NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Times, Volume XLII, Issue 9620, 28 March 1917, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS

(By "Tohunga.") Some one has got in early on Baramahone (full brother to Jem and Hopfield at Auckland. One local, chart shows that there is no business doing. When Blackall changed hands his new owner had an idea of making a. juniper of him. He has been given a tew spins across the battens, but the results have been far from satisfactory.

A Hawke’s Bay writer states that several of the W. G. Stead horses now at fiiccarton will go to Napier after the G.J.C. Easter meeting.

A southern paper has it that L- Traill has been commissioned to ride Peromua in the hurdles at Riccarton. A commissioner anting on behalf of Mr Harvey Patterson, at the recent yearling sales in Melbourne, bought the colt by Comedy King Rattler. The youngster will go into P. McMancmm s stable at Ellerslie. Eattler is the dam of Vice-Admiral, who won the New Zealand Cup in 1911. New York, the 'chaser Murray Hobbs trained in Australia for the latei Mr Carlisle Studholme, has been allotted top weight, 12.10, in the Great Eastern Steeplechase at the Onkapannga meeting.

The Birkenhead gelding. Banian, met with an unfortunate accident on Monday morning. While on his V » the track he fell on the road cutting his legs severely. It is feared that spell of several months will be necessary before the horse is able to race again. The mishap came at a very bad time, as E. Longley had him in nne trim.

There was a big plunge on Mr E- A. Connolly’s Maroo at Victoria Eacing Club’s autumn meeting, bufc be cut up badly, and was afterwards sold for JQIOO. \

At the Goulburn races the. bookmakers went on strike on it being - nounoed that the cub had dou bled their license fees. A settlement was only arrived at by a reversion of the oh£ to the old fees. The bookmakers won this time, and. possibly the cl lb was not justified in increasing the fees, but later, when backers are more accnstomed to the totelisator, anything in the nature of a strike may end disastrously for the odds purveyors. Patrobas’s leg filled on the journey from Melbourne to Sydney, and he will not run at the A.J.C. meeting.

Germany made preparations for quite a large amount of racing this year, but, of course, the latest developments on the Western front may bring about considerable modification. Eor Berlin meetings alone 56 days were announced, while Hanover and Breslau wer ®. portioned seven days each, Fraukfort-am-Main and Cologne seven days. «ach, Hamburg Gross Borstel and Hamburg six days each, and there were other fixtures. Even those enumerated total no, and in England last year there were not more than 60 days on the flat. So far as Germany s ally, Austria, is concerned, 63 days’ flat racing have been announced for Vienna alone this season.

Three, who raced m New Zealand last season, and was taken to Caulfield, has been sent to Sydney by Mr W. Reardon. He has plenty of weight, but may pick up a- race at Easter.

There was, no lack of racing in Italy last year, and Worses owned by Count Soheibler won .£17,178 in states. To give some idea of the number of races run. D. Blackburn, who headed the jockeys’ list, rode 126 winners, AWoodlind being next with 46. In England last season 8. Douoghue, though the most successful, jockey, only won 43 races. Commencing early last month, arrangements for racing in Italy were made up to December next, with an interval of only two months. In Eome there were to be two days racing ly from the middle of February until the middle of April, Sunday being one of the favoured racing days in that city. Our Thorpe, the crack pacer, appeals to be coming back to form. He covered a mile in stood style at Addington on Friday in th© good time of Smm 17sec, At a meeting 'of the Irish Horse Breeders Owners and Trainers Association in Dublin in January, the successful owner-trainer, Mr J. Parkinson, stated that racing in Ireland last year cost owners about £1.33,000 more in expenses than they received in stakes. In order to help owners he proposed that a rule should be introduced limiting tb« dividend nayable to shareholders in any race company to 5 per cent.: that owners should have'free entry for their horses; and that the executives should pay the jockeys their riding fees. He favoured the abolition of forfeits for races—those races already closed for which there were forfeits could not be interfered with, and forfeits should be discharged as heretofore but there should be no forfeits attaching to now races. Mr Parkinson said that his proposals rp. peared revolutionary until they were looked into, but when that was done it seemed to him that they were far from being so. and he was only going to the bottom of things. Thus, he said,, that in regard to free entry for races, this was the position at present—a race company put up a £IOO stake, and for tliat money they received £7O from owners who entered their horses. This left £3O to be found by the executive; then, he said, let us race free for that £3O for the time being, or nossibly the stabs could be made £SO. His scheme was discussed at great length, and the upshot was that a committee was forced to formulate proposals and wait upon the stewards of the Turf Club with them.