SPORTING NOTES FROM VICTORIA.

Otago Witness, Issue 1874, 21 October 1887, Page 24

SPORTING NOTES FROM VICTORIA.

(By Our Special Melbourne Spouting Correspondent " Olympus.")

Melbourne, October 12. RACING. The detention of the steamship Mararoa in quarantine precluded any possibility of forwarding a letter to you last week, and as I had promised to give you my very latest opinions respecting the Caulfield Cup, perhaps the mischance is regretable — and perhaps not. Here, within three days of the event, business — that's betting business— is not within cooey of what it " used to was " a fortnight earlier a year or two back. Not but what there are thousands and thousands of pounds depending upon Mr R. S. Wakley's fiat for the great mile and a-half event next Saturday. But there's not the same ve?ve (I cannot think of a better word at the moment) in the proceedings. There's nothing special to account for this. Unlike the Melbourne Cup, there's no Algerian sticking out a mile to paralyse matters; though after Saturday's results the Kirkham stable are in such form that many draw deductions therefrom that Volcano must be a real good thing. No doubt all this will be altered before Mr Watson drops his flag for the event; the general trend of betting during the past few years being in the direction of post investments. Without treading upon what has been declared to me forbidden ground — to wit, a resume of the racing at Caulfield, I suppose my editor will have no objection to my cursorily glancing at last Saturday's events, and placing them before you as they appeared viewed through my spectacles. To commence at the beginning, there's not the slightest doubt that Cranbrook proved himself a racehorse by the manner in which he romped home the last furlong of the Caulfield Stakes, though whether the win was as really meritorious as it appeared is a debatable question. For one brief second after entering the straight there was the semblance of a struggle between the son of Chester and Silvermine, and although the former fairly "smothered" his opponent in half a dozen more strides, he most undoubtedly "shifted" when collared. Whether this was due to comparative greenness in running, or a still further demonstration that the descendants of Chester are none too game, and are likely to turn it up if it approaches anything like a tight squeeze, is what we have to discover. For my own part, I incline to the latter theory, and am positive that if ever a Musket colt gets alongside the Hon. James White's giant and pinches him, it's a hundred to one on the Maorilander getting home first. Of course the victory caused Abercorn to harden yet more in the V.R.C. Derby quotations, and yours truly to still more harden his heart against him for that event. The Great Foal Stakes, for two-year-olds, resulted in another of those dead heats— and between fillios, too — for which that race has become so proverbial. Mr W. A. Long's Gang Forward — Haidee filly Consequence fully sustained her reputation, and although the sister to Bowmont (St. Albans— Pardon), Lady Betty, was trick and toi with her, such would not have been the case had there been another furlong travelled, despite the 101b penalty carried by Consequence. The latter is bound to run prominently in the Maribyrnong Plate, but there were one or two others finished behind her on Saturday who may reverse positions under other arrangements. The brother to Newstead (Guildford), I am satisfied, is one of these , and from the manner in which Salisbury (Neckersgat — Adeliza) — with Hales up, albeit his stable companion, Hegii (Aleck Robertson), carried the pieces — came from the ruck and finished fourth, I wouldn't put it past him to be another. So now you have my ideas with respect to the Maribyrnong Plate— viz., GUILDFORD, Salisbury, and as I have to go for another, I shall give a position (may it be the first) to Mr Mitchelson's handsome daughter of Musket and Pulchra—Bellissima by name. Carlyon, starting at 6t04 in the Caulfield Guineas, had not a very difficult task set him to put down the other eight. Hortense (significant) fact) was 10 to 1, Boz (ditto ditto), was at B's; and the only hope of something flopping up rested on Escutcheon, who was known by the initiated to be partial to a little less weight than Bst 51b, and a little further distauce than a mile — a circumstance I am religiously going to remember on Saturday. I don't know whether the words of wisdom I indite to

