RACING NEWS

New Zealand Times, Volume XLII, Issue 9648, 1 May 1917, Page 8

RACING NEWS

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

(By “Tohunga.”) Shrill ran a good half-mile at Trenfcham on Saturday, covering the distance in 49soc, That gallop surpassed anything recorded on die day. It was run on tho outside of the course proper. "Chakwana was,out at tho break of dawn and ran a nico half-milo in oOsec on Saturday at Trentham. A number of owners are wondering how they will fare with their nominations for distant meetings, if tho Railway Department refuses to cany the horses to the scene, of strife. Tho'Palmerston .Club has escaped coming under the query mark as its meeting is sot, although if owners away from Palmerston or Awapuni cannot get to the course on account of the railways some consideration should bo shown them. It is by no means the fault of the owners, or trainers, that the trains have had to adopt 6 o’clock closing. The Wanganui meeting puts owners in a queer position. If a man enters a horse from Wellington, or Otaki, or Palmerston. anticipating that the gentle miner, with the assistance of the Railway Department, will get his horse, or horses, through, and one or the other of those, necessary adjuncts to the public welfare fails him, and ho cannot possibly rail his horses t 9 Awapuni, will that club see him right in the matter of fees? It is a big question to some of the battlers, who spread their horses all over the programme. It would certainly seem, that the club should refund the fees of those horses unable, through stress of railway troubles, to gain their objecive. H. Telford struck trouble at Trentham over the week-end. Ho was tending a two-year-old and suffered a dislocation of the shoulder, which will keep him off tho scene proper for a time at least.-

Douglas Fairbanks, who has occasioned many a fair heart to flutter on the movies, midst the stirring scenes enacted in somebody’s backyard, or a syndicate’s studio, is further renowned: he acted as starter in the lost Great American Derby. All the heads will therefore flock to see the next film in which the fair Douglas appears. /Kilboy. Kill’em and Good Day will, m all probability, be taken across to Sydney by M. Hobbs in June, there being more scope for four-year-olds at weight-for-age across the pond than there is in this. country. A writer in the south states that the Oamaru Jockey Club may bold its meeting on May 24th and 25th. A proviso is pnt in to the effect that all depends upon whether the railways will carry horses. The steeplechaser Ikowai broke a bone in one of his legs recently, and hebad to bo destroyed. Ikowai was in the care of C. Christie at Wmgatui. As no one appeared to want Rinaldo when he was put under the hammer at Sydney, he will probably return to the green and sunny pastures of the Wanganui district. The late Danny Maher’s advice to jockeys:—“You must put in work at a finish sometimes, but the longer you can sit still the better. It stands to reason, doesn’t it? If you have_ anything on vonr shoulders and it is firmly fixed, you can run with it much better than if it is_ wobbling about. K a jockeV shifts his position in the saddle the horse is likely to change his leg, and every time he changes his leg he loses ground. As for when to make your effort, that comes to you in a race. On a non-stayer you naturally ■ep the effort back as long a? you can; on a horse that stays on well you can take more liberties.”

At a meeting of the Otaki Maori Racing Club on Saturday, it was decided to hold the June meeting as previously arranged. Members also paid a visit to the course, and after a korero decided to remove the double jump on the steeplechase course to a point nearer to the big stand—a decided improvement, and one that will meet with the approval of both horseowners'and the general public. • The club also unanimously decided to give £6O towards the upkeep of the motor-ambulance secured by Nurse Lewis for the use of native reinforcements at the front.