SPORTING.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Volume 3536, Issue 3536, 1 May 1923, Page 3

SPORTING.

(By “Comet," in the “Southland News.") r ihe value of this year’s Sydney Cup was £7254. The owner of the winner, Mr 0. H. Falkiner, received £5254 and a gold i cup of the value of £200.' A. Reed has ridden the winners of quite a number of the principal races in the Dominion t but his victory on Highland in the - Thompson Handicap marks his first success in that particular event. Rapine has made a good return to Mr A. B. Williams for the outlay of 450gns which he made in the purchase of the bay son of Martian and Pinet when a yearling in the spring of 1920. Up to date Rapine has won prize-money to the extent of £5510. i It is assessed, that the American colt Man-o’-War won in stakes at three years old £33,328. At a like age the English 1 colts Donovan and Flying Fox both beat the American colt’s total .Donovan’s total being £38,666 and Flying Fox’s £37,415. v i Latest reports from South Canterbury , show that there has been no rain for a ' long time past, and in consequence it is expected that the going will be very hard for the Timaru Autumn Meeting this week. The Sires’ Produce Stakes, which holds the distinction of being the richest stake provided for the two-year-old division in the southern hemisphere, and which was this year won by the New Zealand-bred colt The Monk, was worth £6645, £4895 of which went to the owner of the winner. Young Blake is establishing a good record for consistency for such a young trotter, and his second in the Improvers’ Handicap at New Brighton brings his record to three wins and a second in his last four starts. On his form he is undoubtedly one of the best three-year-old trotters seen in the Dominion. Foo Chow, who has been located at Ellerslie since breaking down on the eve of the last Auckland Cup meeting, was sent to the Waikato during the week, and later on he may be used as a hack. His joint is very much enlarged, and there is no chance of him standing another preparation. Songbird who has been returned to his owner performed with remarkable consistency last season, winning, among other good races, the Great Easter Handicap, and his stake-earnings for the season amounted to £3995. This season he has won £915 in stakes, and it seems a pity that such a good performer should have to go into retirement in the autumn of his four-year-old career. It is stated that the real basis of the action taken by the stipendiary stewards at Randwick on April 2 in ordering a swab of Flcuriste’s saliva to be taken rested on the fact that the English horse broke out in a profuse sweat while in the birdcage prior to contesting the Flying Handicap, which event he won. The owner, Mr Eric Connolly, ’explained that such was no uncommon occurrence in the case of Fleuriste. In Ireland some of the bookmakers are urging they should be licensed, and bear ing on this the Dublin correspondent of the “London Sportsman” wrote as follows: —“It is a foregone conclusion that taxation of some sort or another, eventually leading to the introduction of the pari-mutuel in competition with the bookmakers, will become the law of the land, and the only real divergence of opinion about the taxation is the form that it will take.” When Rapine won the Great Northern Champagne Stakes so convincingly at Ellerslie last autumn he was picked out as a colt likely to attain Derby honours. He was not a contestant for the New Zealand Derby at Riccarton in the spring, but took his place in the Great Northern Derby field at Ellerslie at the summer meeting, only to be beaten half a length by Enthusiasm. However, the autumn has found him capable of winning both the Great Northern and New Zealand St. Legers, and his victories entitle him to be ranked’ as the best stayer among the three-year-olds. With ordinary' luck, Rapine would also have been included among the Derby winners, as he was not ridden to the best possible advantage in the Great Northern Derby. Albert Wood, who steered David to victory in the Sydney Cup, is stated to have been laid £2OOO to nothing by the owner about his mount just prior to the horses going to the post. “Pilot,” in the Sydney “Referee,” wrote as follows: —“David gave A. Wood his third Sydney Cup win, . bis previous successes being on The Fortune Hunter and Kennaquhair. Recently I Wood has not ridden many winners, but a peculiar thing with him is that for years he has had the happy knack of bobbing up in races really worth winning. More than once I have heard the remark, ‘He’s seen his best day,’ but just when some of the hard-to-please critics have started to decry him—they do it with all jockeys—he has been