CANTERBURY DOINGS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2240, 4 February 1897, Page 33

CANTERBURY DOINGS.

The Canterbury Jockey Club's Summer meeting takes place on Saturday nest. Acceptances #re not due vat. However, as I shall not have another opportunity of selecting probable winners, I must try to pick them now. St. Paul 8.9 has got his full share of weight in the Midsummer Handicap, and although he is a good colt over a short course, he haa done nothing brilliant in handicap company over a mile and a-half His second to Rangipuhi at Wellington over a mile and n-quarter wa» a decent performance, but he is now Asked to travel a quarter of a mile farther and cirry -lib more. Again, why is St. Paul asked to give Musketry 6tb ? St. Puul was never a better horse than Musketry, aud Mr Stead's animal has received every consideration on account of his retirement. Whether Musketry can stay or whether he will start I cannot aecertain, but if he fulfils those two conditions ho should win. Skirmisher's form in Wellington was anything but good, and Marquis of Zetland did not show to advantage. Of tne two I prefer the latter, who, when in the humour, is as fast as th«y make them. Leda may not come down, although from what I hear that point has not yet been decided. Should she be brought to Riccarton, and in decent form, she will beat moat of those engaged. Ido not fancy Mibsfire's chance, and neither Plotter nor Maximuseau win on their respective performances at Tuapeka and Tlnwald. Of Lord Rosslyn I know nothing, and all in 1. would take Musketry to win, with. Marquis of Zetland and Ledn. next best. The Hornby Welter Handicap horsen are a mixed lo 1 -. Belligerent 9.5, though heavily weightod, has recent winning torni to recommend him, as alao has Manilla. Toxa 9.3 would perhtps be more at homo over a shorter journey. Jewel 9 3 is a good welter mare, and may have a show, as also may Rustic 8.9. Of tbe ctbern I like Campbell 8 b, Bioietallist 8.4, had Th.le of the War 8.0. The latter is, I fancy, a fairiuh animal, and may not be far away an tbe business end of the journey. With a start, J would take Rustic, Campbell, aud Bimetallist in that order. Half of those in the Lyttelton Plate are making their tiret appearance in public, and I should imagine the issue will lie between the four top weights— Senior Wrangler 8.12, Goldleaf 8.9, Choroid 83, aud Muybud 7.5,. Vulcan and Bloomer are both speedy, but public form id after all the beat guide, and I venture to suggest that whatever be»ta Goldleaf will win. The Craven Plate should provide a really good contest. Bai-raby 812 may not start, as he is scarcely reidy, and Musketry 8.11 may be taken out if raced for the big money. Mr Stead has another engaged — viz., Firefly 7.9 — and 1 am of opinion that either, of these will take a lot of bflmtiug. Mirino at 8.8 is nicaly treated, but" if Mr Dowso ia correct B'zme 7.10 is not. In the Publicans' Handicap this animal is handicapped at 7.8. The two handicaps present several differences. In the Craven Plate B'Jiurre meets Barmby at 111b, in the Publicans' »t -01b, difference. At Dunedin Heather Bell has tc give Bizarre 51b, uud at Ricrartou Bizarre has to present the mare with 41b —a. difference of 91b. In Dunedin Heather Bell gives Misafire 71b, whilst in the Craven Plate Missfire gives Heather Hell 21b. Thore are several othar instances thtit might be mentioned, but I 'will refrain. Tn my opinion Mr Stead's selected will win, and of the roat 1 prefer Marino, B -Uigerent, and Campbell. The Middlepark Plate should go to Gold Medallist or Multiform. The Canterbury Trotting Club Committee h<»s recommended that the sum of £25 be handed to the owner of Ascot. This horse won the second race for the 1 New Year H mdicap. but the South Island Trotting Association declared that race null and void. The Ashburton Racing Club is now in a good financial position, and at a meeting of the club it was decided to hold an . autumn meeting, a committee being appointed to arrange a programme, i i Skirmisher has been travelling nicely since he returned from the north, as also htm Marquis of Zetland. Silver Spec, who was brought down from Wellington by E. Cutts, looks well. So far she has cot done much on the tracks. Tofa is to be occasionally seen pottering about. It is about time this good-looking animal picked up a few winter oats. Mr Franks tells me that he considers Corrigan. Norton's brother, will develop into a really good cross-country horse. He is a fine, powerful animal, aid when Mr Franks left England great hopes were expressed that Corrigan would win a good race. The whole of Mr