IN A NUTSHELL.

Otago Witness, Issue 1951, 11 April 1889, Page 24

IN A NUTSHELL.

—Tom Corrigan is 35 years of age. — Manton has arrived safely in Sydney. — Too Soon makes a noise when galloping. — Mr Smerdon has bought the trotter Foremast. — Laureate is being well backed for the Epsom Derby. — Mr Dowse will handicap for the Riverton meeting. —I like Cuirassier for the Auckland Easter Handicap. —At Taranaki, £1094 was passed through the totalisator. — The handicap for the New Zealand Cup is due on the 6th July. —The D.J.C. has approved oE theDuntroon am^Riverton programmes. — Mr E. L. Evans purposes to adapt electricity as a means of working the totalisator. — Another attempt is likely to be made to get the totalisator legalised in New South Wale 3. — The public groaned at Rob Roy on his finishing second to Olga in the Taranaki Hurdle Race. — Tommy Saunders, the Australian ]ockey, is off to England again, and Recall seeks a purchaser. —The Taieri Club have dropped the rule stipulating that district horses shall be trained in the district. — Messre Cowie and Co., of Dunedin, inform me that they passed £645 through the totalisator at Pleasant Point. i —The Canterbury Times says that White has been engaged by Mr btead to ride Scots Grey in I the CJ.C. Champagne. -sr" Asmodeus " says there is no truth in the rumour that Cranbrook and Abercorn will accompany their relatives to England. —Galore has arrived safely in America. The new owner of this son of Galopin and Lady Maura is supposed to be Mr Wm Astor. —Mr T. Hungerford's stable at Cobden (Greymouth) was burnt down on Saturday morning, Captain Cook and Hermitage were rescued. — Ted Cutts bought from Wanganui a very promising colt by The Dauphin — Cissy, a mare imported from England by Mr William Wilson, of Wanganni. —At the Pau (France) meeting in February the authorities prohibited all ready-money betting, giving as their reason that it' in fcerf erred with the totalisator. —What is known as « the 230 list " of trotters and pacers in the States has now reached such

magnitude that about 4000 horses are eligible, tor classification therein. _ —The Taieri paper says that Miss Lottie, who won the Hack Rabe at the Kaik on Boxing Day, paying a £63 dividend, is being trained in the Green Island district. —The Hurdle Race and Wairewa Cup at the Little River meeting were both captured by Azim. This son of Pacific was beaten by Lixum in the Publicans' Purse. —Sir Julius' won the Cup and the Easter Handicap— why "Easter?"— at the Fairlie Creek races. Messrs Oowie and Co., of Danedin, passed £455 through the totalisator. — Ossory's fate, died at sea, reminds a Home writer that Kingcratt and Bluegown, both Derby winners, were both consigned to the deep when on the voyage from England to a foreign home. The second partner in the ownership of Alsace as negotiating for the purchase of Mr E. Cults' ahare, and it is probable the filly will leave Chokebore at an early date.—Canterbury Times. S The Earl of ZetlandThas sent his grandlybred and slashing St. Helene on a visit to the Duke of Portland's St. Simon. His lordship seems to fight hard for the return of the famous Voltigeur blood. —The hunter Robert Teddington recently died in Staffordshire, aged 41 years. He was brother to Teddington, the Derby winner of 1851, and is said to have been the oldest thoroughbred existing. . —Eileen's time for the mile and a-half in the Taranaki Autumn Handicap was 2min 47£ sec. She was the outsider of the party, the investments being 89 on Camomile, 55 on Armourer, 53 on Wanda, and 25 on Eileen. ■I— The history of a pony— Uno, winner of one oi the pony races at Taranaki, was, I learn from a local paper, sold originally for six shillings, later on found a purchaser at £3 and now has brought £14. She is to be taken to Melbourne. — There were two rattling dividends in succession at the Taranaki meeting. • Mr Richardson's Tommy, the limit horse in the Trot, led all the way, and won by 60yds, the dividend being £59 17s ; and in the Pony Race Mr Sole's Uno paid £55 10s. —Speaking of Lochiel " Athos" remarks, " the old fellow has been eased a bit since the termination of the late meeting, and although healthy and gay, he hardly looks so muscular and round as he did prior to the deeds that magnified his name into capital letter size."—The Tasmanian informs us that during the present season the progeny of The Assyrian have won 25 races, and the value of the stakes amounted to over £2300, not a bad record considering that nearly all of it had been won in the colony, where the stakes are small. — Another sporting lawsuit in England was set down for hearing in March. It was brought by M. Gurry, the well-known Newmarket traiuer,- against Mr G. A. Baird, otherwise known as Mr Abington, for breach of contract. Damages were laid at £16,000. — Lochiel's sire, Prince Charlie, had 22 representatives running in the States last year, aud between them they scooped in 58,131d01. Prince Charlie was a dark chestnut, 16 hands 2|in high, with a broad stripe in the face and both hind feet white above the ankles. —Mr Martin Loughlin has (says the sportsman) made Mr Robert Orr a present of Game, and it is hardly likely that the old horse will ever win another Steeplechase. He has won hurdle races and steeplechases under all weights, and as he is now nearly 15 years old, he has long since earned a life pension. —Simon Dinkelspeil, a follower of the races, has begun suit in the Supreme Court, New York, to recover the sum of 500dol from Jockey Garrison, the plaintiff alleging that he placed this money in bets at the Jerome Park races in 1887, according to Garrison's orders, and lost. The jockey denies the claim, and will fight the suit. — To prove what an animal can do in the way of walking, it is recorded (writes "Bailey's Magazine ") that a hack mare named Sloven, in May 1793, walked 22 miles in 3hr 52min, beating a trained pedestrian in a fair walking match in point of time— a performance which is cited and can be looked upon only as little short of a marvel. — An ingenious plan for testing the condition of horses' feet is said to be under consideration by New York farriers. One terminal of a battery giving a light current is attached to the animal's bit, and the other to the shoe. If the horse suffers from the shoe or nails, he will shrink under the test. If there is no irritation, he will pay no attention to it. —Colonel North has purchased, at a very high figure, from Baroness Burdett-Coutts, two splendid stallions, whioh he is to present to the Chilian Government to improve the breed of horses in Chili. He will also present to the Government an Esmeralda shield, set in gold and silver, by Elkington. This was recovered from ths deep, by a diver, and is a most interesting relic of the past. —Like the insurance manager, the bookmaker calculates bis odds and allows himself as big a percentage 1 as possible. Both gentlemen deal regularly in dead 'uns, the only difference being that whereas in one case a death means paying out, in the other capital is made out of the decease and the undertaking business, if the latter profession is discreetly and profitably practised.— Sportsman. — At the Tokomairiro meeting (says the Tapanui critic), I am told therewas a crooked piece of business, and a horse was awarded the stakes that had no right to the money, and of course the backers of the horse first past the post were defrauded out of their legitimate profits. One of the greatest evils of the sport is the fact of the stewards betting, and consequently their judgment is biased. In my opinion those who manage races should not bet. — " Vigilant's" opinion of the Sydney Cup :—: — Lonsdale has none too much weight, and, after Carbine, this colt may prove the best of , the three-year-olds ; but I really fail to see anything •in the whole handicap — comprising 50 horses — likely to beat the top weights. As there is a probability of Carbine being kept for the weight-for-age races, I shall dismiss the majority of the others as having little or no chanoe of winning, and look to Abercorn, Lochiel or Carlyon to win the Sydney Cap, Abercorn or Lochiel, for choice. -—One of the best-looking two-year-olds in training at Newmarket is said to be the Duke of Hamilton's Fear Disgrace, a sister of Mis 3 Jummy, the winner of the One Thousand and Oaks in, 1886. Another that is much admired is the Duke of Portland's St. Serf, a colt bred by Lord Rosslyn, and, indeed, the Duke has a highly promising lot altogether. The great fancies for the Brocklesby are Lord Randolph Churchill's Jervaulx, by Clairvaux, and the Duke of Portland's Semolina, who is a half-sister by St. Simon to Donovan. — In Brisbane recently, Alfred Court, trainer and owner, claimed £2000 damages against Mr V. Power, and other members of the Queensland Turf Club committee, for haying published, in the Racing Calendar his name in a forfeit list as a defaulter. The defence was that the defendants were not. the owners and publishers of the newspaper in question. Even if they were, an apology had been inserted in the following issue of the Calendar, which the plaintiff had accepted. A verdict was given for the plain1 tiff with £250 damages,

