SPORTING NOTES.

New Zealand Times, Volume LVI, Issue 2371, 29 November 1894, Page 4

SPORTING NOTES.

From Our Own Correspondent . London, September 21. Ba the owner of a successful outsider rich as Croesus and straight as the provorbi il die, he yet shall not escape calumny. Ever since Leper day tho “dead sharp" in town and village all over England has been admiring Lord Alington’s supposed “ coup" with Throstle. Even at the clubs where men should know bolter, there is a tendency to bint it was“doosod well managed don’t yer know." As a matter of straightforward fact tho most surpriied persona on tho curse when Throstle headed Ladas w-ere John Porter and his employers. After tho Nassau Stakes at Goodwood they fancied tho filly for a time and a small Leger commission in her favour was worked at an average of 100 to 6. Then she was tried with Matchbox (the colt giving away 141 b) and beaten all to pieces. This seemed too bad to bo true, so another test gallop was fixed up. At the second time of asking Throstle bolted. No sane owner could trust her after this, especially as on Leper day her coat was rough and staring, and her temper and internal arrangements upset. John Porter begged permission for his second itrirg to bo walked straight from the paddock to the post, so tho filly took no part in the preliminary canter. Morny Cannon says she was sulky, and declined lo go in the early part of tho iaoo. When, however, Common’s sister did take hold of her bit she flew over tho ground, and her tussle with Ladas was magnificent. The Kingsclere folks stood an immense stake on Matchbox, oven John Porter having LSO (the outside sum he ever beta) on the crack. Lord Almgtou accepted 1000 to 20 Throstle simply in order to persuade Peach to lay him a bit more Matchbox. Baron Hirsch’s colt was, m fact, far and away first favourite for money. “ Full against Matchbox one heard on every side, whereas Ladas seemed easy, “evens" being offered against tbe Derby winner in tho big ring. The tact of Morny Cannon being up on Throstle knocked tho bottom out of most of the books in tho big and the silver rings. Cannon had splendid luck on Tuesday, riding four winners in succession, and thousands of small punters consequently stood his mounts on Wednesday. It must not however ho thought these gentry got 50 to 1. Your small bookie never lays such prices, but tho lo’s and 20's to 1 ho noted several times over wore qaite enough to spoil for him what should have been a good race. In Tattersall’s tho owner of Maundy Money (whom Throstle beat in Ibo Nassau Stakes) backed Lord Alington's filly to win LSOOO, and Robert Peck stood her one or two. Neither of theso gentlemen however know about tho homo trials or they would have kept their money in their pockets. The race was in one sense not unlike Hermit’s Derby, when you may remember Marksman devoted so much attention to beating Yanban '.that his mount had no spunk left wherewith to challenge tho outsider, who bore down in tho last hundred yards. This seemed to bo Ladas’ case. As on previous occasions he fairly bested Matchbox, but ho InM no staying power left to stall off the despised Throstle. John Corlott suggests that if Loates had ridden Ladas as Archer did Galliard in hia Guineas struggle with Goldfield, or Melton in his magnificent Derby finish with Paradox, the result of the Leger might have been different. Ho says :—Possibly if Ladas had been ridden in any other way in tho St. Leger ho would have been beaten further than ho was, and we merely give expression to an idea rather than as suggesting that there was anything wanting m the horsemanship of Loates, when we pay that if ho had been ridden as Archer rode Mellon in the Derby, and as Pordhatu was wont to finish on a speedy horse that could bo nicely placed, he might have won. With Fordham nothing would have been seen of Ladas until the hurricane rush at the finish. One of the things for which Ladas will bo most remembered is the extraordinary manner in which after waiting ho joins tho loaders. You direct your glasses on him and see him a long way behind. You then look to see what some of tho others are doing, and then turn to Ladas again ; but whore is ho, where has he got to ? Surely that cannot be him at the head of the field ? Only an instant ago he .was last. It is Ladas, however, all the same..- What surprised us most at Doncaster was, after running a waiting race, to see him come out with the lead half-way between the Intake turn and the Stand, at which point ho seemed to have well won. Bob Basham, who rode Knight of St. George when he won the St. Leger, and who had a good experience of Doncaster, once told us that there was no other course on which a jockey could afford to wait so long. How Archer boat Paradox for tho Derby with Melton we will attempt to convey as nearly as we can recollect in his own words. Said he, “ You know I had been on tho back of Paradox, and knew what a beggar he was to stop when ho found himself in front. When after passing Tattenham Corner I saw the others dropping away from him, 1 knew what a tangle Fred Webb would soon to in. It was just as I expected when he-was left with the load, and I determined not to go near him, as 1 knew that directly I raced alongside him, on ho would go again, and boat me, as ho would run longer than mine would. I left him there until wo were nearly at the winning-post, when I gave Melton two of the sharpest cuts with tho whip I ever gave a horse, and at that moment wo were on the winniug-poat. Directly Paradox saw Melton with his head in front, on ho came again, and in another stride he had done me, but wo wore thou past the winning-post, and I had won by a head." That and tho Cambridgeshire won by Sabinus were the two finest wo ever saw, as far as jockoyahip is concerned, the “ head " in each case being that of the jockey. Wo think it is just possible that if Ladas had not attempted to come to the front until he was wilhin a few lengths of home, that ho would have won. Looking at the pace he would have been travelling, however, and if under the circumstances ho had been beaten, it. would have been on every tongue “ a chucked-away race 1 If Loates had come earlier he could not have lost, he was going as fast again at the finish as the winner 1“ and so forth. ,