IN A NUTSHELL.

Otago Witness, Issue 2209, 2 July 1896, Page 33

IN A NUTSHELL.

— Havoc scratched for ,the Melbourne Cup. ." — r Qhe Witichnmn is in .the private sale list. — Malcolm Allan has taken a pub. at Palmerston. ■ — Aldarahot's hind lega are giving Goodman a lot of anxiety. — Victim is not ft certain starter in the Grand National Hurdles. — Captive's trouble, muscle Bofeness, is said to be not altojjet.hor cured. — The well-known stallion Marden has been purchased to go to France. — J. Cotton has only two horses in t training— viz., Victim and Tommy Atkins. ' — The yeariing colt by Occident— Knockhaspie . has been taken up by Jimmy Rutledge. \ —Mr James Redfearn has given the name of | Maliarda to the two-year-old sister to Maluma. — At a recent Melbourne suburban meeting a rider was fined £10 for arriving late at the post. . — Dunedin horses were working on the roads or on the beach last week The course was heavy. — One of the -wires shown to me from Napier 'on Monday, advised Mutiny or Kaika. Pretty good. — Messrs C. and S. Fairbairn are the owners of the Carbine— Needle colt, which has been christened Pinfire. —It was expected that there would be 300 nominations for the Caulfield Futurity Stakes, but the total made up only 117. — Major Owen, on his way to the front in Egypt, turned aside to ride the winner of a steeplechase at the Gezireh race meeting at Cairo. — J." M'Coomb, the rider, who has been having a bad time of it, told me the other day that ho hoped to be out of the doctor's hands this week. — Rika, brother to Portsea. is the best looking two-yeavold youngster at Randwick. He cost 500gs when a yearling, and he has never yet raced. — Poetry, the dam of Thais, died this year after foaling a filly to St. Serf. The youngster, who is a sister to the winner of the One Thousand Guineas, is alive. — The field of -19 that went to the. post for the One Thousand this year lias never been excelled in point of numbers, and only once equalled— when Belphoeb'e won in 1877. — Chester is a .great placetor gate, money. The total taken for admission at the May meeting was .£11,471, nearly: sß,ooo persons passing through the gates in the three days. — From '"Martindale" I learn that tho crosscountry rider Alfred Death is in the Melbourne ' Hospital. His complaint is pneumonia, and he is laid to beln a bad way.. _- „,.--„•« — From Adelaide it is learned that Mr S. Ferry has purchased the training establishment at Jordan Park, lately olfvned by Mr Thos. Jordan. The — Pan'B's opponent in" the ' Prince's Handicap at Gatwick was Bentwick, and 100 to 9 was laid on Paris, who made all the running «na won very easily ; Paris 94 Saatekk IL

— Sequin is the name selected for the yearling filly by Cuirassier— Radiance that Bishop is training. Radiance — brightness — Bhiujness -pretty coin hung round neck. See the application?

— Town and Country Journal (Sydney) states that a well-known up-country trainer and jockey, Aleok Robinson, is aoout to remove to New Zealand. Robinson has been for some in the western districts, and was fairly successful. — From England I loam of the death of Mr Richard Bell. Who was he ? First known in the racing world as the breeder of Seesaw (by Buccaneer—Margery Daw), sire of Rubezihl; and for seven years he was manager of the Cobham Stud. — Parole, now 83 years old, is running with the yoarlings at Rancocas Farm, America. The jaw of tho old performer was broken by a kick four years ago, but a scar is tho only reminder of the trouble. Dr Carter drove him in harness last winter.

• — Patron and Portßea have definitely retired from the turf. Mr Purches has made repeated attempts to train the brilliant pair for forthcoming important races, but finding the task hope Las, he intends to send them to the old Maribyrnong stud forthwith.

