NEWS AND NOTES.

NZ Truth, Issue 851, 11 March 1922, Page 7

NEWS AND NOTES.

Masterton next Saturday. ' Napier concludes to-day. Gold Light is a very useful two-year-old. Remember this to-day. Acceptances for the Masterton Meeting close to-*night (Friday) at 9 p^m. Blndle is m regular work at Woodville and will be stepped out any day now. Kick Off (2), Aureate and Barthshlne won races for All Black at Dannevirke. F Davis has sold Five Eighths but the All Black gelding is still trained by, him at Woodville. , Wamba will have the field scratching to get near him m the hurdle race at Napier to-day. . A Shearsby has Yankee Dan looking very well, ai?d 4f he gets a soft course be on him m a hack sprint. The Limit is improving with raoing, and she lnished olose up third on the second day at Dannevirke. Kilgour was very scratchy m his preliminary at Dannevirke and ho ran much below his best form m the Cup. Patuki ran a good race m the Dannevirke Cup and looks liUe . havdng a great i show m the Hack Welter at Napier. . The Dannevirke Club had a big falling off In the totalisator figures, and dt looks as if the fixture will result, m a loss. Nominations for all ©vents at tlio.' Southland Meeting close on Monday, March 20, at 6 p.m., with Secretary R. B. j Caws. A. M. Wright has again got the ; jump - ! ers Foeman and First Line m work, but . so far their tasks have not been very severe. , Sam Evans, the., popular , Palmerston North bonlface, has been appointed^ 1 to run the booths at the coming Rangitlkei Meeting. ,

The National winner, Sleight of Hand, has been taken up again after a lengthy spell. His training has been entrusted to V. Colello at Hastings. Usually a good jumper,. Complex fall on "the second day of Dannevirke. He was very sore, and will require an easy time of it for a, week or two. Nothing stripped better for the Dannevirke Cup than did Festivity, but Kbshaped wretchedly, and at present he nas his connections thinking hard. Warpath won m good style at Dannevirke, and he will probably go out favor.item the Esk Hack Handicap at Napier to-day. He ds bred like a good one. When looking all over a winner on both days .at Dannevirke, Sling Camp toppled over. On the first day he was remoSntecl by his trainer, G. Caddy, and completed the course for third money.

Suspicion, the full brother to Teka, j won the Tahoraite Hack Welter at Dannevirke like a good one. His win suggested more money for his owner at an j barly date. . . | The Hastings trainer V. Colello men- ] tioned at Dannevirke that the Reod Bros, had all won races on horses trained by him and thair father, the late Geo. Reed, I had also ridden for him with Success. Sent out a short-priced favorite and nidden by A. Reed, Wairarapa won the secon d two-year-old race at Dannevirke, but it was only by a noae, and that after taking Gold Light out wide m the straight. A new arrival m Blenheim is A. Skelton, who is anxolus td set up as a trainer. Skelton served Ms apprenticeship under the Epsom trainer, W. Nightingale, and since then has been m France, Russia and India. The well-known totalisator propriotors — Messrs. Marrett - -and -Fox — have been losing huge suras lately with faked totalisator tickets, but so far thoy have been unsuccessful In trapping the oulprits. ■ . Mireusonta was m want of a race when he contested the Presidents' Handicap at Dannevirke, and at the finish Passionless outpointed him but on the next day the Absurd gelding led all the way and beat Passionless comfortably. While riding work on Epitaph at Ngatarawa last Wednesday, Roy Reed got thrown heavily and was cut about a good deal. He was compelled to cancel his engagements at Dannevirke and Te Aroha. Lamour (Kilbroney — Love a Duck) was given an outing m the Maiden at Dannevirke, and she shaped well enough to suggest that there is a good future m store for her when m something like racing condition. Hyrax covered a lot more ground than any of the other runners m the Dannevirke Cup, m which he finished close up third. He won the big handicap on the second day, but lost the major portion of the stake for crossing the field. The cross was obvious enough but dt did not look as if It affected the result .of the race. Trainer Harold Connop, "who has been out ' of the game for many years, was much m evidence at Dannevirke, when his two horses, Misty Wave (Mystifica-tion—-Remission) and Ambitious (Absurd —Ursula), both won and , paid good prices. Some of the followers of the stablss, are reported to have had a good win. The Hastings trainer, R. dooseman, who has been suffering from neuritis for some time, was well enough to take Crown Gem and Suspicion to the Dannevirke Meeting and the latter was successful on the opening day. Crown Gem, who is the only Crown Imperial 11. horse racing, has plenty of pace, but he is -on the small side. .. '

