CANTERBURY DOINGS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2252, 29 April 1897, Page 33

CANTERBURY DOINGS.

Br IT. Quad.

The Canterbury Jockey Clup has contributed £100 towards the relief of the sufferers by the Hawke's Bay floods. It is to be hoped that other clubs will see their way to follow the good example. In my notes of the Lancaster Park meeting I stated " Dorceu was well backed, but failed to tiot up to preliminary form, with the result that the stewards cautioned the driver." _ The quoted words were written from information supplied, and lam pleased to state, in justice. to the owner and rider of Doreen, that the statement was incorrect. The well-known stud horse Apremont has bor-n cold through Me«sis To'.ka aud Norton to Mr Rathbone, the well-known sportsman of ILiwke's Bay. The horse will be shipped for the noith thi3 week. I bear that Nigger, who was bought for £16 out of a selline race at Lancaster Park, has been iesold by Mr Douglas at a fair profit on his investment. P. Grant, of the firm of Barnett and Grant, the well-known bookmaker?, had an unpleasant experience at Riccarton. Two of the private; detectives appointed by the club requested Grant to leave the enclo-mrfi, and meeting with a distinct refusal on the ground that the men had no right to so order him, ihey attempted to remove Grant by force. Grant naturally objected, and the edifying spectacle of two wen vainly endeavouring to expel him was only stopped by a policeman, who had quietly stood by the whole time, apparently enjoying the struggle. The whole scene Feemingly caused the onlookers great amusement, Grant receiving » ruiind of applnme when he succeeded in neatly turning one of his assailant-j over on bis back. Grant cuine back again as soon as he could, and, as fnr as J could discover, was not again molested. Is it not about time that the question of racing clubs v, bookmakers was settled ' I have never witnessed a more disgraceful scene on any racecourse If tho club hid right; on its side, wov did the police decline to interfere? Grant undoubtedly brought it upon himself, thereby challenging tho power of the club, but 1 bold that the pili.-e have no r^ght to stand grinning by and see a man deliberately assaulted by two non-resronsible individuals', as no matter how nmusing tbe struggle may have been to the public, it would not have been very funny to Gran*. Tin Canterb iry Jockey Club appears to have the power to order the expulsion of book milkers, and 1 do not wish to defend Grant's action in going on the course, as he did so knowing that he mi?ht ba ordered to leave. Hud the police in the fir.*t place ordpred Grant to leave, inttcid of telliu? him to g3 after being .severely miulert, he would hay-- gone ; but no poUceman, unless I greatly mistake wb} r he it paid, has the slightest justitic.ition to look on and lausth whilst an individual, uo matter who be may be, is beinsr u'nmercifiillj' dragged »liout by two men, who considerably exceeded their suuposed duty. After Grant liid left the paddock the police were very prompt in ordering him to scs away The epi&o !c did no real benefit <o the club, as even supposing Grant had been detected layin? totalisjitor odd.s, there were scores of othe.r> less well kuown to the authorities who wc-re doing the same thing, yet they were not ordered fo depart. Jockey clubs have undoubtedly a right to conserve their revenue, and in order to do so aru seemingly compelled to exclude bjokruakers, but I contend that no clubman discover, the whole of them. Ido not for one moment believe th\t the C.J C. anticipated their detectives would resort to force to put bookmakers ouK I feel s-ure their effort to eiect Grant could not have been a pitasnnt sight to the gentlemen composing the execn- j tive. ! Funny people go a racing Sometime. When the ; hurdle race on ihs second d.iy was being mc, and j th^horses were