RACING NEWS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21977, 12 June 1933, Page 5

RACING NEWS

By Sentinel Acceptancea for the South Canterbury Jockey Club’s meeting are due to-day. -Royal Limond appears to be sound again and will start work this week. The Awapuni trainer, G. W. New, has left for Sydney with Beau Gallante and Good Hunting, which will be raced there during the next few months. Nominations totalling about 500 were made for New Zealand horses in the principal events to be decided at the Australian spring meetings. „ . .. ■ According to the Rules of the apprentice allowance cannot be claimed at any meeting held from June 7 to August 15. , , _ . K. Voitre, who has broken Hector Gray’s record of 116 winning rides in a season, has steered over 300 winners during the last five years. . Statesman, which finished third in the English Derby, is by Blandford from Da?l, by Land League from Discourse, by Beppo. Blandford sired Trigo, the winner in 1929 and Blenheim, who won in 19 i°- M'Aulay is keeping True Shaft. Water Polo, and Haere Tonu in useful work. It is probable that they will be nominated for the Ashburton meeting this month and for Oamaru a week later. F Christmas has broken,m the yearlino- filly by Tea Tray from Skydream, an imported mare by Skyrocket. The youngster is & half-sister to Nightmare and Wealth. - . . Providing guarantee against loss can be obtained, the Wairaate Hunt fill hold a race meeting on Thursday, July 20. This date will be followed by the South Canterbury Hunt meeting on July 22Auckland ' reports state that Royal Visitor practically broke down in tbe Great Northern Hurdle Race, and he is unlikely to do much more racing this winter. He had been under a cloud prior to the race, which apparently completed the damage. ■ . , ~ The vearling filly Epigram, by Paper Money— Epitaph, has been shipped to Sydney. She looks well after being at Ellerslie since being sold at Trentham in January. On arrival at Sydney she will join j/King’s stable. . . , In view of the present decline in stake values the Canterbury Jockey Club will seek at the next annual conference anew definition of “hack,” reducing the limits to a stake of £2OO instead of £250; or stakes to the winning value of £4OO instead of £SOO. The unlucky horse of tbe English season is King Salmon, which finished second to Hyperion. King Salmon occupied a similar position in the Two Thousand Guineas behind the French colt, Rodosto, and in the Newmarket Stakes to Young Dover. Hyperion was one of the few Derby aspirants that did not start in the Two Thousand Guineas. King Salmon is bv Salmon Trout from Malva, by Charles O’Malley from Wild Arum, by Robert le ‘Liable. ■ . , , , It is reported that Shatter has been put in commission again by F. D. Jones, whose only' representative at the Washdyke winter meeting will be Imperial Spear. This fellow : went half a mile with St. Joan last week, running up the' hack on the No. 1 grass track in 50 4-ssec. The track was in fairly good order, hut slow, and the time of the pair under their light-weight jockeys was very pleasing. An important move in the direction of simplifying racing control is contained m a remit to the annual conference that the Dates and Licensing Committee shall be abolished and their duties performed, by. the Executive Committee. This is a specialresolution sponsored by the executive committee. The trotting authorities have long recognised the necessity for a similar centralisation of control. The two-year-old colt, Southdown, has done a lot of useful work during the last few weeks (says an exchange), with a couple of sprints over a f evf furlongs. With the change in the weather, there is no track suitable for galloping him, and A. M'Aulay is not doing much with him at present. He will start on serious tasks when the ground becomes firmer. It ,is probable that he will be given a race at the Grand National meeting in August, and if he shows the necessary form he may be sent to Australia in the spring, to fulfil Derby engagements. Fortune has not favoured the successive Earls of Derby so far as the great classic named in their honour is concerned, but the success of Hyperion compensated for other failures. Hyperion won almost as he liked, started second favourite, and created a record of 2min 34sec for the exacting mile and a-half course. The win is the third recorded by the family in 151 years, but it is the second occasion on which the present Earl has owned the winner, in addition to which his horse was second in 1911, second in 1920, and third in 1926. v In addition. to Elude, ,P. Holmes now has Minerval and Static in his team. They have not been on the Riccarton tracks lately, blit they are being given useful tasks, in preparation for galloping later on. Static is Mr A. Louisson’s Hunting Song—Eerie four-year-old, who was unsound when formerly worked by A. M'Aulay. He is going on all right at E resent and if he remains sound he may e tried as a jumper, a department in which his dam represented good class.

