SPORTING NOTES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 11492, 3 August 1899, Page 3

SPORTING NOTES.

By " Mazeppa " in the Witness.

— Castashore is likely to go to Riccarton

Bhortly. — Dum Dum is the first of Carbine's stock to win in England. — Boreas is, I shcukl think, unlikely to go to Sydney to carry 9.6 in the mile race. — There is some tall; of racing (lie imported stallion Cyrenian, but it is, I should say, unlikely. — Newhaven's full sister Sea Queeu, with foal by Zalinski, was recently sold in Melbourne at 70gs. — The New South Wales mare Venusta, by Darebin, has two seasons in succession slipped iwin foals by Lochiel. — Tho double Lancaster and Lancaster was recently backed for all the money in the market for tho V.R.C. Derby and Melbourne Cup. — Shell, winner of the Two-year-old Handicap at Flemington on the Sth, is by Carnage, and Quartz Reef, who ran second, is by Gold Reef. — "Malua ' reports that A. Pringle has in hand a very fair team—viz., Lexington, Stirling Lad, Honest Wilkes, Carrick, and The Gos- \ soon. — The value of Muoa's Oaks was £4150. The i most valuable Oaks was that won by Formosa in IS6S, when the stakes were represented by £5J50. — A strange fact in connection with the Y.R.C.'s racing on the first day of the Winter meeting is that the only fall of the afternoon was in a flat race. — There seems to bo some doubt, about George Frederick's soundness; hence, no doubt, the cause of the son of Carbine and Danro going for 160gs at the recent Melbourne vale. — False teeth for horses, which were suggested by. the president of a- French humane society .1 few years ago, have actually been invented, and are gaining favour with owners of large stables in Europe. — The Singapore Derby last month was won' Iby the Australian-bred Vanitas, who carried 10.5, with Gay Lass 10.5 second and 9.12 third. The distance was a mile and a-half, and Vanitas won easily by four lengths. — The Grafter made his English debut at Epsqni last month. Carrying top weight (9.7), he finished eighth in a field of 22 for the Ep- I som Plate, a seven-hulong handicap, worth. 462sovs. Uniform (8.2) also started in the race, but finished in the rear. V —Mr Henry Redwoc-.i, " Fathei of the JN'c-w Zealand Turf," is 75 years of age, and he told a representative of a Nelson paper recently that he made no less a sum than £70,000 by means of racing, and that ho never put a penny on the totalisator.in his life. — Battalion made his first appearance on the English turf in a mile race at Kempton last month, being one of the last three in a field of 11. He carried top weight (9.0), the minimum being 7.1, while the winner, Merry Methodist, a three-year-old, had 7.5. — The Queensland Turf Club is going in for the encouragement of jumpers, and registered country clubs have been notified that the Q.T.C. committee will subsidise all hurdle races in the programmes of such clubs to which the added money is not less than £25, to the extent Df one-third oi the pria-; money. -, The bad luck that befell Count S.chomberg last year in the Grand Steeplechase de Paris did not deter Mr H. Bottomley from having another cut in for the race, and he expected to do better with Gentle Ida this year. The fates were against him. however, for the mare .was put out of the contest by a fall.. — David Ross was convicted and fined £20 by the stipendiary magistrate at Wellington this month. On a former occasion Ro3s had been fined £15 for tote betting. The magistrate said he could, in the present case, send the man to gaol, but he was not willing to send him there if he and others would only stop the illegal practices under notice. They must not set the law at defiance. i — The first descendants of the Auckland-bred stallions, Artillery and Foul Shot, have made their debut on the racecourse in America, and won races. Big Gun is the name of the successful Artillery, and Fine Shot is the Foul Shot winner. Fleur de Lys; and Rifle, by Maxim, have also been winning at recent meetings on the Pacific Slope. — Only Royal Whistle and Queen Fairy came out to oppose Caiman for the valuable Imperial Stakes at Lingfield (EngJ, and such a foiegone conclusion was the race reckoned for Lord W. Bcresford'a colt that the betting ruled at 20 to 1 on him. The American-bred one was in front all the way, and won easily, covering the mile in lmin 41 4-ssec. — The time occupied by Musa in winning the Oaks (run over one mile four furlongs and 29 yards) was 2min 44sec, the time of Airs and Graces last year being 2min 45 4-ssec, and that of Limasoi in 1897 2min 45sec. The best on Tecord in connection with the race is the 2min 40 4-ssec of Memoir in 1890, and the next best the 2min 42 4-ssec of Seabreeze in 18S8.