co"iin« up the straight, n. party of ; ladies asked ;i gentleman who Accompanied them what was winning. " Ob, one of Stead's, as J usual ; he's always winning ! " Hex and High- j lander were in the race, and their colours j " orange iacket and cap, green sash," and " orange, green sas-h ana cap," evidently mixed the "hports- i man." ** i Mannlicher, Marino, and Arquebus were shipped i to Wellington on .Saturday. The backers of Annie R> oney were made happy j on Saturday when they received their dividend of ; £79. ; The energetic secretary of the Rapgiora Jockey ' Club succeeded in obtaining a capital entry for J the club's forthcoming meeting. I no'ice that i Bracelet's name appears in the Flying. Boulanger j is also nominated, Vint he cannot have much i chance of winninp, as he is very backward. j There has been a fair amount of wagering on • events to be decided at the Wellington meeting, the Thompson Handicap being selected as a good ] betting race. The .weights allotted to horses at I Wellington are not apparently very carefully j compiled. In the Tetnpleton Handicap Goldspur ! won easily, canying 95; Btdle Clair a bad third j with 8.4. For being badly beaten Mercer's filly gets an allowance of only 21b. Both ran over six furloDes. Taking Waiuku s form here I should think he '. will be found quite good enough to defeat Gold- j spur in the 'lhoinpson Handicap. He was ijoing s faster-than anything «-lse over the last hundred . yards of the Easter Handicap, and as he meets Goldspur on 101b better terms and another furlong to travel, the northern horse ought to beat Loughlin's representative Mannlicher. too, should run prominently at Wellington. He got fifth in the Easter Handicap with 9.0 up ; now he ! has but 8.7, thereby meeting Goldspur on lfllb • better terms. Barshot should also ba beaten by ! Waiuku. In the Easter Handicap the weights | were— Barehot 7.9, Waiuku 8.11 ; in the Thompson | Handicap they are— B.4 and BIS respectively. So that for just beating Waiuku Barshot gives him I 71b. This is surely bad handicipping, seeing that at Riccarton Waiuku \va3 on the extreme outside, j whilst Barshot got well away. I should say that ' Waiuku would win the Thompson Handicap, I whilst Mannlicher should be about at the right • end. Of the others I have most respect for Sedge- ' brook, who has been running remarkably well of | late, and is well treated with 7.6 to carry. St. Paul ! S l2 has been running well, and as he is on the uround his party must think he haE a chance. Porangi Potae, Marino, and Regel should also run well. Goldspur may be reserved for the Kail way Handicap, which event he should win. Belligerent has returned to his old quarters at Murray- Ay nsley's, and Quiltiri is now stable-mate ! of Marino and Arquebus. It is reported here that Goldspur may be taken . bo Australia. A bit late suiely. He should have j been taken before now. The weight adjusters on ! the othfr will most assuredly steady him. Mr Mace has re-purchased The Duchess. It was generally supposed that he had only leased the mare to Scott, but as a matter of fact Scott had purchased her. and has now re-sold her to Mr Mace. If The Duchess should not again be trained | she must be extremely valuable as a brood nian\ ! A.lerton, who won at the recent Lancaster Park I meeting, is out of her, and Mr Mace has a fine ] two-year-old out of the mare, by Blackwood .' A.bdallah. Chaos is not likely to be greatly inconvenienced ; by the accident which befel him when galloped on .n the Autumn Handle*?. At the time of writing this the S.M. had not ■riven hi 3 decision iv the case brought by M. Livingstone against several persons for wrongful i jjectment from the New Brighton racecourse. The second day's trotting at Lancaster Park was ■ Secidedly good, and speculation was better than j usual, the sum of £-4281 10a going through the i totalisators. lb.e \Yeather w »b agaia cold.

