TALK OF THE DAY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2085, 8 February 1894, Page 28

TALK OF THE DAY.

*** The Dunediu meeting is so fast approaching that by next week we should have a pretty fair line, in the general entries due this Saturday, as to what horses ore likely to put in an appearance. I expect to see a very fairly representative collection from the north, and a strong "push" from Otago; but tho local crowd will be considerably weakened by the scratching of Skirmisher for the Cup, which I take to be an intimation that the colt will not bo likely to sport silk at tho meeting. He has not met with any mishap, but M'Guinness reckons that the son of Ouida wants easing up rather tbsn pushing along, and there you have the reason in a narrow compass. The stable is to be commended for the early withdrawal, it being in the interests of backers that horsea whose chance of going to the post is hopeless should pass out at the soonest possible moment. It would give general satisfaction if this popular stable were to win the Cup with Dilemma, but I fear there in but a small chance of that result. The son of Lady Emma pulls up sore nearly every other day, and I have authority to caution the public that he is a doubtful starter, though he will be kept in yet awhile on the chance of coming right by the day. Maremma, the two-year-old brother to Dilemma, has the strangles, and it is exceedingly unlikely, I regret to hear, that he will race this month.

*** There is really nothing new to say as to the prospects of the Cup, further than that of Mr Stead's pair Stepniak seems the more disposed to harden in the betting market. The favouritism is divided as between him aud Prime Warden and Clanranald. Pegasus will be a non-acceptor when the final payments are made, and I hardly expect to see Johnny Faa pay up. There should, however t be seven or eight in the race when all the payments are made, and these will go to the post unless something unforeseen intervenes. Hippomenes is now a decided favourite for the Publicans', but if it were known for certain that he would Btart for the Cup the seven-furlong event would have the appearance of & very open race. The handicap for the Hurdle Race is one that I hardly care to touch at present, seeing that the acceptances are due almost at once ; but I may remark that I prefer Cajolery to Clarence at even weights and Silvertail to Rebel, though the accidents of the race may cause the preferred pair to be beaten by- cither of the others. One of these four should, however, win, though I am not prepared to say that they are unduly favoured in' the matter of weight. As to the Stewards' Welter, it seems to me that Persuasion has nothing to complain of, and I should take Her, with a start, to beat all the light weights, while ''Exile, Maribyrnong, Gitauo, and Paramu are so far as can be seen the best of tho others. Next week we shall have a better idea, perhaps, of owners' intentions.

*** From the report given in the local paper it appears that it was Aldershot that ran second to Mountain Maid in the President's Handicap at Tapanui. He was beaten a couple of lengths in the fair time of lmin 19sec for six furlongs. The unplaced runners were Primrose, Craighead, and Maybloom, the latter carrying 151b overweight. Another correction is that it was not Moresby, but Modesty, that finished second in the Maiden Trot. Almost all the starters in this event had turns at breaking, and I reckon they were a poor lot on the form ehowu. The winner's time for the Mile and a-half was 4min 36sec. Old Maori Jack has trotted the distance in 4min losec, and he never was a wonder. The Maiden Plate winner, Lulu, is a five-year-old daughter of Le Loup and Martyrdom, bred by Mr Taggart. She and the outsider Tommy fought out a tough contest, at the end of which there was only a head between them, third place being secured by Mr Craig's Ysletta, who had gone out first favourite. The other starters were Traitor, Sailor Boy, and Paddy Melon, and the time was 2min 27sec. Five went out for the Tapanui Handicap, a mile and a-half. ,Wild Wave 6.9, the outsider of the party, played up at the post and was eventually left; but she rushed through, and at a quarter of a-mile was in the lead with Wolseley 8.5. At the end of a mile Wild Wave was done -with, aud Specton 8.0 improved his position, while Mariner 8.0 settled down to business, and a fair finish found Wolaeley a winner from Mariner by a couple of lengths in the good time of 2min 44sec. Conjurer 8.9 was the other starter. The misdeacription which proved fatal to Nea, after coming home first iv tho Trot, was that she had been entered as a galloway of 14-hda 2iu, while her actual height with shoes on was 15hds. Nea' s time was Bmin bßsec. Gaiety, who waß adjudged the winner, carried the colours of Mr M. Hanley. Billy had no difficulty in conceding 51b to Brown Byes in the District Handi-

cap, and he ran the mile and a-quarter in 2min 23sec. Tommy's performance in the Novel Race was creditable in consideration of the fact that he lost 20 lengths at the start and yet managed to make a dead heat of it on level terms as to weight with that approved miler Diver, a neck behind Emperor. This Tommy may be worth watching in such races. I observe that whereas he raced in Mr J. Patterson's name at Tapanui, he was carrying Mr Lambert's colours at Tuapeka, thereby indicating a change of ownership. The unplaced one in the Grand Stand Handicap was Huia 6.9. She seems to be unable to stay a mile ; in fact, she was never dangerous in this race. Mariner made the pace, but was cut down at the finish by both Wild Wave and Mountain Maid.