— John Bieff, the American feather-weight (who 13 credited with upwards of 100 winning rides in America), had his first public ride in England on Mr K. Crokei's Sweet Chimes in the Portglade Welter Handicap at Brighton, in June. The Jad is a brother of L. Rieff, who also rode at the meeting. He ia 14 years of age, and weighs, in rifling breeches and boots, 4.7. — Aecordinz to Mr 3?. Scli-;, president of :hs Trotting Conference, '3.1 meetings ha 73 been held during the year, covering 45 days' raving, at which the added iqpuey amounted to £15,076, while ■ tho totalisator investments totalled £122,919 10s. which shows an average of £2731 per day. The added money does not include four meetings at which the totalisator was not used. — A commission was in the market for Fleet Admiral for the Melbourne Cup, £10,000 being wanted at 100 <o ,1, but after exhausting the Sydney .and Melbourne market at that/ price only £7000 was obtained, when 25 to 1 became the best offer. Mo3t of the bookmakers seem to prefer laying doubles, but even in that form of .speculation business is not wonderfully brisk. — The Auteuil Grand Hurdle Eace proved fatal to one of the competitors. Baron cle Cholct's Valescure struck a. hurdle when a mile and a-half had been covered, and came down with such force as to break his back. He was a four-year-okl by Valauris out of La Bitarde, and had won a hurdle race at Lyons this year as well as three other events of a similar kind last year. ' —W. Rhecce, who vas badly injured when The Moor fell with him at Randwick on June 3, died at St. Vincent's Hospital on July 5, after lying unconscious for over a month. Rheece, who came from the Riverina district, was a very plucky rider, but he,was decidedly unlucky, and it is doubtful whether any crosscountry jockey in Australia met with a greater number of mishaps. — Eastern King has a strong liking for 'Warwick Farm, says Sydney Referee, and it does not matter how badly he has been running elsewhere, he can always be relied en to ran :. "oocl race at that track. On the Bth he scored his third Warwick Handicap, and as on previous occasions dashed up and pulled the race out of the fire just as something else appeared to have it won. — George Fordham was riding out to do a " preliminary" on Derby Day, when a friend stopped him, and whispered: "George, I've got a fiver in my pocket; what's the beat thing I can do?" "The very best thing you can do,' was the candid reply, " is to run home to your wife and got her to sew that pocket up with twine, and' it might be as well if she chained you to the bed-post also." . : —■ After a sequence of 16 losing mounts Tod Sloan broke the ice at' the Epsom meeting on Knight of the Thistle, a 7 to 4 chance, but by that time the majority of- the American's supporters, had retired for repairs. A couple of days later ho won the Royal' Stakes on The Wyvern at 7 to 1, and it is so tmusual for him to be on such a long-priced winner that in most of our exchanges special mention is made of the ] fact.

—At an ill-regulated up-country meeting in Australia, the favourite in a steeplechase was Dumped about a great deal by a Tank outsider. At length the rider of the former cried out, both in sorrow and in anger, '""Why don't you ride straight," man ? You've nearly knocked me out three or four times." "Well," answered the other with a fiendish grin, " what do you think I'm here for?" And the stewards, who stood in, stigmatised the objection a3 frivolous and vexatious! — Bookmakers requiring registration by the A.J.C. must sign a declaration, whicn runs as follows:—" I have not, since the 31st of August, 1898, directly or indirectly carried on. or assisted in carrying on, 01 acted i>s clerk to any person who htis since t.'iat clat.i carried on, the business of a bookmaker at any unregistered meeting; nor am 1 directiy or indirectly interested in any shop c.r office kept for the purpose o£ betting, or at which betting i's" carried on." —No excuse can be made for Soult's defeat in the Grand National, and it must simply be put down' to the fact that he cannot stay out three miles. The Age says that at two miles he would' probably have won; he might have had a chanca at two and a-half, but the extra four furlongs was beyond him, and the collapse came after he had brilliantly singled out from hia field''in the vain endeavour to overhaul Valdis, Mystery, and The Armourer on approaching the homo turn. — On Derby Day, writes a London reporter, we had missed the customary " Derby dog," and as if to make up for this some malicious person Ist out a kitten as the Oaks fillies wended their way to ifce post. It was some 17 minutes behind time when Mr Coventry, after one unsuccessful attempt, lowered his flag. Sibola was suffering from a slight abscess in the nibuth,' and she dwelt when the order to go was given, thus losing ground which unquestionably cost her-ths race. A two-year-old filiy by Derringer out of Freda sported silk at tha Wolverhampton ga- . thering. She is the property of Mr W. Stubbs, and the-race she ran in was the Bushbury Selling Welter Plate, of lOOsovs, run over five hirlongs.-- There was a field of 12 starters, but the race was not a true run one, two horses getting away well in front of the rest and havii.g the contest to themselves all the way. There was thus no chance of gauging the young Derrirger's form, but she- finished sixth in such 3. race as it was. — English papers to the 9th of June aro to hand. The stewards of the English Jockey Club were to propose, al the annual meeting to be held in London on the 19th, to alter rule 35 to read as follows: 35. The starter shall give all orders necessary foi securing a fnir start. The horses must be started, as far as possible, in a line, but they ir..-./ be started at such reasonable distance behind the starting post

