SPORTING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 9305, 14 September 1893, Page 5

SPORTING.

AUCKLAND RACING CLUB'S FIRST

SPRING MEETING.

The above meeting, which takes place at Ellerslie on Saturday next, will fittingly inaugurate the racing season in this district; and, judging from the nature of the acceptances and entries, fine weather is the only thing necessary to ensure the success of the gathering. The programme to be gone through consists of seven events, and these are to be run off in the following order :— Trial Handicap (seven furlongs), Hurdle Race (one mile and three-quarters), Spring Handicap (one mile and a quarter), September Stakes (four furlongs). Steeplechase (about three miles), Plying Handicap (six furlongs), Pony Handicap (six furlongs). The first event is to be started punctually at one p.m. Mr. Fercival notifies that the committee appointed to measure ponies will be at the racecourse to-day, at four p.m., and to-mor-row (Friday), at half-past nine a.m.

AUCKLAND TROTTING CLUB.

The committee of th.2 Auckland Trotting Club met last night for the purpose of deciding; upon the programme in connection with the Summer Meeting. It was decided to increase the added money to the Auckland Trotting Cup from 300sovs to 4Qosoys, and the other principal races are the President's Trot of 150sov8 and the Champion Trot of SOsovs. The following are the principal allotments of prize-money for the pony division :— Pony Cup of ]50sovs, Steeplechase of TOsovs, Hurdles of 60sovs, Epsom Cup of COsovs, Steeplechase of 60sovs. Owing to the contract* for improvements to the course not being completed within the contract time, the committee decided to postpone the Spring Meeting from Saturday, September 30, to Saturday, November 4. Nominations are to close on Friday, October 20, at ten p.m.

THE A.J.C. MEETING.

Press Association.— Telegraph.—Copyright.

Sydney, September 13.

Melinite was absent from the track yes« terday. but did walking exercise to-day. She however showed signs of lameness. The latest quotations for the Metropo litan Stakes, are -.—8 to 1 against Stepniak, 10 to 1 Sunshine, 10 to 1 Paris, 11 to 1 Ducrow, 12 to 1 Aureas, 12 to 1 Donation.

WELLINGTON RACING CLUB.

Wellington, Wednesday.

At a meeting of the stewards of the Wellington Racing Club, the programmes for the present season were drawn up. It was decided to hold only three race meetings, and the total amount of added money was fixed at £3770, distributed as follows:—Spring Meeting, November 17 and 18, £900; Summer Meeting, January 22 and 24, £1700 ; Winter Meeting, May 2 and 3, £1170. This gives an average of £630 per day. Mr. Sam Powell was re-elected starter.

The old much-debated question of whether a horse's foot does or does not expand when it bears the weight of the animal has been revived of late. The principal veterinary authorities in England have long abandoned the theory of expansion once so much insisted upon. Professor Lungwitz, of Dresden, has recently written on the subject, and described an electrical apparatus he has invented to measure hoof expansion. Professor F. Smith, of the Army Veterinary Department, Aluershot, has been experimenting in a similar manner by an improved appliance of his own design. Both gentlemen say they can detect an expansion of the wall of the foot under the action of body-weight. Lungwitz says the expansion is "about equal to the thickness of a sheet of paper," ana Professor Smith only claims an alteration to the amount of l-50th of an inch when a horse is standing— one fore-foot being lifted up.so that the whole weight of the fore part of the body rests on the opposite leg. Most English veterinarians are sceptical as to the accuracy of the -registering instruments. There is one thing, however, to be noted, and that is that, if expansion of the foot does take place, it is so trifling as in' no way to give countenance to the large extent attributed to it in some popular books on the horse, compiled by unscientific men. Professor F. Smith has invented a novel plan for registering the path of a horse's foot in the air from the time it leaves the ground until the time it touches it again. It is very simple in construction. Fixed into the wall of the foot is a large carpenter's pencil; the pencil is readered flexible by being fastened to a spring wire. The horse is walked past a canvas screen, and tracing on it with a pencil the path taken by his foot. His inquiries into foot expansion and foot motion are, he says, not sufficiently advanced to be recorded for the benefit of the public. The full details of his experiments are anxiously looked forward to, especially by veterinarians.

The Prince of Wales was furnished, by desire, with some figures relating to EclipseStakes day at Sandown Park in July last. The people who paid numbered 22,826, representing a sum of £19,500. The kitchen returns include such items as 1680 lobsters, 12481b salmon, half a ton of ham, 300 Surrey fowls, and a little more than three tons of beef, mutton, and lamb. The amount of liquor consumed was made up of 1356 bottles of champagne, 4000 bottles of ale and stout, 120 gallons of spirits, 750 gallons of draught beer, and no less than 7,000 bottles of mineral waters, ','