SPORTING NOTES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCIII, Issue 10652, 13 May 1895, Page 2

SPORTING NOTES.

(Csterbuury Times.) The gentleman who writes the sporting notes in the Otago Witness is eminently fond of statistics, and what is more to the point, his figures are generally correct. His latest work ia to place before th« readers of our contemporary a. list of totaliaator dividends exceeding JBIOO, which have been paid since the machine has been in existence in New Zealand. It appears that since the introduction of the totaliaator no less than twenty-eight dividends, exceeding in each instance ,£IOO. have been paid. Tho largest sum is .£306, which the solitary supporter of Crummy, who won a race at Napier in 1886, received. But it is not the Immensity of the dividends which strikes us so much as the process by which such huge sums can be and are paid. Tho totaliaator has been in use hero for about fifteen years. In this time twenty-sight dividends nave been paid,whichrespectivelyropresenb odds of 300 to 1, 280 to i, 250 to 1, and bo on on down to 100 to 1, ■ Can the annuls of bookmaking point to ouch statistics P Most certainly not. There are, it is safe to assert, very few instances of oddaof IGO tol having bean legitimately betted in Australia during the last fifteen years. In England odds of 100 to 1 are sometimes quoted, but it is only in cases where thq fields are extremely large, and, generally speaking, if those odds, or for the matter of that, much lower prices are cn offer, they are seldom taken. In Now Zealand,on the contrary, it ia no uncommon thing to hear of 'dividends representing odds of 30, 40, and 50 to 1 being paid, and these facts ought materially 10 assist the introduction of the totalimtor into Australia. In another column will be found sn illustration of a trotting sulky which has' just been invented in America. .It la claimed for the now invention that it will prove almost as great an improvement over the present pneumatic sulky so the latter is over the old-fashiopoii, highwheeled vehicle. A glaneo at the illustration will stow that the driver is almost in. the position of a rider. The principal idea, of late years, in the minds of builders of Bulkier, has been to construct the machine so that the driver may eit as close to tho home ae possible. Picture* of eulkies of a former generation show that they were made with perfectly straightaxles. This necessitated the machine being placed far behind tho homo bo as to prevent tho latter, when at fall speed, touching the . axle. This, of course, was a tremendous handicap. It made"the draught very groat, and caused the sulky to hang out when being drawn round turns. Then tho bent cxl.es commenced to come into übs. These admitted of th© sulky being hitched closer to the horse. The bent axles wero therefore improved upon, until tho modern trues axle, which fits so closely that a driver ia enabled to sit on the dock of a horse’s tail, has been evolved. The invention which is illustrated elsewhere is simply tho carrying of this system still further. Ib will be seen that the axle ia placed slightly in front of the middle of the horsed body, and the driver's seat ie directly above tha horse’s hips. The seat is slightly inclined backward, and this, according to tbe inventor's theory, utilises the driver's weight in assisting to pash, the wheels forward.

The ruas.bg of Sacramento in the Sockburn Handicap at Plumpton Park on Saturday hsa caused a good deal of comment. The horse was made a strong favourite for the race, and he ran correspondingly badly. Indeed so indifferently did he perform that on his return to the paddock the public freely expressed its discontent, and the stewards wore asked to take some action in the matter. This, however, they tacitly refused to do, and the affair was permitted to pass unheeded. Of courao, dll sorts of rumours wore current concerning Sacramento’s performance. A large section of the spectators* however, appeared to think that ha had been palled, and some of them did not hesitate to sprees their opinions with some degree of force. Many of them wore not aware that the horse out one of his feet badly in the race, and it subsequently transpired—these things always subsequently transpire—that hamad beenbadly defeated fa his trial. We give the rumour of his defeat for what it ia worth, but there is no doubt that Sacramento did: injure himself in thp race. This alone may have accounted for his poor display, but at the seme time the stewards should have inquired into thp mattar. In questions of this description stewards ace the custodians of the public mosey, and they ought to sea that it is houeatly won and lost. A very simps way out of such difficulties would be to immediately after the race put up another driver < and order the horse to be driven at bis best spaed over the distance. Bach.a course of procedure on Saturday would have demonstrated clearly not Sacramento had been driven to win.