NOTES AND COMMENTS

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLIV, Issue XLIV, 6 May 1924, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS

The acceptances for the Egmont Racing Club's meeting are yood, and present indications point to the (gathering be a. successful one. Uonetter is a good mars on a soft track, and, despite her 9.5, should give her supporters a little excitement in the Mcllae Memorial at the Egmont meeting. Considering the prize offering, ,-iKK), the number or class of competition engaged iv the s,gmont Stceplecinse is not as good as the event deserved, and later jn the season one will find Letter fields engaged in races of not jnore than half the value. Of the horses engaged in to-morrow's contest, Starland and Dick have had the great advantage of a race "over country." As the jumps az-« not very formidable, a gelding with the pace of Starlaud Mill have an advantage over one Hke Dick, ivhich does better when the fences are bigger. Musical has only started twice in public, but has shown good form on each occasion, and it would not. cause any surprise should he curry mare money than Whetunui (which has been in the boom of late) in the T&'whiti Hack to-morrow. On the morning of the Riverton races the aged steeplechaser Rongaheer was sold for the modest .sum of £8, and on the same afternoon secured £25 for his new owner, by running second in a steeplechase. Giving evidence in the now famous 1 Ivingsdale case, Mr James, totalisator proprietor,^stated that one Richards put £100 on Ivingsdale, and after that horse had won, received just on £1200 as his share of a good dividend paid. After the Avondale mooting.' F. D. Ja#€>s. R. S. Bagby, A. Reed, 0. Reed and 3J. McCarten motored from Auckland to t'Jastings to help at the Hawke's Bay meeting. The cost of this trip would make .inroads into their earnings at Hastings.