Gollan's string looked well, especially Norton. Mr Franks is inclined to think that New Zealand horses as a whole are just as good as English ones, and is confident that Bombshell will easily hold his own when thoroughly acclimatised. I had the plea-mre of seeing gome of Mason's string on the course last weak. St. Cyr is a finelooking youngster. Maunlicher :a evidently fairly forward. The -*atch presented by Mrs E. C. J. Stevena to the Plumpton Club will be given to the driver of the winner of the Plumpton Park Handicap. It was originally intended to allocate the watch to the Maiden Handicap. A lot of trotting stock was offered by auction on Saturday, but scarcely a lot changed hands. Lonsdale Lodge, the property of Mr D. O'Brien, failed to elicit a bid wheu offered for sale. It is not yet decided whether Marino is to be sent to Australia. The Amuri Turf Club will hold its annual meeting on March 17. Mr C. Wynn-Williamß, feeling sore at a resolution passed by the Ashburton Polo Club, is anxious that the 0. JC. »hall investigate the matter. Mr Stead has not open long in christening hi* recently -purchased youngsters. He has named the Cuiradsier—Ruhina filly Corselet ; St. Hippo — Waiteznata colt, Hippocrene ; St. Leger — Hazel colt, Legerity ; Hotchkiss — Bridal Rose colt, Kissmi s ; Castor--Cissy colt, Altair. Rustic is going very well indeed, as also are Montacute aud Weary. The latter has been a disappointment so far. Seashell does all she is asked to do, but she also has failed to gallop up to her early promise. SBrac«n is coming back to farm quickly, and is almost a sure starter at your meeting. Vulcan managed to get away from his boy last week, but although he came down when turning a corner, hit injuries were confined to a few scratches. Clareuce is doing good work. He will contest some of your hurdle races if he keeps well. The Lumper and Admiralty are kept at easy pacing. Both look well. Kentucky Wilkes has been purchased by a local trainer. Mr P. Campbell's colt Sandhurst, by Bendigo— Engagement, arrived at Lyttelton last week by the Waimate, and I gladly availed myself of an invitation to have a look at him. As is well known, Sandhurst was brought out in charge of Mr H. Franks, sen., and this gentleman deserves every credit for the excellent condition in which the colt arrived. The voyage out was occasionally very rough, one heavy sea cracking the box right across, and the colt had to pretty well swim. When he was transhipped from tbe Waimate to the launch I went across to Quail Island with him, and saw him landed there all well. He will have to stay in quarantine a fortnight, during which time he will be in charge of young Mitchell. Sandhurst had not been ashore two minutes ere- he ■ became acquainted with a bot fly, and the colt quickly demonstrated his objection to the fly's attentions. He is particularly tractable, however, and subsequently walked quickly away to his new quarters. Here I had a good look at him Sandhurst is a dark brown, wearing a heavy winter coat, and stands pretty well 16hds— quite big enough /seeing that he is not yet two years old. He appeir3 to be somewhat leggy aud slightly small in bone. His arms are small, but this deficiency will probably greatly disappear when he is in work, as a long aea voyajte is conducive to the formation of muscle. He has a nice head, not unlike Magazine, set on to a good rein. His shoulders are distinctly good, .and no fault can be found with his back, loins, and

J quarters. He baa a rare -middle piece, and I J have seWoui seen a colt better ribbed up than I Rundhur&t, The colt will be trained by R. J. ! Mason, and thera is no reason why -Sandhurst {■should not furtiish into a racehorse, notwithstandj ing the fart that so farßandigo's stock have been n i bit of a drug in the market. For breeding alonu j Sandhurst should be valuable. Bo&digo h'.s not ' proved a succors as a sire, but there iR no doubt ) about his ability as a racehorse, combining as he ;. did speed and stamina of a high order. A special general meeting of the Canterbury I Trotting Club was h^eld ou Thursday last, Mr J. 1 Perkins, president, in the chair. The meeting had j been called by requisition, with the object of conj sidering the condu t, management, and decision of the stewards at th« club's Summer meeting. i Those who signed the requisition had no desire to 1 question the actions of the stewards except in re- ' gard to the disqualifications of Electioneer, . Ruadan, and Ilaru in the Now Year Handicap, although many of the stewards chose to conceive that the malcontents were dissatisfied with the general management of the