*#* The grey gelding Outram, who had an easy win in the Hunters' Flat Race on>the second day, is, I think, a son of Duntroon. He led all the way. In the Flying Stakes Primrose 7.0 ran home rather easily from Mountain Maid 9.3, Huia 6.10 being third and Emperor 7.5 fourth, while Lynx 6 12 and Craighead7.2 were unplaced. The time was lmin 18sec. Primrose was, as we know, disqualified on the ground that she was owned by a disqualified person — Mr Mortimer. She had been entered by Mr Goodman, but since entry day was Bold to Mr Loughlin, who. sold, it was held, to Mr Mortimer, though Mr G. Johnson has now come forward to say that he was the real owner, Mr Mortimer having acted as his agent in the purchase. Mr Johnson considers himself aggrieved, and asks the metropolitan to take up the case ; but I really do net seejbow he has any right to such a remedy, for if he had a case he should have laid it before the Tapanui stewards. Jenny won the Two-mile Trot very easily, in 6min Gjsec. She had a handicap of 27aec, while Banjo had 20jec and Gaiety 15seo from Tom. Mariner 8.9 and Specton 7.13 were exactly equal favourites for the R.C. Handicap, a mile and a-quarfcer, and both were knocked out at the finish by Wild Wave 7.0, on whom Pine rode a good race. Diver beat Emperor and eight others at level weights in the Selling Race, and was bought in at £18. In the Stewards' Handicap, one mile, Mariner 9.2 indulged Huia 6.11 with the lead till the last turn and then smothered her, doing the distance in lmin 49 3 ssec. Cigarette 22sec had a very soft thing in the Consolation Trot, beating Tom scr and Banjo 12eec for places, and doing the mile and a-half in 4min 31sec ; and the programme closed with the Consolation, won by Aldershot 8.12 after a set-to with Specton 8.3, Huia 6.7 a poor third, the time being lmin 50iaec.

*#* New Zealand has more than the usual amount of interest in the Champion Stakes this year, and the remarks of the Australasian as to the new conditions are distinctly readable, being on the lines of sound judgment. In deciding on a 31b penalty for the Derby and Leger winners, says the writer, the committee have really robbed the race of its weight-for-age distinction without obtaining any compensating advantage. Should Loyalty /beat Carnage at 31b he will not be able to claim credit for having defeated Mr Wilson's colt on the time-honoured championship terms, whereas the penalty imposed on the St. Albans colt is so slight that the chances are it will not have the least effect on the result of the race. According to Mr Dakin' s estimate of the capabilities of our three-year-olds, Carnage will not lose the Champion because of this new departure of the committee; but should some other colt beat him the credit to the winner will be lessened through the amending of the terms of the race. We must say we cannot see that there was any call for the penalising of Derby and Leger winners. It is only right that the best horse of the day should have some consideration shown him. Ib is only now and again that they can win a big handicap, and no one grudged the Champion Race going to the crack of the day. On the contrary, we think the Carbine of his time should secure this stake as a reward of superiority. When they borrowed the time-limit proviso from the bicycle code, the Y.R.C. introduced a startling innovation hitherto unheard of iv racing. By adopting thiß idea the club scored from a "public" point of view, but the time may come when this mode of forcing the besb horse to make a pace may be found to act harshly. Some horses, it is well known, do not shine when making their own running, and the day may come when some certainty will be bowled over, simply because, in order to rnn the distance under smin 45sec, he will be forced to try and lead from end to end. The time limit saves us from witnessing such burlesques as took place in Strathmore's year, but it raises the question of whether a racing club is justified in dictating to a man as to how his horse shall be ridden in a race.

