RACING NEWS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22607, 26 June 1935, Page 11

RACING NEWS

■ : By Sentinel. Success in the Saddle ■ I* J. Ellis brought his winning rides for the season to 92 when Rebel Lud was successful- at .Ashburton on Saturday. W. J. Broughton's total is 82. Golden Hair Reports from. Palmerston North state that Golden Hair is in steady work in view of a trip to Riccarton for the Grand National meeting. Her mission no doubt will be the Winter Cup. A Good Sign Provision is made in the Rules of Racing for the president to grant permission to clubs to "give a less sum in stakes than 90 per cent, of the average yearly net amount derived from the use of tho totalisator during the immediately preceding three years. Usually there are a few clubs which are in need of consideration under this heading, but during this season only the Bay.of Islands Racing Club ■ found it necessary to claim relief, the reason being solely due to the existing financial stringency. A Staying Line Mr Herbert Thompson, of the Tarwyri Park Stud, has just'completed the purchase' of a high-class mare in Lucy Limond. She was bred in 1927 by Mr G. Gerard, of Canterbury, and is by Limond from Lucinette. The latter was bred by Mr A. J. Toxward, who is at present in Sydney with the Limond gelding Limbohm, who was raced at Kensington the other day. • Lucinette was a good performer herself, and she is a three-quarter sister, in blood to Star Stranger, who was a great staying performer in New Zealand, and who, in addition, won a Metropolitan in runaway fashion at Randwick., Lucinette is also a half-sister to Naofl, a good stayer who ran second in the Australian and Melbourne Cups and was third in the Sydney Cup. Naos was raced by Mr Sol Green. Lucinette is a Martian mare, and that in itself is a big recommendation. Her- dam, Lady Lucy, who won the New Zealand Cup, is a halfsister to Antares, winner of the Auckland Cup, etc. .-• Lady Lucy is by Seaton Delavel (imp.) from Hilda (Auckland Racing Club Great Northern Champagne Stakes, Guineas, etc.), by Musket (imp.) from Ouida, by Yattendon. Lucy Limond was put to Captain Buhsby in 1931 (producing Lucetta, in training at Riccarton) and to Philamor in 1932. She will have a great chance at Tarwyn Park, which is one of the leading breeding establishments south of the line. Weight-carrying The performance of Greensea in winning the Second Brush Hurdle Race at Randwick last Saturday week with 13.8 has led .Australian sportsmen to compare him with Jack Rice, the outstanding jumper in Sydney of about 15 years ago. It was at Randwick in April, 1917 { that Jack Rice finished second with 14.2 in the saddle, to Quinridi, who had 9.13 and.a three-lengths margin at the judge. Jack Rice failed at Randwick with 13.12, the weight which. Greensea is asked to carry over a mile and a-half at Canterbury Park on Saturday. One of the heaviest weights carried successfully in a hurdle race in Melbourne was 13.13, by Betrayer, at Cahilfield, on Caulfield Cup Day, 1905. Corythus won a hurdle race at ■Flemingtpn with 13.8, and, like Jack Rice, ran second with 14.2. After running second in a hurdle race at Caulfield, Nilus came out later in the day in the steeplechase and finished second with 14.10.' v The greatest weight carried to victory in the Victorian Grand National Hurdle Race was 11.13, by Don Quixote, in 1884, but Redleap won the Grand N;ition Steeplechase in 1892 with 13.3. In. the, 1919-20 season Arlington carried some astonishing weights on the West Coast. He won the Pacific Hurdles at Westland with 11.0 and scored in the Tasman Hurdles the next day with 12.1. Then followed a three-day meeting at Greymouth. He won the First Hurdles with 13.0, the Second Hurdles with 13.13, and ran third in the Third Hurdles with 15.7, being only two lengths and a-half behind the winner. He was ridden in all those races by W. J. Bowden. Interesting Mating ' Mr K. Austin, managing director of the Elderelie Stud, Oamaru, advises that Mr L. K. S. Mackinnon, chairman of the Victoria Racing Club, who has been one .of the strongest supporters. of racing ajid breeding the Australian turf has known, and also one of its most successful administrators, has decided to extend his breeding operations to New Zealand by sending over his well-bred mare Folk Lore to the Elderslie stallion Night Raid. Folk Lore is a good-looking brown mare by Dark Legend (whose son Easton was runner-up in the last English Derby), from Sueie Pye, a daughter of Wallace Isinglass and tha imported mare Radesia, who was by Radium from Silesia, a halfsister to the great Bayardo. Susie Pye was sent to England to be mated with the Derby winner Call Boy in 1928, but on her arrival there plans were altered. and she was shipped over to France and mated with Dark Legend. The mating of Folk Lore and Night Raid should result in the production of a staying racehorse, for there is very strong in-breeding in the pedigrees to such horses as Musket through Spearmint twice and Wallace, both sons of the mighty Carbine, and there are also strong lines of Bend Or and St. Simon. It is encouraging to know that, in spite of the many high-class stallions which have been imported from England, to both New South Wales and Victoria during the last 12 months, such a well-bred mare should be sent over to Phar Lap's sire.

