RACING

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18297, 13 January 1923, Page 12

RACING

. ' > A SEASON'S fixtures. January 13—DargaviUe Racing Club "(at : ; :■■■£ ■■:■ Ellerslie). .■ . ' January Kawakawa Racing Club (at Ellerslie). ■ January 18—Wellington Trotting Club. January 17—Manawstu Trotting Club. •January 20. 22. 24— Wellington Racing, Club. January Wairio Jockey Club. January 20, 22—Foxton Diamond Jubilee ;'■,-:' Meeting (1863-1923). January 27. 29—Takapuna Jockey Club. .January 31. February Woodville Jockey Club. February 1, 3— Gisborno Racing Club. February 3—Franklin Racing Club. "February 3Canterbury Jockey Club. * . February 7, Egmont Racing Club. February 8, 10Duncdin Jockey Club. February 10— Te Kuiti Racing Club. '■ February 12—Tajmarunui Racing Club (at Te Kuiti). February' 17, 19—Thames Jockey Club. February 17, 21—Otshnhu Trotting Club; March 3, s—To Aroha Jockey Club. March 14, Ohinemuri Jockey Club. March 21—Bay of Plenty Jockey Club (at AvondaleJ March 24—Opotiki Jockey Club(atTakapuna) March 31. April 2—Auckland Racing Club. April fa. Auckland Trotting Club. DATES OF COMING EVENTS. January 20—Wellington Cup. January 20—Wellington Stakes. January 27—Takapuna Cup. February Egmont Cup. February Dunedin Cup. February 16—Taranaki Cup. February 17—Otahuhu Trotting Cup. February Q2— Wanganui Cup. March 31Great Northern ' Oaks. March 31—A.R-O. Easter Handicap, April 3—Great Northern St. Leger. {ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. "Subscriber." — According to Millers' Guide Cetigne contested 82 races, and he won 19 of his engagements. Sasanof won SO races out of 6S starts. " Baza," Avondale.—March (dam of Queen March), was got by Marble Arch, from . Lady MuSket, by Blairgowrie, from Muskerina, by Musket. Queen March has so far contested eight races, and her record is as. follows: —Five' wins, once third, and twice unplaced. "E.W.H.," Thames.—Taiamai was credited ■with running' 6 furlongs at Ellerslie in lm. 13 2-55., when she won the County Handicap ■ on January 2, 1920. Taiamai broke down while contesting the AJR.C. Easter Handicap in the same season, and she was not raced further. ■ .i " Ignoramus."— New Zealand rule on the question at issue reads as follows:"If any ticket be purchased -on a horse whf.ch doss not weigh out, the stewards may order the amount paid on the purchase of the ticket to be refunded on production and delivery of the ticket, but no refund shall be mikde. when the horse on which the ticket was purchased has weighed out."-

NOTES BY PHAETON. THE ENGLISH DERBY. . The blue ribbon of the turf is popularly held to be the Derby run annually in England, and in the middle of tha 80's an Australian sportsman, the late Mr. James White, -was fired with the laudable ambition to win the coveted ribbon with a colt foaled in the southern hemisphere. To accomplish this, and to make the animal eligible, the mares had to be bred to English time. To further explain that aspect of the ease, it has to be stated that the age date in England is January, whereas in Australia the age date for horses is August 1. The great ambition was. however, doomed to be a pronounced disappointment. In " Racehorses

in Australia*" Dr. Lang pleasantly retells the story, and in the following teams: "It was a great adventure. La Princess, a mare by Cathedral from Princess of Wales, by Btockwell, produced for him a chestnut coit _<o Chester, appropriately named Kirkham. Chester himself was from a Stoekwell mare, and the cross w*b therefore a strong one. From La Princess he also bred Martindale, by Martini Henry, in the following , year. On the same blood linos he bred the chest* ant colt Karelian, by Chester from Princess Hand, by Adventurer oui of Princess of "Wales/by Stock well, as well as a brother to Dreadnought, by Chester out of Trafalgar, by Blair Athol from a sister to Musket, ■which Was christened Wontworth, and the : last a sister to Singapore, by Martini Henry out of Malacca, by King of the Forest from Catinka, by Paul Jones, named Mons Meg. This little string was duly despatched to the old country and placed under the care of the greatest trainer in England, old Matthew Dawson.- But the invading expedition was not a success. The colts seemed to lose their action on the voyage, or it might have bean . that virtue had gone out of La Princess and Princess Maud after their several successive matings with Cheater, and it hid not yeS come hems to Mr. White that Martini Henry was doomed to be a comparative failure at the stud. Possibly the line of Whisker, from which Cheater Bprang, and which had practically died out in England, was simply not good enough to bold its o*jfn with the descendants of WhiUebone, Whisker's brother, which it was destined its meet. It is hard to say. But Mons Mijg was the most successful of the mob, and that Was nob earing very much. She won the Gold Vase at Ascot, and .certainly seemed to stay, but; she failed at the stud, and although JSirkham sired the winner of a Grand National Steeplechase, it was th« beat that any of them could do, and the great armada deserved ' a better fate."

