ENGLISH AND FOREIGN.

Otago Witness, Issue 1679, 26 January 1884, Page 20

ENGLISH AND FOREIGN.

At the head of a long list of winning owners in England for the past year stands M. Lefevre, with a total of £20,727, and of this amount Tristan contributed £7628, Wild Thyme £4275, Ladislas £3650, and Hauteur £2900. This gentleman was at the top of the tree in 1872 with £23,000, and in 1873 he won £25,000, but of late years his racing affairs have not been conducted on such a large scale as they were early in the seventies. No five-year-old has ever won as much money as Tristan has done this year. Second on the list comes the ever formidable Lord Falmouth with £18,425, his principal winners having been Galliard and Busybody. Sir Frederick Johnstone made a most successful return to the turf this year. His winnings in stakes come to £17,658, and the victories of St. Blaise, Corrie Roy, Thebais, Lovely, Keir, and Clairvaux resulted in their nominator taking heavy sums out of the pockets of the ring. Robert Peck, the trainer, is very near the front, thanks to Superba ; and the run of luck which set in at Goodwood for the Duke of Hamilton enabled the owner of Ossian to make a score of £12,695, and of this sum the Leger winner was responsible for £9111, the highest total for one horse made during the season. Mr Rothschild, with £11,386, 18 the only other owner who got into five figures, Lord Rosebery coming next wite £9969. Mr Lorillard only won £432, Sir J. D. Astley £831, and Count de Lagrange £936. The London Sportsman thus refers to the winning jockeys of the past season :—" To have been at the head of the successful riders for a decade is a noteworthy performance, but this has been now achieved by T. Archer, who is once again at the top of the tree with 232 wins, thus beating by 22 his figures of last year, and eclipsing his previous best record of 1878, when he passed the post first on 229 occasions. For three years in succession C. Wood has been the " runner-up " to the Heath House jockey, this time filling second place with a total of 186 wius. Up to a late period of the season the race betweeu the pair for premier position in the winning list was very close, and at one date a dead heat bad to be recorded, but of late the larger number of victories fell to the share of Archer, the difference between them at the finish amounting to 46. It ought, however, to be noted that a spell of ill-luck at one time attended the riding of Wood, who rode 24 successive losers — one at Alexander Park, and 23 at the Newmarket First October Meeting, among

them being 13 seconds. G. Fwrdham and S. Loates make a dead heat for third place with a total each of 77, but it should be remembered in connection with the former that, owing mainly to indifferent health, he has been absent from the saddle at one time or other during the season for thirteen weeks. His average, ■ notwithstanding, compares favourably with that of the couple immedi ately preceding him, and it is much in advance of S. Loates'. G. Barrett has done well with a total of 63, and i 3 followed by E. Mai tin and C. Loates. who each score 50, while J. Osborne and J. Watts made a third dead heat of it, both being credited with 46 wins. With regard to the classic races of the season, Archer has ridden the winner of the Two Thousand Guineas, Fordham the winner of the One Thousand, Wood steered St. Blaise in the Darby, and Watts rode Bonny Jean for the Oaks and Ossian in the Doncaster St. Leger ; to Fordham fell the Epsom, Ascot, Goodwood, and Jockey Club cups ; for the newly instituted Orange Cup at Ascot Archer rode Barcaldine ; and the mounts respectively of Wood and G. Barrett walked over for the Doncaster and Brighton Cups. In the chief handicaps of the year Wood has been preeminently successful, he having ridden the winners of the Lincolnshire Handicap, Man Chester Cup, Royal Hunt Cup, Stewards 1 Gup, Goodwood stakes, 'Great Ebor Handicap, Liverpool Autumn Cup and Great Shropshire Handicap, and since he was on the back of Corrie Roy for the Manchester November Handicap it will be seen he finished the season as auspiciously as he commenced it, his final mount being a victorious one." Mr William Blenkiron, the founder cf the celebrated Middle Park Stud, has failed. His liabilities are stated to be £11,200 and the assets £4000.

The " American Plunger " is reported to Lave " drppped " £30,000 during his recent visit to England. He returned to New York with the i ntention of providing the necessary funds to liquidate his unsettled racing accounts. Meanwhile his absence has created the utmost confusion and' consternation amongst both debtors and creditors ; and amongst the latter is Charles Archer (Lord ELlesmere's trainer), to- whom Walton laid 2400 to 300 against Boswell for the Liverpool Cup, with the proviso of his having " the run of the market.'

Another tall Yankee yarn, seriously given in Turf, Field, and Farm : — A few days since, the very speedy and successful race mare, Bonnie Lizzie, and Virginia Bush, the half-sister to Bushwhacker, were ordered to be turned out into the track at Preaknesa, to crop the luxuriant grass grown up under the fencing. When the halters were removed, Virginia Bush challenged Bonnie Lizzie for a race. The pair deliberately walked back to the starting-post, aligned themselves and started away at th« top of their speed and ran around the courue Passing the stand, both horses turned around and 'walked back to° the starting-point, as if reporting to the. judges. Bonnie Lizzie, who came_ in first, looked at Virginia JBush with seeming contempt, as much as to say "You were never a race mare in first-class company," and walked away to crop the grass. Both mares have been retired from the turf, and are heavy n foal to Macduff .