TURF GOSSIP.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1249, 6 February 1896, Page 24

TURF GOSSIP.

By " Te Whiti." NEW ZEALAND. Our London correspondent, writing under date of December 24th, says: The sporting fraternity at Home have been considerably amused over the action of the Napier Park stewards in disqualifying the mare Tallyho on the scorn of inconsistent running. " Faucy being able to take such a course in England !" ejaculates one sporting scribe. "Why, objections would bo laid against almost every other winner all the yearround. Those Napier Park stewards ought to be brought over here at once and invested with plenary powers at the jumping meetings. How busy they would soon be!" Roscius, the giant chaser, has retired from the turf, it having been found impossible to further train him. Ho has some brilliant victories to his credit, included among which are the Auckland Steeplechase with 12st 81b up, the Egmont Steejnechase with 12st 81b, and the Curragh Steeplechase at the C.J.C. meeting with 12st 51b. He also placed several good hurdle races to his credit, and besides being a born jumper was possessed of great pace and stamina. His retirement is a great loss to lovers of a good honest horse. It has been decided by the owner that Higgs shall ride Strathbraan in all future engagements. This, I fael firmly convinced, will prove a wise decision, as Strathbraan is a horse with a great aversion to strangers, and it stands to reason that ho will try more with his own boy up than in tho hands of a strange jockey. I noticed in last week's Melbourne Sportsman that Bert Holmes, " tho " light weight horseman of Australia, always rode The Admiral, Mostyn and other good horses, even though the former carried as much as 10st 91b in a race. Now as Holmes goes to scale at a little over 7st, he must have had to carry a considerable amount of dead weight. Which proves that experienced trainers prefer to put up dead weight rather than lot a successful lad stand down. The reported sale of Leda by her present owner to an Auckland sport has not yet been concluded, and it is quite on the cards that she will remain in Davies' hands at the Hutt. Strathbraan and Swordfish are taking part in the Woodvillo meeting, having left Wellington on Tuesday last. Mahaki, the Gisborne-owned horse, is in the hands of the bailiff and advertised in the local papers for sale, I

Lady Zetland succeeded in winning the principal event at the C.J.C. meeting last Saturday, and her stable mate Saracen got home in the Craven Plate at the same gathering. Messi-s Hobbs have these two horses in great buckle just now, and Saracen on recent form will be a difficult horse to beat in the Dunedin Cup, as, although having won the W.R.C. Handicap and Craven Plate, he does not incur any penalty for the Dunedin event.

Belle Clair was sent up from Christchurch as a real good thing for the Middle Park Plate last Saturday, but her connections evidently underrated Bloodshot, who carried the crusher of 9st 71b and cut out the six furlongs in lmin lG.Vsec. Belle Clair was second, and it was bad luck for the Dunedin sportsman to bump up against such a clinker as Bloodshot with the handsome daughter of St. Clair.

Several big commissions came down from Auckland last Wednesday to go on St. Clements in the Takapuna Cup, but the Grreat Northern Derby winner Fabulist, carrying 9st 41b, was in the race and proved what a great colt he is by winning easily from Eve, with the heavily supported St. Clements third. It seems a remarkable thing that these cleverly (?) arranged coups very seldom come off successfully.

Bloodshot's win in the Middle Park Plate on Saturday last is the first time that any horse has won the event twice, the son of Maxim having been successful for Mr Stead in 1593.

It is stated that Bob Kaj r , the A.J.C. Derby winner, is to be nominated for the next New Zealand Cup, Dan O'Brien's intention being to return to Biccaiton permanently after the V.E.C. autumn campaign.

Visitors to the C.J.C. Summer Meeting were ..much impressed with Lady Zetland's brilliant performance in the Midsummer Handicap. The little mare led from start to finish and never gave her opponents a show.

Skirmisher gave his party a splendid trial gallop prior to the meeting, but ran absolutely last in the race, much to their consternation and disappointment.

Bloodshot's victory in the Middle Park Plate was full of merit, and Mr G. G-. Stead, in this son of Maxim, possesses a colt that is second to none over sprint courses.

Major George had a legitimate offer of 700 guineas for Pegasus last year, but wanted 1000. This year he sold the Nelson horse for 100. James Kean, the new owner, should have much the best of the bargain.

