CANTERBURY DOINGS.

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

CANTERBURY DOINGS.

By " RATA."

At Riccarton racehorse owners evidently take as wide a range as do the racehorses themselves-, and something novel in the way of a handicap would be requisite to bring them on an absolute equality. New Zealand is not exceptional m this respect; owners have always comprisrd every grade of society whatsoever beyond a certain monetary limit. Keeping racehorses is an expensive game whether they be run on sportsmanlike principlrs or as instruments of gambling, and the maintenance of*a " crock " is equal to that of a first-class animal. Apart from the original cost of a racer there are 'contingent stable expenses, travelling expenses, trainer's charges, entry and acceptance fees, and forfeits, the latter a very considerable item in" the expenditure of a prominent owner; In a good New Zealand stable the annual cose of a non-winning racer must be something like £200 — £8 a week and extras — and though some trainers, and apparently good ones too, have taken horses for less than half that money, and continue to do so still, doubtless with a view of augmenting their reputations and promoting future advancement, £3 a week is well within the value of an accomplished and 'experienced mentor's services. In a majority of instances stable expenditure is a very accurate ! criterion of a sportsman's quality, though there is no getting away from the fact that in i important betting centres the representatives of big and fashionable stables are frequently distinguished for in-and-out running. In New I Zealand the extremes of ownership are very I marked; there is the sportsman, the practical owner, and the owner of platers, but beyond these there is another kind of owner, an owner that keeps a horse, frequently trained privately, on the off chance of winning a small race at a '.minor meediog, and it is the possibility of such hacks being good enough to win a stake of any value whatever that engenders the disparity of 'quality iv racehorses in training, and also the difference in competent and incompetent mentorship. The plater, as a plater, is not a 'distinct type of horse in New Zealand by .reason of the conditions of stakes. He h? 1 * attained his name from the clrss ot race he performs in — small handicaps and selling plates. Plating in England is an un- ; commonly sharp game, and one good enough to make it pay knows his way about ; it wanfc3 the acme of racing intelligence. Selling plates at 'minor meetings are commonly worth £IC3, sometimes £150, aid a,j 013 fixtures considerably 'more; but when the stake exceeds £150 the quality of the opposition is beyond the ordinaty plater. The majority of selling plates are worth , £100 to the winner, and the conditions embrace selling allowances, with a £50 minimum — i.e., in £100 stakes an increase of stake money means an increase in selling price — and should a horse entered to be sold for £50 go at £300, as they sometimes do, the owner of the second divides £250 with the racing fund. An owner has therefore a double chance of winning, but any competitor, bar the winner, may be claimed under certain conditions of ownership athis enteredsellingprice. Selling plates are purely gambling events when selling prices admit the possibility of an actual plater's success, and sound judgment is a very necessary desideratum in an owner of platers, provided he systematically runs them as selling platers. An owner may buy a horse for £100 out of a selling race to-day, enter him to be sold for £50 to-morrow, run him, get third, have him claimed, and lose £50. On the other hand he might win, giving a clear pro&t of £50 — stake £103 aid selling price £50— beside , bets ; and considerably more money could be made over a selling plater at a plating meeting like Alexandra Park than could possibly be won over a New Zealand Cup under present betting conditions. Handicap plates of lOOsovs or 150sovs tc 0 frequently bring out some good fields of platers, and a capital stake in bets can sometimes be land- d with a properly manipulated horse — one a shade above the plater — in races of that deociptioD, provided the market be cautiously worked. Market manipulation is a department of racing that requires some knowledge, and I should think betting in England and Australia is|j oomewhat di similar In England they bet all over the country during the progress of a meeting, and in some of the clubj betting is very simiLr to that on tue racecourse. The club i are iv telegraphic communication with the course, and the runner j and jockeys are exhibited prior to the decision of eveij race, and betting stopped immrdialsely on receipt of the rru't. The time ?llow:d the club bookmaker for business on an accurate working of this system is equiva'ent to that granted the layer in the rißg. Before the institution of that principle starting price betting was a prominent feature of wagering, and so it is now, but it is played out in so far as the working of a really good commission is concerned ; the owner was too many for the metalliciau at that game. In right-out betting, however, a big commission can yet be executed away from the course provided a sufficient number of commissioners be employed ; the clubr. must be struck simultaneously. The greatest difficulty in the satisfactory execution of a commission is confederacy in the ring; layers work together, and books are rarely overlaid on the course against a real good thiiig. Of the three betting enclosures on an English racecourse, Tattersall's is the chief, and books are altogether regulated by the operations of particular men in that ring. Provided an owner I has a moral for a particular event, he knows it is a moral by trial and collateral running, but the ring may know the condition of the nag just a3 well as he does. He waits until the market has fairly settled down, and then gets the stable commissioner to work, or backs his horse personally. Should the race be an ordinary handicap, with a moiety of the starters backed and spinning, the ring a representative one, and the field about a dozen, that owner might get a 1000 to 100 to start with, but he would be very lucky to get another thousand at the same price. After that he might book 500 to 80 in twe or three hands, but in five minutes his horse would be at 3 to 1 or 5 to 2 all over the enclosures, and at that price he might stick. An English owner cm get plenty of money about a horse on the course, but he cannot execute an open commission at remunerative prices beyond a certain point, and that a very limited one in such a market. My experience of New Zealand stables is confined to Dunedin — the vicinity of the Porbury—and Riccarton; and the latter surpasses the former greatly. The Yaldhurst training establishment is the best; stable I have seen

