SPORTING.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20706, 2 May 1929, Page 15

SPORTING.

RACING NEWS. FIXTURES.. May 3, 4.—Marlborough R.C ■ May 4.—Oamaru- J.C. May 4.—Marton J.C. May 4.—Oamaru J.C. May 9, LI. Egmont R.C May 16, 18. Wanganui J.C. May 25.—Ashburton. R.C. June I, S.-Otaki Maori R.C. June 1,3, s.—Dunedin J.C. June 1. 3, s.—Auckland R.C. . June 20. 22.—South Canterbury J.C. By Sentinel. _ e first race at the Oamaru Jockey Club s meeting will start at 12.10 p.m., so as to give visitors by train from Dunedin ample time to reach the course before the field goes to the post. Acceptances for the Great Northern Steeplechase and Great Northern Hurdles u-e not due until May 25. Booster. Black Duke, Overhaul, Kapuna,- Umtali, and Full Flight were .-hipped north by the Manuka, which sal il d • yesterday at noon. The 9.0 minimum does not come into law until June 7, hence the 8.0 minimum attached to the Cornwall Handicap, The .ordinary scale of weights will also be u use at the Dunedin winter meeting , xcept where special condition, in that ■’.rection are attached to a race Ihe cup valued at £25 winch goes to ihe winner .of the Winter Cup at Oamaru on Saturday was previously contested for & Auturan Cup of the Oamaru Jockey Clubs meeting on March 16. On that occasion Royal Saxon and' Thorndale' dead-heated for first place, and the respective owners, Messrs J. Carter and J. G. Macdonald, generously handed the cup back t ■ the club to bo raced for at a subsequ :nt_ meeting. Royal Saxon is racing again in the principal event at Oamaru on Saturday. Battle Colours and Seatown were handicapped at even weights in the Sockburn Handicap and in the Cornwall Handicap the former reads well treated in fiaving to concede only 21b. The chaser Pouri was operated on some time ago for trouble in the respiratory organs, and the fact does not cause one to enthuse about him for a long journey, not forgetting, of course, that a winner at Aintre: ran under the same disadvantage. Comical won the Grand National .Hurdles with 11.4 in 1926 when he lost the rest of the field over the last halfmile. He has 10.12 in the . Great Northern Hurdles, and if age-has not steadied his speed, should help to make things interesting. . Beau Cavalier won the Great Northern Hurdles last year with 9.2, and this year has been lifted to 10.11, so that the weigh l adjuster has travelled from one_ extreme to the other. The champion mudlark,. Nukumai, has ks judged as two horses. In soft going he i s a horse and a-half t but not nearly so formidable when racing on the top of the ground. It is' not suggested that Nukumai cannot show really. goo 3 form on sound going. In fact, one could not wish to see a better performance than he put, up with 12.9 when he ran second to Beaumont in 3min 41 4-ssec at New Zealand Cup meeting. Beau Cavalier was once very much on the boom, but has latterly dropped a bit out of favour. He was unplaced in. the ioo Northern Steeplechase with 12.2,, and has been dropped 61b for this •? ‘ still has 7 the good weight pi 11.10, and auch a burden tells on a horse who jumps so big and puts so much superfluous energy into his work when topping a-fence., The committee of the Australian Jockey Club has decided to abolish the 31b gelding allowance, which has for years figured in the conditions attached to the A J.C Champagne Stakes. Forty-four horses _have been nominated t? r v, e . Trial Handicap to be run at .the rrankhn meeting,-and two more than that number in the five-furlong race on the same programnie. . T. J.’Daly, who has for a lengthy period been_.traimng several members of Mr W. R. Kemball’s team on the Opaki course, i& shortly removing to Trentham with his pupils, as Mr Kemball is now. a resident of Wellington.' He, 1 " like many other owners (says an exchange), likes to see hJf-horses at work. Another cause of the shift is in consequence of the number of two-year-olds that he has at present under liis tuition. -It- rarely falls to the lot of thoroughbred yearlings to cross the Tasman Sea three times within a space of . some three raontlis. That,' however (says '‘ Phaeton”) is the record of a colt and a filly bred by Mr LG. Duncan. A colt by. Paper Money from Piquant and a filly by Tea