"NEW ZEALAND TURF RECORD."

Otago Witness, Issue 1893, 2 March 1888, Page 26

"NEW ZEALAND TURF RECORD."

After ceasing publication for one year through lack of support and the want of time for compiling the book, the " New Zealand Turf Record for 1886-87 " is once more before us. Though rather late in the field, the publication will none the less be welcome to sporting men, who have in it a compact record of last season's doings, and are thus able to ascertain in a few minutes the performance of any particular horse. This is rendered all the easier by the carefully-com-piled index by which the wins of any particular horse can be looked up. Where known the sire and dam of each horse are given in the index instead of as on former occasions in the particular race in which the horse was successful. In addition to being a complete record of the past season's racing and an index to race meetings and running horses, there are included the registered colours of owners, the new rules of betting, sales of blood stock, scale of weights for age, tables of winners of the principal British and colonial races, and information on things often inquired about. The compiler (Mr F. G. Whetham) appears to have done his work in a painstaking and conscientious manner, and it remains with the sporting public to give him that support which will enable him to continue his work with a prospect of a reasonable sum in return for the arduous work of compilation. The book is nicely printed, and is altogether a very creditable production. Some figures which we gather from the book will be interesting as showing the extraordinary hold racing has obtained in the colony, and at the same time indicating the labour involved in compiling the work. It appears then that in the colony there are no less than 290 race meet-

ings, and as some of these extend over two and three days, there is sufficient racing for every day in the year, Sunday included, if no two meetings were held oh the same day. But it is the number of horses that proves so startling. During the past season 2547 horses took part in these 290 meetings. Of course that number includes hacks and trotters, but even then the figures are something extraordinary.