* # * The announcement that one Alexander, ■of Sydney, has been sentenced to three months' imprisonment for conducting a consultation is of more than^ passing significance, not because of the man personally, but as a tip to all and laundry that the New Houth Wales Government is in earnest about carrying out the new legislation forbidding these consultations. I am satisfied, at any rate, that they are hurtful to racing. By their means large sums of money are accumulated for division according to results on the turf. Hence there is something to hope for, to angle for, to scheme for, to bully for, to swindle for. Outrageous things have been done under such influences. I have seen a jockey turn traitor to his employer, and ride against orders, for the sake of the bribe offered by the holder of a horse in a consultation. I have heard of a man drawing a horse and then receiving word that unless he laid the stable a half of the first money to nothing the horse would be scratched. Cases are not unknown of horses that had no show of winning being started in a race at the instance of ignorant persons who happened to be interested in their chance through such means. Nothing very bad in this, do you say ? Perhaps not, from a moral point of view. That is, the act is not a positive offence. But if you had a son riding in a race, my friend, and saw your boy's neck imperilled by reason of unfit horses swelling the field and thereby increasing the chances of an accident, perhaps you might perceive the evil. These are only some of the perverse results of consultations from a racing point of view, but they constitute a very powerful reason for satisfaction at finding the man gradually driven back. He has had to leave New Zealand, thank goodcess ; New South Wales has had enough of him ; and presently the Queensland folk will begin to find out that in offering him an asylum ihey are sowing the seed of a weed which sooner or later will have to come up by the roots unless it is to choke racing. I say not a word as to the effect of consultations from a general point of view. Let others attend to -that. My contention is that, be the sweep ever so squarely conducted, it is inherently a bad thing for racing, and I am glad the New South Wales folk see it in that light.

*** The Sydney Turf Club meeting on the 26th ult. opened with the Hurdle Race, in which Anarrow 11.0 was made favonrite among * dozen runners, and won easily by seven

engths in the fast time of 3min 55sec for the two miles. Anarrow is a son of Captivator. The absurdly-named Challenge Stakeß, which is a six-furlong handicap of 250sovs, produced a field of 23, Marvel being top weight with 10.2. The result was a boil-over. Gloria 7 8 dashed to the front and made every post a winning one. She came round the bend at a great pace, and made the home turn four lengths clear of the others. Cannon 7.4- then pressed the leader hard, and gained at every stride, and was only defeated by half a length ; All Sorts 9 5 was a long length off. Time, lmin 14^9ec. The winner had previously taken the V.R C. Nursery Handicap and the Normanby Stakes. She is by Trenton from Aureola, by Angler from Chrysolite (imp.), by Stockwell, so is very aristocratically bred. She is engaged in the Newmarket Handicap at 7.12, but her weight will now be reviewed by Mr Dakin. Of the nine starters for the Steeplechase three felJ, another (Cardigan II) ran on to the rails and broke Longford's leg, and the race ended in an easy victory for the outsider Castlebar, a son of Lord Castlebar and Miss Avenel. The Corinthian Plate was taken by the English-bred horse His Reverence, and the Nursery Handicap by the despised Glendenon, and the chief event on the programme, the Anniversary Handicap, of 500aovs, 11-£furlongß, fell, as related last week, to The Trier. There were some well-known performers in this field, including Camoola 90, Little Bernie 8.9, Florrie 8.5, Mahee 8.5, Launceston 8.3, and Pulvil 7.5, the favourite being The Captain 8 3. Launceston made a prominent show early in the race, and was succeeded as leader by Queensborough 7.0. As they ran past the three-furlong post The Trier 6.9 reduced Queensborough's lead to a length, the pair being followed by Launceston, Solon 7.3, and The Captain, with Ballater 7.3 and Blue Peter 6.11 rapidly improving their positions. The Trier drew level with Queensborough at the home turn, with The Captain, Blue Peter, and Ballater racing in a cluster in the centre of the course, and rapidly gaining, but Trainor kept hard at work on The Trier, and, Queensborough dying away, The Trier won by threequarters of a length from Blue Peter, who defeated The Captain by a head for second place. Time, 2min 30Jsec.

