RAGING NEWS

New Zealand Times, Volume XLII, Issue 9614, 21 March 1917, Page 8

RAGING NEWS

NOTES AND COMMENTS (By "Tohunga.") Bee, who is in - training at Riccarton, was saddled up on Monday, and she was still wearing a poultice ot Gome kind or other on her fore leg. ' Choloma has been out on the tracks again at Riccarton- She appears to have some troubles peculiar to the feminine gender. Kilbov, who is to be started in the Great Autumn Handicap, is doing steady work at Riccarton, and he is looking well on it. The big fellow will have a lot of friends for the race.

A yearling half-brother to Comedy King (by White bear) realised 610 guineas at auction recently in Melbourne.

The Stakes to he offered by the I’orbury Park Trotting Club for the winter meeting total £2200. A southern paper states that J. Bryce has now fifty horses in work- It is added that the team is tho largest that has ever been sheltered in the Dominion. How any one man can superintend tho training of fifty horses can be belter imagined than accomplished. One dozen horses is looked upon as a fair handful, but fifty—■whew!! It is no wonder the public dub tho trots “the hots. 1 ' Cold comfort is afforded those who think soldiers will return from Europe cured of their lov© of racing by tho happening: —Harriet Graham, who won the Australian Cup at the V.R..C. autumn meeting, was purchased for 300 guineas in England by her present owner, Mr P. Russell, who has Just returned from the front. Mr Russell won the same race with Idolater in 1896. There will be some hurry up when all the soldiers. return and begin to g6t hold of things normal again. There will also be some m'ore Resolutions passed, hut they will be- of a totally different character to those that have been passed within the past few "months by those who have not been otit on the gory fields of glory.

There is an impression abroad that Arthur Oliver has been transferred from the active side of camp life to a departmental position. That is quite incorrect. Oliver is a driver in the Artillery, and ho ■"■ill take his place with tho others. The ancient sire Bobadil, who was sold at the Tye disposal sale for guineas, will probably operate in Queensland in future. Bobadil is rising twenty-two. There was no one rushing about with excessively large wads at the yearling and other sales, in Melbourne last week, but the sportsman ready to tako a chance was there, all the same, says the “Bulletin.” At the sale of tho Tye horses, the imported maro Ellen Graeme induced one of tne Falkiners to produce 600 guineas, and for the imported filly by the "White Knight—Sal 850 guineas came from tho same quarter. If these animals are what they may be, the investment is a good one. If they are what some Animals turn out not to he well, something else might have been a better bargain. Trainers still cling to the notion that a dose of alcohol can inspire certain horses to resolute endeavour in a race. The theory has been proved fallacious with human foot-races. It was tested at Harvard (U.S.) University, with the result that all the doped athletes thought they had excelled themselves, whilst the watch showed that not one of lhem_ had equalled his best record. Whisky is a mocker as regards the human animal. Why should it be an aid, to sustained exertion in horses ?

Ther© was at least one lucky punter over the Newmarket and Australian Cup double, says the “Bulletin.’* He is a young Sydney barrister, who doesn’t bet heavily or often, but haying a notion that a couple of imported nags might win these events, backed the right oair—£2ooo to £B. Service of a cheque was accepted without fee. Two plunging punters are said to have lost more than £30,000 between them at the V.R.C. meeting. One of the bad investments was £9OOO to £4OOO Patrohus.

A Sydney paper has the following to say regarding imported horses:—“lmported nags again 1 Polyorates and Harriet Graham captured a big double at Flemington, and Green Cap, Highfield and Aides captured other events. This success of the imported moke is getting wearisome, and is certainly not met by_ the irrelevant allegation that Australian-bred horses are winning more races than the imported article. The disconcerting fact is that the Eng-lish-hred horse, of moderate class where he comes from ia showing a greater stamina than the Australian neddy; for though exceptions may he quoted, there is no getting away from the cumulative evidence afforded by the racing of the past two seasons, nor from the horribly-small number of firstclass horses turned out in Australia from the multitude of experiments in breeding. One result is to lead to a greater demand for the English horse. That may ba a good thing. But if another is to create a change in the Australian method of treating yearlings and to an overhaul of two-year-old racing, this page has an idea that matters might he evened-up so as to dip the scale in the other direction.” ’Tis strange, yet true, that in racing

the desire to be considered smart will often cause people, who should be quite above anything shady, to adopt tactics that would not meet with the approval of others than tale-tellers or turf parasites of similar class. There is a right thing in racing, Just as in any other business, though men who should not overlook that fact occasionally do. In Russia, last year, racing went on much as usual, the prize-money totalling £300,000. As an exchange says, there are only about 1000 horses in training in Russia—not nearly as many as in Sydney—owners should, as a result of such liberality in stakes, be able to make the game pay there. The totalisator is the medium of speculation, and tho yearly cost of . training a racehorse in Russia, is about £2OO.

Tho following are the entries for the Easter Handicap, one mile and a quarter, to be run at the Wairarana Racing Club’s Easter meeting;—Heeltap, Chakwana, Rose Pink. Ringform, Tango, Goldstream, Gold Soult, Teka, Cleft, Black Hill, Hushabye, • Want, Miss De Val, Chortle, Multaine, Botanist, Montana, Merrie Gain, Captain Glossop, Red Ribbon, Haumakaka, Altercation,

F. W. McCabe, the New Zealand jockey who won the V.R.C. Grand National Hurdle Race oh ‘ Ohi :in 1913, and the Australian Steeplechase bn Bullawarra. the same season, had his first mount in England at Windsor on January 12th, on Pompous in the Black Nest Steeplechase. The horse fell at the first fence and rolled over his rider, who escaped with a had shaking.

Pearl Powder (Captivator—Pear] Ash) was 37 years old when she foaled Silver Tongue, who, at his first start, won a 'two-year-old race at the recent Wanganui meeting.