— The Kentucky Derby, run on May 6, produced eight Bta'ters, and the favourite, Ben Brush (2 to 1 on) won by a nose," doing the mile and a-quarter in 2min 7J~-ec. Ben Brush (a bay colt by Bramble, dam Rosoville, by Kefotfra out of Albia, by Alarm) was bred in ths Runnymede Stud, Kentucky, and is owned by M.F. Dwyer. — Roden tells " Castor " that he expects Wakawatea back almost immediately. He explains the inferior form recently . displayed by the son of Aptemont by the- fact- that h« has been trained for a long race. Roden, heweveri is quite convinced that the horse caunot stay, and he intends when he gets him back to nurse him up for the First Eclipse Stakes at Dunedin. — Boiling down the description of Newhaven that is given by "Aemodeus," the Derby colt has plenty of length, is evenly balanced, stands about 15hds 3in, is decidedly handsome, not so deep in the brisket as some would like, back ribs a trifle flat, better hindquarters and thighs no horse of his age can -boast of, second thighs not fully developed, broad across the loins, good bone iv his legs, f tot of the best, hocks close to the ground. — At the California Jockey Club's races in May an Iroquois filly named Majorie was taking her preliminary when it was noticed that she wheezsd badly, and the judge 3 allowed her to be scratched. An examination of the filly by a veterinarian revealed the fact that a feponge had been forced up her nostrils, which stopped her breathing. The club offered a-r^ward ot 501'dol for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the offender. — Mr Leopold de Rothschild's horses had won £12.661 in stakes up to the end of April. Commenting on the Rothschild successes, the Sportsman Bays : For an owner to have won 20 races of the aggregate value of £12,664 by May 1 must, we fancy, be quite without precedent, and it is just posbibl ethat before the curtain falls at Manchester Mrßothschild may have eclipsed even the extraordinary sum of £73,000 odd won by the Duke of Portland iv 1889. — " Ntnio " soys that Mr D. O'Brien has two very nice colts iv Horetas (by Goldsbrough from Ta Ta) and Patriot (br Autonomy from BaDgle). Bungle is by that most successful sire and unbeaten racshorseßarcsltline. So far, Patriot shows most promise, and has a fair turn of spsed. An Engluh vi-itor who i 8 well acquainted with Barcaldine saw tha youngster a few weeks ago, aud was much impiessed with the likeness he bears to his famous grandbire. — " Martindale" remarks that the Tocal Stud, which Medallion has joined, ha 3 always bean well represented in the way, of tires. As far back, aa 1857 there were two excellent stullions at Tocal— viz., Cossack and Vanguard, both colonials, bufc-their breeding was of the best Cos3ack was by Sir Hercules from Flora M'lvor, by Associate ; while Vanguard was byOether from (Jiggler, both •o< which were imported. The fees charged were £G for each of oho ortVo matOTj and £5 if three or over were Bent. -r The feel of thoroughbred horses when put to the stud after a short career on the turf are, as a rule, says an English write', sadly neglected. It should be an. invariable rule to get the shoes ' i emoved or replaced at th' 9 end of every month or five weeks, just as if the animal were engaged 'in hia ordinary work. If he is kept unshod, the feet should be regularly inspected .periodically and trimmed, and the growing outer wall rasped down at its edge, io an to make an even bearing Burfacc to the circumference of the hoof. — Mi- P Campbell informs me that he has received word to the effect that EagaKouaent foaled a filly to St. Serf on April 19. Mr Leach the veterinary surgeon ot Newmarkot, states that the youngster is a racing-like filly. The mare has again visited St. b'erf, whose stock, judxing by the performaiices of Thais, Shaddock, and other.-, appear likely to rival the prongeny of his famous sire, StSimon. Mr Lsach states also that Engagement' a yearling colt by Bendigo is doing very well, and is grpwiog into a fine horse.— " Uastor." — Auother form of starting machine is in use in America. The contrivance consists of nothing more than a piece of stiff rubber, about a half inch thick, which is stretched across the track at a height of about 4ft, and held taut by a patent fastener. When the horses line up to it a man who. is stationed at the outside rail touches a spring, the starter yells "Come on," and the rubber shoots across the track like a flash. This leads well enough, but what odds is it against hitting a horse with the rushing rubber ? — At one of the autumn meetings last year at ! Newmarket, Mr Leopold de Rothschild and the metalliciau Steele differed over tho result of a race. "Itis a thousand pounds to a carrot," said Mr Rothschild, ''onlho favourite winning." " I will take that, said Steele, who was on the rails. The .popular owner of "St. Frusquin lost, and by way of payment had an -ornament made in the chape of a carrot of coral, the green top being enamelled, and round it was a gold band with the words "A thousand 1 "pounds to a carrot"_ engraved thereon. ' I — America's veteran driver, William H. Boble,- j died last month in his eightieth yea. He was a prominjmt figure 'in the earliejt years of the trotting turf, and continued to drive until very 'jute in life. On his fifty-sixth birthday he sat 'oebinri Goldsmith Maid when, she trotted at Mystic Park in 2min l<issec, the fattest record to date, and it is reported that he said, when Le alighted from the sulky, " There is » mark for my Bon Budd to beat." This was June 9, 1872, and it was not until July 16, 1874, that his son did beat the old man with the same mare. — London Referee says : The longer you keep evidence the less valuable it becomes. No one can be co well qualified to speak afterwards as when incidents are quite fresh in mind. In a vast majority of cases— unless, that iB, crossing, boring, jostling, bumping, or other accidental or alleged intentional foul riding occurs— evidence other than the stewards' own reading of the race ought to be unnecessary, or, I had better say, superfluous. They should be at least almost as ready to declare "guilty" or "not guilty" as umpires at cricket with " out " or "not out." j —J. E. Brewer, the crack Australian cross- i 1 country rider, has decided to take a trip to England prior to the -Caulfleld and Melbourne Cups. He iutends to leave about -September next. His idea at present is -to spend a holiday in England, I but as the jumping season -starts in October it is ve-y probably he will ride during his stay. He ex- ! pects (says the Age) to have a mount on Erl Kintr, who is doing splendidly in his jumping exercises at Caulfield, and promises to be able to perform satisfactorily in England, where the hurdles are not quite so difficult as at Flemingfcon and Caulfield. — John Morris, who rode Galopin to victory in the Derby of 1875, and had steered such winners as The Palmer, Albert Victor, Marie Stuart, Cecilia, Lady Golightly, and Petrarch, died recently in poverty. One of the best races Morriß ever rode was on*6alopin in the celebrated match for lOOOsovB aside against Lowlander, over the Rowley Mile, in 1875, when Prince Bathyany's horse, then a three-year-old, carried 8.2 to the 9.0 of Lowlander, who was themount of ffordham. The race created a lot -of excitement, and "Morris fot Gftlopin— upon-whom-6 to i was betted— home ytf'length. — On the 10th ult., at -Ballarat, James Meggison, of Melbourne, was committed for trial on a .chaTge of perjury. .Meggison, as the nominal owner of a pony, entered it under the name of Agent for an event at the February meeting of the Miners' Turf Club. Agent won, whereupon ft protest w&8 lodged on the ground that the pony,