*** According to accepted authorities, the thoroughbred attains maturity earlier than the pedigree trotter, while the latter lasta the longer. The late Hiram Woodruff remarks in his work on " The Trotting Horse of America " that a first-rate trotter will not attain his greatest excellence at three years old, nor at six either, if his excellence is going to be very great. He will probably be improving most when the thoroughbred horse of the same age has long gone from the turf. Indeed, there are inbtances of wonderful trotters that never exhibited extraordinary speed until they were from six to ten years old — one of which was the celebrated Flora Temple, who was the first to reduce the record of a mile below 2min 20sec. Thus those who aspire to produce champions of the trotting track have to exercise patience. Any attempt at forcing early maturity in bodily development and speed is, according to the best authorities, likely to lead to disappointment it victory on the trotting track is the sole object of the breeder.

*** A question of some importance is opened by remarks from the pen of the Sydney writer " Martindale." If the amount of money that is owing to various race clubs in the way of unpaid entrance fees were counted up, he says, there is little doubt but what it would amount to a goodly sum in the course of a season's racing. It is not the metropolitans that are the sufferers, but the country clubs are the. principal victims. To the latter the nominations are not so numerous that they can afford to leave them out if the required letter and fee does not closely follow the telegram. If the handicap is favourable then there is a chance of payment, but should the handicapper put on a weight that is not agreeable to the owner, then the club can wait for their money. The committee of the Casterton Racing Club in Victoria have determined to'get even with their defaulting owners by publishing their names in the newspapers. This is not a bad idea, as they cannot be put on the forfeit list, as the rules say that unless the fee is paid at time of entry the latter is void.

*«* I am afraid that in New Zealand the rule of practice is not to regard such nominations as void, but no harm is done unless in exceptional cases. Horses that are deemed to be authoritatively nominated are allowed to run in the case of well-known owners, and a balance is struck after the races, fees being deducted from winnings when there are any, and debited to the owner's account when there are no winnings to stand the deduction. In the very occasional instances where owners neglect or refuse to ante-op their names are published in the defaulters' list. As I have said, no great amount of harm is done by this process, so far as appears in the public records — that is, there are comparatively but very few cases in which owners require more pressing for payment than a formal reminder. They generally square up promptly. But difficulties do occur occasionally. A case in point came under my notice the other day. An owner nominated a couple of horses for a meeting which he was unable to attend personally. No contra arose, and he resolved to pay when nominating for the next meeting, soon to follow. He, however, got a note from the secretary announcing that immediate payment was necessary to escape being posted as a defaulter, whereupon he cashed up without delay, though considering that the club was rather sharp on him. As a matter of fact, he had let such accounts stand for a short time on previous occasions, and the demand was rather more prompt than usual ; but still the secretary was perfectly justified in his action. There is no reason why the books should stand unbalanced to suit the convenience of owners or anyone else. And though the practice here has on the whole worked fairly well, the principle hardly admits of a valid defence. It encourages delay in balancing, therefore is a humbug to the secretary and treasurer and auditor ; it is apt to produce complications in prompting unauthorised nominations for ulterior purposes, as in the not quite unfamiliar form of entering a good horse for the purpose of keeping weight ©ff another that is seriously wanted ; and, further, as a question of law it is doubtful whether a club is warranted in receiving such nominations. The safe plan, beyond doubt, is to stick to the rule and refuse all entries that are not accompanied with the stated amounb in cash.

*** Armature, the Maiden winner at Lawrence, is a sturdy sort of horse with a bold temper, and I should not be surprised to see him win another race or two when he gets a bit more condition on him. He is big just now, though Hankins turned him out very well considering the short time he has been in hand. He is a terribly lazy horse in private, and never showed a gallop anything like so good as that with which he won at Tuapeka; hence the big dividend. M'llroy had a deuce of a job to pull him up after winning, and could not do so till he had bolted half a mile and

jumped a culvert. Armature is, in fact, no boy's horse. Pine managed to hold him straight in the District Racß, but he ran off with Donovan on the second day. Here it may be remarked that the District Handicap win had nob much merib in it. Pennine made a very poor show aud there was only Huia to beat. I take the Maiden to be Armature's best performance, even though the time was rather slow. Mr Robert Cotton, of Waipori, as sbraighb an owner as we have in the colony, objected to Armature being classed as a district horse. His protest was on the ground that Armature had only just arrived. "He never stepped inside the boundary till last night," urged the protestor. " Supposing I had bought Carbine in Melbourne and had him trained there and brought here the night before the races, would you call him a district horse ? " Some of the stewards evidently regarded this as sound reasoning, but it was remarked by some of their number that Mou Loup was trained in Dunedin when he won, and a reference to the conditions of the race showing that it was merely required that candidates should have been owned in the district for three months — not a word about being trained — there was nothing for it after Mr Potts had produced his sale note, dated 4th July last, but to declare Armature eligible. The decision was, of course, the only one possible. I may remark, however, that it was the proper thing on the part of both Mr Cotton and Mr Potts to have the matter brought before the stewards before the race. All such objections should be made and disposed of prior to the running. The protest in the Novel was also correctly decided on the evidence — I heard it — and the stewards acbed wisely in declaring the deposit forfeited, by way of discouraging appeals of a frivolous nature.