It is not often that a jockey has to file his schedule, yet White, a first-class horseman and with intelligence above the average jockey, was compelled to do so recently. Now, if a man like White, who is a backer as well a rider and "who is in a position to get the best information obtainable about candidates for the different races, cannot make money at the game, how can the ordinary backer, who seldom has a chance of a pe -p behind the scenes, expect to! beat the books or the machine ? Yet we still go on punting against overwhelming odds. ROUND THE WOIiLD. Mr Gollan, the New Zealand owner, who recently took a team of chasers to the Old Country, has been riding Ebor in his work, and the Home papers report that the team with the exception of Busaco, who is not mentioned, are doing good work. Most New Zealand sports would be glad to hear of the success of one or more members of the team.

Seabreeze, the winner of the Hurdle Race ut Perth, Western Australia, paid the nice little dividend of £9O. This is a good argument in favour of i he tote versus the bookie.

It is understood that the V.ll.C.committee have in contemplation the necessity of revision of the lists of the stewards of various clubs with a view to the removal of the names of gentlemen who, though allowing their names to appear, do not attend and perform their duties at the various meetings of the club.

The following Australian-bred horses were successful in races in India during December. Repudiation, 9st 7lb (Wiles); Ivo, 9st 31b (Pugh); The* Bogie Man, lOst lllb ; Legacy, lOst 21b (Major Mercer); Tug, list 81b (J. Scott) ; Prince Imperial (Grand National Steeplechase), lOst (J. Scott) ; Daylight, list 71b (T. Scott) ; Small Fry, lOst 71b (Ilobinson).

Last year Ccrrigan gave £200) for Ducat, | and £I4OO for Senator Irby, and both have j failed to win £6OO (says an American ex j change). Loiillard gave £3OOO for Falsetto and never got him to the post. Dwyer gave £7OOO for Bolero, that never paid a dollar for his oats. Belmont »ave £SIOO for Hastings, that has never won a race.

A few weeks ago news from India stated that Highborn 11. was sound enough to race again, but siuce then he has been troubled by his leg, and a board of veterinary surgeons having expressed the opinion that the big splint which has been developing for some time past interfered with the flexion of the joint, the gelding has been pensioned off, as he well deserves to be.

Much comment has been made from time to time on a practice by means of which double event backers have been swindled, says the Sportsman. A horse entered for some race late in the day is taken down to the course and paraded about, so as to lead to the belief that he will be a starter. After having been taken in doubles with horses engaged in the earlier events in the day, he is later on scratched, and backers, having had

a start for their first event, have to pay.. It would be in the interests alike of backers and honest bookmakers were the Victorian Club to amend its rule on this subject so as to provide that in all double event bets made on the course on the day of the race the backer should have a start for both events or the bet be off.

So Wallace, vide Mr Dakin, is the host three-year-old we have seen for quite a number of years, says '• T.T." in the Sportsman. F.ight stone ten pounds, or ten pounds over w.f.a., is a big tribute to the excellence of this colt. Possibl}' a pound or two too flattering to his owner. lam always partial to the prospects of a first-class three-year-old in an Australian Cup, and I rather liie Wallace even at Sst 101 b; but'tis paying the washy chestnut a huee compliment when we infer with Mr Dakin that he is a greater colt than Navigator (Sst 31b), First King Ssi 51b), Trident (Sst 71b), Carlyon (Sat 21b), and Dreadnought (Sst 61b). After Wallace 1 like Fort (7st 51b), Toreador (7st 3lb), and Preston, as a Leger winner, surely should have a chance at Sst 101 b. Perhaps Gehenna and Erl King for the Newmarket Handicap, mixed up with Preston and Wallace for the Australian Cup, might be worth throwing away a half sovereign or so on.

At the Newmarket bloodstock sales last mouth Phosphine, a mare by Foxhall (sire of Dalmeny) from Illuminata (dam of Ladas), was sold for 530 guineas. £he was stinted to Sheen. A two-year-old colt, by Eightaway (sire of Hindoo, imp.) fetched 330 guineas.