Prior to tho late Mr. James White'* effort to win the English Derby with an Australian bred horse, it was quit© recognised that the climatic change from the southern to the noi"tbern hemisphere had to be taken into account, and the experiences gained in connec- ■ lion with that matter, in the interval, have been such as to establish the fact ill pointed form that the change is a - severe chock to a. member of the thoroughbred family. Ponsihiy, if climatic effects did not play so striking a part, some leading Australian sportsman wduui, era this, have been fired with a like ambition to the late Mr. James -White and endeavour to capture the blue ribbon at Epsom with a horse aired in the southern hemisphere, . hut the prospect* of carrying the same to a successful issue, seem to be.of so forlorn & character as to cause one to abandon any hope of it being Undertaken However, there is what may be regarded as a .sillier lining to the cloud. New Zealand has the credit of breeding a hoiso who. on bein.S transported from the southern to the northern hemisphere, sired ft colt who won Derby honours at Epsoni. and who is conceeded to be one of the most illustrious horse that figures on the escutcheon of Derby winders. The sire in Question was grand old Carbine, and the colt owning him as parent to win the coveted blue ribbon was Spearmint.

CARBINE'S SON SPEARMINT. J In recounting incidents in the career of j Spearmint. P. P. Gilpin, who trained tho colt, furnishes some highly interesting faots. When ft yearling Spearmint first came underpublic review at ■■ Donca3ter in the autumn of 1904; and after due consideration, the ' late Major Eustace Loder commissioned ma trainer to bid up to 800 guineas tor Carbine'a eon; and that was ine amount at which the chestnut colt fell to the Irish, sportsman, Jjituo did those ranks of keen rati}, at tho ringside with thousands at their command to bid for any promising looking ' youngster, think they Uad eeen the Derby , . Winner o: 1906. and One who was to prove ' jrreat in the fullest acceptation of the term. 'Such, however, is luck at tho ringside. As a two-year-old Gilpin relates that Spearmint was very late coming to hand, and' thouga a very good mover, ho did not show »ny particular promise for & considerable time. It was only at tho end of June that he began to show form at ail, and that' only .of a mediocre order. Spearmint made a sudden bound into form a short time prior to the Derby, and a trial in which he played a part with Pretty Polly and Hamniorkop . was of ho taking a character that his earning \ distinction at Epsom assumed so very hopeful a vein that he ruled second favourite tor the Derby. How Spearmint won his Derby in easy style, and, crossing over to France, ■ captured the Grand Prix do Paris, which ■" race is regarded as quite .as great, if not greater a test, as the English Derby, arc interesting facts bound up in history. Unforunately, Spearmint developed a leg trouble »übsec.uently, and his turf career had, therefore, to bo terminated at-. three years old. Under the heading " The Happiest Horse," P. P. Gilpin penned the following anent Spearmint: "Though Carbine's son was a workmanlike colt, there was nothing exceptional in his appearance. He was the sort. ■ of colt that looked as if he would pay hiu way, but not in the least like a worldbeater. He was a .nice-looking blood bay, with three black legs and the fourth.- tho near foreleg, white almost up to the knee; alro a. white face. Ho was a very beautiful' actioned horse in all his paces, and of the happiest disposition. Nothing ever came amis' to him; Walking, cantering, or galloping, by himself or with the stringall were the same to bim; and 1 never saw him raise a leg to kick or do anything to show the - faintest trace of ill-temper or disinclination r to, do whatever was required of him. I can. . without hesitation, write that Spearmint was the nicest and happiest horse that wps ever in anyone's «table." At the stud in County juldare, Ireland. Spearmint is carrying on the. Carbine line in a very fitting manner, and the interesting fact to be narrated, is that fourteen yea's after his sensational victory "was acclaimed in the Derby, one of hifi descendants (Spion Kop) also captured the blue ribbon^