responsible for an effort that has immediately caused them to change their tune. David had a splendid run throughout the Cup, and that is to Wood’s credit, as, after once getting him into a good position, he never allowed him to get where he was likely to meet with interference.” In recounting stories anent the suspicion that electric batteries have been used in racing in South Australia, an Adelaide writer penned the following“Not-so many years ago a horse won an important race with a somewhat run on one o fthe chief racecourses in this State, and the stewards, scenting trouble, a week later set out to catch the supposed offender in the use oi neiarions ihvngs. When the racing began on the second day they impounded a jockey and searched him. While this process was in operation, by some chance one of the stewards in the hqnoiary days—used the name of a visiting jockey, and in double quick time the lad bein° searched realised that it was a case of mistaken identity. The moment he was released from custody he rushed up to the Victorian lad (since dead) and remarked • ‘The stewards searched me tor you. They are after a battery. Be careful. Forewarned was, of course, forearmed. When the right boy was calld in for inspection he adopted a most injuied an. The bird had flown, or, in other words, lh battery had vanished.” The belief that the identity of foals was confounded in the case of Bond Or and Tadoaster has, it may lie said with all truth, gathered in strength ever since the stewards of the Jockey Club dismissed the sensational objection that was.lodged m support of the view that it was the colt by Doncaster from Clem once that won the Derby of 1880 and not the colt by Doncaster from Rouge Rose. If it bo correct that the foals were mixed and that Bend Or was really Tadoaster, how many beam tifnl theories in breeding go to the wall. Rouge Rose was got by Thormanby (son of Windhound) from Ellen Horne, by Redshank from Delhi, by Plenipotentiary. Clemence was got by Newminster (son of Touchstone) from Eulogy, by Euclid from Martha Lynn, by Mulatto. The horses

tracing to Clemence are certainly known to ■ very much greater distinction than those tracing to Rouge Rose, an'd that fact is unlikely to be lost sight of by those who are in accord with the view that the horse described as Bend Or (by Doncaster — Rouge Rose) was really Tadcaster (by Doncaster —Clemence). The most successful breeder of winners 1 in America is'J, E. Madden, and, ac- j cording to one prominent writer, the way , he keeps on culling his mares, has a lot 1 to do with it. When Mr Madden is of | opinion his mares are getting too numer- • ous, he has a “clearing-out” sale. When ! the “figure system” was first boomed as . an aid to breeders Mr Madden was impressed, but later wiped it off as of little r practical value. It was then he wrote: — , “As to the so-called intricate science of i breeding in so blending the blood of sire ] and dam that winners may be produced ] in numbers, though of absorbing interest •, to the student and theorist, the formula 1 man need confine himself to the formula only of breeding a good mare to a great horse, taking into due consideration (Jie varying qualities of each, and putting j his trust in like producing Jike, of the likeness-of some good ancestor. He will have his share of winners, his good years ! and his bad years, and the experts will tack figures on to the pedigrees of his winners and tell how it all happened.” i TWO-YEAR-OLD WINNERS. The total winnings of The Monk this season amount to £7BBB, which is to be ac- ‘ cepted as an excellent return to the Vic- 1 torian sportsman, Mr G. Tye, for the out- 1 lay of 1200gns he made at Wanganui some : 12 months back in the purchase of the son < of Absurd. Though The Monk’s winnings ! as a youngster ran out to tall figures, the i New Zealand-bred colt has to be content j with third place among winners of that ( age in Australia. The list is made up as follows: £■ £ 1916- —Thrice, by The Welkin ... 8,927 1920-21—Furious, by The Welkin... 7,943 1922-23—The Monk, by Absurd ... 7,888 1917- —Outlook, by The Welkin... 7,349 , 1915-16—Wolaroi, by Kenilworth... 7,215 1913- —Woorak, by Traquair ... 6,317 1914- —Cetigne, by Grafton ... 5,356 1918- —Millieme, by Piastre ... 