MELBOURNE TURF NEWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1584, 1 April 1882, Page 21

MELBOURNE TURF NEWS.

(Fhom our Special Correspondent, "Wahbior." I

Melbourne, March 17th. On Saturday last tfoo Victoria Racing Club completed thoir nineteenth annual autumn meeting, and I am sorry to say it was, from a financial point of view, a failure, i The only day the public really patronised tho splendid programme placed before thorn ! was the Australian Cup day. The attendance was about as large as at the tail end j [of the Melbourno Cup meet. By the time this letter reaches the public eye, your readers will no doubt havo read of the winner, rider, and so forth. It is not my intention to rofer to the late V.R.C. meeting as regards tho success or otherwise of tho Club, but to speak of those horses that look like winners for tho next A. J.C. and V.R.C. Derby, Metropolitan, and Melbourne Cup. To commenco with the first event ' of next season. In Mr Mestre's Navigator, wo have one of tho finest two-year-olds south of the lino. In tho Maribyrnong Plate, ] in which the Hon. Mr White's grand colt, Sogenhoe, mastered the sop of Robinson Crusoe— Cocoanut, he ran to the front splendidly ; but the full-brother to Palmyra, Rich- | mond, and Bosworth proved too speedy. < On New Year's Day the champion two-year-old did not put in an appearance in tho Normanby . Stakes, and consequently the Terrara stable had it to themselves. On, Saturday week;last Navigator started at 5 and 6 to 4 on him, and romped homo in the Ascot Vale Stakes, threequarters of a mile, and 125 subscribers. If the Solitude filly can dispose of 29 horses in a race of five furlongs, giving Fryingpan one pound and Joe Morrison's Allander three , poundß, what a wonder her atable companion (Navigator) must be, who can concede to her 101b and a good beating. I have not the least doubt, after Solitude's running on Saturday last, notwithstanding her winning the First Nursery Handicap, the King of the R,ing— Lady Manners-Sutton colt is, to be preferred. Sir Thomas Elder has in Guesswork and Bassanio two , beautiful colts ; the former is > a chestnut horse by Gang Forward out of Perad venture, an imported mare, and the latter, is by the same sire out of Jessica.' Mr Elder's .horses were never asked to gallop • in ! the Sires' Produce Stakes. Bassanio'a performance I in the Hopeful Stakes, at the V.R.C. meeting, when he easily disposed of 13 horses, including J Allander, Fryingpan, Transferred, andTangle, speaks for itself. Guesswork, his superior, must bo something worth watching. At the present time New South Wales possesses .Sogenhoe, Navigator, and Solitude, as her best two-year-olds; Victoria, Allander, Fryingpan, Transferred, Tangle, King of the Vale, Mr Gardiner's full sister (Pauli) to the winner of the Champion, Coriolanus. ' Adelaide has a couple of good promising three- year-olds in Guesswork, Bassanio, Zulu, Footstep, .and Satanella. ' .Tasmania, has also a couple of good youngsters. Looking calmly at the past performances of the above, I should certainly plump for Navigator, Guesswork, and Segenhoe, and porhaps Samaria as the best Derby and Leger horses next season. As regards tho two big handicaps in Sydney and Melbourne, I like no horse better than Tlie Drummer. 1 am glad to say that the horse. l have just mentioned belongs to one of the most respectable gentlemen on the turf — Mr F. Wentworth, of Now, South Wales. The Drummer ,is a three-yoar-ojd by The Drummer, and has performed most brilliantly in Now South Wales. There is very little doubt that if this spcody horse can only keep up the condition he displayed at the late meeting of tho V.R.C, when he beat such horses as Courtenay (who started at 5 to 4 on him), a five-year-old, Harry Haines' Euclid (who . ran second for the Newmarket Handicap, out of a field of 3G), Narrabri, and Dunstan — one mile and a-half, with Bst 21b, in 2min 49sec, I jeckon,. fairly weighted, he won't bo far off either Metrop. oc Cup. All depends upon Messrs Scarr and Barnard, handicappers. I am fully convinced, from the running I witnessed both in Tasmania and Victoria, that we shall have no Saunterer, Briseis, Chester, or Grand Flaneur this year, whilst we have such horses as Commotion, Coriolanus, Pell Moll, Sweet William, Progress, Duchess, Hosperian, Saunterer, Waterloo, Darebin, Bathurist, Wellington, and Santa Claus. If any horse besta Swoot William next spring it will bo Tho Drummer. After the Sydney Cup has been run for, I purpose placing before my readers a summarised account of the past doings of some of our best Australian horses, which I hope may give an insight into coming events. During tho month tho leviathan bookmaker, Joe Thompson, loaves Australia for his native heath. Mr Guesdon, the owner of Darebin, intends to visit the Old Country at the same time. Joe would like to get Home in time to see the match between Tnckett and Hanlan, but like a sensible man ho prefers business to pleasure. Vide the A. J.C. Leger and Sydney Cup. Mr F. F. Dakin, tho trainer of tho V.R.C. Derby winner, has been making a great noise over a fair criticism which appeared in one of the Melbourne evening papers, which, as Mr. Dakin puts it, had the audacity to proclaim (speaking of the race for the Grand Stans! Stakes): "Darebin was well, and looked blooming, but the gamer horse won. At tho half-mile Power knocked a lot out of him by holding him back to tho field, and when Bathurst (the winnor) challenged him in tho straight he cried enough. The finish was so | close that ib w:is impossible to say which hart won until the judge gave his fiat in favour of ! Bathurat." The day this notice appeared I | had an interview with Darobiti's trainer, and ho informed me that a gamer homo never saddled— that he finiuhod us straight as an arrow in tho St. Leger, having been run to a ! standstill. Ho denies most emphatically that Mr Guoßdon's horse is a cur. Considering that I was on tho Flemingfcoh course three mornings a week for two months before the