THE ART OF JOCKEYSKTP. The horse-backer has /taach to contend •with, and net the least of his troubles is bad jockoyship, or, lot ue say, errors in jockey judgment tremarke " Milroy " in a recent issue of the Sydney Mail). The best are liable to make mistakes. Races nowadays are always run from end to end, and most jockeys strain to get a place in the front rank as early as possible. Of course, there are odd ones who are content, if they find a good.place to wait on the leaders till the right time comes; but. thanks to ao much sprint racing, the modern jockey is not a good judge of pace, and .often, in consequence, hie followers suffer because of that lack. Albert Wood is one of the few men now in the game who display the least knowledge of pace, and King is another. But at riding a waiting; race in front I have seldom seen the equal of Albert Wood. The late Tom Hales and the present Jimmy Bftrden, however, were equally cap- ; able at waiting behind. This trio wore all bom with brains, and would have made their mark in other walks of life. It is eaid that Albert Wood is a wealthy man, as Tom Hales surely was when he left off riding; but he lost most of his wealth in Itation property and horse-breeding. WHERE TUBING GIVES GOOD RESULTS. It would be reasonable to expect the " tubing" of horses to give much more satisfactory results in the clear atmosphere of Australia than in England. It is not so, however, remarks Pilot of the Sydney Referee, though some horses can be mentioned that did fairly here after being operated on . in the fashion mentioned. The. other day I i heard it suggested that one thing favouring tubed horses on English tracks was that there was no dust. Still, there are other drawbacks, and at Leicester on November 13 surprise was expressed that, With the fog so heavy, the first two races should have been won by tubed horses—Long Corrie and Golden Error. The first named, who is a half-brother by The Tetrarch, to Craganour and The Sybarite (now in Australia), is a stallion, and would have been used at the stud long ago only for the fact of being a roarer. At the same time, it is almost unnecessary for me to write that in England, as elsewhere, roarers have sired some good horses. It was not long prior to the win referred to that Long Corrie was bought for 75gns. RICH TWO-YEAR-OLD RACES.

There were eonio rich two-year-old races in America during the past year, the Maryland Jockey Club being particularly liberal in this respect. At its meeting at Pimlico on November i, it divided the Bimlico Futurity (a mile race for two-year-olds) into two divisions, the added money for each being 40,000 dollars (approximately £9000). Both divisions were run the same afternoon, there being eleven starters for each. In ; both events fillies were successful, the ' •winners being Sally's Alloy (Allumeur— volatile) and Blossom Time (North Star 111. —Vaila). Although they carno from different stables, A. Johnson had the pleasure of riding each. winner. Last year Johnson won | on Morvioh, This was Sally's Alley's fifth win, stakes credited her being about 94,847 dollars—approximately £-21,000. LEAVES FROM BY NOTEBOOK. In the 70's and 80 ! a Auckland claimed among her sporting enthusiasts a greatlyliked man in the person of Mr. W. "W. Robinson, but he journeyed back to his birthplace, beloved Wellinborough (England) in the early 90's; and it is therefore only the old brigade resident in Auckland that intimately knew JJie- " dear old boy." Every branch of sport, it may be said, commended ititti to " W.W.R.," and when" it ie stated thai he would be accepted as an expert judge on raoing, breeding, and the make and shape of a thoroughbred; that he wad great on cricket and toot ball; and a very ! niie judgo of j>edestrianism, it may be guessed that he was the au-round sport in I a pronounced degree. With such Qualities ' Mr. iiobinson was extremely well Qualified to contribute to the columns of sporting' Journalism; and while resident in Auckland ho wroAe for several papers; and in England he also contributed to several of the leading journals. Well, this week's mail from the old country brought me a letter from my old friend, accompanied by & little ! book, entitled, ' Racing and Sporting Rhymes," by l ' Ak&rana ,r (W.W.'R.). Incidents connected with Auckland racing', jour- • n«ya through paddocks where young ibex- , oughbreds gambolled; and athletic contests in this Quarter ofjfce globe, Are touched off in tuneful vers*, which brings old scsnes back to memory in vivid form. " How . Trenton Won His First Race " is well toJd. , "The La*, of the Loch Plate," in which race Oarbmo scored ft victory at Plemington I in the Autumn of 1889. stirs one lip; and i the poem " Billy Ring " takes one's mind ■ ! back to the successful match that sturdy ! athlete Tan for a gold medal -with a- " pro " j or. the Domain ground. To the Aticklanders in touch with the past, and who knew " W.W.R." there is much to charm the mind in ths perusal of this little book of poems i which fie has published in the evening of his days: and one just feels that he could st"n outside into Oueen Street, cross over to old-time Tattersalls club-room in Vulcan L«me, and clasp his hand as of yore. That, however, cannot be. and one must just express the hope that the d«*ar old chap, whom we all loved to call " Billy." will be able to retain to the end that sunn* heart which m endeared .him to troops of friends when he **eut those many pleasant flours in M»oriland. Tile caustic nature of the comments of English writers in referring to any alleged i lapses on the part of riders worn this part of the world has formed the subject of comment in London, and the tendency in certain quarters to take matters beyond the reasonable linejlrew the following, from the Sportsman:—" We are all for a critical racing press where the criticism is impartial. but we do think that certain writers look for a little too maoh from light and inexperienced boys. They expect Caralakes at 6.", which, of course, is unreasonable. We do not think ourselves that the Colonial lightWeigh'; Voight is as good as many lads of his own weight, but we should like to see a little more encouragement and a, little les3 obvious hostility to him, and those like him. who have their way to make in profession." Voight. who is a Dunedin boy, won a number of good races when riding is New Zealand, and he was regarded as one of the cleverest light-weights that New Zealand had turned out for soma time. At the sale of yearlings in New South : Wales last autumn, a black colt, by Magpie, from the Malster mare Maltee, fell to the bid of the Wellington sportsman Mr. Charles Elgar, at 960g5.. The youngster, who,ill to racr» under the 'name of Black Ronald, is credited With furnishing into ftn attractive specimen of the thoroughbred family, and in giving the colt time to mature before i asking him a question under, silk, Mr, Elg&r is paving the way to owning a colt that may win blue ribbon honours next season. Magpie, who was got by Dark Ronald (a son of Haughton), won weight-for-age honours in Australia, and he is considered likely to prove a marked success as a sire. Mr. Elg&r's eater, by Magpie, is viewed as a very eligible specimen of the Dark Ronald tribe to carry on the line In this Dominion when his racing days are over.

