CANTERBURY DOINGS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1891, 1 May 1890, Page 24

CANTERBURY DOINGS.

By RATA.

The great advantage of New Zealand as a country for the rearing of thoroughbred stock lies in its mild winters. For any race run in New Zealand at any time a horse in training can be brought to the post in absolute condition, provided he haß been in training for a period sufficiently long to make him fit ; and, as I have argued previously, the racehorse can be brought to a greater state of excellence in New Zealand than can possibly be done in the " home of the thoroughbred," provided he be bred on equally scientific and intelligent principles, and these do not constitute the art of blending blood strains wholly. Animal progeny of any kind cannot be produced on the principles adopted by the tea blender. In breeding first-class racehorses you want in the sire aud dam the greatest degree of excellence in breeding and in innate quality, and bayond that you require to be expert enough to alleviate faults of conformation, temperament, and constitution in a dam by other and not directly opposite properties in a sire, and vice versa. I have heard it argued frequently that to get a real stayer put two non-stayers together, but that argument is not a good one, and one that could not be corroborated in practice. I have seen a fairly good stayer coming from such a nick— perhaps, too, more on account of breed than stamina — but getting such a one is rarely other than a bit of luck. In the case of a non- stayer there must be something defective in the respiratory organs, though that defectiveness may not amount to actual disease, and in the mating of such horses the progeny produced will in a majority of instances be really non-stayers. My impression is that a deterioration of stamina in the racehorses of any country is more directly a result of a systematic breeding of inferior sprinters than an excess of sprint racing. Were I a breeder I should certainly prefer putting a brilliant short-distance mare to an equally brilliant non-stay-ing sire, provided the pair were likely to nick well in point of conformation, temperament, and constitution, with an absence of hereditary disease in either, rather than I would cover suoh a mare by a really staying stallion if that stallion lacked actual brilliancy over sprint courses on the turf, or lacked quality in appearance, immaterial of breeding. In breeding from two brilliant sprinters, both well bred and well made, and no irbreeding in their stock, you have a big show of getting a sequence of clippers over short distances, and these will frequently bo found good enough to put down real stayers over courses further than a mile on the score of superior speed. But put a real good short-dißtance mare to a comparatively clow stallion that has been a stayer on the turf, and laokß quality in his appearance, and you will very frequently get a foal that when raced will stay no better than his dam did, and beyond that he will be endowed with all his sire's slowness. i The extremes of actual quality are too great, howj ever sire and dam may be bred, for the progeny to throw directly back to either, or to blend the qualities of sire and dam in proportionate excellence. Except by a chunce you mußt get an infeiior racer on the mating.

