MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS. (Sydney Referee.)

Otago Witness, Issue 1917, 17 August 1888, Page 24

MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS. (Sydney Referee.)

We have extracted a few opinions from friends in the know, and are now in a poition to give the winner of the Melbourne Cup. There is no charge for this tip, and investors may make any use they plea?e of the information. Tea per cent, of the winnings to be forwarded to B. D. after the race. We will now get to business, and all sing, please : — When you see the numbers up Showing who has won the Cup, Well in front is Matador, And behind him Meteor. Don't .like those two ! Try a^ain, We have never writ in vain. Whakawai is in the van, Followed close by Cardigan. What's the matter? Hot much good ! We'll write till we are understood. Pray your pleasure now evince ; Here's the winner— Silver Prince. Wrong again, you srsm to say ; Perhaps on Bravo books will pay : Cyclop 3 has a chance to win it, He's as gcod as any in it. Take the office when it's |,lven ; Find the -winner in the seven. (Melbourne Sportsman.) Why should we crush a good horse ? has long been the cry of our handicappers ; but it Jis evident that a good horse really well cannot Jbe crushed, and can hardly be stopped by any ordinary weight. A little mare like Ruby carries from 10.0 to 12.7 over all sorts of courses and fences, and is now a^ sound ai a bell at 11 years old, while Malua, who has seldom had les3 than 9.0, and won Melbourne and Australian Cups under 9.9, may yet repeat these coups; thus showing that weight, with horsemen up, does not entail half the risk to legs or lives that is incurred by the incompetent handling which is necessitated when light weight boys are entrusted with the pilotage of powerful animals. The lesson which our turf legislators will do well to act on is — Had we more horsemen riding, we should have more hordes like Malua and Ruby ; at any rate in endurance if not in brilliancy. With sin."* like Malua and Boolka, and dams like Ruby, the trouble about the decadence of the Australian hor&e h unworthy of consideration. ■ (Press.) Messrs Mason and Roberts, who were under engagement to work the totalizator at the Ashbarton Steeplechase on Wednesday had to make the journey from Dunedin under difficulties. Owing to the slips at Purakanui they were unable to geb through from Dunedin on Tuesday. They reached Oamaru at 10 o'clock at night, arid started from there in a light express, drawn by two horses, and driven by Mr Deneen. The night was very dark, there was a dense fog as well, so that the p-rty had gi'eat difficulty in feeling them way r long the road, their lamps just serving to make the darkness visible. At the Pareora river they had a very narrow escape, and only for the insiduct of the horses caaung them to jib and go suddenly back on their haunches, the whole party would have b9en precipitated down a steep embankment. Timaru was reached at 7.20 next morning, and Messrs Mason and Roberts were just able to ca ;ch the 7.30 train to Ashburton, arriving on t.ie course just in time to fit up the totalis^tor for the first race, after about 44 hours' continuous travelling. (" Augur," in the Australasian.) From an old friend, who is at present touring in America, I have received a long letter, full of interesting 'matter respecting racing in the land of our cousins. At the time of writing the St. Louis meeting was in full swing. He had been present at the first two days' sport, but as the meeting was to extend over no less than 13 succesive days (bar Sunday), I expect he would have been pretty full of it before the last race was disposed of. He says i " They make a big note of giving away 70,000d0l in that time for stakes. I remarked that our next Melbourne Cup would alone be worth about one-fourth of that sum, and, of course, was put down as a guilt-edged embroiderer of the truth. The course is very pretty, and very small, quits like a large hippodrome in Oooper and Bailey's c ; rcus. The horses start by a beat of a drum, and the starter is driven to the starting po^t, wherever it may be, in an open carriage and pair of grey horses, having with him a man to carry his drum. Oh, dear, how Watson would laugh (and ' cuss '). The jockeys are nearly all darkies, and remind me exactly of monkeys or dogs, as seen in every circus. They pay not the slightest attention to the starter, and the consequence is the star ts. are most straggling, most unfair, and most abominable. The last race to-day was a steeplechase. The highest jump was scarcely visible from the stand, so small was it. There was a horse named Tennessee in it, and as he was entered by a man named Corrigan, and

carried a green jacket, I popped a fiver' on him for the sake of my old Ballarat friends, and he won by about a length. Mr J. B. Haggin was amongst the winners, and his friends spoke very hopefully of Darebin's stock, which are said to be large and well framed. The two-year-olds here are all very fine and large. The course is an oblong, exactly one mile, but does not look anything like it. The running track, as is, I believe, the case throughout the States, is cleared of grass, and when it rains is mud, and when it don't is dust — an absurd system to my way of thinking."