A3 the starter thinks necessary. "AH races confined to two-year-olds shall be started by a starting machine to be approved by the stewards." .

— Reckoned to have been very unlucky in the Corn Stakes at Epsom (Eng.), her connections relied upon Lutetia to pull them through in the Lingfield Spring Two-Year-Old Plate, and odds of 7 to 4 were betted on her doing so. Onr Grace and Mambrino were the only others backed of the half-dozen runners, and the correctness. of the market estimate was shown when they filled the leading berths at the finish of the race. The favourite won cleverly. She is an American-bred filly, by Pontiac (son of Pero Gomez) out of Luella B, by Onondaga—Kelp, by Strachino. — Says London Sportsman's special: Sloan on Lutetia got left at the post to all intents and purposes for the Acorn Stakes, which fell to Dum Dum, who scored cleverly from La Roche. Tho Duke of Portland had the satisfaction,' after all, of being beaten by a daughter of Carbine, and very glad I was to see Dum Dum win, for there are so many kindly disposed people about who are ready to crab a horso if he does not score at the very first time of asking. Dum Dum is a, clean, wiry filly, that doubtless stays well, and we are not likely to have heard the last of her.

— Of old horses that ran during the Epsom week, Mr Allison writes, Newhaven deservedly holds first place, and I should think Mr Cooper •regrets now not having entered him for the Ascot Cup. He gave tho impression last year that he could not stay the distance, but then ho was all to pieces. What he might do now is another matter. It is wonderful how clean and firm these Australians keep on their'legs year after year. Old Maluma never looked better or sounder. Robinson sent her to the post in excellent condition, but she may well have lost her dash by this time. Uniform is another from the same stable who is bad to beat on the score of looks, and he was well trained, too, when he ran, but it is to be feared that his ( constitution has been permanently impaired by the attack of "fever" from which he suffered last autumn.

— Mnsa, winner of the Oaks, was bred by her owner, Mr Douglas Baird, and-made her first essay as a juvenile at Newmarket, when she was an easy winner of the Breeders' Plate, boating Dark David. Wild Irishman, and nine others. At Ascot, in the New Stakes, Flying Fox beat her by three parts of a length, and then at Goodwood she finished third, and last to Eventail and St. Gris for the Prince of Wales's Stakes. Her next appearance was at Doncaster, where she followed Mark For'ard home for the Champagne Stakes, and another second awaited her at Newmarket in the Prendergast Stakes, for which Myakka gave her a length and a-half beating. She closed' her two-year-old season by running third to School Girl and Lord Edward II for the Free Handicap, and reappeared this year in tho One Thousand Guineas, when she ran home third behind Sibola and Fascination. •

— Winners of the One Thousand Guineas have on 22 occasions confirmed their Newmarket superiority in the Oaks, the following being the list of heroines of the double event: Neva (1817), Corinne (1818), Zinc (1823), Cobweb (1824), Galata (1832), Crucifix (1840), Mendicant (1846), Governess (1858), Formosa (1808), Hannah (1871), Reine (1872). Apology (1874), Spinaway (1875), Camellia (1876), Wheel of Fortune (1879), Thebais (1881), Busjbody (1884), Miss Jummy (18S6), Rove dOr (1887), Mimi (1891), Ln, Fleche (1892), and Amiable ,(1894). Included in the above list are two One Thousand winners who ran dead heats.for the Oaks, the Judge having been unable to separate Governess and Gildermire in 1858 and Camellia and Enguerrande in IS7G. The first-named pair ran it off, with the result that Governess won by three parts of a length, but in the case of Camellia and Enguerrande the stakes were divided.