* # * There was a protest on the second day in regard to the trotting of Keilawarra. This wellknown horse was objected to partly on the ground that he was not trying in the Novel Trot on the first day. Well, I saw that race. It was won by Amateur in bhe very slow time of 6min 16sec. Keilawarra, who started with Amateur at scratch, seemed to have no more pace than an oyster. Having made a mental note of his bad performance, I was very much surprised to learn on taking up my Times on Friday morning — I left by Thursday afbernoon's train — that he had won the Consolation, especially when I figured ib out that his win at a mile and a-half in 4min 30sec, though not fast, was 12sec smarber for the distance than the gait shown by Amateur, who beat him all to nothing on the first day. I reckon the facts constituted a very reasonable ground for protest, though at the same time I am pleased to know that the stewards, after inquiring into all the circumstances, were impelled into a finding for Keilawarra. It is for Mr Craig's sake I am pleased. He is a really good sport, and would not countenance an act of meanness, let alone a swindle. The rest of the racing calls for no comment by way of supplementing the report supplied, but I may remark that the club is to be commended for the alterations effected in the course. The straight is lengthened by four chains and a-half, and the site of the new paddock will be an admirable one when the trees now obscuring the view are cut down, and some seating acommodation is provided. My thanks are due to the officials of the club for the courtesy extended during my visit, particularly to Mr B. Hart, the efficient starter, and Mr Potts, the hard-working secretary ; while it may not be oub of place to here acknowledge the services of Mr Dowse, whose handicapping gave satisfaction, and whose presence is always welcome at country meetings. One feels safe, when a racing man of George Dowses experience is about, that nothing very far wrong will be done by the local stewards. The Tuapeka Club knows its business, presumably, with men like Hugh Craig on the stewards' list, bat there are courses in the colony where advice is often wanted.

*** Obago promises to be strongly represented at the C.J.C. Autumn meeting. The Great Easter Handicap prize of half ' a thou has attracted Paramu, Exile, R_angiatea, Skirmisher, Hippomenes, Wolf's Crag, Beadonwell, Forbury, Aldershot, IlaybeU, and The Idler ; while for the Autumn Handicap, at a mile and a-half, we have Hippomenes, Skirmisher, Beadonwell, and Rangiatea presenting themselves to the handicapper. I look in vain, however, for the names of Tempest and Dilemma in the Autumn Handicap list, and their absence is not an encouraging fact for any who may have backed these horses for the Dunedin Cup. In the Champagne Stakes further payments have been made on behalf of Rancour, the brother to Pique that effected a surprise at the Forbury in the spring ; Casket, who is supposed on present form to be one of the best two-year-olds in Otago ; Maremma, who since the payment was made has shown symptoms of strangles and may therefore not proceed any further with the engagement ; and Ambush, who has already proved herself a smart mare and will find herself relieved of the penalty which she will have to carry if she runs in the Dunedin Champagne. It is rather early to commence looking for the winner of the C.J.C. Champagne, but Blarney and Strath Braan will be an awkward pair to beat if they come to the post fit and well. Dunedin has also a fair share of the lot that are responsible for the full amount of the Second Challenge Stakes sweepstake, our candidates being Wolf's Crag, Britomarte, Casket, and Claremont. There are 33 nominally engaged, of whom seven are, we are told, to be struck out — 'eft in by nrsfcuke, I suppose. The candidates include a rare lot of good youngsters, though there might have been a better represeotatiou of the three aud four-year-old division. Saracen is very prominent among the seniors. Can it be that this is the race this joker is being saved for ? I fear it is not any idea of saving that has kept him in idleness lately ; but if he should happen to be right on the day he must have a say with all hia weight. Goosander is also in the list. Several North Island nominations for the handicap? were delayed till beyond the time owing to the interruption to the telegraph during the storm.