meeting. Somehow ' the meeting of the club was a failure, not so much ' because the cause of the requisitionists was weak, ; but simply that they failed to make the best use ; of the arguments at their disposal. I have not the 1 slightest hesitation itt affirming that had those who signed the requinltiou attended the meeting 1 with tfcisir facts and figures properly arrayed they 1 would havo made out a strong c*se. As it was j the impeachment wai iettto one or two, and thesa j were so badly supported that they had no possible 1 chance of success lam almost tired of referring j to this now celebrated disqualification, but last Thursday 1 * meetinsr opened my eyes a little as to . the general eonduot of the club's affaiva and how j some of the stewards arrived at the conclusions expressed by them. Not » single ' speaker on behalf of the stewards attempted to ' prove on facts that their decision was fair, and j when challenged by their own baodicapperto prove ' that the difference in time in Klectioneer'a two displays was lu'aec absolutely failed to do so ; and, ' bo far as I could gather, po one seemed inolined to aay who made the difference 16sec.' Again, when' the chairman was appealed to as to the difference in Ham's time he couli not answer the question, but referred the que3tioner to the official timekeeper, but this gentleman at once sUted he kaew,i'othing about it. All he did was to take the full distance, and he had never been asked by the stewards f.ir an opinion. One of tbe stewards who voted to disqualify the horses state! that the difference waß 12sec, another said it was IG-.ec, aud yet another could merely say he decided on the ! evidence. Well, what evidence caused Ruadnn's J disqualification ? Can any one of the stewards tell the public this? Not a single question was p-.\t to the stewards on this point, and not one of them muiitioned the horse's namo. One speaker .stated that he f-jlt the club had been grossly insulted by the wording of the requisition, and fehon went on to remark that, as an owmr of trotters, he thought Bsec in two miles a fair allowance Its make in two performances. Yet he supported Khe action of the stewards. The .-name gentleman, in the .course of s his remarks, apparently quite forgetting j what he had previously enid, asserted that 4sec a mile was all he would allow for a greeu horse, and only three, perhaps leas, for a trained one. This wa<s beautiful logic, certainly. Another speaker wanted to know whether the utewards had been accused of dishonesty. Saving that no ! one had ever nuggested such a thing it came as a j-Mirprise to me to hear a man apparently shirk the I real point at 'issue !.y drawing the aalne old fifth, across the scent. Another who voted to disqualify, and who was not present on the first lay, paid be had decided to vote on tbe evidence, but he could only once more trot out the old figures— l6sec. j The track, said he, was 3soo a niUe faster on the first day. How he made -this out he could not say. 'He had been told bo. This gentleman calmly I ignored the names of Ruadan and Ham, but did 1 not forget to otate that he kr.ew one of those signing the requisition had £1 on one of the disqualified horses. Thic, to nay the leust, was an extremely paltry thing to bring forward, the more so when coming from a man who consistently I bets. I might go on filling columns on thia meetj ing. Members were allowed to speak as often as i they pleaped, the chairman giving everybody a free ! hand, and some of the sp-akers quite unintentfoni ally altered or contradicted what they had J previously slated. I have mentioned that < the meeting was a failure; I might well ! describe it s»h a farce. A vote of confij donee in the stewards was eventuully passed, J a questionable compliment in view of the verdict , arrived at by the Trotting Association. The j association unanimously reversed the action of . the club on evidence ; the club by one vote de- • cided to disqualify, also on "evidence" 1 Which, on voting, is the moat valuable decision ? I was I surprised that so few spoke against the action : of the stewards, as I kuuw that many of thoie present had frequently expressed theuifcelvos as annoyed at th» disqualifications. I certainly think that the ventilation of the recant trotting troubles will do a great deal of good, the mere fact that stewards must in future call evidence being in itself a valuable addition to the Canteri bury Trotting Club's rules. ! I hear that the owner of Te Arp has withdrawn i his protest against Honest Wilkes. The case { comes np for discussion at the meeting of the > Trotting Association on Wednesday next.