NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIII, Issue 9955, 26 April 1918, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS

(By <T TohunKa.’')

Entries for the Wanganui Jockey Ciub J a winter meeting should be recorded with the secrdcarv to-night. The major events for the Auckland Racmg Club's winter meeting are open ior nomination up to to-night. Yesterday's cables say that "no conscription day” was observed an Ireland ov ail but the banks and Government offices . Even the Punchestowu races Wire nut oli. Those are tno star xeature of the sporting *SJe of Dublin, and if the organisers are agree to lorgo 'them, their case must appeal to the population of Dublin, for whom they cater. As is remarked elsewhere in this column, it is the prowd, and the crowd alone, who make the races.

At the annual meeting of the Now York Jockey Club the rule with regard to apprentices was altered. Under the old rule the apprenticeship of a rider extended for a year from the date or riding his first winner, but the new rule makes the apprenticeship continue until ho has ridden 40 winners.

Greatorex (by Carbine) was the most saocessiul sire last season in South Africa. His orocrenv won 56 races, worth i-9619. next-, on the list being Minor l«r----feit with .£4277. and Sidus ivitix £3306, while W He Mei Hon. Sir Abe Hailey, Mr F. W. Murray, and Mr J. Stevenson topped tbe owners’ winning, list. His friends will regret to hear of the death of Mr Herbert Longden, which occurred at St. Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne. on Sunday, at the age of 63 rears. Mr Longden was operated on for an internal growth, but succumbed to his trouble. He was well known to racing men ae a turf writer under the name of ‘‘Poseidon.”

While exercising at Ascot (Q.) on April 10th, the gelding Flax-ton ran into a post near the scraping-sheds and; was. killed. The jockey, Goughian, received injuries necessitating his removal to the hospital.

Reginald Day, the English trainer, of The Terraco stables. Newmarket, is now Second Lieutenant Lav. of the D (Newmarket) Oomoany of the 2nd Suffolk Volunteers, and is in charge of the Hotchkiss «run teams. He, joined as a private.

Just before the last English mail left Mr A. W. Oox sold at auction the five-year-old mare, Lady Minta (Spearmint— Lady Vista) for 2000 guineas, the buyer being Lady James Douglas, who acquired the mare for breeding purposes.

An indication of the in-and-out nature of trotting can be gathered from the following paragraph culled from an Australian paper:—After failing his backers in the second trot at Richmond on Monday through breaking badly, the Dan Patch horse Dan Bells reappeared in the concluding .£IOO Trot, and, going out unbacked, won as hie liked.

■The Biplane scratching incident appears to have attracted a good deal of attention in Australia. The Sydney “Telegraph” had tie following to say in its issue of • April 10th; —

It will be very interesting to note the effect of the recommendation of the stipendiary stewards, that the Manawafcu Race Club should in future decline all nominationss from Mr G. D. Greenwood or of any horse trained by R. J. Mason. This decision was arrived at after the unexpected withdrawal of Biplane from the Awapuni Gold Cup, in which he was to be opposed by Desert Gold. Wihat explanation, the owner and trainer of Biplane tendered to account for the scratching, and which the stewards regarded as entirely unsatisfactory, is not stated, but when in Sydney some months ago Mr Greenwood stated, in answer to an inquiry why Biplane was scratched for the Caulfield Cup, that he left tbe arrangement of his horses entirely to his trainer. It is flattering to a trainer to have so much confidence reposed in him, but it does not absolve the owner from his share of whatever blame may be associated with any alleged failure to conform to the rules of racing.

In the case of Biplane and the iiwafrani Cup, it was stated by .our Wei* ington correspondent that while the letter of the law had not been infringed, the troo ethics of racing had been ly violated. It was not an ordinary scratching, because the meeting of Biplane and Desert Gold was looked, forward to by all sportsmen in Australia, as well as in the. Dominion. It was only on the 2nd inst. that Biplane won the Challenge Stakes at the C.J.C. meeting easily, and sporting writers were agreed that he was in tho best of form. That he should have been bettor able to meet his engagement in the Awapnni Cup than Desert Gold is the general opinion. The latter had douo a lot of racing and training, as well as travelling, since she left New Zealand for Australia, and only reached home about a week before the Awapuni Onp. so that if. either owner had any desire to shirk tho meeting, and it is not suggested that Mr Greenwood had, itshould have been Mr Lowry, who could well have pleaded that his mare had done quite enough for a while. ' Though the owner and trainer of Biplane did not violate any rule of racing, owners of horses, and especially those who occupy such a • prominent place in the turf world as Mr Greenwood. should remember that they are under certain obligations to the racing public that ought not to be ignored. Without the support of the public race clubs would not be in a position to hang up such handsome stakes for competition as Biplane and others of Mr Greenwood's horses have occasionally won. This is a phase of the racing business that many horae-ownora axe unreasonably slow to recognise, Racing men hero will scarcely have forgotten the unpleasantness occasioned by Valldo’s success in the Flying Handicap at the A.J.C. meeting in March of 1913. Valido, then owned by Mr G. D. Greenwood, ran nowhere in the High-weight Handicap on March 22nd, and two days later won the Flying Handicap, for which he was heavily supported. Biplane, os might have been supposed, after tho hostility displayed towards his owner and trainer, did not keep his engagement in tho Manawatu Stakes yesterday.