you are as ephemeral as if they were written with water, or stand fixed in your memory as though graven in brass (not with brass, if you please) ; but should the former be the case, then I must get you to turn up the Otago Witness of the September 23, where, speakiug of Abe DaVies, 1 f emarked— " He has a regular tradesman in the Derby candidate Pakeha (by Englishman — True Blue), one of the finest looking three-year-olds in training at Flemington." Well, in the Guineas he proved that he had something more than good looks to recommend him, and had he been on as sound going as Carlyon he would undoubtedly have made a closer thing of it than he did. The winner is a bit of a ringer though, albeit he never traversed a mile over Caulfield in the time officially given — namely, lniin 42gsec ; lmin 46sec (as made by several private watches) was much nearer the O.K. thing. My reason ? Here it is : In the last race of the day, the Toorak Handicap, of one mile, where it was a case of " the devil take the hindmost " from the fall of the flag, it took them lmin 45|sec to scamper the eight furlongs, and to imagine that young three-year-olds, with Bst 51b on their backs, covered the distance in 3Jsec less, is to argue oneself a fossil, in comparison to whom Rip Van Winkle, who went to sleep for 20 years amongst the Catskill Mountains, must be looked upon in the light of a man of the period. And with regard to this same Toorak Handicap, a funny (that's to those not pecuniary interested) contretemps occurred •therein. Joseph Morrison, the Fleniington trainer, is accredited with knowing his racing way particularly well about, asbehoveth one who had been brought up from a boy in Count Legrange's stables. Josephus had two horses in the Toorak Handicap— Dufferin and V.C. Both are pretty slippery customers, and to anyone with the slightest pretensions to a knowledge of Turfiana, it certainly seemed a mosh remarkable thing that with Power up DufEerin should be on offer at 10 to 1, and nobody backing him except Mullets. The true solution of the enigma was that the «army Scot had discovered something a bit better in Lord Allen, and accordingly down went the dibs of he and Pa (Samuelo Martinus) on the discovery. And the thing woiill have been as right as ram 99 times out of 100 ; but unfortunately, coming up the straight, juit as Lord Allen was making his winning effort, Tom Coffey's Dagon swerved across the course, carrying Lord Alleu with him, which Ted' Power perceiving, he whipped up on the inside immediately and landed Dufferin first past the post by a length. Such is the mutability of all things earthly, and so do the gathering years bring with their surease confirmatory testimony of the truth of Robbie Burns' statement the best laid schemes of mice and men gang aft agley. I For the Caulfield Cup lam standing Lara or ' Escutcheon to win, and 'Harvester for a place. For the V.R.C. Derby I shall stand or fall by Tranter. And in the Melbourne Cup I shall pin my faith to Remus or Arsenal to win, and The Levite to get a situation. Menotti has not been doing so well as I should have liked, and Bedouin struck himself so severely a few days ago whilst exercising on the training track that he had to be withdrawn from the Caulfield Guineas, for which he possessed something more than an outside show. I hope he will start in the Melbourne Cup, for he is a great fancy of mine. Silver Prince and Thunderbolt have been doing sound, strong work. I opine that the Prince is the pea; but the brown fellow will pick up a crumb or two during the meeting, or I am a Jew — an 'Ebrew Jew. Providing Sam Cook elects to send Remus for the Caulfield Cup (though I hardly think it's likely), I shall give the elect of Old Ready Moneys pair — as I said before, I suppose it will be Silver Prince, though it may be Thunderbolt — his place. The Levite has done the soundest preparation of any horse at Flemington. The general entries, made on Monday, are both numerous and " rekerky," and a recent downpour of rain, after the sultry weather on Saturday, has made Flemington racecourse a carpet of emerald. The £100 trophy to bo added to the first money for the Melbourne Cup is to be a gold horseshoe — a fac simile of those made by Farrier Gill for Commotion. There is to be '£88 worth ef 22carat gold used in its construction, so that when the cost of manufacture is taken into consideration, there will not be much knocked off its intrinsic value in the way of discount. Messrs Brush and Drummond, of Collins street, have been given the order. At the time of writing 5 to 4 is the best offer against Abercorn for the V.R.C. Derby. CRICKET. King Football is dead, and King Cricket reigns in his stead. Last Saturday the opening matches for the Metropolitan and Suburban Challenge Cups commenced. For the former (the Metropolitan Challenge Cup) there are six clubs competing — University, Carlton, Richmond, East Melbourne, Melbourne, and South Melbourne, in the order of draw. In the match between University and Carlton, played on the ground of the former, University, batting first, put'together 147 runs, J. W. Trumble (63), M. Goldsmith (37), and E. Champion (18, not out) being the obtainers of double figures. Carlton have commenced badly, two wickets being down for 11 runs when stumps were drawn. The losers will go to the bottom of the list, and the winners will play Richmond, and so on, all matches being played on the ground of the holders of the cup. For the Suburban Challenge Cup the draw ranks as follows:— St. Kilda, Hotham, Williamstown, Essendon, Fitzroy, Port Melbourne, and Hawthorn. St. Kilda and Hotham met on the ground of the latter, the visitors only turning up eight men. They managed to scrape up 100 runs between them, Hatch (40), J. Jones (19;, and Quirk (12) being responsible for the major portion of them. On Houston and Bean taking the creases for the home team they put on the wood with a vengeance, and at the call of time had 117 runs on the board, the brace being not out with 62 and 50 opposite their names respectively. I may as well mention that professional umpires are engaged for these cup matches ; that play is to commence not later than a quarter-past 2 o'clock each Saturday afternoon, shall be continned during October and March till 6 p m., November, December, January, and February till half-past 6 p.m. ; and that if for any reason play does not commence within 15 minutes of the time appointed the umpires shall declare the match lost by the club unable or refusing to proceed with the match. Only one match for each cup is to be played at one time, and as it takes two defeats to place a club out of competition, it is not probable that either cup will be won within at least two seasons. In addition to these cups for the seniors, there are to be cups for metropolitan and suburban second elevens. For the Metropolitan Second Eleven Cup, Melbourne is given as the straight " griffin," from the fact that during the past four seasons they have only lost two matches out of some half hundred. COURSING. A well-known patron of the Victorian leash has joined the majority, the Hon. Thomas Bromell (who sat for the Nelson Province in the Legislative Council) having been summoned away to his rest on Sunday last, the 9th inst.,at his residence Hensley Park, Hamilton, in the 57th year of his age.