I Imperial won the Maiden Harness cr.«,ily, Brookholm, from scratch, failing to give the three-year-old 15sec start. Ho would have been nearer, perhaps, had he not been put out of his stride I through the driver of Mambrino Mac flourishing ! his whip, for which the stewards cautioned him. Mambrino Mac is a rather fine-looking horse, und i should l>e susceptible to improvemont. The j others were never prominent. Billy Buttons won the Pony Handicap ("saddle) i just as he liked, finishing the two miles, pulling j up, in smin 45sec. Had he been pushed the pony . could have doneSmin -lOsec. On the previous day he could not get mar the leaders in the Electric ; Handicap, in saddle, won by Lirine in2niinslsec, , Billy Buttons being on the same mark as Lorine. Twice 2min 51scc (Lorine's time) gives smin 42iec. I mention these times to show that thoso who grumbled at the change in form had some grounds for so doing ; but on making inquiry I found that the pony was backed by the owners on the first day, and it would have paid them much better to have won then. The stewards took no action in the matter, evidently being satisfied all was right. Auld Scotty failed to pass under the standard. Hia owner strongly objocted to his horse benix J barred, but the stewards fined him £2 for the ■ sultriness of his language. I Maggie jrade some amends for previous ! j failures by winning the Linwood Handicap Trot ,iv saddle. She quickly established a long lc.idi which Jessie and Biddy bidiiy failed to reduce. ! Prince Albert trotted well, but could not get up. < 'I lie Duchess ■ gain shaped badly on the small track. Maggie won by a hundred yards from Biddy-biddy, covering the two miles in smin lGs^c. The Open Handicap proved a good contest, and although Vainglorious won somewhat ea>-y, thn • race was a pretty one to watch, us several appeared to have chances. Uncle Tom, n pony, kept behind j Vaingloriou?, but could not get up to him. Jeisey, • trotting splendidly from scratch, appeared at i one time to have a chance, but bieiking at a critical point, her prospects were s-pmlt. Shb finished a goui third, however. Bed ot Stone was going well, and mns>t have been dangerous, but, unfortunately, she got jammed iieuvcen two others, narrowly escaping an accident Vainglorious put up the decent time of onuu 40A.«0c, a long way ahead of pieyious ptrfornianc.:-,~aud he was not asked to do his best. Ho should win | again in the near futuie. j Nigger easily won the Selling Race, and was sold for £10 | Katipo was a slightly better favourite than j Zealandia nnd Ruadan for Ilie Lancaster Paik Handicap Trot, Sam Slick and Mambrino Abdullah being the outsiders uf tho party. Ruadan ! succeeded in again winnine, with the consistent Sam Slick and Mambnno Abdallah in the places. j The two favourites, Zealandia and Katipo wore i never really dangerous, and in tho last two laps dropped to leeward. The Little lliver mare Violet made no mistake about the Telegraph Handicap, as she won as she , liked Rauriki and Monte Carlo both trotted • ; Wtll, but Violet's long start effectually shut out , the prtspe'tsof anj'thing else. Violet paid the smallest dividend of the meeting— £l 12s. The progMnini'j was brought to an end by Bed j of htone easily winning the Filial Handicap. Tee ' i Ashburton male went away at a f<ur race, aud ! despite the tfforts made by the driver of Prince Imperial she succeeded in defeating the horse by four lengths. The Canterbury Jockey Club paid over in stakes the sum of £'t)7'J5 in connection with its recent meetiug, Mr Stead's cheque— the result of Multiform's two wins m the Cn^inpagus and Challenge Stakes— amounting to £i:i00. Then follows Mr J. Loughlin £550, Mr S. M'Guinnes £160, ' • Hon. J. D. Ormond £235, Sir G. Clifford £IGO, Mr ' W. Rath bone £150. Mr A. M'Dondd £120, Mr : W. O. Rutherford £110, M>- J. Kidlev £110, Mr C. Ktengcntheu £10f>, Mr J. Fitzjeiiild £"JU, Mr T. Stewart £30, Mr J. Harris 75, Mr O. Wii-e £«0, Mr M Hherw v £30, Mr W. buvies £40, Mr D. , Rutherford £20, Mr S. 11. Goilan £20, Mr S. Mercer £10, Mr J. M 'Guinness £10, Mr J. CasMdy £10, Mr C. Wynn-Williams £10, Mr A. Keith £10. A grey hunter by Tekoa was sold for £17 on Saturday tit Tattcrsali's. The vendor, C. Coch- ' rane, intends going to the North Island. Mr Biscii tells me that Probpect is again at Rangiora. ; The bum of £16.G4J was put through the totali- ! sa-i-orR at the receut Riccarton meeting, which is I £2155 in excess of the amount investeu last year, i A very fair muster of hunting men rolled up at The meet on Saturday. I Owners of trotters may be reminder] that nomi- I nations for the two dayo' meeting of the Canter- I bury Trotting Club close on Saturday next. The | programme -t. a particularly good one, the stakes . being better than nu be competed for elsewhere. ' 1 hear that there is every probability of j the trouth IsKud Trotting An.iCciaiioii being asked ' to consider the appeal of the owner of Home- [ ward, who was recently disqualified by the Akaroa j County Racing Club. i