IN A NUTSHELL.

Otago Witness, Issue 2160, 18 July 1895, Page 36

IN A NUTSHELL.

— Norton is now in Christchurch. — Muscovite has been sold to go to India. — Sam Loates ro ie the double eveut, D^rby and Oaks ' — Ci-bine will probably be given two mares this season. — Brin and Victim will probably run at the National meeting. — Norton goes to Eogland by the Gothic, which sails on September 19. — Liberator is handicapped at 12.7 in the N.Z. Grand National Steeplechase. — Shin sortsiiesa was the reasou of Tha Lorni bard]s withdrawal from the Derby. I — There are 32 nominations for the Vincent Trot, all from the country districts. — Backers fell heavily over the New Zealand " hack " Vagrant at \Villiani3t wn. — For camm.nts on the Gisborue meeting see our Auckland correspondent's letter. —J. Cunningham, who went home with Carbine, is to be kepc on at Welbock Abbey. — Mr Harrie Smith, stcretiry to thu V. A..J.C, is dead. He bad hcen ill for several months. — 'Jhe Kurow Club, which ha-j £175 10s standing to its credit, will race this ytar on October 3. — The Gorton pony Vorcex is not done with yet. He won a race at Mooreficld Park (Sydney) on the 26th ult. — Ihe Imported horse Fitz Donovan, who is engaged in the two Cups, has joined Tom P_y ten's stable at Randwick. — Retrenched, winner of a welter at Williamstown on the 29th ult., ii by Sommeil, who as a youngster extended Carbine. — Culloden's lauieuesj is not so serious as was at first anticipated, and the New Zealanicr is supposed to b<3 on the tracks again. — The one mile record in E.. gland is now held by Dornro&chen, who covered the distance at Nottingham last seanon in Imin 3ti?-ec. \ — Response, with 7.7, ran secoad to Tricolour (by Trident) 6.10 in the Moorefield Handicap, a mile and a quaiter, at Sydney on the 29th ult. j — According to the Au-jtrala: ian's American correspondent, "' Hidalgo," the great Ormonde i 3 almost impotent, aud has developed a frightful temper. — At tbe end of May the list of winning sires in England was headed by Baroaldine with £7365, Galopin coming second with £718(3, and Wisdom third with £6'J55. — The V.R.C. has decided to suspend for three months the by-law iixing the entrance fee for members at £20 in oider to encourage inoie racing men to join the club. — La Sagesse won the Oaks by a length and ahalf; same botween second and third. The winner started second favourite at 5 to 1, Garter Queen being favourite at 3 to 1. — That fast but unlucky horse Quadrant won the Stewards' Mile at Moorericld (Sydney) on the 29th ult. He carried 5.7, started at 4to 1, and won by half a length in imiu 47.iec. — Tho Gipsy King gelding 1> i:-h Hoy, who went out second favourite lor the Winter Handicap at Williamstown, delayed the start by playing up, and finally refused to budge when the barrier went up. — Several very diminutive jockeyj were seen in Salisbury in May, of whom one, C. Purkiss, car.ied nearly 2.0 dead weight, despite the f that his mount had only 6.11 to bejr. His exa'.'t weight is 4.8. — Piuton, belonging to Major Stirling, won the Nuttiugham Handicap, onu mile, at three o'clock, and at rive o'clock the Hurdle Race, one mil-- aud aha'.f, ridden by William Reeves, beating hinart platers in both events. — Says "Gipsy King": Had the former Dunedin owner of old Swivel seen the gelling drtsi down the good field in the Winter Oats Handicap at Napier Park, it is tafe to say he would regret having i-oM him for £9. — "Terlinga" saya that at present the following look likely to supply the winner of the jllelbourne Cup : — The Harvei-ter, Devon, Atl is, Mahee, Bruin, Dreamland, Ghejtenuan, Music, Taranaki, Bradfotd, The Trier, aud Vanitas. — "Phaeton " of Auckland, who i 8 not a bad judge, says of the N.Z. Cup weights : After consideration of Mr Henry's work, the seven that find 1 moot favour in my eyes are : Prime Warden, Mabaki, Skirmisher, Casket, Pegasus, Magazine, and Gipsy Grand. „ — Masruila Khan was much pleased with the Derby. Only he thought it was all arranged beforehand that the Prince of Wales sh uld win the first race he saw, aud the Prime Minister the second ; which is probably exactly what would have happened in Kabul. — The greatest value of the Derby has baen £7350, won by Lord Lyon in 18K6; the leist, £925, wh eh it was in 1785. 