4,454 FAMOUS BROOD MARES. In referring to the dams of noteworthy performers “Milroy” writes as follows in the Sydney “Mail” : —“Carbine’s dam, Mersey, never ran, and, in addition, was a bleeder, as- was the dam of a great racehorse, The Petrarch. This was Laura, who produced otner good horses but she j could not hold her blood in a canter. Whatever the admirers of each may say . iii favour of one or the other, neither with truth can say Carbine was a better horse than Abercorn, whose dam as a racehorse was not worth the water she drank; and I have been told that the dam of Malua, a great long-distance horse was a very indifferent runner, but she had something better than a turf record. She had a plentiful supply of rich milk . to feed her foal with. We have had few better racehorses than Newhaven, whose dam I believe, was worthless; and, though Poseidon was a great racehorse, his dam was indifferent, and Piastre’s . dam was an ordinary welter mare. Gold Grip, the dame of Flavinius, was a grand, J big, powerful mare, but she was as slow as a man, as was Wakeful’s dam; and Grand Canary, the dam of that princely ( stayer, Trafalgar, was a tenth-rater, who ' was sold for whatever she would fetch, and a bid of 35gns got her. The dams of those two famous horses, Chester and Grand Flaneur, I believe, never ran, and I the dam of Cadonia, a fine stayer, was no good at all for racing purposes; but the dam of Wallace could get five furlongs. According to Dr Lang, Pretty Nell was useless, but what a racehorse she threw in Cetigne!” TWO-YEAR-OLD OF SEASON. The Auckland filly Queen March stands out as one of the hard-worked juveniles of the present season in this Dominion. Dp to date the black daughter of Lucullus and March has contested 14 races, and it must be said she has stood the test applied to her in a manner pointing to a robust constitution. Though defeated in the North Island Challenge Stakes on Thursday last, an addition of £2OO to Queen March s stake-winning total has to bci made, and that raises the same to £4635, whicli now gives the Lucullus filly the distinctive place so far as winnings in stakes by a juvenile in this Dominion are concerned. The following is a list of tho amount won in stakes by the leading two-year-old in New Zealand in the various seasons since 1911-12. \ X/. 1911- Autumnus, by Treadmill 3,070 1912- Soltano, by Soult ... 2,190 1913- Rencontre, by Obligado 1,930 1914- Desert Gold, by All Black 3,065 1915- Egypt, by All Black ... 1,765 1916- Hymestra, by Hymettus 2,000 1917- Finmark, by Finland ... 3,160 1918- —Surveyor, by Nassau ... 3,060 1919- Humbug, by Absurd ... 3,i^o 1920- Mermin, by Absurd ... 4,ofU 1921- Epitaph, by Absurd ... 4,200 1922- Queen March, by Lucullus 4,635 Though Queen March has now placed her winning total well in front of that of Mermin (which previously stood as the record), she will probably be given an opportunity to carry her record higher, foi she claims engagements m the Manawatu Sires’ Produce Stakes of £750, the Manawatu Stakes of £750, and the Hawke's Bay Stakes of £SOO. THE SYDNEY CUP. DAVID’S BRILLIANT VICTORY, ■ '.j\ OWNER WINS BIG STAKE. Svduey papers to hand bring full de tails of the race for the Sydney Cup at Randwick on Easter Monday which show that the victory of David took shape as " Th?tur-year-old Heir Apparent (7.13) second favourite. David s abdity as stayer was well established but. with 9.7 opposite ins name in the Cup was not much favoured outside his ovmi P<l The following account is taken from the “Referee”lt was a good start with Shillinglee, David, and Harvest Queen leading, as soon as the field settled down. David's forward position.-caused _ surprise, and it was apparent new tactics were being tried with him. Shillinglee Happy Queen, David, Heir Apparent, and Vieta were the leaders at the judge s box the first time round, at which stage Rivoh was one of the last three. Shillinglee led past the mile, but -at the, six furlongs was only half a length ahead of Happy Queen, at whose heels was David, while. Heir Apparent, Prince Cox, Oraman, and Bita hj were all well up. Except that Bitalh

had gone up fifth, the loaders’ positions had not altered much at the half-mile. At this point Bitalli’s hackers were on good terms with themselves, as he was moving up very fast. Happy Queen was actually first into the straight, though very little in advance of Shillinglee, David, and Heir Apparent. Of the others, Prince Cox, Mufti, Oranian, and Th# Cypher were doing best. Happy Queen lost her place when fairly on the road home. Shillinglee led at the leger, from Heir Apparent and David, others in the leading division being Oranian and The Cypher. Nearly a hundred yards from home David headed Heir Apparent, who struggled gamely, but was unable to hold David, and the latter won by a length. Time, 3min 26^sec. The victory of David was very popular. The owner, Mr 0. R. Falkiner, had a great win, and it is understood that the same amounted to £22,000. David was bought by Mr 0. R. Falkiner from his brother, Mr N. Falkiner, last November, and, as matters have turned out, it was a lucky deal for the former.