The greatest evil of breeding sprinters rests inbreeding them badly— that is, from brtd perfofmers. Breed them well and they pay admirably. Take, for instance, the Apremont — Nautiluß nick. From that nick Cutts has had four very smart sprinters in Galatea, Teredo, Gynisca, and Pygmalion. This season Nautilus has a foal at foot to Tasman, and has been covered by Loehiel. Good horse though Tasman ia, I shall not be surprised should the foal throw back to Nautilus— a non-stayer —in point of stamina, and show less speed as a two-year-old than did Galatea, Teredo, Oynisca, or Pygmalion. Nautilus is an uncommonly good brood mare, and though Tasman is a good stallion, showing a lot of quality, I fancy that the characteristics of the Nautilus stock are too pronounced to admit of her own lack of staying capacity being counterbalanced In her future progeny by the undoubted stamina of a horse like Tasman. You can rarely breed successfully from extremes of good quality if the dam be an exceptionally good matron, and I fancy somehow that that fact has engendered the impression that two non-Btayers will produce a stayer in this way i You have a brilliant mare over sprint courses, and one in every way suitable for breeding purposes, and to mitigate the fault of nonstaying you put her to a stallion of undoubted stamina immaterial of the conformation of either, and as a result of an extreme difference of characteristics you get a better stayer mayhap than the dam, but a horse that is less brilliant in the matter of pace than either sire or dam. He has been tried to stay a mile and a-quarter, say, but he gets beaten in second-class company over that distance when strung up as a three-year-old. The next of that mare 1 * progeny is got, say, by a very smart sprinter, and at the same age that second of the mare's stock is good enough to put down good second-class company over a mile and a-half . He does it, however, by superior speed rather than real stamina. He is perhaps a flrst-olass horse up to a mile, and over a longer course perhaps any first-class stayer could beat nim. In fact he may be a considerably worse itayer than his halfbrother, but his superior speed appears to make him stay better over a mile and a-half than did his halfbrother over a mile and a-quarter, and a sprinter of that class is worth more than a stayer of inferior quality. My experience is that in regard to non-staying — and staying, too, for'that matter— progeny throw back to the dam rather than the sire, provided dam and sire have both been first-class performers, or racers that would have been first-class performers. You cannot get good stock without good blood, but innate quality in a well-bred dam or sire is even of greater moment than a fashionable pedigree. Suppose you put a mare that is no more than a decent plater to a first-class stallion, in all probability the mare will be improved upon in her progeny, provided the stallion be calculated to nick well with her. Such a mare as Red Rnsign, for instance, would throw a butter foal than herself in a majority of cases in a sequence of years, if covered by Tasman — I fancy Tasman and Red Ensign would nick ; but I hardly think the foal from Nautilus by Tasman , will be as good as the Apremont— Nautilus progeny pecuniarily. Nautilus is now covered by Loehiel, and I should not be surprised did that nick even surpass the Apremont— Nautiluß stock. Loohiel was got by a non-staying sire, too, but Lochiel could stay, and I fancy from the conformation of sire and dam that the progeny will be superior to the present Tasman — Nautilus foal, though that may be a^fairly good one. Whatever may have been Lochiel's staying capacity, the extremes in the Loohiel— Nautilus nick will not be too great to deteriorate anything in point of quality in regard to speed ia the progeny. The argument is this : Mate a pair of firstclass sprinters, conformation all right, and you may get another first-class sprinter; mate a first-class sprinter with a stallion of stamina, conformation not assimilating, and you will deteriorate the quality of sire and dam in the progeny ; mate a thirdrate sprinter to a first-class long-distance horse, and you will improve on the dam and deteriorate the quality of the Bire in the offspring, immaterial of conformation, provided class be extreme enough, and you can have the greatest extremes of class, like the greatest extremes of quality, in similar breeding. You cannot do any harm by putting a first-olass alxfurlong mare to a first-class mile stallion, should the pair appear to nick in symmetry; but where the evil of breeding sprinters mainly lies is in putting second and third rate six-furlong mares to indifferent stallions. The present query is : What weight will Ahua have in the Grand National ? I should think Chemist will be entitled to a bit more weight should he enter, and I should aIBO think the handicapping committee would limit the maximum to 12.7 on a 9.0 minimum. St. James cannot be of any good now, though I suspect he has gone off somewhat since winning the Dunedin Oup. The general impression here is that he must have gone a bit off, otherwise he would have had " a very nice show" of winning the Dunedin Oup had some of the Northern horses remained in. I hear that La Hose has got a lot quieter than she was formerly, and there is no doubt that La Rose can travel, but St. James, were he an average Dunedin Oup winner, ought to have been good enough to lower La Rose's number at a concession of 41b. Mr " Hammond " evidently meant having a big go to win the Timaru Cup with Catamount. Perhaps Catamount is not altogether fit now— not as fit as he can be made, and he is also a very badtempered horse, but I am certain he can gallop nevertheless. Thomas, one of the best feather weights we have at Riccarton, went to Timaru to ride Catamount, but on the second day he was absolutely unable to set him a-spinning. Before the spring, however, White may succeed in knocking a bit of the temper out of Catamount. Catamount may never be a Sultan, but tame him properly and he will be a useful horse notwithstanding. A good horse is Aloinous that won the Con- . solation at Timaru, and I shall ba surprised if we fail to hear of him in the future. He has not been fit for some time back, but no doubt Sheenan will have him in fettle for the spring, and should he fail to win a big race on the fiat he can hardly fail to distinguish himself over fences when properly schooled. He is bred that way, and his conformation is admirably adapted for jumping. Sheenan has now commenced to school Erin-go-Bragh over hurdles. He has been turned out for some time back, and he is very big, but he certainly shapes uncommonly well as a novice at timbertopping. K. Mason, who has been very unwell for some time back, is now rapidly recovering, though no doubt some time will elapse before ha is absolutely convalescent. They are beginning with the jumpers very soon this season at Riccarton. Garryowen was the first stranger to arrive, and he is being pushed along now, and no doubt we will see a good bit of jumping practice in the course of a week or two. — [This letter arrived a day late last week. — Ed.] April 29. It is generally believed that la grippe ib well known about Riccarton at present. That influenza is contagious is beyond doubt, and that is absolutely proved in regard to horses. Last year we had an epidemic amongst horses at Riccarton, and that was undoubtedly influenza, and my opinion is that the supposed la grippe now going the rounds is an identical disease affecting different animals differently. I have seen a lot of influenza in horses, and I have frequently noticed that different epidemios are different in the degrees of their severity, though "vets" class influenza as one disease, and graduate it after the manner of positive, comparative, and superlative in accordance with the degree of affection the animal exhibits. The worst kind of influenza, too, is always the most contagious, and with influenza, of almost any degree in one of these closed in stables like we have in New Zealand no horße will escape that ib liable to contagion. It is all very well to say that "I have had horses standing together, and while one was suffering from influenza another was never affected by it, and a proportion of horses standing away from them altogether were affected." Precisely so; but the horses not affected were not amenable to influenza at that particular time, though they might be on any occasion afterwards. I have known contagious diseases disseminated throuith the parcel post, yet I have seen several patients (intimate acquaintances) in the worst stage of smallpox and I have never had smallpox, though it does not follow that I might visit a smallpox patient again without fear of contagion. The tracKs at Riccarton are in capital order now, but the most interesting work is confined to the horses in training for the Dunedin May meetiDg. A majority of the flat racers here are now being given steady work only, and that will continue for a month or two, when they will be put into physic all round preparatory to commencing work for their spring engagement 1 !. In regard to tie jumping horses, we will no doubt have a strong contingent here presently, mostly hunters, and most interesting is the exercise of these horses occasionally. I fancy that 1 have Been Kiccarton jockeys ride hunters over post ami rail fences on the schooling ground that the owners pf these hunters would hardly care to tackle on. simi-

