SPORTING NOTES.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4163, 24 July 1874, Page 2 (Supplement)

SPORTING NOTES.

THE MELBOURNE CUP. The Nelson Colonial has the following comments on the entries for the Melbourne Cup : Dagworth, six years old, heads the Handicap with lOst, being 21bs above his racing weight. This horse, supposed to bo tho best in Australia, has been very successful on tho turf. He won tho Sydney Metropolitan in 1872, doing tho two miles in something less than 3min 37secs, carrying 7st 51bs, and tho Spring Stakes, ono-and-a-half miles, at the same mooting, in 2min 13sccs, carrying nst 71hs, Wo have not at hand a list of tho horse's previous and subsequent performances, but bis career has been very good, and Mr Do Meatre, who recently purchased him at a long price, must have fully calculated on his being placed in the position he now occupies, Tho whole of tho remaining seventy-eight animals have an allowance from weight-for-age, ranging from Clbs, made to Ace of Trumps, down to 551bs, conceded to Jackcy, an aged gelding. The 21bs given to weight-for-age by Dagworth, added to the 71bs allowance made to Lurliuo, shows that Mr Do Mestro’s horse is handicapped at a 91b bettor

animal than Mr Redward’s mare; and by deducting this 71b allowance from the 231bs allowed to Papapa, we see that Mr Barnard, the handicapper, estimates Lurline 161bs better than her sable companion, the winner of the last Canterbury Derby. We shall not be so presumptuous as to criticise Mr. Barnard’s labors, for were we so inclined we are not in possession of the requisite information to justify our attempting the performance of so onerous a task. Tne race was won in 18C2 by the six-year-old Archer, carrying ISst. 21hs., owned by the same gentleman who now owns Dagworth, so it can scarcely be said tliis horse is excessively weighted in the present handicap, although he is more leniently treated in the Sydney Metropolitan. And then, Lantern, a three-year-old, with 6st. 21b., won the race in ’64, and the Barb, of the same age, carrying 6st. lllb., won it in ’ 66. But for these two performances of three-year-olds, wo should certainly have been startled at the weights assigned by Mr. Barnard to the three-year-old division, as he places Stookbridge third in the handicap, the colt getting only 81b. from Dagworth and 11b. from Ace of Trumps, and Hr. Redwood's filly AVainui only 11b. more. If we compare the weights assigned to the three-year-olds with those given to the four-year-olds, wo find that the allowance to the best of the latter is lllb. less than is allowed to the best of the former, and that all the young horses give weight to Derby and Leger winners of last year. Is the scale of weight-for-age too favorable to three-year-olds olds ? It certainly looks so, if this handicap has adjusted the weights fairly. Our readers will form their own conclusions. Of the New Zealand horses, Papapa’s chance of the Cup is far the best. An impost of 7»t. 51b. is a small matter to a colt who won his Derby last year, carrying Bst. 101 b., in 2min. I-JAbco., a performance which has never been achieved in Melbourne, where the fastest Derby was won in ’72 by LoupGarou, in 2min. 46sec.; Lapidist, who won the Derby last year at Plemington, in 2min. 5150 c., gives the son of Raveusworth and Waimea, in tire present handicap, Clb. AVe speculate ou the chances of the New Zealand horses because the stable will accept with Lurline, Calumny, and Papapa. AAfo prefer the chance of the colt, not only because he is more favored by the handicapper, but the season is unfavorable to mares, the Cup never yet having been won by an animal of the tender sex. Much, of course, will depend on how the colt has wintered—whether the blow ho got from a block of scoria on the Auckland course on the Ist of January last, and which lamed him at the time, will come against him—and on the passage he gets acr'oss. Supposing all these contingencies to prove favorable, we regard Mr. Redwood’s chance of winning the Cup with Papapa, to be equal that of any horse lie will meet. The weights of the fifty-four horses entered for the Sydney Metropolitan are also published, hut for this race Lurline and Calumny alone are entered from New Zealand. Dagworth here, as in Melbourne, is at the top of the handicap, with 9st. 131 b., being 11b. leas ; but Lurline is handicapped at Bst. 41b., being 71b. less than for the Melbourne Cup, while Calumny has 7st. 91b., being 51b. less than for the race over the Plemington course. The mare’s chance for the Rahdwick Handicap is the better of the two, and wo dare say long shots will ho taken about the New Zealand stable carrying off both races. AVheu we hear that the colt has safely reached Melbourne, and that the two mares arc all right and in safe quarters in Sydney, wo shall not mind risking a trifle on the double victory.