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Otago Witness, Issue 1895, 16 March 1888, Page 23

NOTES BY RATA.

%* Now trainers have returned from the country something like activity is being infused into the work at the Forbury of a morning. Those who journeyed North to Timaru and Wanganui, however, do not appear to have reaped a very rich harvest. At Wanganui St. Clair was a great disappointment, though perhaps his trainer hardly thought he would win the Cup in consequence of his backward condition on leaving Dunedin and tbe impossibility of giving him anything like serviceable work after his arrival at the scene of action. The course was only opened for exercise purposes on race mornings, and the galloping ground appears to have been actually dangerous. Indeed Artillery, after compassing the Cup distance in company with St. Clair at three-part speed, pulled up lame in one of his hind legs, and this wholly extinguished his prospects of success at the meeting. The ground was very uneven, and literally full of big holes. Cruchfield was thought a remarkably "good thing" for the Cup, and his defeat by Dudu consequently militated very materially against the interests of the cognoscenti. St. Olair has been left up North, and he will take part in the Hawke's Bay Cup on Friday. He is well in at 7st, but so are Sextant, Beresford, and Cruchfield; but Sextant (Bst 31b), fit and well, ought to have a rare show ; but I hear that he has not being doing much work of late, and that in all probability he will be sent to contest the Auckland St. Lcger. Still it seems feasible to imagiue that he may have a cut in for the corresponding event in the Hawke's Bay programme, even should -he decline the Cup,

Recluse, who won the Two-year-old Stakes at Wanganni, is said to be a fair clinker, and he must be a bit above mediocrity to run away from Adulation as he did. Mr Turnbull thinks that Wolverine would have been returned a winner had he taken him North, but I fancy he over-estimates this horse a bit, and that the £300 offered for him during the progress of the Autumn meeting represented quite hia value.

\* The Dunedin section that journeyed to Timaru failed to make a great financial success of the trip, though the sport was seemingly very good. La Rose gave backers a rare facer on the opening afternoon, and disappointed everybody connected with her, though she had no mean opponent in College Boy, who was in receipt of 201b. Still she was heavily backed on the totalisator, the machine showing 229 tickets to her name against 83 no that of her successful rival; while the aggregate amount invested on the other starters was £80. Perhaps there was no very great discredit in the beating, but it sufficed to stall off her supporters on the following afternoon, when she wan by a length in a field of seven. She carried very light metal on this occasion— 2l tickets— and her trainer's confidence was represented in £3, I believe. Maniac again showed a bit of his quality by winning the trot on the opening day from scratch by about 100 yds and running third on the second afternoon over two miles when started 35sec behind everything. This simply shows what training can effect in a trotter. Six months ago Maniac was receiving something like 60sec from Duchess, and in the latest handicaps he has to concede her lOsec, and this I believe he is capable of doing. He is a wonderfully fast horse, and must have proved a cheap investment to Mr Taggart, who purchased him for, I think, 17gs. College Boy, Hermitage, and The Brewer were all to the fore at the meeting, and apparently they have as good cattle about Timaru and Oamaru as we have in Dunedin. I hear great accounts of Monteagle, a brother to Effigy; and Jem Cotton, who rode the gelding in both his races, entertains a high opinion of his capacity. Doubtless he will show up at the Anniversary meeting, when he will be afforded an opportunity of measuring strides with the best timber-toppers in the colony. I fancy Dunedin has a pull over Christchurch in this department.

%* Evidently some dissatisfaction has been engendered by an inadequate publication of the date of entry for the Anniversary meeting, and the nominations have consequently been prejudicially affected. I fancy, however, that some fairly good racing will be witnessed, though the fields will necessarily be somewhat small. W. Dowses handicapping, as usual, appears to be faultless. In the Hurdle Handicap Garibaldi has been awarded top weight, as a matter of course, and list 101b is a lenient enough impost when gauged through his performances over this particular distance — a mile and a-half . Dunluce (lOst 61b) carries 21b more than Trapper, and his double victory at the Autumn meeting warrants this assumed superiority. Mayboy (9st 71b) is in the sanw stable as Trapper. He is a notorious non-stayer, but he is a fine jumper, and has speed enough for a race of this kind. He is very " beefy " at present, however, and though ho is a horse that gets into condition very rapidly, he may not be quite pink by the date of the Anniversary meeting. Wildboy (9st 51b) is built on the lines of a weight carrier, and I believe he is a capital jumper, but in point of conformation he looks more like a steeplechaser than a hurdle racer. Yet he is in strong work, and provided he has pace enough he will undoubtedly have a great show ; he does not look a particularly speedy horse, though. Mr Dowse has evidently not been very greatly impressed with Monteagle'a performance at Timaru, as he has " chucked " him in at 9st. The Anniversary Handicap is wholly comprised of locally trained horses, and I shall not be surprised should the bottom weight, Shifnal (6st 71b), make a big bid for victory. Like the Anniversary, the Cliff's and Novel Handicaps have only attracted Forbury nags, and the winner ought not to want much finding on the day. Both the trotting raoes have received fairly good entries, and they may provide the best races of the afternoon.