under the name of Weasel, harj run at unregistered meetings. When called before the stewards Meggison, it was allogod, made a statutory declaration denying that Agent was identical with Weasel, and it is upon this that tho charge of perjury has been baaed.

— Escutcheon's daughter Fairy Tale 8.6 won the handicap at Epsom (Vie.) on the 6th ulfc. Most people were inclined to fancy her, says the Australasian, but her owner, Mr Archie Yuille, took a very gloomy view of his filly's prospects. He risked a fiver "just because she belonged to him," but began by thinking Swagman and lUdoo would beat her, and then, when Ilium came into the market/went so far as to express the opinion that Fairy Tale would not even get a situation. Evidently Mr Yuille is not a Singuine man, and should his Carbine colt tuin out a clinker the ring will not suffer much at the hands of bis owner.

— A dispute has arisen between the New York Jockey Club and Colonel S. D. Bruce, compiler of the American Stud Book, with whom the club entered into a/;ontract in 1894 under which their stewards have charge of the Registry office, there being certain conditions aa to division of fees with Colonel Bruce. That gentleman recently, and in spite of the warning given him by the stewards, sent out a circular to breeders stating in effect that the club registration of bloodstock is not sufficient, and that the fact of a mare appearing under her dam in tho Stud Book does not entitle her to be classed as a brood mare. She must, says Colonel Bruce, be specially registered if she is to become a brood mare and he must have 2dol a mare for doing it. — Tha fipsom incident was strongly suggestive of old-time methods,' which, were they revived, would by most present day race-goers be regarded as uothing short of barbaric The rules of racing specify that no race shall be run in heats, Woula it not be equally advisable to make the division of atakes compulsory after two dead heats have been run by the same horses? To prohibit races inheats and sanction an unlimited number of dead heats is simply shutting the front door and opening the back ope. As far as two-year-olds are concerned, it is imporative that they be no longer liable to the treatment to which Last Glen was subjected. To run a two-year-old three races of five furlongs within a couple of hours— a mile and seven furlongs altogether— is simply cruelty.— " Asmodeus."

— One who know th« late Colonel North writes: His very good qualities made his failure certain, for he would keep putting this and that man in for a benh as manager or so forth till his ttaioer was driven nearly mad, and yet the only idea was to do a goo J man a good turn. Similarly,*from sheer desire to show sport to hi 3 friends, no matter at what loss to himself, he would take a big party to Newmarket, insist on having a race for thuir edification, and as a result have such as Simonian, Lady Hermit, &c, brought out, no matter what their condition, and all tried in the presence of himself and party. Occasionally his strange methods br.mcht off successes, as, for iustanc3, when he insisted on runuinpr Nunthorpe for the City .ami Suburban and the Jubilee Stakes.