NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XLII, Issue 9622, 30 March 1917, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

(By "Tohunga.”) Acceptances for the W airarapa meeting and the Auckland meeting are due to-night. • The Feilding Jockey Club’s n» e will be held on April 9th and lOth. Owners and trainers are reminded that acceptances for all first day even s and Maiden Stakes (run second day) will be received up till 8.30 p-m. on Saturday, March Slst, by the secretary, PiO. Bos No. 43, Feihlmg. It would not be surprising to find A Reed riding for one of the prominent Hawke’s Bay stables next season. The Great Easter Handicap and the Great Autumn Handicap were won »y Ladv Zetland, and later on by her ■ daughter, Lady Lillian. There are ten horses eligible for the same feat this year. ___ L. H. Hewitt will ride Bjorneborg in the Great Northern St. Leger at Ellerslie. Bunting is reported to be doing exceptionally well in his work,. Sasanof and Kilboy add to the circle of their admirers for the Great Easter and Great Autumn double by the manner in which they get through their track work. Sasanof was responsible for a very smart gallop over six furlongs, in which he easily defeated Shrill, to whom he was giving a lump of weight, while Kilhoy’s pcrfonnance iowelr •rfitie furlongs Was exceptionally good, the Kilbroney colt finishing very strongly. Though Banian was badly cut when he fell on his way to the course on Monday, his injuries may not prove quite so serious as was at first anticipated. His trainer. R. Longley, now has hopes of getting the Birkenhead gelding round in time to race at the Grand National meeting in August. The Highden stable is E6nding_ to Australia a yearling colt by Finland, one by Hallowmas and a filly by Hallowmas; also a couple of untried two-year-olds. According to "Pilot” the New Zea-land-bred Canteen is still represented by a winner,:—‘‘The grey gelding Sutler, by Cauteen, who has been winning races at the picnic meetings in the country, has gone into Jack Whelans stable. Jack Whelan is a brother to Martin, and only recently took out a trainer’s license.” At the trial meetings at Caen, Moulins, and Mont de Marsan m France last year, the entries totalled bail, and the runners for all the events were 1593 The 537 different horses competing were the property of 200 owners, and the prize-money distributed amounted' to £56,345, which, it must be admitted, was decidedly good tor war time. Biplane is still on the easy list. He was given once round on the _ tan on Thursday on the lead, with his sheet on. . Fiery Cross earned a five-pound penalty in the Easter and Autumn Handicaps by winning the Southland Cup. The Australian trainer, W. Hickenbottom. was once asked what was the best horse he ever trained. ‘ Carbine was the best horse I ever trained, no replied; “bnt the fastest horse I ever handled was Newhaven.” A coincidence noticed By a writer in the “Leader”: —“It was a remarkable chain of coincidences that in the race book. Three in the South Yarra Handicap at Caulfield was. No. 3. he drew No. 3 position at the barrier, was 3 to 1 -in the betting, and finally ran third.”The “Referee” says:—“lt was mentioned that the brother to Thrice was passed in at last week’s Melbourne yearling sales on failing to reach 600 gs reserve. He was subsequently ■ purchased privately by W. Booth at a slightly lower figure, the transaction taking place prior to Thrice’s second win at Flemington. If . the Sydney man had waited - until that he might not have secured the youngster even at the original reserve. The breather to Thrice was brought back to Sydney with the horses taken south by Booth, and is now being broken in. He is to be gelded, and that course is to be adopted with quite a number of colts as a result of the alteration of' the A.J.C. Derby conditions of 1918.”

"Sir Modred,” of the "Southland Times,” gives- the following to show the ready generosity of sportsmen— As a further instance of the generosity of patrons of the turf, it may he mentioned that Mr W. Swale instructed the secretary of the Gore Racing Club to deduct £-10 10s from the stakes won at the club’s meeting last week by Gunrest, this sum to be handed over to the local branch of the Bed Cross Society. In commenting on the action of the well-known Winton district owner, a keen follower of racing and very successful Southland business man, about reached the centre of the mark by observing; It seems to me that nearly all the “giving” is done by sportsmen. It may not be generally known that a special tax on stakes won by horses is made by the Government, hence contributions to war funds, such as that made bv the owner of Gunrest and many other sportsmen of late, are all the more to their credit. "The silver bullet” has been widely advocated as a powerful factor in winning the war, yet that section of the community bitterly opposed to racing are seemingly unaware of or totally ignore the fact that patrons of the racecourse are providing far more than their share of such ammunition.