Erroneous Ideas The cabled opinions in connection with Feter Pan's weight for the Melbourne Cup coming from the owner and the crack riicr, J. Pike will not stand the test of analysis «nd indicate a shallow knowledge of handicapping. According to the opinions' expressed the greatest danger to Peter Pan may come from a good staying three-year-old in at about weight-for-age. If a three-year-old in at about weight-for-age—and they very seldom get more — are dangerous, then it is a logical deduc-. tion that a four year-old with little more than the burden allotted to a three-year-old must be even a greater menace to the tuccess of a heavily-weighted top-weight. A common and' most fallacious opinion very frequently expressed by critics shows a lack of knowledge based on a close study of handicapping, and it consists in applying the we'ght-for-age scale to a handicap. A handicap is supposed to_ be framed on the racing merit of the various horses engaged in a race. Once a horse starts in public he becomes a racing unit and so must be judged by comparison with otherc holding public performance. Form is based on facts. On the other hand the weight-for-age scale is an imaginary idea of balancing the chance of horses of various ages. The fact that the weight-for-age scale cannot measure merit is proved conclusively by clubs being forced to make efforts to balance the standard scale by the introduction of penalties and allowances into races of so-called, but most erroneously styled, classic events. The only_ classic events are the One Thousand Guineas, the Two Thousand Guineas, the Derby, and St. Leger, and they are run-at special weights. The introduction of penalties and allowances is a compulsory recognition of the fact that the weight-for-age scale fails, and fails lamentably, to balance merit. If it were otherwise why should an outstanding horse of cny age completely sweep the board when at the top of form! Three-year-olds when racing over a distance, where weight tells, completely dominate results under the .veight-for-age scale. This is proved by the results in such races as the Canterbury Cup, the Australian Cup (a handicap), the Randwick Plate, and Champion 1 Plate, and other events decided at the standard weights, which all go to prove that a really good three-year-old is almost ' unbeatable. A specific instance is

supplied by tha success of the number of three-year-olds winning the Melbourne Cup. Newhaven, Merriwee. Lord Cardigan, Poseidon, Lord Nolan. Prince Foote, Patrobas, Sasanof, Artilleryman, and Trivalve, and others of the same age were practically unbeatable in an ordinary handicap field. Let it be said in passing that Kilboy was considered a 141 b better three-year-old than Sasanof, and that Artilleryman bolted away from his field and won by 12 lengths. The real danger to a top-weight in the Melbourne Cup does not, however, come from a three-year-old. Take the case of Statesman, who finished close up to the placed lot in Trivalve's year when racing as a three-year-old. Statesman was then put by and converted into the proverbial rod-in-pickle" for the following year. It is a fact that Statesman did not win a race as a three-year-old. His only placed performance at that age was a second to Trivalve in the Victoria Derby. In the spring of the following, season Statesman finished third in the Warwick Stakes to Limerick and Winalot, and after two unplaced performances he won the Sydney Handicap with 8.7. He was unplaced in the Cox Plate and then ran a good third to Gothic and Amounis in the Melbourne Stakes. Then came his win in the Melbourne Cup with 8.0- in 3min 23Jsec, with Strephon. a really highclass three-year-old with the honours' of the Victoria Derby and 10 wins to his credit, second, four lengths away. So much for the chance of a high-class three-year-old when bumping against a rod-in-pickle only one year older. Aurum was claimed, and justly claimed, to be the greatest three-year-old ever seen in Australia. He was handicapped at racing merit and carried 8.6, or 141 b over weight-for-age. He met Gaulus,! the winner, a six-year-old, at 7.8 and The Grafter, a four-year-old, carrying 7.7. This gave Aurum an impossible task and was emphasised when The Grafter won the following year with 9.2 and who afterwards displayed good winning form in England. These facta clearly show that the greatest menace to a top-weight does not come from a three-year-old. It is a remarkable fact that the rich stake attached to the Melbourne Cup does not tempt more owners to provide a rod-in-pickle when they have a proved stayer such as Statesman. Gaulus and The Grafter were handicapped on their apparent racing merit when they ran first and second, but under the weight-for-age scale had a tremendous pull in the weights. What has happened in the past may occur again. Other horses seasoned by age, but unexposed in form, could make it next door to a certainty to win the Melbourne Cup simply because weight will anchor the best horse that ever carried a saddle. Even a really high-class three-year-old such as Strephon had no chance with Statesman and Noctuiform, who had no form as a two-year-old but trained into one of the best three-year-cjds ever seen in the southern hemisphere. What chance would Peter Pan have with a Gaulus, The Grafter, r. Statesman, or a Noctuiform, a Sasanof, an Artilleryman or a Kilboy? About a million to one unless the Plimsol mark was not introduced to prevent a ship from sinking by over-weight.