beyond England,' and Dan O'Brien's comes next. These stables are built on wholly different plans, and perhaps the latter is the most perfect building of its class in the colonies. Yet it is closely run in point of excellence by the stables of the Racecourse Hotel. The hotel itself is a magnificent building for the neighbourhood, and it is any odds in reason that Charlie Wood would give a considerable sum to transpose it and the Greyhound Hotel in High street, Newmarket. It is certainly 25, perhaps 50 years before its time. This is not an advertisement, or I would not write it. I cannot advertise the hotel in any way. During race meetings at Riccarton it is always full, and, beyond race weeks its revenue is restricted to bar custom. The house Cannot possibly pay, and now perhaps its value is' less than half its original cost, though Riccarton is more prosper* ous now than when the Racecourse Hotel was built; and its building is an effect of injudicious speculation. Yet the fact' remains that the hotel is a very excellent house, and the stables are en a par with the hotel. The stables, too, are elways full at race times, and these are th 6 only o6caßionß they are wanted beyond permanent tenancy. The horses who tenant the boxes at present are Sultan, Catamount, Normanby, Isaac, and Lioness — the latter a trotter. Normanby is a nag that has run fairly well on the fiat, and it is now intended to put him over sticks! That is apparently a very profitable game in the colony for flat racers up to a requisite amount of weight that can be broken to jumping. Jumping is the great difficulty with flat racers over timber j some of them require an inordinate amount of schooling ere they become proficientjbut I believe that Normanbyhas already been tried over a hurdle face track, and little difficulty is anticipated in connection with his education. Sultan is a well-known horse, and performances during the past season must have been very satisfactory to his connections from a pecuniary point of view, and though his actual winning total is considerably below that of Maxim, he must have b'-en a more profitable horde beyond stake moaey. Catamount is an own brother to Sultan, in the same ownership, and he is a better made animal in point of conformation, and one that oujht to distinguish himself in better company than Sultan hfs hitherto done on terms of equality. Sultan is certainly a good horse, and a very excellent stamp of racer to own, but he is considerably removed from the top-sawyer class. The Racecourse Hotel stables comprise two triangular buildings. One of these is a wooden building containing eight open bcxes, and the other a substantial br'ck structure 'built on the most approved plans. Next to Dan O'Brien's it is the best stable of the kind I have seen, and I should think both have been erected under similar superintendence.' The boxes' are qf the ordinary type in such stables — roomy, and well ventilated and lighted, and the hay loft forms a second storey above the ground floor. This building contains 13 boxes and a saddle room, and on the score of stabling alone the Racecourse .Hotel ought to ba worth something to an owner 'of racehorses ; but I believe the rent paid by Dan O'Brien was considerably beyond the value of the stables, good though that undoubtedly is. The outside, or open boxes are a distinct advantage to permanent tenants ; in their existence a tenant can have any kind of tempevature -whatever. The past week has been very inclement at Riccarton, and for several days the tracks have been well nigh flooded. Of a morning the course -has been comparatively deserted, though several 1 teams have been given gentle exercise in the afternoons. The roads, however, have been in great requisition, and the majority of horses have been walked, notwithstanding meteorological conditions, and in truth these are of little consequence at present with no important engagements in immediate prospective; yet Riccarton trainers , believe in plenty of work, and I should ■think it would want something uncommon in the way ' of weather to keep Ted