RACING NEWS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22716, 31 October 1935, Page 15

RACING NEWS

By Sentinel.

Th« Favourite Cuddle appears to" be the ruling favourite for the New Zealand Cup. Returned M. Kirwin and W. Pascoe have returned from a trip to Australia. Palfresco Palfreseo started eighth favourite when he won the Caulfield Cup. Viking Viking's success at the Gore meeting has brought him into favour for the Stewards' Handicap. Nominations Nominations for the Southland Racing Club's spring meeting are clue on November 1. A Good Fee N. Percival, rider of Palfresco in the Caulfield Cup, got £230 8s as his percentage of the stake. The Oak* The field for this year's Oaks Stakes is not strong in quality or numbers, but it does not necessarily mean that it will •be an easy race to win. Ayreileigh Ayresleigh, who shaped very promisingly at Trentham, is a four-year-old gelding by Captain Bunsby from Lady Minerva, the dam of Minerval. A Light Scale Some of those that still figure in the Stewards' Handicap will have to improve a great deal to hold a chance at the light scale of weights. Guarantee Guarantee will probably race at the Banks Peninsula meeting, where he can be tried out against Cuddle and other New Zealand Cup candidates.

The Barton Team Jack Horner beat 14 others when he won the Coliban Handicap run at Ascot. Gay Circle led a dozen others past the post when he won at Caulfield. Soft Going Some horses were more troubled by the state of the going at Trentham than by the distance of a race. Soft and slippery ground takes far more out of some horses than any length of journey. The Welcome Stakes Pelmet, Wild Chase, and Paper Slipper are booked to meet again in the Welcome Stakes, and the fact will arouse a good deal of discussion about the pros and cons of the possible result. The New Zealand Derby Kinnoull. Plato, Haut Monde, Greek Shepherd, Lowenberg, and Heritage would be quite sufficient to supply a very interesting field for the New Zealand Derby, but several others are also engaged to lend extra interest to the classic. Kiltowyh The Auckland horse Kiltowyn, who is booked for the New Zealand Cup, is bred on lines suggestive of stamina. He was got by Kilbroney from Towyn, by Lucullus—Congress, by Hierarch (Cyrenian) from Te Huinga, by Hotchkiss from bminingdale, by Hampton. A Great Blot Accidents and interference are still too frequently taking place. They .will continue in most undesirable evidence so long as riders are allowed to adopt a seat which prevents them from seeing where they are going in a race, Ihe tre'quency of interference in racing, both here and Australia, amounts to a grea>, blot on the control of the sport. A Record Crowd With an attendance of 60,650 at his first Caulfield Cup meeting since his appointment as secretary of the \ i.:«toria Amateur Turf Club. Mr F.E. Elbeshausen was able to announce that these were record figures. Ihe largest: attendance previously was 58,676 inlJ-J. Last year 53,210 saw the Cup. Totahsator investments amounted to £03,691' 15s, an increase of £9892 15s on the figures i>* last year. Lowenberg The Lord Qucx colt Lowenberg belong to one of the best taproots in the btml Book. His dam, Zarene, was got by Chief Ruler from Crown Lady, by Crown Imperial II from Molly, by Mystification —Refortnalist, by Renown formalist, by St. Leger—Forme, by Nordenfeldt— Formo, by Sterlingworth—Pulchra. buen great horses as Multiform and Cruciform proved the value of anything tracing to Pulchra as a possibility on the turt. The Penalty Question Fixed penalties are the very crudest method of penalising a winner, as the poundage increase is the same irrespective of whether a win is by a loot or a furlom'. The merit of a win does not count .under fixed penalty conditions. Ihe rehandicapping condition is also open to abuse and should not be adopted without limiting the extent of an increase. At Geraldine Bon Tray 7.6, Cranford 8.10, ind Silver Streak 8.10 ran past the post with heads between them. Bon irays win at Wellington has found him rehandicapped to an increase of 101 b for the Stewards' Handicap, and thus he meets Cranford on Geraldine form on 161 b worse terms for a head beating. If they ran

to the book Cranford holds a royal chance in the Stewards' Handicap, as he also meets Silver Streak tfn Blb better terms than when he beat him at Geraldine. Bon Tray and Silver Streak improved after Geraldine, but Cranford, may also have trained ou in the meantime. A Veteran Sportsman Amongst those seen at the Wellington spring meeting was Mr James M'Kewen, who lor very many years was a prominent and popular figure in local racing circles. Mr M'Kewen is now a resident of Wellington, and looks particularly fit and well.. For over half a century Mr M'Kewen was a prominent owner and trainer of trotters, and at one time was in a syndicate that had about 15 horses in training at Forbury Park in conjunction with the late Mr S. S. Myers, and M. Eyan and J. Loughlin acting at different times as trainers. One of the best horses he raced was Nihilist, and when the partnership mentioned came to an end Mr M'Kewen bought the 15 horses in the stable. The nearest the stable got to a big win was when Aldershot ran third in the New Zealand Cup to Impulse and Lottie when showing over a century of a dividend. W. Pyne, who rode Aldershot, was also at the Trentham spring meeting, and stated that he should have won the race. Impulse and Lottie both came from Auckland, and the former shares with Seahorse the distinction of being the only horses from Ellerslie ranking as winners of the New Zealand Cup. Seahorse won in 1899, so that a gap of 36 years exists since the last success was scored by an Auckland horse. Wairiki, owned by Mr S Bradley, who won with Impulse, made a bold bid in Canteen's year, and afterwards won the Auckland Cup. This year Kiltowyn and Caliente will represent Auckland, and their appearance in the field will draw a lot of interest from the far north. Strength to the Stud The purchase of two more sires in England for Victorian studs is reported from Melbourne. Mr L. F. Aldndge, owner of the Kismet Park Stud, Sunbury, has bought Law Maker from Lord Astor; and Mr H. Alan Currie, chairman of the V.R.C., has bought Caithness from Lord Eosebery. Both horses, who will arrive earlv iu December, are members of the No. 1 Family. Law Maker, _ a four-year-old brown son of Phalaris, is probablv the best bred of his sire's stock yet to be exported from England. His dam was the Buchan —Popingaol mare Book Law, who, as a three-vear-old, won the St. Leger Stakes, Ascot Coronation Stakes, Goodwood Gratwicke and Nassau Stakes, Newmarket Jockey Club Stakes, and Welsh Oaks, and was second, just beaten, in both the One Thousand Guineas and the Oaks. Book Law also won as a two and four-year-old, winning in all £31,875 in stakes. Law Maker himself had only four races. After one start as a two-year-old, he won the Sledmere Plate at his first start as a three-year-old, and in two more appearances was third in the Jubilee Cup and second in the Chesterfield Cup. Caithness is another four-year-old, a chestnut son of the Hurry Oh horse Coronach, winner of the Derby and St. Leger for the late Lord Woolavington. His dam is the Tracery— Vaucluse mare, Lake Leman.a descendant of the celebrated Illuminata family. Vaucluse was the winner of the One Thousand Guineas, and she was also dam of the successful Queensland sire High Force. Caithness ran only seven times, all as a three-year-old, and he won twice, in one of his successes (Newmarket Dullingham Stakes) beating by a head the subsequent Derby and St. Leger winner, Hyperion.