FROM TRACK AND STABLE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 183, 6 July 1936, Page 10

FROM TRACK AND STABLE.

(By “Spectator.”)

Since racing at the recent Opotiki Jockey Club’s meeting, at Tauranga Te Hui lias been on the easy list. K. Voit.ro recently had a nil of 25 losng mounts. At Caulfield on June 20 ho had . four mounts and only once got into a 'place. •The Ranger’s leg has not improved, and he has bum turned out so lie will not be a runner at Trentham.

A Melbourne paper states that Desert Chief was backed to win over £2OOO when beaten in flic Cambria Welter at Caulfield. This was Desert Chief’s third consecutive minor placing". Tho first name claimed for the rising four-year-old gelding by Nightmare!)— Pink 'J errace was View, but tins lias been w llidrawu, and lie will be known in future as Tomcat.

A Sydney jockey, 11. Hayes, recently flicked his rignt, eye with the reins while doing riding work on the track. l'ho eye became septic and Hayes has had to have it removed.

Hungarian did not seem troubled by the going in a good work-out with a brush down tiie straight to iinish at T rentliam, similar work be ng done by Pi nee Acru wiio was quire at uoino in tne mud.

A northerly gale that brought drenching rain raged over Well ngton on Saturday night and yesterday, and the tracks at Trentham are now thoroughly saturated. The going for the meeting cannot now be other than very heavy.

Sir diaries Clifford has retained G. Humphries as first horseman tor the new season. Humphries rede several winners tor the, Chokeboro stable during the present term, and has now established himself as cue of the most successful l-Uers in the South Island.

Taj Akbar, who won the Princess of Wales Stakes last week, was second favourite for the English Derby last month and he was the elect of the Aga Khan's trio, the other pair bc’ng Mahmoud and Bala llissar. However, Mahmoud boat him. When H. Rama returned to Auckland fiom Rieearton he took with him a chestnut gelding by Vania—Country Air and a bay gelding by Vanls lrom Country Picnic. .Although rising four years oiu, they have ne\er raced. J3oth are bred on proved galloping lines and should eventually develop into useful sorts. Tito live-year-old Jsnglish stallion, Foxlight, purchased in England by Mr J. Mulvaney, of Masterton, arrived at Auckland by the Northumberland cn Saturday. Foxfight is as well bred horse by Foxlaw from Quick Light by Galloper Light, ami is from the same family as the South American champion racehorse and sre Botafogo. One of Mr L. C. Hazlett's three entries for the D.J.C, McLean Stakes, to lie run in October, is the interestingly-bred San Marino, a filly by Gustavo from Ravenna. Both sire and dam are by Sollerino, and Gustavo is a full-brother to a previous winner of the race, Count Cavour. San Marino is a chestnut, as are her parents and all her grandparents. The ether two entries of Mr Ha/.lett arc also 'by Gustavo. Stromboli is a colt half-brother to Saxophone, and Camerino, a half-sister to High Gear. The New Zealand Metropolitan Trotting Club, which w ll open the season at Addington on August 8, 12 and 14, has reverted to tho former stylo of programme by making tho races for horses who can do the time specified in the classes. For some years past, the races were confined to horses assessed according to the limit set. The stakes for the August meeting have been increased to £7050, which is £4OO more than last year. Mutus, a four-year-old Songbird—Olga gold Vi"" tra ned by T. Hobbs for Miss V• NicbolTs, of Maheno, made a .promising debut in the Novice Handicap at Oamaru (says a southern writer). Prior to the race he got rid of his rider and careered toward the scraping sheds, and just before-.tho start lie broke through the tapes. He was one of the last .to beg’n in what some" of the riders appeared to believe was a false start ;nd then ran into second place. Olga, dam of Mutus, is by Kiirain troin the Stepniak mare Waimatc Maid. On several' occasions recently Black Marlin has been schooled over hurdles at Ellerslie and lias shaped well each time. He had Lord Val as a compan on tho other molding and again later, and although the latter fell at tho first fence on the latter occasion Black Marlin completed the course and jumped attractively. He is engaged in the Trentham Hurdle Race on the first day of the Welhngt u meeting and should give a good account oi himself. On Kentucky Derby Day the totahsator turnover was approximately £254,000, the h ghost for a single day’s machine hett.ng in America this year. Derby investments totalled £94,550. No bookmakers operate at Churchill Downs, to from a New Zealand, Australian or English standpoint tho turnover was not exactly sensational. Hundreds ot bookmakers operate at Ascot (England), but at that course recently £4O 292 10s wont through the -machine on the Royal Hunt Cup, and the day’s turnover was £131,955. Both were records for England The totahsator investments in the Otago and Southland districts show ui increase of £59,685 10s during the season, which closed with the recent Oamaru meeting, as compared with 1934-35. The total figures for 1935-36 are £645,642 10s against £585,959 10s in 1934-35 and £508,965 10s in 1933-34. The racing clubs iii Otago put through £251,694 10s, as compared with £223 446 10s, an increase of £28,248, i• id m Southland £197,167 10s. as compared with £165,059 10s, an increase of £32,105, making a total increase of £60,356.