—There n quite a craze among American jockey clubs, for straightaway tracks, and no new course is considered complete without one of these features. The three-quarters of a mile straightaway at Sheepshead Bay proved quite popular last year, and it is now aunounced that the New York Jockey Club's new track in Westohester is to have a course similar to that of the Coney Island Jockey Club; while the contemplated new Monmouth Park is to outdo every other effort in this line with a straightaway of a mile and three furlongs. —Home papers by the last mail say that the sale of Ormonde is now definitely concluded, the price being £14,000. The horse is to go to Buenos Ayres at the end of the stud season. Prompted by the sale, " Dagonet" gets off the following :— The Abab Steed. (Whose master did not " fling them back their gold.") So Ormonde's sold, and soon must start For lands the cruel seas beyond. O, noble duke, one would have thought No price would that brave steed have bought ; That ne'er you'd found it in your heart With your unbeaten horse to part, For all the or in all the tnonae. —The Referee's correspondent says that in Napier the rumour is current that Recluse was originally sold for £15, and that his dam, Voltarina, is in the possession of a widow lady, who has been besieged with applications to purchase the mare, but who will neither sell nor lease her. From Wanganui, however, comes the story that Recluse was bred by a Mr Copeland, and that he was such a miserable looking foal that at one time he was actually offered to some Maoris in exchange for eight Maori pigs. This would have been casting pearls before swine with a vengeance. —Extract from the catalogue of Mr Bonnor's sale:— Maud S. was purchased from the late Wm. H. Vanderbilt, on August 19, 1884, and since then she has reduced her record twice — to 2min 9£sec on November 11, 1884, at Lexington, and to 2min B|sec on July 30, 1885, at Cleveland. She has also the fastest record ever made, 2min i3§sec, in a race against other horses, and Mr Vanderbilt drove her and Aldine to a top road waggon a mile at Fleetwood Park in 2min 15|sec. •This is the fastest time' ever made by any team of trotters, being Jsec faster than the best record of any team to skeleton waggon with professional driver. — " Trumpeter " says that' an amusing story comes to hand of how a verdant racing official at Nairne (S A.) was taken down. The pockettotalisator man "got 5s from him just to give the book a start. The horse backed won, and the official presented" the ticket. At first the man refused to pay; the ticket must be a false one, as he bad paid all the tickets issued. Finding that this cock would not fight he admitted his indebtedness, but said he had not any money. However, he was an honest man, and in proof of this produced his watch and chain which he had been offered £3 for in Adelaide, and this he gave his creditor in satisfaction for the ss, receiving £2 15s in cash. When the guileless young man took his newly acquired watch and chain to the local jeweller he was told that it was not worth 10s.