%* The sporting press appears to have been pitching it Into Nathan pretty severely over the Island Bay business, and that metallician certainly deserved much more severe treatment than that meted out to him by the united action of the metropolitan clubs. Not because he kicked against the official prohibition of laying totalisator odds — that was quite natural ; and I believe that the ruling of the clubs in this matter is contrary to the interests of sport. The last Dunedin Cup was worth 700sovs, for instance, and assuming that a grant of a special liberty to layers necessitated a £200 reduction, it does not at all follow that the event would deteriorate in importance. Could an owner rely on getting £2000 or more out of the ring in the event of victory, as doubtless he could do with a slight; extension of privilege to bookmakers, such a race as the Dunedin Cup would have more attractions for an ordinary owner at 500sovs than it has now at 700sovs. Under present circumstances an owner can get very little out of a big win beyond the stake. The totalisator is an excellent institution undoubtedly, and the public will patronise it so long as it exists; but it appears too much of a good thing to give the machine a monopoly of betting. Provided bookmakers were allowed to lay totalisator prices a club's monetary interests would not bo affected so greatly as they would by a parliamentary enactment framed in the interests of Government revenue; and this matter was broached in the Legislative Council quite recently. But Nathan's delinquency is beyond the subject wholly. He legally — what law, too ! — forced a return of money invested on a losing horse in the totalisator, and one that will attempt this kind of thing needs pretty firm treatment — no sportsman would dream of doing so on any consideration. Nathan's case, however, is of comparatively minor importance to that of H. Piper. Doubtless the matter has been adjusted ere now, but I have seen no notice of the decision at the time of writing, and it is immaterial to me personally how the stewards of the C.J.C. view the subject. It is the rule under which Mr Stead reported H. Piper that I am about to discuss. The rule reads : — " If any owner, trainer or other person shall be proved to the satisfaction of the committee of the Jockey Club to have tampered with any boy in another stable, or be detected watching a trial, or proved to the satisfaction of the stewards or committee to have employed any person to watch a trial, or to have obtained surreptitiously information respecting a trial from any person or persons engaged in it or in the service of the owner or trainer of the horses tried, sr respecting any horse in training from any such person in such service, every person so offending maybe warned off the course or other places where these rules are in force." Now the rule is certainly right insofar as tampering with stable boys and eliciting surreptitious information is concerned, but it requires a long stretch of imagination to see delinquency in trial watching or the employment of touts, assuming, of course, that the ground is open. The matter carries us back for a good many years to find a precedent, and the only one I can call to mind was the wholesale warning off of touts

from Newmarket Heath in England about the time the press first instituted the publication "of daily training reports. What was the result? Simply that owners discovered in the publicity of morning work that an innovation had been effected in the interest of sport. At Newmarket, too, Sir John Astley, during his term of office as a steward of the Jockey Club, ran up an embankment parallel with the ditch— a kind of hugh mud wall erected in the Roman era — where trainers, by obtaining an order similar to those issued by the secretary of the D. J.C. for trial running at tbe Forbury, could test the calibre of their horses beyond the possibility of watching. Did they take advautage of the new trial ground ? Not they ; and perhaps not one trial in every hundred escapes the observation of the touting element on Newmarket Heath. I do not think that touting does owners the least injury, and, moreover, a good tout can always gauge the merits of an animal in ordinary strong work just as well as he can by witnessing a trial. Apart from his connections, who knows what weight a horse carries in a trial gallop?

*** Only ten of the 26 entrants for the Great Autumn Handicap at Christchurch remain in, and Mr Stead's lot are conspicuous amongst the non-contents. Silvermark is now top weight, and the elimination of Gipsy King is all in his favour. The list of contents cocaprises nothing of exceptional merit, but in the actual race it ought to be a tight fit between some of them as the weights now stand. Silvermark (7st 121b) has an undoubted show, but so also have Ruby (7st 101b), and Springston (7st 51b), and the latter of this pair will take some beating. Cruchfield (7st 21b) ran well at Wanganui, and he ought to do so hereagain.but La Rose, similarly weighted, is a most uncertain mare, and her trainer has had an unenviable time of it with her. Snapshot (7st) is nicely treated, and I fancy there is a good race in this horse yet. St. Ives, Torreut, St. Clair, and Engagement are the other candidates, and though the acceptance is poor the field ought to produce a good race.

All horses nominated for the Hurdles, Trot, and Bracelet at the Waimate Racing Club's meeting on March 17 have accepted. In the St. Patrick's Handicap, Vixen, Talebarer, Sir Garret, and Impulse are the non-acceptors. The privileges were sold as follow : — Publican's booth (R. Kett), £11 ; confectioner's booth (R. Lane), £1 Is ; cards, £1. The gates were passed in.

The Blueskin J.C. meeting, April 2, and the Riverton races, April 3, have been approved of by the Dunedin Jockey Club.

The Bald Hill Flat races, fixed for March 17, and the Cromwell Trotting Club's meeting, May 24, have been passed by the Dunedin Jockey Club.

Owners are reminded that acceptances for the Dunedin Anniversary meeting are due at Mr Sydney James' office on Saturday.

An Auckland telegram states that Mr T. Stephens has resigned his position as starter for the Aucklad Racing Club. The Committee of the Auckland Racing Club have instructed the secretary to write to the Committee of the Canterbury Jockey Club stating that the Auckland Racing Club assents to the series of resolutions framed by Mr Stead with a view to limiting outside race meetings, and will combine with other metropolitan clubs to put them in force.

The Hon. Mr Mitchelson's Escutcheon returns to New Zealand in a few days.

Mr O'Donnell's well-known mare Factory Girl has died from injuries received by a fall over a cliff.

Notwithstanding the excessive wetness of the evening on Saturday, a quorum of the stewards of the Blueskin Jockey Club met at the Railway Hotel, Seacliff, to carry out details connected with tbe intended races on Easter Monday on the Warrington course. Some amendments necessary to bring the races under the rules of the Dunediu Jockey Club were unanimously agreed to and correspondence attended to. The booth was let to Mr De Clifford, of Seacliff. The secretary was instructed to attend to the matter of advertising, &c. The next committee meeting will be held on the 17th inst. The full programme will be advertised in the Daily Times of Wednesday and Thursday next.