Trny from- Victory Bond, - who were passed in at ; the recent sales in Australia, were reshipped to New Zealand and they were brought to Auckland • last week by the Uhmaroa.' The pair have since been sold t° R Sydney sportsman and were reshipped to New South Wales by the Maunganui. ■The .first big gun in the winter campaign was fired when the handicaps tor the Great Northern Steeplechase and Great Northern Hurdles appeared. Wiltshire, the winner of the Grand National Steeplechase, conveyed the impression when be won inAugusHast that he was susceptible of-a good deal of improvement in condition. If he has furnished with time as be naturally should do, then he should saddle up a better horse than ever next month at Ellerslie. Wiltshire. is only a young horse, and his recent win over hurdles suggests that he has trained on since being recommissioned. He won the Grand National; Steeplechase with 10.0-1. with the good margin of 10 lengths in his favour, without being fully extended at the, finish.. He gave an excellent display of fencing, and the extra muscular development that could be brought about should make him improve at timbertopping. At Riccarton he was in receipt of 81b from Pourri, and now meets the latter on a stone worse terms. He is likely to improve a good deal more than Pourri, and so is preferred to the Spalpeen gelding, Wiltshire is not badly treated on his form in the last Great Northern Steeplechase, in which he ran third with 9.13, and now has an extra 71b to carry. One of his most formidable opponents may be Zircon, who, from all accounts, was unlucky .in the Onkaparinga Steeplechase; and should, as the result of. his trip and racing, be a well-seasoned horse. Kapuna is another that, as the Americans say, is likely to fie a “ dangerous'Contender.” At the National meeting of 1927 he appeared unlucky to miss one ,of the big steeplechases, and lie has far more pace than the average horse running over fences. , The prospects of Sti-cphon. the outstanding three-year-old performer of the present season in these lands, being transported to England serves to - awaken many incidents connected with the. endeavour of Australian sportsmen to be represented’ on the English turf by horses bred in “ sunny Australia,” and the courageous effort made by the late Mr James White, of New South Wales, to win the English Derby will, 1 doubt not (says “ Phaeton ”) carry many thoughts back to the 'eighties. In 188(5 Mr White, who had a select stud at Kirkham, had two of his best English-bred-mares—Princess Maud (by Adventurer) and La Princess? (by Cathedral) —. mated with the Australian-bred sire Chester to English time, and they each per-; dneed a colt foal. Each colt was credited with having furnished splendidly as age came to them, and when they were despatched to the Old Country by steamer rising- two years old, strong hopes were i-ntertained that A'ustralia would be worthily represented in tbe historic race at Epsom. When the two colts left Australia Narellan. who was out of Princess Maud, seemed to be more favoured than Kirkham (who was out of La Priucesse). but it devolved on Kirkham to play a part tor Australia in the decision of the Derby. Though the field for the Derby (1899) was one of the weakest that has contested the blue ribbon event and only had eight starters, Kirkham finished seventh and Australia’s dream of furnishing the winner of the Derby was very widely dispelled. Now ami again the question of an -Australian-bred colt being produced with the view to contesting the English Derby has formed the subject of discus--don, but apparently the risks to be faced by the climatic change are evidently regarded as rendering the prospects of success almost negligible. This matter of dimate has, no doubt, to be.'very seriously considered in transporting horses from Australia to England. Still there may be a lucky year, and, with a lucky ■sportsrnan. who knows but that some day ‘‘ Australian colt wins! ” may. surmount the result of, the Derby contest at historie Epsom. . '