The " Special Commissioner,'' writing of Carnage in the London Sportsman, says : I must congratulate the purchaser of the Australian horse Carnage. The gentleman's name is a secret for ttic time being, but all that breeders have to think about is the horse, who. by the way, was our selected mate for La Fieche, in the world's competition two years ago. Carnage is so bred that, according to Mr Bruce Lowe\s theories, he cannot fail to make a great sire. Coming from the great running family (So. 2) the Burton Barb mare, his two graudsires, Musket and Knowslcy, are both of the running and s ; re family No. 3 (the dam of the Two True Blues), and of his four great grandsires, Toxopholite and Stockwell are of the same family No. 3, Newminster of the sire family No. S and Angler of the running family No. 2. Those who have studied Mr Bruce Lowe's book will understand what a tremendously strong combination we have in the pedigree of Carnage, whoso sire, Noidenfeldt, not only won the Victoria an I A.J.C. Derbies, but was sold for the highest price ever made for a horse in Australia—i.e., for a horse bought to stay in Australia—this was 5600 guineas, which was given for him by Mr Hordern. As Carbine is a sealed book to most breeders in this country for the next three seasons, his three-parts brother at a moderate fee ofi 50 guineas comes in the very -nick of time. Ernest Day, who has seen him, tells me he is a grand horse." A cable message relates that Mr Pattou, a broker, has purchased Carnage, whose list of mares for 1896 is now full.

From a capital article on jockeyship iu the London Sportsman I take the following: —Jockeys are like the horses th.cy ride. They are either stayers or sprinters. A combination of these'qualities falls to the lot of a few only, and in each family we can count the members upon the fingers of two hands. Fred Archer once s-aid that Fordham and Johu Osborne could both teach him a lot in a two-mile race ; " but, ' he added, " I don't fear either of them on shorter courses, and that's where most of the money is to be made nowadays." No doubt poor Fred was right, but though Derbies, Legers, and every other class of race fell to his lot, he was " daddy " only at the short-course game, and not monarch of all he surveyed when it came to a long-distance trial" in which contemporary veterans opposed him in whom the art of patience was more fully developed.

Reviewing the recently instituted Indian Grand National Steeplechase, run on the 14th of December, and won by Prince Imperial, an Australian-bred horse, the Indian Planters Gazette says : —" The race was the poorest 'chase of the whole day. The field, with the exception of the winner, was composed of horses who were either unfit, or had no pretensions to being able to stay over three miles of a country at even a moderate pace, and the result was a one-horse exhibition. Sweep, broken-winded as he is, bad bad more than enough of it after two miles, and was badly beaten all the way from the open ditch the second time round, home. No doubt, there are some circumstances which account for the small field obtainable, one of them being the failure of The fndian to do what was required of him, another the breakdown of both It 15. and Dutchman, but, apart from this, the entry was very meagre, and totally out of proportion to the amount of the added mouey (.*iooo rupees). The result of the C.T.O. stewards' venture has been the reverse of encouraging, and it may be that they may consider that the funds "ranted towards this race could be iu future years better bestowed elsewhere.'"

Sir Edward Braddon, the Tasmanian Premier, in replying to a petition from the Baptist Union against the establishment of Tattersall's sweeps in Tasmania, expressed the ordnion that no appreciable deterioration of public morals had ensued from the " consultations," which, on the contrary, had neutralised throughout Australia the evil arising from the gambling passion in providing a less dangerous outlet for it than by other means. Tattersall's possessed the advantage that persons without money could not gamble. The Government possessed no po .ver to prevent the establishment of Tattersall's sweeps in Tasmania, which were not contrary to law. He could not see any occasion to ask Parliament for power to suppress them, seeing that Parliament had already legalised the Van Diemen's Land Bank Lottery. If Tasmania refused to sanction them other places would be found where money would be forwarded.

Under the heading of " A Monstrous Decision/' the London Sportsman gives the following particulars of a case in which a bookmaker was concerned: —"At West Ham Police Court on December 4th James Finch, or Finn, of Tenby road, Stratford, was summoned for using threats to John Edward Headley, a bookmaker, Hennikerroad. Stratford. For the plaintiff it was stated that the defendant was one of a class of men who were known to betting men as ' rampers/ who sought to cheat bookmakers by getting bets on horses entered in two races on one day, after they had won the first race, and then demanding money, though the horse lost the last race. On November 23rd defendant and others went to the complainant and demanded money for a bet he had not made, and when it was refused he and others attacked Headley. Defendant's party, however, got the worst of it, for some Great Eastern Railway men interfered, and then defendant produced a knife and threatened to ' rip Headley up/ and anyone else that came near him. Headley was called, and after relating what happened on the day in question, added that he went in fear of defendant, and that he did not dare come out to his business for two days. The Magistrate—'A very good thin:?, too.' Herbert Bowyer corroborated, and at the close of the case for the complainant the magistrate said, ' I dismiss the summons. The business carried on by complainant is a curse to society, and so long as he carried it on he must protect himself.' "