Speakeasy, a five-year-old chestnut gelding, by Night Raid from Sporting Lady, dam of Gay Bird and Dan Russell, has joined the team controlled by A. S. Ellis fit Riccarton. Formerly trained at Washdyke, he has only had one, race, as a three-year-old, and was recently acquired by Mr J. Veiteh, owner of Aladdin. He is a natural "jumper, and in a schooling task this week, with his trainer in the saddle, he gave a faultless display oyer four hurdles. Speakeasy will be an interesting contestant in the hurdle race at Timaru this week.

During the past few seasons in the South Island there has been far too much of absentee handicapping. Why owners and trainers, who are most concerned, stand for it is beyond the writer’s comprehension. In a country where handicap weights are the basis of racing it is rather extraordinary that guesswork weight-adjusting should be tolerated and only a crude idea of handicapping amongst owners and trainers allows such a state of affairs to exist. It also suggests that the executive of the Racing Conference is blind to the best interests of racing w-hen it tolerates handicaps being formed by guesswork and not on personal knowledge of form. The time is opportune to ask how long are we to have such an unsatisfactory state of affairs? If it is to continue, then there is nothing in the fine points of handicapping that makes racing an open question rather than occasionally finding one or two horses dominating a handicap.

It is not uncommon nowadays for a horse’s saddle to slip during a race. Pampero was one of the most difficult horses to girth up ever seen. He was very deep through the chest and ran up to the flank so much that the late J. A. M'Gumness, who trained the son of St. Clair, had to take great care and time to saddle him safely. The death of M'Guinness recalls that Pampero would very probably have won the New Zealand Cup won by Canteen if he had reached the post. When working at Riccarton a couple of days before the race Pampero struck himself and badly cut one of the quarters of a front foot. The mishap put him out of court, and incidentally released the late J. M'Combe, who had been engaged to ride him. Mr A. Moss got prompt information of the mishap and immediately left for Christchurch, and getting in touch with M'Combe gave him the mount. The fate Mr G. G. Stead said after the race that M'Combe’s display in the saddle was one of the best exhibitions of . long distance riding he had ever seen. Nevertheless, M'Combe ivas stood down for interference. In his final gallop at Wingatui before going to Riccarton Pampero put up a particularly good gallop over a mile and three-quarters, and those who knew most about the two horses, which were both trained at Wingatm, were confident that Pampero would have beaten the { *y. It is rather interesting to re-

call the fact that prior to Canteen’s win in the New Zealand Cup he met Pa 11 1" pero at tbe Dunedin spring meeting, and the duel provided the best race ever seen on the course. They met in the Mosgiel Handicap, with Pampero conceeding 2lb. They were the only runners, and in the race ran stride for stride from post to post. They fought out a great finish, and Pampero won by a nose through M'Combe keeping an ounce of horseshipman up his sleeve for the last two or three strides. Canteen was a great track worker, but did not always run honestly in a race. When taken to Flemington for the Melbourne Cup he put up one of the best gallops ever seen, and on the strength- of it was bought by the late Sir Rupert Clarke at 3000 guineas. He failed in Australia, as occasionally in New Zealand, to race up to track form, but was one of the soundest horses that ever carried a saddle. Canteen started in three New Zealand Cups and twice in the Melbourne Cup, and m addition stood up to intermediate racing, and incidentally showed high class form bv giving Cruciform a great battle at weight-for-age at Randwick That proved his racing merit when m the mood. Canteen was really a beautiful type of horse and one of the finest specimens of a thoroughbred,that ever carried a saddle, but he had a' kink, and was apt to quit under pressure. When he won the New Zealand Cup in record, time with 7.12, Wairiki was endeavouring to give 18to and Achillea 221 b, and the fact j did not help their success in a close finish.