Cutts, for instance, indoors. One great advantage of the tan, track is a comparative impsrviousness to rain ; it dries very rapidly, and I fancy it is a kind of track that would be difficult to beat at any particular season, beyond an unavoidable quantum of dust in very dry weather. . The plough is never used in winter, and during the last couple of months it would have been impossible almost to gallop a hotse on that track. On Monday morning there was a little work done, but nothing of importance. Isaac is still here, located at the Racecourse I Hotel stables, and it is intended to send him to ■the forthcoming Otago Hunt Club races. At the Grand National meeting he ran uncommonly well, and he is undoubtedly an improved horse, and should he fail to score at Dunediu he 1 will be unlucky. It is intended to make an alteration in the Riccarton track. The plough gallop is to be shifted to the opposite side of the trial track. As the tracks now stand the course proper is on the outer or stand side, then comes the trial track, and beyond that are the plough and tan gallops, and the present intention of the executive is to run the plough between the racecourse and the trial track. To do this it will be necessary to plough the outside of the trial ground and convert the present plough into turf, and I believe it id intended to sub-soil the new plough, and that means ploughing it , 14in or 15in deep instead of about 4in. The adoption of the proposed plan — and apparently adoption is definitely decided upon — may prove beneficial eventually, but subsoiling will necessarily prohibit the use of the new gallop for a lengthened period, probably iwelve months; and the object of doing so is not particularly clear. It is also intended to drain tfie course, and that is wanted very badly, and it could be done very cheaply. The course is on snch an elevation. On Tuesday morning trainers were uncommonly busy, and notwithstanding the excessive rain of the previous few days the tan afforded fairly good going. Sultan and Idalia were the first out, and then Ray's, Butler's, and ' O'Brien's teams followed successively. Exchange is a horse that is greatly liked about Christchurch, and howsoever he may perform in the big handicaps of the forthcoming season he is a wonderfully good looking one though a bit small compared) with his stable companion Chain Shot. Exchange is forward in condition for the season, as is also Chain Shot, and Engagement has done a similar amount of work during the winter. The latter never looked well in herself, however, and perhaps she is one that will improve with age. She is a racing-like mare, though perhaps a bit short in the top and high on the leg. Artillery is not generally liked at Eiccarton, and he may not be as good as he looks. British Lion is a good looking black horse. He is now in Cutty stable, and he ought to be able to race if hi 3 appearance be any criterion. St. Clair is in strong work, and he is looking well J;oo. He was given a striding gallop three times round the tan on Tuesday morning, and pulled up as fresh as paint. Springston and Ruby are in strong work, and I fancy the latter is a more delicate horse than his stable companion, and one that does net retain muscular substance for a long period. Carbine and Man ton are both well, and whatever be their fortunes in the coming season, both merit success 00 the score of 10.0k.3,

A curtailment of tfte' Metropolitan clubs' power is now contemplated by an amalgamation of the executives of minor clubs.' The idea is feasible hi co far as the actual result is concerned, but it is undoubtedly contrary to the interests of gracing. The scheme extends considerably beyond Canterbury unfortunately. The following are the Christchurch betting quotations :—: — NEW ZEALAND CUP. 100 to 12 Springston, Carbine, Artillery, and SI Olair (tkn, 100 to 10 wntd) 100 — 10 Lochiel and Sextant (tkn, 100 to 8 wntd) 100 — 8 Sommeil, Kuby, Mauton, Chain Shot, and Engagement (tkn, 100 to 6 wntd) I 100—6 to 100 to 1 others. WATERLOO CUP. lf)0 to 12 Sailor Boy (tkn) 100 — 12 Bed Pine and Lonewood (off).