Blood stock buyers from all parts of England, as well as several foreigners, assembled at Newmarket to assist at Messrs Tattersall's annual sale in the Park Paddocks, says "Asmodeus." Nothing sensational in the way of prices occurred during the first afternoon, but a very large number of the various lots submitted changed hands, whilst several that failed to reach their reserves afterwards changed hands privately. Notably in this connection may be mentioned Arcano and Anlaf, Sir W. Trockmorton selling them to Mr Alfred Day for 850 guineas. The Duke of Portland's five horses in training sold for an aggregate of 2470 guineas, Hurry of these making 760 guineas, and Lady Flippant 700 guineas. Two mares from the Sandringham stud, Fortuna and Fair Slave, went for 310 guineas and 300 guineas respectively, and the Duke of Westminster's brood mare Camilla, by Mac ironi out of Feronia, was purchased by Mr John Porter for 400 guineas. The three-year-old The Tup, by The Lambkin out of Courtship, the property of Mr Robert Pryor, was purchased by Mr Enoch for 12'LKJ guineas, and the stallion Sempronius, by Wisdom out of Hainptonia, went to Mr T. Phillips for IGOO guineas, the latter being the highest price realised during the first day's sale. SALE OF YEARLINGS. The sale of the Hon. George McLean's Warrington-bred yearlings takes place at the St. Clair Racing Stables, Dunedin, on February 21st. Some capital lots will be offered, and after the recent successes of Euroclydon, who was bred by this same studmaster, some keen competition is likely to result. The following is a list of the different lots to be submitted : No. I. Chestnut colt, fcaled December 13th, 1891. By St. Clair out of Lady Florence, by Gorton out of Malice, by Traducer out of Mermaid (dam of Lurline, Le Loup, etc.), by King Tom. Gorton is by Ihunderbolt out of Lyra, and is the sire of Euroclydon (the hero of the last C.J.C. Meeting), Blizzard, Britomart, St. Ives, St. Malo, Conjurer, Warrington and many other winners. Lady Florence is sister to the speedy Pique, holder of the record for seven furlongs on the Forbury.

No. 2. —Bay colt, foaled November 14th, 189 k By St. Clair out of Lady Gertrude, by Cadogan (imp.) out of No Name by Traducer (imp.) out of Emma by Gil Bias. This colt is half brother to Etiroclydon, winner of the New Zealand Cup, Canterbury Derby and Cup (the distance of the latter, two miles and a quarter, being done in the fastest time on record in the colonies) to Blizzard, Britomart, and other good performers. Engaged in C.J.C. Welcome Stakes, Great Northern Foal Stakes, C.J.C. Champagne Stakes, C.J.C. Derby, Fifth and Sixth Challenge Stakes. ■

No. 3. —Bay colt, foaled September 22nd, 1894. By St. Clair out of Mountain Lily, by Totara out of Red Rose, by Traducer out of Moss Rose by Camden; Totara by Diomedes out of "VVaimea (dam of Manuka). This colt is half brother to that successful performer Warrington.

No. 4. —Bay filly, foaled November 3rd, 1894. By St. Clair out of Indolence, by Grand Flaneur out of Scraps, by Lord of the Hills out of Ragpicker (full sister to Sylvia, dam of Martini-Henry, etc.). Grand Flaneur is by Yattendon, siro of Chester, out of First Lady, and one of the greatest racehorses of any time in Australia.

j$ 0s 5, —B a y filly, foaled November sth, 1894. By St. Clair out of Legerdemain, by King Cole out of Skittle Sharper, by Daniel Q'Rarke out of a sister to Card Sharper, by Sleight of Hand. Legerdemain is dam of St. Ives, St. Malo and Conjurer, all successful racers. King Cole is sire of Nelson, thrice winner of Auckland Cup, etc., by King To<n out of Qui Vivo. Engaged in CJC. Welcome Stakes, Great Northern FoaJ Stakes, C J.C. Champagne Stakes, C.J.C. Qaks, Fifth and Sixth Challenge Stakes.