Epitaph has so far only succeeded in winning one race at three-years-old, and as her condition when competing at the recent Ellerslie meeting was regarded as satisfactory, not a little curiosity is caused as to whether she will extend her winning record in a marked degree as the season'advances. Epitaph does not carry the appearance Of one that had deteriorated, but still there ' is a strong opinion that » journey of threeQuarters of a mile will be her pet distance. In the Telegraph Handicap (6 furlongs) set down for decision at Trentham on the 20th instant, Epitaph has been let off with 7.8, and on the uestion of poundage she can be regarded as very nicely placed to claim the attention of the judge. A brilliant horse in the shape of Wedge figured on the Australian turf some little time back, and he hae a right to be well remembered by New Zealandera by reason of his sensational, defeat of Desert Gold when odds were laid on the daughter of All | 31ick in the Caulfield Futurity Stakes of 1918. Reminiscent of the black horse, .who I was by The Welkin, "Teviotdale," or the j Australasian, furnishes _ an interesting story a/? to how he derived his name. " He was," writes " Teviotdale, " an ugly, ungainly, ■ narrow, somewhat miserable obiect. He was awfully narrow behind, and one day, when they were struggling to find a name for the beggar, someone, looking up a dictionary, called out, not apropos at all of nomenclature: 'Wedge, a piece of wood or metal sloping to a thin edge at one end.' ' That , will do.' called Out the owner, Mr. Turnbull. I ' He slopes to a thin edge behind. Let it . be Wedge;' and it was Wedge, and is." ] The memory of the famous rider. John Osborne, is held in such,esteem that a plan has been conceived in England to pay a practical tribute to it. The scheme ia under the patronage of Lord Rosebory, Lord Derby, Lord Crewe, and Sir Robert Jardine, Bart., and the editor of the Sporting Chronicle is acting as treasurer. The idea is to raise a sum sufficient to endow a bed at the Darlington Hospital, a suggestion which has the approval of the Osborne .family. Sir Robert Jardine has subscribed £100, and the fund amounts to about £500. " There is nothing like the racecourse as a provider of strange happenings," says Mr. P. P. Gilpin,, the racing trainer, in the Weekly Dispatch. " One most extraordinary affair was that of Jack Beasley, ono of the famous Beasley brothers, well-known- riders m their day. At Punchestown Jack Beasley rode a horse named Pirate and came a dreadful ' purler' at the wall. 'I found him rubbing his eyes and looking about in a dazed sort of way. He mumbled that he was all right, whereupon I helped him up on to Pirate again and led him back. Beasley was allowed to go out on Menasha for the Droghera Stakes, fie rode a good race and won. Nest morning I found him still in bed. and he said that ho was well, asking why he should be otherwise. I replied that I thought he might be feeling the effects of his fall the previous day. He dej clared that he had had no fall, and nothing would ever persuade him that he had. He afterwards declared that he had no recollection of the meeting." t - I