Father's Voice showed his usual brilliancy in the All Aged Stakes at Avondale, and was with Tamatete at five *■ furlongs, but stopped badly, and eventually ran a bad last. After the race Father's Voice was in a bad way, and will have to remain some time in the north. At the opening of the present racing season Murihaupo looked like playing a prominent part for the 3-year-old su- ■, piemacy, and in the early spring none thought that his stablemate Ballymena would be the superior of Murihaupo, ; but while Ballymena had shown mar- ■ vellous improvement, Murihaupo had failed to make good the high opinion i many held of him, although by no j means had Murihaupo the best of luck, j* as on many occasions he defeated big ' fields in very strong Handicaps orfly to j take a minor portion of the prize j money. " , A good class of horses are engaged in the Tongahoe Hurdles at Egmont, i but it may be found that the majority : of them will do better with some rac- : ing. Of the other engaged, Prince Rufus has shown form, and The Curragh lias proved by recent form that he is on the upgrade. | The Telegraph Hack at Egmont will be run in two divisions, and in consequence the club should have good betting races. Blue Peter, Papaponga and Te Kawa in the first, and Rehutai, The Lamb and Avola will each ■ come in for good support, and all of thwi can gallop. i If Sanforte regained the form he displav~ri at Trent-ham last winter, he would give plenty of bother in the: Mack and Hunters' Steeplechase. If Prince Rufus takes kindly to the brush jump he will cut out a merry two miles. ; King Quin is capable of running a ' good six furlongs, and showed by his torward running at the recent Avon- • dale meeting that he is better now I than at any time of his career. Hipo ! and Rational both have good recent' form as a recommendation, and can be depended on to make the race in-' teresting. Owing to the unrest in railway matters, tiie Ha.wera trained Lady Ben- j tinck has been left at Riccarton for the ! present. As the season for two-year- i olds has closed, the brown filly can get • a well earned spell, she having put up a good record of consistency. | At the time of writing, it does not appear as if the Egmont and Wanganui Clubs will get the support from owners of jumping horses which their good programmes deserve. Certainly the prize money falls short of that of a nc-h club like Auckland, but it must be remembered that all cannot secure the "big plums," and the old proverb that small fruit are sweet should appeal to owners. Evidently Comedy King as a sire appeals to Trainer J. H. Jefford, as at the recent Sydney sales that trainer paid no less than 2850 guineas for a couple of yearlings claiming the English horse as their sire. The two in question have been domiciled in Wellington during the last few days, and are uescnbed as remarkably raein<*loolung youngsters. ° With Rapine, the well-known East toast sportsman, Mr A. B. Williams won the chief weight-tor-age events at the Australian Jockey Ciub!s autumn meeting, and in doing so secured the large amount of £5000 in prize money. 'Seeing that Rapine was so successful it would appear as if Trainer F D' Jones was guilty of a great oversight when he neglected to nominate Ballymena for the weight-for-age races at Kanawick, for on Trentham and Awapuiu form he had more than a level , money chance of beating Rapine. i The Linacre-Auriety colt, purchased by Uxe well-known Auckland sportsman 1 +11' • iF; Glesson> 1S » f«H brother to the well-known Tangalooma, which won innumerable races in Australia. That Australian hancticappers do not care to take a risk with New Zealandowned horses was again proved in the case of the South Island-owned General advance, which was awarded 12 1° (top weight) in the Steeplechase decided on the last day of the Australian Jockey Club's meeting. • Although the English-bred Ciaro -is given qredit for being the best "miller at present racing in Australia, tli€ Australian-bred Whittier Is very little inferior to his rival, and is held in high estimation by the handicappers. On the concluding day of the recent A J. C. meeting, Whittier was awarded the steadier of 11 4 in the Final Handicap, m which event.the minimum was 7.0. Wliittier was not accented for. l A telegraphed message came trnonoli yesterday to the secretary of the Racing Club that W. S. Bagby, .-.t the Ra-wke's Bay meeting, was 'suspended for one month for interference. At times it is wonderful how a change of trainers will improve a horse even though the original trainer of suet animal was most proficient, and on« can state many cases of the kind, but the success of Alfort on the second day at Avondale brought to mind how this gelding has improved in at least at staying smce joining M. Carroll's team. When bought in Australia Alfort was a first-class sprinter, but six turlongs was as far as "Alfort cared tc go m good company. After coming to x\ew Zealand this gelding was placed unaer the charge of that painstakino and reliable mentor J. Buchanan and miaer his care ran a number of fair races over short courses, although itmay be stated that Alfort's form" a* a sprinter m this Dominion appears to have been much below his form a* shown previous to leaving Australia^ borne months ago Alfort, with other horses owned by Mr Frnser Smith, was placed under M. Carroll, and immediately Alrort snowed improved form, not only doing well in short distance races hut running great miles, which culminated in Alfort beating a first-class field m the Foley Memorial, run over a ten furlong course at the recent Avonda c meeting. Since Christmas this gelding has not run a bad race, and in the hands of our best riders would certainly have won at the Wei Img on, Auckland, and Manawatu meetings, and had he done so his plucky owner would have landed i sma,i fortune Still Alfort has donS ueh during the autumn, and there is no reason why he should not win a good cud or handicap run over a mile and a half course if tried next season ! Ballymena finished up a highly successful season on Saturday, when he ' 7 Oli \ n% °rm°n(] Gold Cu P at Hastings, and at the moment it is hard to remember a horse that has shown the improvement between the age of two -md three-year-old as has Ballymena. Last , reason Ballymena was a very ordinary ! performer, and to prove this one may i quote the fact that Tukia presented ■ Ballymena with 111b and a beatiuo- in BaUymena's last run at that age. 4fter being taken in hand again in the winter he failed to show much improvement, and before going to Australia there were many horses in training at i KiecarttJii capable of beating the son of -jassau. When it was made public tnat lramer F. D. Jones contemplated taking Murihaupo and Ballyinona to the A.J.C. spring carnival 'it v.-as generally thought that Murihaupo was the "sheet anchor," and many asked why money was being wasted in sending Ballymejwj, across, but in his early races in Australia Ballymena showed unmistakable .signs of having made age improvement, but few thought he would run in the rich