* # * Referring bo the great jumper Filemaker, an American paper says that neither whip nor spur is used with this horse, now 17 years old. The high jump of November 1890 was done over heavy round bars, about seven of them, the top one being raised after each jump. The going was on boards with a thick layer of tan over them. Fjlemaker cleared 7ft 2£in in the show ring. I saw it done. It was the first or second week of November. Filemaker never turned from any jump, and it would have been perfectly easy to break his great heart by going on, and with the bars at 10ft he'd have done his best. Potter wouldn't take him at 7ft 4in after one failure at that height ; he would give him one or two tries at most, and if he rose once and failed ho was trotted out. This brings me to his style of jumping. The horse rushed at the jump, but would not rise ab it if he got out of step, and again and again he would run almost into the bars, but never turned. Potter B&ys it was only that he knew he'd miscalculated his run, for he'd go at it again gaily, rush right, up, get well under, then rising

straight ha used to twist his quarters to the off — a sort of fling he had — and going down on the other side landed at an angle from the bars. This side-fling to the off by which he got his quarters over was very marked. After the 7ft 2£in was jumped, and Filemaker had nearly cleared 7ft 4in, though he knocked the bar down, Potter and saddle were weighed ; 1651b, or 11.11 was the weight.

*** In printing George Rivers's lebber explaining that jockey's riding of Cornicello in the Queenstown Derby, the Lake County Press adds this as a foot-note by the editor : •« The writer makes a number of mis-statements. He is wrong when he says the mare had not done a fast gallop since the Cromwell races. She had. She was not lame before the race. It would be a wonder if she was not afterwards. It was Scoles (not Rivers) who offered to make the wager, and produced the money, which Rivers and the owner of Aberdeen were in no hurry to cover ; and the circumstances of the proposed wager were, as we stated, from observation. We never saw the mare attempt t.o run to the outside, but we saw her in the furrow (on the inside). How, then, oame it that the mare w*9 cruelly spurred on the off side, and not touched on the near side, which would have tended to keep her out of the furrow ? The cutting of the girth through with the spur may be believed by those who choose. The mare did not look very tired when finishing. Despite this long lebber, we see no reason to alber anything we originally stated."

*#* Capital fields were seen onfc at the Wairio meeting last week, and the attendance was highly satisfactory, but somehow or other the tptalisator returns did not come up to expectations, the amount passed through by Mason and Roberts being only £654. Ardross and Fairy Queen ran very well in the Hurdle Race for over a mile, but Fairy Queen could not hang out the distance, and Ardross fouled a hurdle, thereby losing her rider, after which Juno was enabled to run home an easy winner. She seems to be a fair stayer. I am afraid there was not much class in that big field for the Maiden Plate. Most of them are matured horses, and we can hardly expect elderly maidens to be much account. The winner, however, may be more than passable, for he showed a bit of form later in the day when he beat Victory in the District Handicap. Irene stumbled in the Maiden and dislodged her rider. Billy outstayed Leinster in tha Cup, bub the latter beat Surefoot, and as this son of Hilarious was good enough to annex the Flying, beat'ng one of the best fields of the day, so far as one can judge on book form, I conclude that old Leinster it» not quite done. This, indeed, was pretty well proved by the way he galloped homo in the Consolation. Assassin, winner of the Maiden Hurdles, is the horse whoso name was lately taken oft' the disqualified list. He now races in the name of Mr T. Winton. The stewards are to be commended for their promptness in ruling out the mare thatwon the Trot under the name of Emily. Circumstances do not seem to indicate a bad case of ringing-in, for there was only one ticket on her in the machine, and a deliberate fraud would hardly be attempted through the medium of a mare that had just recently trotted so close by as Heddon Bush. Still, there was a breach of the rules, and an ugly one, in the change of name, and the stewards did the right thing in diverting not only the stake but the totalisator money towards the horse better entitled to it. Silver Bell has turned in some good dividends in his day. The best was the £169 4s his backers received at the Dunedin meeting in March of 1889.

