SPORTING.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXVIII, Issue 3581, 5 November 1898, Page 1 (Supplement)

SPORTING.

TURF TOPICS. [By Silveespuk.] In last issue I stated that the committee of the Wellington Bating Club had, in accordance with a recommendation made at the annual meeting of members, licensed bookmakers to ply their calling at the club’s meetings at the Hutt, but they made the foe a prohibitive one—£”2o a day. Their action has been subjected to a considerable amount of critism, and I now learn that, although the annual meeting pronounced in favour of the idea, the committee intend taking a plebiscite of members on the subject, each one being asked to record his vote before November 10th. If they they all vote it is reckoned that the mctallicians will not be allowed to bet. This question has proved what may he termed a vexed one among members during the last year or so, and the result of the ballot —a singular proceeding in the circumstances —will be awaited with interest.

Old Battalion, who annexed the Melbourne Stakes the other day after a great battle, won the event last year, when Coil ran second and Key third. In the Melbourne Cup, however, the son of Battalion failed under 9st 41b.

It is intended to send Battalion, the Melbourne horse, to England after the V.E.C. Spring Meeting. He will be tried on the flat at Home, and then over the small sticks.

Umilta (by Newminster —Ouida), dam of Eesolute, died at St. Albans recently. The owner of Hymettus was laid 1000 for a win, and 500 for a second in the Caulfield Cup. Poulsham, owner of Massinissa, failed to find the holder of his horse in the sweep, but Mr Forrester found those who drew The Chief. Mr Forrester discovered through the press that a syndicate in Bendigo were the parties and he made good use of the information.

Mr W. T. Jones, the Australian sportsman, won two races in England last month with a mare called Stonebow. In her second race Stonebow started at 10 to 1, and Mr Jones had X'2oo on her at starting price.

And so the great moral for the Victoria Derby, Bobadil, was beaten after all! It was a memorable contest, though, and the difference between the public idol and Cocos at the finish was only half a head. As is usual in such eases the rider of the favourite is blamed for not winning, it being averred that he rode an injudicious race; but people forget that he in all probability rode precisely as ho was told to, and that had the half-head been the other way about the vast crowd of backers who followed the Wilson livery would have joyfully drawn their cash and abstained from criticism. There was some excuse for Bobadils rider rushing to the front at the time he did. He was riding a colt possessed of tremendous pace, and allegedly pounds in front of the other throe-year-olds he had to meet, and the jockey presumably thought that once he shot ahead nothing could catch him. Bobadil had, however, gone off slightly a day or two before the race. Also, ho is only a little fellow and once Cocos got upsides with him, the latter’s great stride helped him to secure victory.

The winner comes from a family of good ones. Camoola, Oobbitty and Coil came from the same dam, Copra, who belonged to the celebrated Kirkham stud. Cocos had something the matter with him when racing as a two year old, and did not show up as well as was anticipated when he first donned colors. He was beaten by Bobadil twice, also by Vigorous, Essex and Cordite. He, however, secured the Caulfield Debutant Stakes, but failed in the Oakleigh Plate, won by Desolate. This season Cocos has shown both good and indifferent form. Both Picture and Lee Metford finished in front of him in the A.J.C. Derby, and Lelamins and Lee Mecford beat him in the New Stakes, and he again ran third behind the Grafter and Merloolas in the Graven Plate. In face of those performances, and seeing that he had a ten pound penalty, he was allowed to run loose in the Duff Memorial Stakes at the same meetiug, but he carried his 9st 61b to victory, coming with an electrical rush at the finish and beating Nevada by half a head. When Cocos and Bobadil next met in the Caulfield Guineas, Bobadil beat the son of Abercorn in the hollowest fashion by three lengths. On the second day Cocos showed improved form by winning the Eclipse Stakes, downing such horses as Wait-a-Bit, and the. Chief, amongst others. By the Darby day came round Cocos was apparently at his best, and seeing the distance of ground he had to make up, and the calibre of the colt he had to catch and beat, his performance was undoubtedly a great one.

The connections of the St. Albans’ stable must have been greatly chagrined at losing the Derby, a race for which Bobadil had been-specially prepared for all the winter. There have been some grim downfalls in the classic race since it’s inauguration, Aurum’s unexpected defeat by Amberite last year being a case in point. On the afternoon of Bobadil’s discomfiture his junior stable mate, Scorn, put his Maribrynong field in the shade, and the way he-won leads to the belief that we will find him favourite for the Derby next year. Scorn is also by Bill of Portland out of Tea Bose, and was bred at St. Albans.

Heiress, second in the Maribrynong Plate, is by that prolific sire Sunrise out of Inheritance. Strangely enough it was cabled across the day before the race that she had been withdrawn. Nitre, who ran fourth, is by Off Color, out of the one time speedy Musket mare Mitrailleuse, who won, a great many races in this colony prior to being sent to Australia.

It is remarked by an English writer that it was a new feature in the Doncaster programme, when, in 1776, a three-year-old sweepstake over two miles of ground was founded, and it excited some hostile comment on the ground that they were going to the nursery for their horses, and such short distance races (?) would tell against the breed for stamina. Until then there were few races of a shorter distance than four miles. At York meeting, 1777, nearly all the races—and there were a great number of them —were run over four miles of ground. One day, however, a contest of two miles was introduced into the programme ; but in order to make amends for such frivolity as that, there was another of practically sixteen miles, there being four heats of four miles each for a stake of .£SO. The third and fourth heats, we are told, were severely contested, and were won with great difficulty. A famous four mile winner at this meeting was Miss Nightingale, of whom it was said that she was entered for a £SO, plate at Boroughbridge, but unfortunately died on the Sunday preceding the race, i Suspicions having arisen that she was ■ poisoned, she was opened, when there were found in her stomach 21b of duck shot, made up with putty into two balls.

Sample letters received by a big sweep-, promoter; “We are very poor, and have started a Wesleyan school, and have only got 20 scholars as yet. Do please send us a prize.” Another; “Am taking this ticket in the name of my little boy ; he is very anxious to buy a pony ; please send him a horse.”

Comment has been freely made lately in connection with the way some horses have shaped at the late A.J.C. and Y.A.T.C. meetings. It seems a rather common thing now-.a-days for even the best of our racehorses to put up puzzling performances, which are put down as “ reversals of form," a very convenient method of expression under the circumstances. In England much the same sort of thing is going on according to all accounts. One writer, in alluding to the matter, says that backers had a number of autumn caution notices served out to them. It was given in two doses. The first was when Maluma, seemingly from want of stamina, failed to hold her own i with plater Cloon at Alexandra Park. The second dose was bottled down when in a much better class field Maluma rolled home at Lewes for a richer race, and with loads of weight and stamina galore in hand, and over a quarter of a mile further. Much similar form has just been worked out most successfully by Gazeteer in a trio of handicaps, and under the same stable cruising flag.

Hvmettus is named after a mountain of Attica, near Athens, famed for its bees and honey. Massinissa is called after a Numidian general who lived centuries ago. A two-year-old by the erst New Zealander, Scots Grey, is now in work at Randwick. He is half-brother to Glendennon.

At Tam worth (N.S.W.) recently a local baud would not play at a race meeting because one of its rules “ did not permit of its members placing at any gathering where gambling was extensively indulged in." Good !

Most of the riders in the Caulllcld Cup were riding like mad for position round the first turn. From the way they hurried ofl the mark the race might have boon only a half a mile instead of three times that distance. Some of the starters wore really beaten in the first furlong.