Derby, witnessing his gallops every morning, I can fully endorse Mr Dn kin's sentiments about the truo courage of the horse. Notwithstanding this. Mr Dakin must confess that fche sentiments published by "Warrior"'; in the Witness* of the 3Sbh of laab month were not very far out— viz. : "At the Flemington training - ground the Derby winner looks very well, but appears to have lost that dash of move he bo frequently treated the touts to during his daily exercise. Unless the son of Lurline greatly improves, we won't hear very much more of him for some time to come. . . . Galloping the legs off ahorse morning after morning don't suit every constitution ; and I think, or I am very much mistaken, Mr Dakin will find it out when it is too late." , Your readers will perceivo that my article was writton before the St. Logor, and in consequence you New Zealand people wero theonly people who had the straight tip, every other journal going for Darebin ,for the V.R.C. St. Leger. , > « ' Mr Adye Douglas, who has been associated with the Tasmanian and Victorian turf close upon half a century, is still in a jprecarifaus state,and I am afraid will shortly pass [the winning-post. ■ _ ' ' The Newmarket Handicap brought to the front one of the largest fields- of horses aver known in Australia. Mr George Watson had a great deal of trouble in getting tho 37 in a Hue. The papers can write as they will about the first part of tho race, but I am confident not 100 people paw it. The dust was terrific, and tho pace a regular snorter. You couldn't toll t'other from which until they approached tho carriage paddock. Tom Brown didn't come off with Hosperian, and Sweet William was nowhere.

Commotion's running in tho St. Leger and the Town Plate stamps him as one of tho very beat three-year-olds of his season, and I am not surprised at this fine son of Panic fotching tho high yum ho did— £l4oo, Poll Moll brought tho same figuro ; but, from what has transpired sinco tho sale, ho was bought in by Mr Pender for his owner, Mr Phillips. Old Wellington ran a grand horse in the Australian Cup, and I hope, now that Mr Finlay has become his owner, that tho Sydney meeting will be his last. No doubt but that he will niako his name as a sire when he rotirds to tho stud. His sire, Panic, was such a horse : at his ago, and did fully as much " graft." The Tasmanian Mail publishes a table showing the progress of the Tasmauian Jockey Club sinco its inauguration, and I think it wbuld I have been much better had it been loft alone. Up to 1575 the.Launceston turfites had all the racing to themselves, then the Hobart Turf Club came into existence, and now we hear them 'blowing about the success of their local horses. The amount' of added money has been falling off since 1878, when they gave £1000 to the Cup ; in 1879, £1510 ; 1880, £1320 ; 1881, £1055 ; and 1882, £925. . In 1875 and 1882 five horses crossed Bass Straits. How many has the "tight little island" sent to the Melbourne Cup? Not above five bona fide Tas-manian-bred horses for the past 10 years. [ ' The following horses have accepted for' the Sydney Cup: — Progress, Wellington, Lord Burghley, First Water, Courtenay, Batlujrst, Guinea, Lord Clifden, Wheatear, Falmoiith, Saunterer, Somerset, Diamond, Waxy, Barber, Royal Maid, Spinnmgdale, Koh-i-noor, Gipsy Cooper, Albyn, Monmouth, Eblis, Lord , Orville, Hereford Bay, Gudarz, Major, Euchre, Sunlight, Queensberry," Primrose,' Gunild, Balthazar, Whirlwind, Hesper,; The Drummer, Sweet William, > Cunamulta, Gloucester, K'afchleen Mavourneen, Silver Arrow, Kelso, 'Rainbow, Jnverary, Carmen,. Stella, Prhna. Doima, Testator, Hawthornden, arid Garryow'eri." < \' The V.R..G.*. has', determined to make; all bookmakers plying- 4heirM>cation in the sad-dling-paddock pay a license of £25. Why. not include the 150 "tin-potters" on the Hill during the late meeting ? ! Tw6 respectable gentlomen working the totalisator were ordered by Detective Duncan to shut up, shop, otherwise they would have to go ,to limbo, whilst around could be seen . half-a-dozen cardsharpers. Victorian justice on a racecourse is not to be experienced in any other part of the globe. ■ . f