lit cattle. No doubt we will hear some grumbling this season as üßiial in regard to the schoolingground and obstacles, but the only thing I see that the course could be much improved by for training purposes would be the laying down of a good winter gallop. Ruby is undoubtedly a most worthless horse in consideration of his previous form and the estimate handicappers must form of him. My impress Bion is that Ruby will never show his true form with 8.0 or over on his back. Give him anything from 7.5 to 7.10 and I believe he would run a good horse, and I strongly suspect that all his brilliant gallops on the training track must have been done under similar weights to these. It is stated now that the connections of some runners at Ashburton knew that Yarra was a "moral" for the big race on the first day were she to run up to her trial I hardly think that her victory affected the running of some of the other horses, however, though no doubt it would have been a case of a bit on Yarra and a bit on something else. A greatly-improved mare is Yarra, and it is singular what good horses of all classes go through Butler's hands. Could he sell as well as he buys Be might speedily be worth a good many thousands, but in nature Butler is too much of the sportsman to make a good horsedealer. Jim Thompson, who bought Northcote for a " tenner " after his leg had given way, tells me that in all probability the nag will stand now, and that the West Coast trip benefited both owner and trainer pecuniarly. No doubt we will Bee Northcote out at the Grand National meeting. I imagine that Erin-go-Bragh will make just as good a hurdle-racer as he did a flat-racer— i.e., he will pay aB well over sticks as he did on the flat. Sheenan has got a lot of flesh on him, and no doubt he will keep him a bit big, if possible, for hurdle racing. The Red Rose colt in the same stable will be schooled over sticks eventually unless he be considerably more than a plater on the flat. He was bought to make a hurdle racer of. I fancy he will be a fairly good nag, however, on the flat. White is putting a lot of work into Catamount now, and he assures me he is confident of making his manners at the starting post a bit better ere the winter be over. I have always thought Catamount had pace, and I think so now ; and I shall not be at all surprised to see him win a good handicap sooner or later. The former trainer of Sultan was enumerating his three-year-old victories some days since, but I strongly suspect that Sultan as a three-year-old never met an Ahua. Ahua is no duff er on the flat even.

I noticed the July— Mignon colt bought by B. Cutts after theO. J. O. Autumn meeting being broken in a day or two ago. He looks a racing-like youngster. There is no doubt that the three Tasmans O'Brien has got will be fairly good horses. I fanoy all three of O'Brien's brood mares are good, mares that a horse like Tasman' will nick as well with as anything. I have seen the yearlings from Lonsdale Lodge hacked about the roads pretty often recently. I do not known what kind of horseß they breed in the Chatham Islands, but Harry Thomson has just let his place to somebody who has lately arrived from there with some horses to sell.