No. q.—Chestnut filly, foaled October 19th 1894. By St. Clair out of Mistral, by Gorton out of Lady Gertrude, by Cadogan out of No Name. Mistral is full sister to Euroclydon, Blizzard and Britomart. No Name i 3 the dam of Noino, Nonsense, Oudeis, Disowned, etc. Engaged in C.J.C. Welcome Stakes, Great Northern Foal

Stakes, C.J.C. Champagne Stakes, C.J.C Oaks, Fifth and Sixth Challenge Stakes.

No. 7. —Bay gelding, foaled September 14th, 1893. By St. Clair out of Mountain Lily, by Totara out of Red Rose. This colt is also half brother to Warrington. Engaged in C.J.C. Champagne and Derby Stakes.

St Clair, the sire of the above yearlings, is by Musket out of Pulchra, by Rosicrucian out of Formosa, by Buccaneer out *)f Eller. Musket is sire of the great Carbine, Trenton (the crack sire of Australia), Nordenfeldt, Martini-Henry, Maxim, Manton and numerous other first-class performers. St. Clair was the winner of a number of races, and is the sire of Beadonwell, Arline, St. Ouida, Irish Girl, etc. TOM HALES. The following account of the career of Tom Hales, Australia's greatest jockey, is from the Sydney Referee : Tom Hales, the most celebrated and successful race rider as yet seen in Australia, is a native, having first seen the light at Portland, in the neighbouring colony of Victoria, on or about the year 1817, so Tom is now in his 50th year. Tom was the second eldest of a family of seven, four sons and three daughters. Their father, old Mat Hales, was somewhat of an oddity, and a well-known character, a thoroughly upright man, highly respected, and very clever at his calling—that of a genaral smith and farrier; and many a well-turned set of shoes has old Mat tacked on to the cracks of the Western district.

When Tom was quifco a child the family moved over the border, locating themselves at Penola, in South Australia—a place where Tom has since more than once distinguished himself. It was at this pretty little bush town that our hero first made the acquaintance of thy muchbeloved and lamented Adam Lindsay Gordon. Gordon, or, as lie was more generally called, " Long Gordon," was then a trooper in the service of the South Australian Grovernment, and Hales, then a boy of sonic ten or eleven years, for some youthful indiscretion or another was taken to the lock-up and reprimanded by the man who was so soon afterwards to become world famous as the foremost of all poets of that truly masculine order that depicted in glowing verse the sports of the lands they loved. This friendship so strangely commenced continued without break or interruption until the sad end of the great and daring horseman. Many a happy week they passed together at ouT Lako Hawden statiun, then belonging to Edward Scockdale, of Richmond Park-—a fine portly specimen of the old style of Torkshi reman, who loved a horse as his life, and in the good old days bred them by the thousand, and raced a few that for stoutness would bo an acquisition on the turf to-day. Gordon used to break in the young colts, and Tom Hales was stockman, and many a merry ride they had together. Hales was then about 16 years, and about ost 71b in weight, and perhaps about the most perfect timber and rough rider of his weight throughout the length and breadth of Australia.

He was of delicate physique, but rare courage; day after day iu all kinds of weather, hot or cold, wet or dry, from sunrise until well on night in the saddle, often full gallop for an hour at a stretch through sheoak and limestone ridges, up hill and down hill, amongst the stunted box and stringybarks, and across broad flats covered with crab holes in the limestone rock to such an extent that only the horses bred on the ground would face it at all, and then they must bo delicately handled, or they would come such a cropper as you would remember for some time to come ; over the Biscuit flats, then a succession of swamps often belly deep, and through Oakwine ranges, the favourite haunt of the wildest mobs. This was the routine that had much to do with developing Hales into the accomplished horseman ho afterwards became—the Archer of Australia, and enabled him to appear to such advantage with some of his mounts that wanted especially delicate handling. This is no hearsay, for often have I seen him scudding along like a gust of the wind, whore many, who consider themselves no small punkins, wouldn't be game to raise a canter, and knowing this, as I do know it, I have often been somewhat disgusted to hoar men who should know better say that Hales was a marvel ia a small field, but give me so and so in a big field, I can't stand Tommy, he's lost his nerve. To all such—and you oven hear such croakers yet—l reply .- Was the field a small one when he won the Summer Cup on Coriolanus ? Were the fields specially small ones when he won his five Australian Cups on Lurline, Richmond, Navigator, Morpeth and Trident? Was the field a small one when he won the Anniversary Handicap on Tempo, carrying 121 b more than the mare ran under when she was defeated by Ben Bolt only a short time previous ? These few instances alone should go far towards proving the utter absurdity and error of such beliefs as I have been combating.

