RACING NEWS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21264, 19 February 1931, Page 6

RACING NEWS.

By Sentinel. Acceptances for the Gore meeting are due to-day. , ~ , t Lady Pam, will probably be one of che favourites in the Midsummer, Handicap, though with 8.9 to carry she has not been let in at all lightly. Having missed his two engagements at Wingatui last week, on account ot the heavy ground, Nightmarch will be got ready for another trip to the North Island, where there are two weight-for-age events to claim attention next month. The first of these is the Trentham Gold Cup, of two miles, to be followed a few days later by the Awapuni Gold Cup,, ot one mile and a-quarter. In Ireland the idea of running sweeps on races is evidently to be played to -he limit. It is proposed by the Board of Control for Mechanical Betting hr the Free State to run a half-crown sweep on some race at each meeting. After the board’s deduction of 10 per cent., the holder of the winning ticket will receive 75 per cent., second 15 per cent., and third 10 per cent. After an absence' of many years a selling race will again be included in a Hi*?* carton programme. The Gimerack Handicap, to be run at the Canterbury Jockey Club autumn meeting, will have a stake of 200sovs, and the winner will go up for auction. The selling price will be divided by one-third going to* the owner of the second horse, one-sixth to the third, and one-half to the club. The nominations for the Cromwell meeting have been extended to Saturday. . . ... In the Pioneer Handicap, run at Kiccarton in November, Solvent won by a length from Last March, who was in receipt of four pounds and a-half. _ Since then Solvent has been beaten, while Last March has won two races, including one at Wingatui on Saturday. They head the list in the Lyttelton Plate on Saturday, when Solvent is set to concede 61b, and there may not be much to choose between the pair. Phar Lap opened the autumn campaign in Australia on Saturday with an easy win in the St. George Stakes, at the Vk.oria Amateur Turf Club’s meeting. This is a race with penalties and allowances, but the champion rose superior to the conditions. He will be more severely tried out next Saturday in the Caulfield Futurity Stakes, as the scale of penalties and allowances may provide a margin of more than three stone between horses of the same age. \ The outstanding feature of the two-year-old racing in Victoria this season has been the success of youngsters sired by Heroic. This son of Valais was a high-class racehorse, whose career on the turf was a series' of sensations. _He is being represented this season by his firstcrop of foals, and they include quite a number of winners, as well as other juveniles who have been placed. There . will be a big draft of Heroic yearlings on offer at the Sydney Easter sales, and they are icertain to attract considerable attention from buyers.