TROTTING. . FIXTURES. May I.—Cambridge T.C. May 4.—Oamaru-J.C. (two events). .May 9, Ll.—-Forbufy Park T.C. Mas IS.—Oamaru T.C. ■ June 1 3.—Hawke's Bay JP.C June 1, 3.—Canterbury Park T.O. June i— Ashburton T.C. June 22, 24. —Auckland T.C. By Sentinel. Acceptances for the first day of the Forbury Efrrk Trotting Club’s meeting are due to-morrow. Reports from. Christchurch state, that Nelson Boy, who has raced very consistently this season, without much luck, continues to keep in his best form in training work. J. Deyell has his pair of trotters, Nelson’s Prince and' Nelson Ata, in steady work, and both horses are doing well in training. St. Maura is . going on the right way in her training, and she should be at her best again before the end of the season. She is under F. G. Holmes’s*charge at Addington. Iha biggest defection when acceptances closed for the Cambridge meeting was in the Hautapu Handicap, the 3.2 mile and a ' f ! lla l l 'te r . Gf the 13 handicapped behind the limit only four accepted. It looks as though their owners did not care to take on Great Parrish, as it is a remarkably small percentage of acceptors. The two-year-old filly by Guy Parrish from Dreamland, the dam of Napland, was sent along at a ■ fair clip over a short distance during the week. She is a very quality-looking young trotter (says ‘ Argus”), with excellent action. She is not being hurried in her work, and she should be a high-grade three-year-old trotter. Already her owner has been asked several times to put a price, on the youngster, but in the meantime she is not for sale. Is rating being practised tactile extent that it was in an older period? (asks Marque/’ in the Horse Review). Personally I believe it is not. I distinctly recall tue importance with which drivers used to view the necessity of going to the half , and three-quarters at certain specified rates of speed. Time after time they would remark: “ I want to do the half in this or that, and th© closer I can rate to that notch the better chance I have of winning.” Rarely, indeed, is such a remark heard nowadays, although every trainer is equipped with a timer and apparently regards is at a useful and necessary tool. That is not to say that rating, is entirely a lost art, for that would be an. exaggerating, but certainly it is not regarded as such an essential factor as in times past. Scott Hudson was credited .with being the most expert of all reinsmen when it came to driving Lis horses certain portions of their miles in the exact times that he had prearranged to go with them. Until he reached the home stretch his watch Was his guide, and for him it could be said he Tras rarely far off his reckoning. Drivers contemporaneous with him—Mr 'Geers and other leaders in their profession—may have had the ability to rate more naturally, ■ but with Hudson it was a mechanical proposition. It has been said that the. success of numbers of the old-time jockeys was for the most part to be attributed to their rating, the great coloured rider, Isaac Murphy, being credited with having more ability in that line than any other man who ever sat a thoroughbred m ; America, So long as horses are not being asked to step to the limit of their speed, and have not been asked to brush a distance at anything like their top night, they naturally have something. in reserve, and that is the reason which make judicious rating so valuable. One of my veteran friends suggested that since practically every reinsman to-day drives a ? he has formed the habit ot thinking - that his horses are like' the machines. But that was'a mean thing to say! . _ h RICCARTON TRAINING NOTES. (Special io Daily Times.) __ CHRISTCHURCH, May 1. I here was no galloping of interest on the Riccarton tracks this morning, but proceedings were enlivened by a little schooling. ■, Radiac went once round the steeplechase fences, giving an attractive exhibition of _ jumping. Zeuxis.and Gold Mint were associated over , tf* rec hbrdles, which they j'nmped carefully. Charlatan, acted as schoolmaster to Magna Charta over four hurdles. Magna Charta gave a fair showing, and is improving in his jumping. , l l \ lime rn, ,mß . F. V. Claridge’s tabie The Absurd gelding looks rough after Ins spell. Beau Geste and Countersign will not make the trip to Oamaru for Saturday’s meeting. . OAMARU JOCKEY CLUB! (Per United Press Association.) t n ™ ■ tt °AMARU, May 1. In the Hying Handicap Buoyant has been rehandicapped at 8.6.