OPENING OF THE SEASON,

Otago Witness, Issue 1240, 4 September 1875, Page 17

OPENING OF THE SEASON,

The regular racing season in Australia has since the institution of the Hawkesbury Meeting been considered to open at that place, and from then until the Adelaide Meeting, in the following Ma)-, racing is actively pursued by both bipeds and quadrupeds. Thus for nine months in the year the game is kept on the move, and the spell that horses obtain during the recess is not a very long one. And, indeed, there are signs that this limited period will be encroached on.

Every steamer that now departs for Sydney takes a number of Victorians, many of whom have gone to assist at the Hawkesbury and A. J.O. Spring Meetings. Several of the principal bookmakers left in the City of Adelaide on Monday, and on Tuesday Mr DaMn left with Lurline, Bullion, Sunbeam, and Motteston. The three first were all looking well, and nobody will begrudge to see the purple and gold carried to victory by one or all of them. Bullion's Derby chance may not be quite so rosy as some of the young ones that are at present at Randwick, but, with a little luck he may bring the A.J.C. blue riband to Victoria. Lurline goes to meet the cracks in the Metropolitan and the weight-for-age races on the third and fourth days, and all going well, I expect to see her win, for I've never seen her in such form. Yet she belongs to a fickle sex, and at the very la3t moment may go amiss. Her most dangerous opponents are Kingsborou^h, Goldsbrough, Reprieve, Eros, and Llama; and I fancy that we shall see the great New Zealand mare and the mighty Kingsborough fighting it out at the finish. Sunbeam may run forward, but I fancy the company is a little too good for her. Under any circumstances, both mares will run as if they belong to different owners. There is every prospect of a large field putting in an appearance for the A. J.C. Derby, the probable starters at the present time consisting of Richmond, Clifton, Ginger, Bullion, Redwood, and one or two others of Mr De Mestre's, Kismet, Connaught, Ringwood, the Valetta colt, Hyperion, Valentia, New Holland, and two or three that I know nothing of. The Hawkesbury Guineas will give us an idea of what stuff some of these are made, as Hyperion, Barbara, Kismet, Clifton, the Valetta colt and the Sylvia colt are likely to try conclusions on the banks of the Hawkesbury.— Australasian.