I remember as though it were yesterday the subject of this sketch winning at Ginchen Bay, South Australia, a hurdle race, over stiff post and rail fences, on a mare that had never raced before, some of his opponents being mounted on horses that had distinguished themselves many a time. Hales led from start to finish. True, his light weight gave him a great advantage in a race of this nature at catch weights, but that wouldn't help his pluck, which was all there. Hailing as I do from Yorkshire, and being somewhat reared in a racing atmosphere, I have seen some of the greatest of English artists in the saddle, including the daddy of the lot, old George Fordham; but I doubt very much if the best cf them could give much of a handicap to Hales. At the time I am

writing of Tom's people had moved from Penola, and taken up their abode in Robe Town; here the old man's services as a shoeing smith were in great request, but as far as I can remember none of the boys followed the same calling. Somewhat of a wag, and full of odd sayings and drolleries, he did a good business until failing health compelled him to forego the hammer and forge: then Tom took up the running and made the old man comfortable for the remainder of his days. Tom's eldest sister (since married and residing in Melbourne) was then a most daring horsewoman, without an equal in the whole of the southeast —a place that was, so to speak, full of good riders of both sexes; the Seymours, the Dunns, Hutchinsons, Hayes, Smiths, the Brewers (same family as the present crack Victorian steeple rider), very few better horsemen ever crossed saddle than the one then known as "Johnnie Brewer" (father of the present celebrity) and who also had a little rough schooling at the old

Lake Hawden station, and v-dio mauy's the time has made the honeysuckle osiers crash in fast pursuit of the filing ES horses. Will Hales, who as a boy was rather delicate, grew into a big, powerful man, and became famous as a buckjumpcr rider that no horse could get rid of, barring an accident. George, another of his brothers,

was a most successful slaughterman, ranking as one of the quickest men in the colony with knife and steel. Hales, when at old Lake Hawden station, was much given to study, and used to fill in the greater portion of his spare time and evenings in reading and writing, and making himself as proficient as he could under the disadvantages surrounding him; and though Tom may be considered to have been much more fortunate in life than his brothers and sisters, he has not forgotten them.

Hales was one of the steadiest of our horsemen in his private lift-, and one that the younger riders of the present day, aspirants to fame in the pigskin, c:uld not do better than copy; they see in him a self-made man, whose many feats of brilliant horsemanship and unquestioned integrity has given him the confidence and esteem of everyflhorse-owner in Australia, and of the great body of the public at large. The public to a man were sure when they saw Hales up that there would be no funny business, and I am proud to say that there are a good many of our present generation of jocke3's whose reputations are unblemished. One of the most necessary qualifications in a race rider is that those who trust him to ride th ir horses in big events, where often many thousands of pounds are in the balance, is that they should have no doubt about his integrity. Several jockeys a few years ago"" positions are now relegated to the realms" through no other reason that that, rightly or wrongly, both owners and public distrusted them, for several of them bade fair to have soon been at the very top of the tree.

Hales' career as a jockey extended over some thirty years, during the whole of which time he has possessed the confidence of both owners and public. His success has been phenomenal, he having Avon the Derby no less than five times, on such landmarks of our studbook as Mr James Wilson's little wonder Briseis, the unbeaten Grand Flaneur, Navigator, Martini-Henry, Matchlock and Trident ; the Champion Stakes six times, on Richmond, First King (twice), Grand Flaneur, Matchlock and Trident ; the Oaks four times, on Briseis, Pardon, Royal Maid and Uralla ; the Australian Cup eight times,on Lurline, Richmond, Savauaka, Navigator, Morpeth and Trident, &c. ; the St. Leger, ten times ;

the Caul field Guineas, three times ; the Sydney Cup on Savanaka and others ; the Ascot Vale Stakes five times, on Petrea, Navigator and Bargo, &c. ; the Adelaide Cup several times; -the A.J.C. Champagne Stakes five times, on Bargo, CJralla, &c., &c. ; the Maribyrnong Plato on Acme ; the Melbourne Cup only once, on Grand Flaneur, who never suffered the indignity of defeat; the A.J.C. six times, on Richmond, Grand Flaneur, Navigator, Bargo, Nordenfeldt, and Trident; the A.J.C. St. Leger seven times on, Petrea, Progress, Navigator. Matchlock and Trident, itc,