Evidently it has been decided to "let Bleeping dogs lie" m regard to the matter of putting a well-k,nown owner on the i Forfeit List because he did not return a stake which he Avon, but was subse- ', quently disqualified. Law proceedings [were threatened if the owner was posted as a defaulter so apparently the throat j was sufficient to stop the authorities goi ing on. ! Regularly at Dannevirke there are falls m the hurdle events. There must be something wrong and 'the committee should go into the master. It is no good, dismissing the subjeci 'airily and saj'ing I the horses are not schooled. It certainly j is not the. height of the jumps but it may be that the jumps are put up too j solidly or else they are badly positioned, iNo one wants to see the riders nor the i horses injured, and as there are several ; practical men on the committee it should not be difficult to find a, solution of the trouble. Many of the riders think the" . fence at the bottom of the straight should ' ,be shifted forward and they point out 1 that thers are always more falls at this ' fence .than, at any other.' • | Arising from the test, case m which lie 'was plaintiff, and m which the Judicial i Committee of the House of Lords decided that money paid by cheque m respect of a betting transaction is legally.' recoverable, Mr. Slitters, a leading bookmaker,, has issued the prospectus of the Big Four Parimutuel Limited, with' a j capital of : . £100.000. of which four-fifth*/ 'will be offered to the public. Expecting i the decision of the case to go against | him, Mi\ Slitters formed a syndicate to ! promote a pari-mutuel betting system. The promoters would merely act as agents, and. would thus draw commission from clients, who would bet with one .'another. The decision of the Court was" regarded as the death-knell of .cheque betting with credit.

The "KeM r York Herald" states that Mr. August Belmont, who recently wrenched is back when he was thrown, from a horse on his estate m South Carolina, is m danger of suffering a recurrence of the spinal trouble ' which followed his polo accident at Meadowbank, Lonjt Island, fo.ur years agd'. Mr.' .Belmont is the well-known American banker and', sportsman, whose colors are as familiar on English racecourses as they are on (American tracks. He has run many good horses on thfe English turf, "the bestr of them, perhaps, being Tracery, . winner of the St. Leger, m 1912, who was sold a couple of years ago to a breeder m the Argentine Republic for over £60,000. There are a good many people who, if they had Belrnont's money,' would never mount . anythlne moi'e dangerous :thah a chair: •

Opunake on Friday next. Pam is too small to carry nine stone successfully. Magic Star went sore recently and could not start at Dannevirke. WarpajEh won m good style at Dannevirke but the class was very poor. The Speaker hurt himself at Woodville, and at present he is on the idle list. . Woodville trained horses .nearly skinned the programme on the second day at Dannevirke. Slave Mart seems unable to begin m her races but she always finishes on well. Keep a look out for her m a race over a mile. Mr. W. G. Emeny, of New Plymouth, has leased his horses, and is off to Australia for a trip. Percy Johnson has got Paddington Green and Lelthileid and J. O'Neill has retained Pure Laalness. Mr. W. Russell, of Stratford, compiled the. -handicaps for the second day of the Dannevrkie Meeting. He got very satisfactory results and also bigger fields than on the opening day. Marcus (King Mark— Balama) , who carries the colors of Mr. J. H. Colobourne, showed a great burst of pace m the Maiden at Dannev.irkc. He is not likely to be eligible to race m thi3 class very much longer. It was well worth while the owner of Eurythmic paying the £50 td get m the final nominations for the Caulfield Futur T ity Stakes. The champion shouder,ed lOst. 7lbs. and beat a big field In gpod style, and incidentally he bashed Carbine's winning record. The Minister of Internal Affairs has i lately been going into the question of i the work of the racecourse detectives, and it is on the cards that the Racing Conference will hear from him very shortly regarding alterations to the existing, law; •■; -,--•■ There is every indication that. a good class field will contest the Napier Cup. , If the going is heavy Ngata will be fa<vorlte, and he is sure to go well as he. is a very fit horse now, but Anomaly, Quest and Kick Off will let him know | they are dn the race j

The Dannevirke course is a lucky one for Aureate. She won there m December and last week she got a lucky passage m the Cup and scored by a. narrow margin from; Royal Gift, who, as at Woodvllle, ran wide on entering the straight. With better luck at the barrier and more patiently ridden Flying Nell would have done a whole lot better m the Tahoraite Hack Welter, but she was left several lengths and then rushed round the field. These tactics took all the stpam- out of her and. she faded m the run home after leading Into the straight. What should turn out a ; rare bargain was secured by the Wellington ownei\ Mr. Joe Dwyer, at DannevJrke last week when, for 60gns., he scoured the brood mare Happy Valley (Wallace— Faraway) with a full brother to Blndlo at foot. During the afternoon he refused 200gns. for the lot

Morzonia was beaten out of a place m the first Haok Welter at Dannevirke, but on the second day she bolted m the mud and won the concluding event by twenty lengths. She was ridden by J. Lee, who has not had much success for a long time. Her owner/ Mr- G am Merrylees, \took a big parcel off the machine. Recently there has been a lot of fool talk about some of the iockeys riding with saddles charged with eleotriedty, Evidently the stipes were impressed, for at one fo the country meetings m Auckland one of the paid ofnoials congratuHated a leading horseman on being able i to ride so light m such a big saddle and i at the same time he felt carefully for any batteries that may have been concealed dn it. The Question of insurance for N.H. jockeys Is being fully ddscuased m Bngr land, and it is felt more particularly among the riders themselves, that some personal sfthenie should be adopted. The suggestion that the license fee for jockeys and trainers should be raised to Bgns. -to form a nucleus of the proposed fund finds great favor among those most closely concerned, and it is believed that the N.H. Stewards will consider the idea.

Kick Off made his first appearance as a three-year-old- m the Open Welter at Dannevirke. He , was very much above himself, but the"- opposition was weak, and at the finish he won comfortably. On the second day he again scored and lookß like winning a good handicap this autumn. His owner was present to see him win on the first day but he did not regard his chances hopefully, and was doubly pleased when he saw the All Black gelding make an exhibition of the field.