Caulfield by J Truskett. Despite his autumn failures the V.K.C. handicapper has not taken any risk with him. He has again given him 8.7 in the Melbourne Cup, but the V.A.T.C. handicapper has dropped him 41b. in the Caulfield Cup. Glare will have to improve upon anything he has yet shown to have a good winning chance in either, states “Pilot in the Sydney Referee. At one period in Australia y.vo-year-olds were tested over longer distances than they are now, and to find a youngster in a mile and a-quarter race run in the early autumn was not unknown. When two years old, the Auckland-bred Medallion won over the distance named at Flemington, and there were other winners over 10 furlongs there. In the present day milo races for two-year-olds toward the end of the season are promoted in Australia, but for the most part the youngsters are confined to races the distance of which ranges from five to seven furlongs. • • • The late Mr. Sol. Joel bought many horses, but the best investment he ever made was when he gave £4200 for Polymelus. With that horse he won the Duke of York Stakes and Cambridgeshire, and about £lOO,OOO in bets. He refused £30.000 for Polymelus when lie was retired to the stud. Other horses that proved bargains for Mr. Joel were Bachelor’s Button, Kopi Pons Asinorum, Fohanann, Arranmore, Fleeting Memory, and Long Set. The latter, who was bought out of a selling race for 500 guineas, won the Cambridgeshire, Lincoln Handicap, Royal Hunt Cup and Newbury (Nip, among other races. Polyphonies won him two Eclipse Stakes, and Pommern the Two Thousand, New Derby, and substitute St. Leger. Altogether Mr. Joel’s horses won about £340.000 in stakes in England and Ireland, his best years being: 1921, £33,128; 1924, £30,544; 1925, £35,57"; and 1928, £24,871. ♦ * # It is often remarked that many horses engaged in jumping events in the present day boast pedigrees that would entitle them to be included in classic events. Cockcrow, who led the field home in the V.B.C. Grand National Hurdle Pace nt Flemington last Saturday, is highly bred, tracing to Pond Or on the sire’s s’de and to St. Simon on the dam’s side, while he has a strain of Musket through Trenton. The leading lines in the pedigree of Cockcrow read as follows: Sire: Crowdennis, by Tredennis. son of Kendal and grandson of Bend Or. tfrom Crowden, by Bushy Park, son of Hampton. Dam: Appoline, by Charlemagne IL. son of St. Simon and grandson of Galopin, from Artemis, by Haul Brion. soa ol St. Simon.,