1792, and 1802-Aim-well, John Bill, and 'iyrant being the winners. The greatest number of starters has been 31, in 18 J2 ; the least four, in 1781. — Mr M P Considine's improved cap for riders in jumping races is a stiff skull cap of tufli -iuiit subbtiuicc apparently to affurd considerable protection to the heads of jockeys who may have the misfortune to fall, and the ordinary jockey's silk cap fits over it. — Frantic, though he ran well in the Steeplechase at Williamatown, must have hurt hmisi-lf internally, for on returning to the saddling pad- [ dock he broke a blood vessel and dropped dead. Frantic, who was by Infidel from Ruby, won two | hurdle races and a steeplechase in Sydney in 1892. He was bought by J. E Brewer for £19. I — A writer in an English paper says : I have come to the conclusion that jockeys occasionally get off form, the same as horses do. When a rider, however fashionable he may bs, has had say a dozen consecutive losing mounts on horses that on paper seemed to have good chauce3, he bhould take a rest for at least a fortnight. — The ('luloners and Bradfords in the time of Henry VIII received 25s for a winning mount, and, in the apprehension Ilut they might unduly fancy thenisel ves and " swagger " preinatui ely, the fee was aftervnvds reduced by one fourth ; while on the principle that caure for the jockey was suitable for the trainer, the Dawsons and Porters stood in for a corresponding emolument. — No declaration was marie with either of Sir J. Blundell Maple's pair, The Owl and Kiikconnel, in the Derby, and they ran on tht;ir merits, with the result that the Newmarket Stakes running was reversed, and Kukconnel finished in front of his stable companion. The Owl's defeat may be partly attributable to the fact that a week previou-ly he got cast in his box and bruised oue of bin knees. — 1 could not help smiling, writes "Teilinga," when I read the report of the mneting of trainers held at Ciiilfield to discuss the totnlisator. As most people an* aware, the piincipal trainers at Caulfield are Messrs J. Redfearn, P Martin, I. Foulsham, J. H. Davis, S. Griffiths M Carmody, J. Gardner, J. E. B-ewer, and II Connolly. Not one of these trainers seems to have taken active part iv the proceedings. — Wild Dark, the dam of the Grand National winnei, Wild Man from Borneo, i* now in Germany. The mare, who is the property of Baron Kap-heer (lieut. l7ih Lancers), recently won a handicap steeplechase in a canter, carrying 12.0, beating 6 horses, and since then ran second in an Officers' Steeplechase at Bremen. The mare has this season been put to Botschafter I, by Chamant or Dreadnought out of Miss Boswell, by Stock--well. — Lord Lamiogton, the list survivor of the Gaming Committee of the House of Commons, \vbo:e report suppressed public gambling in London, stated in Blackwrood's Magazine, shortly before his death, that " had they been aware of the dimensions which private gambling was destined to assume, they would never have recommended the abolition of public gambling, which, of the two, is by far the 1-ss injurious and liable to abuse." — Sir Visto's success in the Derby was well received, the cheering beiug sufficient, as one writer puts it, to provide an answer to the mawworms and Chad bands who list year used their influence to induce Lord Rosebery to retire from the tnrf ; but the scene was not such a thrilling one as when Ladas got home last year. The British public dearly love a lord, 'tis said ; but they don't get really excited unless their " stuff" is on. — Perhaps one of the most interesting features in connection with the result of the Derby, says au English writer, is the fact that, for the first time in 41 jears, a descendant of Match em has proved victorious. Not only so, but Sir Vi*to is out of a mare tracing in tail male to Herod, as does the second horse, Curzon. The over-powering

line of Eclipse, which Bupplied the remainder of the field (with the exception of Slow Step), has had for once to tahe a back seat. - No wonder only two horses were placed in the Epsom Gtand Prize. There were no moro started. The excellent form shown by Whittier, combined with the extremely hard state of the ground, had -the effect of frightening away opposition, and, reduced to the proportions of a match, t*e extravagant odds of 30 to 1 were betted on Wnittier against Powick. 'ihe last-named never hid the ghost pf a chance. From this year the Prize, after being in existence since 1881, disappears from the programme of the Summer meeting. — " The trotting tracks aivund Paris are provided with an immense blackboard, upon which ii noted after each turn aiound the track how many more turns are left ; thus : Remain — 1, 2, 3, or 4 turns, as the case may be. This board is erected for the benefit of the riders, in order tint they may avoid mistakes and not pull up before they have completed the dihtauc?. French j 'Ckeya in»y require such hints, but I fancy a rider must be a very powerful idiot if he can't count his own circuits in a trotting race." Thus a northern writer, who may be surprised to learn that a Bimilar arrangement is worked at Lancaster Park, and is found a public convenience.