&c.; the Geelong Cup six times in '77 and '7B on Pride of the Hills and Nowniiuster, in 'B2, 'B3 and 'B4 on Guinea, Gudarz and Linda, and many other victories in big handicaps and weight-for-age races too numerous to mention in the limited space at my disposal.

It will, however, be noticed that lie has ridden all manners and kinds of horses ; hard pullers and those who wouldn't pull an ounce, keen goers and those —like old Richmond- that had to bo livened up a bit, and won every race of note in the whole category —a compliment to his allround tact, judgment and diplomacy. As a further proof of the supremacy of Hales, I would call my readers' attention to the fact that the whole of our racing celebrities bar one in the shape of owners and trainers have, when possible, secured the services of Hales as the pilot of their different equine wonders. The bar one was the father of the Australian Turf, old John Tait, long since gathered to his fathers, but whom I have no manner of doubt had a high opinion of Tom's merits as a rider. The late proprietor of the famous St. Albans stud, Mr James Wilson, himself a great horseman, and universally acknowledged as one of the greatest racing authorities living, selected '•' our Tom " to ride his great gun, First King, ahorse that, barring his owner, no one knew h >w good ho was, and on whose mighty back Hales won two Champion races ; also Petrea, and this at a time when he had command of such a horseman as St. Albans. The astute Eli Jellett, owner of the gallant Richmond, also picked Tom to pilot to victory upon victory his famous brown. Mr T. Jones had him up on Coriolanus in his Summer Cup victory; and latterly the most successful racing man of all time in Australia, the late Hon. James White, had specially retained him as first horseman,

and for whom Hales won nearly every great event of the Colonial Turf, over all distances, and in all kinds of fields. Tlis successes havo been almost walks over on the famous chestnut Trident. Previous to this he scored many victories for the South Australian sportsman, Mr Ryan, on Benvolio and The Ace. The owner of The Ace on one occasion put up Tom Brown, believing- Hales to be too weak to hold him, but was quite satisfied afterwards that Tommy managed him best after all, and since then Tom Brown has himself become a trainer of note, and of course chose his old friend Hales to steer through his victorious and unbeaten career the brilliant Grand j Flaneur. Tom also piloted a few good winners in the colours of Mr W. Winch, of i Pytcheley Lodge, one of which wasNewbold, i the sire, of Ben Bolt. Surely the judgment of such men as above quoted, and that of | Mr Fennelly and Payten, the trainers of j any number of winners, should be above the absurd prejudices of a few whose belief is at best a fancy.

Some of Hales' earliest victories were on a speedy chestnut yclept Euclid, then the Penola Handicap in '64 on Satellite for Mr William Hutchison, of Murrabinna. At that meeting- I won my first hurdle race, one and a hnlf mile heats, on Marmion, beating Ned Gorry (I believe the father of the once famous light-weight) on Fair Nell, winner of the Great Western Steeplechase, and W. Trainor on Waiido, and a host of others. Tommy then left the South-east for the City of Saints (Adelaide), where he was soon to take the place of the finest horseman I ever saw, poor Billy Simpson, familiarly known as Boy Blazes, Billy having a fine curly head of a sandy or reddish tint. This is the same Simx>son who twice won the Adelaide Cup on Fisherman and Cowra, and who was afterwards injured through colliding with a post, which injury evidently caused his death. Simpson was beloved by everyone who knew him, and was universally admitted to have the most perfect of seats, besides wonderful judgment, and hands as light as a feather. " Bell's Life " dubbed him the prince of Australian jockeys. Both Simpson and Hales learnt their art in South Australia, so that colony must be credited with having turned out the two most accomplished horsemen of our time. Hales, as is well known, has retired from the pigskin, but as a breeder is still associated with the sport of kings.