NEWS AND NOTES.

NZ Truth, Issue 889, 9 December 1922, Page 7

NEWS AND NOTES.

Nursing Sister showed plenty of pace at Feilding, but she ' was not | . ready. She is now trained T by A. Oliver, as her former trainer, J. Gib- j son, is setting up as a public mentor at Awapuni. Several buyers are after The Hawk, but, so far, he has not changed hands. Rational stripped well at Feilding, and he has built up a lot. He had a very easy win' in both weight-for-age races. ' At Feilding it was reported that Statuette had been galloping well on the track's and many stray pound was invested on her m the > Stakes. She looked well and moved nicely •m the preliminary, but m the race she qould not go the pace, set by Rational, and finished well back. The race can be expected to work a big improvement m- her and if Oliver can keep her sound she will win a race, but her fore legs are always encased m cotton wool bandages, which is not a good sign. t The Bolter is now trained by F. Higgott at Otaki. The horse named is touched m the wind. It was intended to take him to the West Coast meetings, but his trainer thinks that he would not handle the turns well down there. * The well-known Trenthain trainer, H. Lorigan, has an advertisement on this page for a light boy capable of riding work. Valeric, who showed promise as a' two-year-old, is again m work at Hawera under O. Cox. She will be raced at some of the holiday meetings. Entries for the Wyndham meeting close tonight with Secretary , G,. J, C. Smart. . p\ , ~ Very big entries have 'been received for the hack events at the Matiawatu meeting, but the open events are only moderate. H. Cairns rode" four hot favorites— Amorita, Demetrius, Faba and Flaviol -^at Williamstown without scoring 1 . Possibly annoyed at his failure, after riding Demetrius and returning to the jockeys' room, he got into an altercation with P. Kelly, who had been on Petropod, who, it is said, had crossed over sharply just after the start, and been the cause of some crowding, m which Demetrius was a sufferer. Blows

were exchanged, Cairns getting m the first one, but, according to report, he was not having the best of the scuffle before they were separated. The up-* I shot of the matter was that both jockeys were before the Stipendiary , Stewards at Flemington, and Cairns was fined £10 and Kelly £5, and both 1 severely reprimanded. There has been much comment at this decision, it being considered that Cairns has been let off lightly and Kelly badly treated, inasmuch as he was only defending himself when attacked. Cairns's proper course was to have made Mb complaint to the stew&rds, who apparently saw no untoward happening during the running, of the race.—Melbourne "Truth." The crack Sydney jockey, Albert Wood, is very emphatic m his opinion that when Beauford is fresh and quite himself he would beat Gloaming every time and over every distance. However, he freely admits that Gloaming is the more solid of the two, and, m. fact, an equine marvel. Horse -racing m England- this year has been even more incalculable than j r usual. It is not so much that scarcely a race of importance has been won by a favorite as that so many big races have been won by outsiders of the most flagrant description. Ever since racing began favorites have been beaten more often than not, else bookmakers would be vastly poorer men than they are, but m thia extraordinary year they have again and again not only been beaten, but unplaced, and they have been beaten not, as is usual, by some heayilybacked animal m the middle division of the betting lists, but by forlorn hopes which had.escaped the notoriously comprehensive recommendation of the professional tipsters. The St. Leger was one instance of this — for the "olasslc" races have been just as much subject to the epidemic as the handieaps-^the Cesare witch, a fortnight ago, was another, and now this •week the Cambridgeshire completes the "vicious circle" which the deluded people who bet have been painfully following since last March. Reecho's victory is not the heaviest re<verse the tipsters and their . clients have experienced* but it is the most recent, and it rounds off a Beries of disasters whioh should surely teach ■a lesson to the most infatuated j "sportsman."— "Manchester Guar*dlan."