The two-year-old Knave of Hearts, who changed •■ hands recently in Melbourne at • lOOOgne., .gave! his new owner, Mr. F. M. Melrose, an early return for his outlay, for he scored a victory , in: the Criterion Handicap at Flemington on New Year's Day, and he accomplished his task in a manner that invests bis prospects with much of the bright order. Knave of-Hearts, who was got by the Multiform horse Beragoon, is & rare bred colt, and on the dam's side traces to the Stockwell mare Lady Chester, who gave the turf a V.R.C. Derby and Melbourne Cup winner in Chester. Word comes from Taraaaki to the effect that Silver Link has baen definitely retired from racing. Silver Link was foaled in 1915. so that she is rising eight years old. Tlio bay mare was brilliant up to a mile, and it will be interesting to note whether, she will give the turf a stayer when she goes to the stud. Two strains of Musket to which she can lay claim (one through her sire. Achilles, and the other through her grand-dam, Chainstitch), should certainly enable her to play a part in that respect. i There would appear.to bo a valid excuse for national's unplaced performance in the A.R.C. . Royal Stakes. It is stated that the gelding got a bit of scoria in the fleshy part of one of his feet some little time before the race, and that in removing the foreign substance, blood was drawn. In the interval Rational has been on the easy list, and doubts are expressed as to his being a contestant at the Wellington Summer Meeting. It transpired that the youngster Mr. Efio Riddiford received in exchange for Royal Box was Soltana, a two-year-old chestnut oo*t by Nassau from the Ladurlad mare-Cas- ■ sock. Tho colt in Question is a half brother ; to Almoner and eo far he has only contested i two races. In the decision of tho 'Rakino : Handicap at tho Takapuna Spring Meeting in November last, Soltana ran his stable mate to a head for first honours, but he had 15'lb. the best of it in weight oinpared with, | his brown rival. The Wellington Stakes, which comes for decision at Trentham on Saturday next, will probably attract a good selection of two and three-year-olds. Gold Light and Epitaph, who represent tho noteworthy ones coming from the first-named division, are penalised lllb. "and 71b. respectively; and of the two-year-olds. Queen Marcbo. who stands out .as the leading two-year-old engaged, has incurred the maximum 141b. penalty, and she will have to carry 7.12. 1 Another "English-bred horse is booked to make the voyage from the Northern to the Southern Hemisphere. This is the three-year-old colt BacKWoodj! a son of Bachelor s Double and Lady of Grace, who has been purchased by an Australian sportsman for 2500 guineas. Backwood won the Ascot Derby in 2m 32is, and as he is regarded as a etayer he may prove a bargain of the sale ring.

Mr. G. T. Niccol has not had the satisfaction of seeing his colours carried even decently by the highly-bred Australian animals he imported. I really thought ,110 would have ere this won a good race with Rosavelia, but .the chestnut filly is still without a winning bracket. The Soaton Delavel mare; Lady Lucy, who will be remembered as a sensational winner of the New Zealand Cup, has not done badly as a, matron. At th« Dunedin Summer Meeting hor two-year-old daughter Lucinette won the Dunedin Handicap. Lucinette was got by Martian. Eaton Bells, who won the Juvenile Handicap at Wingatui on the 27th ult., was bought cheaply at llOgns. at the yearling sales held at Randwick last April. The Australian-bred filly was got by Eaton Lad (son of Orvioto.) from the Multiform ruara Formicary. In Hawke's Bay circles the All Black gelding Kick Off is considered to have good prospects of claiming the attention of the judge in connection with the Wellington Cup, in which raoe he is called upon to carry 8.6. Statuette, who annexed the A.B.C. Kailway Handicap 111 1020, is reported to be showing none of her former brilliancy, and ii is considered doubtful whethor she will bo persevered with. It is understood that negotiations have been opened up in a certain quarter for the purchase of The Hawk. Horses carrying the colours of His Majesty won stakes last season to the value of £4419.