*#* Space is not wasted in reproducing the concluding portion of Mr James Lowther's speech at the Gimcrack dinner last December. Ib is a cheerful contrast to the undertakerish deliverances too often heard in public. At no time, said Mr Lowther, had he ever taken a more cheerful view of the general position of turf affairs than on this occasion. He did not deny that there were abuses in connection with the turf, and grave ones too, which required serious consideration. He was not goiDg to say there were not a great many rogues about, because he knew full well there were ; but there was this consolation, they had been very well watched, and sooner or later they would be pounced upon. People might always fall back on the strong force of opinion, not only of the great bulk of persons associated with the owning of racehorses and the conduct of race meetings, but the great force of public opinion of this country, which, he felt certain, recognised the turf as a national institution — (hear, hear)— and that, whether liked or not, it had to be recognised. The pharasaical maliguer of his fellow^men who liked to ppeak of the turf and those connected with it, as persons of inferior moral orgauisation to himself — this individual, he thought, was nob so much in evidence as a few years ago. Those who tried to lay claim to a greater share of morality by displaying an utter absence of charity and attributing ever conceivable description of evil to their fellow men — those persons, he thought, they might allow to remain in all the magnitude of their own self-sufficiency and the general contempt of their fellow creatures. They might, he believed, congratulate themselves on the fact that the turf held its head aloft as one of the most straightforward and most popular institutions of the country. It was a means whereby all classes were brought together for the enjoyment of a common sport, and in that respect it stood alone, he thought, amongst all sports, pastimes, and recreations.

*#* Ten years ago it was the general belief that trotting in America had nearly reached its culminating point ; but this was also true 20 and 30 and 40 years ago, jet the progress in the last decade has fully kept step with any of its predecessors. The best record for one mile in harness was, at the beginning of 1884, 2min lOJsec, by Maud S., and is now 2min 4sec, by Nancy Hanks ; and no less than 23 trotters, Maud S. included, have beaten 2miu lO^seo. This is a stupendous showing, bub so strong is my balief — the quotation is from a wnfcer in Turf, Field, and Farm —in the general progress of the sport that \ do not hesitate to prediot that there will be at least 300 in the 2min lOsec list 10 years from now, and that no horse of this gait will bring a high price for its speed unless able to enter the select company indicated. The twomile record, 4min 46sec, was then held by Monroe Chief, aud has been reduced to 4min 328 ec by Greenlander. The three-mile record was 7min 21^ec, by Huntress, and has been lowered away down to 6min 55£ sec by Nightingale. The five-mile record, lSmin, belonged to Lady Mac, and has been reduced to 12min 30<fSec by Bishop Hero. In 1884 Controller held the 10- mile record, 27min 23isec, but the honour has been taken from him by Pascal, with a record of 26min 15sec. All other old long-distance records stand as they were 10 years ago, no attempt to beat them having been made. The reductions of records by young trotters have been even more marked. At the beginning of 1884, the fastest record by a yearling was 2min 36isec, by Hinda Rose, which has been lowered to 2min 23$seo by Pansy M'Gregor. Wttdflower had

the champion two-year-old record, 2min 21sec, which has been reduced to 2min lOfsee by Arion. Three-year-old honours were held by Hinda Rose, with a record of 2min 19£sgc, which Fantasy has dropped away down to 2min BJsec, equalling the champion record for all ages so long held by Maud S. The fasbest four-year-old record belonged to Bonita, 2min 18£ sec, but the mark for this age has now been placed at 2min sJsec by Directum. Santa Clans held the five-year-old record, 2min 18sec, which honour now belongs to Alix, 2min I% see. Ten years ago the stallion record was held by Smuggler, 2min 154 sec, and it has been lowered precisely lOsec by Directum, 2min s£sec.

*#* The Waikaia district hack race meeting was held on the 2nd inst., on a piece of ground owned by Mr Alex. Christie, about three miles above the township. The day opened with a drizzly rain. Some of the committee (says the Mataura Ensign) were for postponement ; others were determined to do or die. They did not die. The wet weather of course materially interfered with the attendance on the course, but no fewer than a couple of hundred turned up to witness the hack meeting. Considering the disadvantages this was eminently satisfactory, and it must, be pleasing to the office-bearers— they all worked well — to know that after all expenses are met a tidy nest egg will remain as the nuoleus for the next meeting. The Consolation was the best event of the day. In the Handicap Trot Miss Kay carried no less than 18.0. There were some protests, and it is understood another has been lodged against Darkie in the Scurry, on the ground that he ran at another meeting under a different Dame. The club may say that it was not lodged in time, but the protestor maintains that this is a case of ringing-in, and that under such circumstances a protest can be entered at any time. There was no authorised totalisator at the Waikaia meeting, but a "walking tote" was exceptionally successful, and would put Mason and Roberta to shame if they only knew his profits.