IN A NUTSHELL.

Otago Witness, Issue 2299, 24 March 1898, Page 37

IN A NUTSHELL.

— Mr Dowdine sends the Ashburfcon programme for May 5 and 6. — PosiUno has taken up his quarters at the Neotsfield Stud. . . „._ „ — Last Shot was bought in at £17 after winning' at Waimate. __ . , , — Leda went sore after Wanganui ; heace her absence from Dunedin. ■„..-, — Prosecutions of bookmakers are meditated by the Wellington Club. — The American horse Keenan has been sold to an Indian buyer for £4000. — The Taferi Club will not license bookmakers to bet at the Easter meeting. „„.., , — Mr T Scotc has purchased a full-brother to Plain Bill from Mr D. Fraser. — It is stated that Mrs Langtry was offered and refused £6000 for Merman. — Among the Duckenfwld Park yearlings this season is a full sister to Gipsy Grand. jl r J. G. Macdonnell sends a copy of the j Ettrick programme for the 7th April. ! Bobadil was ridden without whip or spurs j when he won the Agcot Vale Stakes. j — Gold Medallist i 3 expected to be a starter ia : the Eclipse Stakes. He won it last year. f — Mr R. M'Kenna brings word from India that Foitunatus and Sprightly have broken down. — The sale of the " Black and Ret " horses by the Farmers' Agency is on Friday of this week. — At the Melbourne autumn sales a two-year-old full brother to Daimio chatged hands at 60gs. — The Australasian, in respect to Amiable : We do not remember seeing her equal in looks sines Juurlins. . *? — Sir George Clifford has pm'cnased from F. ' Martin for 160gs the yearling colt by Cianranald from tteiin&. , — Vakeel .is an instance of How long a gelding may last on the turf. . It is'five years since Vakeel won the Adelaide Cup. • ' — Canterbury-Times reports that the imported , stallion Gold Reef has been leased to Mr G. 1\ _ Donnelly, of Napier, for two years. : — Mr J. Charles, known us West Australian ' Tattersall, has offered £10,000 to the Government of his colony to legalise his sweeps. ; — A new stewards' stand, 34tC high, is to be erected at Flemington a short di tance below the present one adjoining the judge's box. — R. Mirsh, who prepared Prfisimmon for the ; Prince of Wales, commenced the current season •with no fewer than 78 bosses in actual worfc. — Berlin Abdallah's fine turn of speed enabled him to win at New Brighton and nea.ly get into ibe 230 class. He has a beautiful trotting gait. — The Duchess of Montrose once Slid to a hockey after a race, " Why did you not come _ 1 way at the turn as I told you?" "Because I r..uid not come without the huree," replied the ; j ckey. . ! - Since the Newmarket Handicap was in- | sftuted in 1874, Victorian horses have been sue- | cessful £0 times., while New South Wales has ; ' wok three times, South Australi*once, and New : Zealand once. ! — The Messrs Miller, of Melbourne, inform the ; Sportsman that whereas in past seasons they j often expended 2000gs per annum, in the pur- | chase of "yearling, the total will not reach a tenth . of that amount this time. ! — The settling over tne recent V.R.C Autumn , meeting passed off satisfactorily at the Victorian ' Club. The balance was all against the fielders, ; ■who it is leckoned have, in the aggregate, had to pay over something exeseding £100,001). I — The Leader says that when Response fell in : the Hurdle Race at Flsmington, Mr W. Alleu, i 'ohe veterinary practitioner, recommended her i immediate destroyal on the spot, but the rpare l ■was dragged off the spot and, permitted to die in p -in. " ! — They talk of spelling Day Star. Perhaps n this, will cause his foim to return. lam satisfied hat at his best he has few equals in New Zealand. > One good judge up Nortn *ays that had be kept veil he would have rivalled the deeds of St. . Hippo. | — Venus, who came over here for -the New j Zealand Cup, has this month scored her first win ; - lice returning to Tasmania It was at llobart, > ,•■ the Ilisdon Handicap, of 25sovs, nine furlongs. . !-!ie carried 8.7, won by a length and a-half, and xti\& 16s per 10s ticket. - ' — The Special Commissioner, writing m the London Sportsman, says there lias been some trouble over the stable management of Newi\wen, and that there are plenty of good sports- _ lieu who would back the Australian colt to beat . 'xjitee More over a distance. ! — Dicky Walker, who rode Ayrshire in the l Australian Cup, will be 48 yeara old next birth>Uv, and was first employed by the late Mr George Cli.-seock. It was a pivtty rough school Ayinitre's pilot graduated iv, for riding bucUjumpeis irA schooling steeplechasers was all in tue clay's work. ! — As a matter of reference I give the complete " handicap fur the Napier Cup : — D*y Star 9.4, vjaue'.la 9.3, Douglas 9.0, Primula 8.9, Defiant 8.7, Sc Crispin 8.4, Target 7.10, Woodsto-k 7.7, , j-.lahaki 7.7, Tirant d'JEau 7.3. Tire 7.0, Golden ; .r'l.iver 7 0, New Forest 612, Martyrdom 6.12, Te , IVgaehe G. 7. ■ — "Terlinga" like<s the appearance of Aurum' s two-year-old half-brother Auriferous. "He i 3 a, true Robinson Crusoe, with the stoutness of the Instep family thrown in, and as the Robinson Crusoe3 do not come early, there is a chance, of i Auriferous being in the front rank before the end f of the season." I — For the Alexandra Stakes at Ihs AJ.C. | March meeting Raven's Plume, who started at 4 I To 1, led into the straight, and, holding her ad- i vantage, got the veidict by half a length fiom ]?irst Mate, with Brazan Lad, who came with a ' rush from the extreme rear, the same distance ( away from second place. i — Says " Milroy'' : The horse — no matter what • ihe breed— seldom attains maturity until he is seven years old, yet the average of racehorses ■ihat now run on to that age is hardly one in a hundred. Before two-year-old and sprint racing became so fashionable the majority of useful race- < > horses were aged and over. — Lochiel stock is advancing ia value in Ausvilia. At the yearliDg sales of 1895 niGe Lochiel 7-earliDgs realised a fractiin under 4')gs a head. ! I r u 1896 half a dozen of his yearlings averaged a | -lifle over 96gs per head. In 1836", 15 Kirkham | ; eirlings averaged a fraction over 128^s a head. Is st year 12 averaged about 236gs a head. This ;-ear they will fetch big prices. — Mr Ben Richards, an old Sydney sport, died recently. He bred Kir William and A.nta:u3 ; j'or over 50 years, says " Milroy," Mr Richirds ; •was identified with the spirit of racing either as ) an owner or a breeder, and in the early days he i "was ever ready to match one of his own on •.he old Windsor lacecourse, but his success on •.he track was not equal to that he attained as a breeder. — The Nursery Handicap at the A.J.C. March r>ireting was a one-horse race. Alaria shot out • .j)[.osite the Leger stand, and won in a canter by nearly three length* from Jenny Moore. The -a inner is a handsome chestnut filly, by Far i Niente (sire of Benson) from Merman's dam, i Seaweed. .She U well-grown, apparently good- j "tempered, and possessed of enough speed to promise hot opposition to anything of her own age. — Some time ago a paragraph, stating that Highborn was in very poor condition, was quottd from an Indian paper by the Australasian. The Maharajah of Cooch Bphar, who owns Highborn, commissioned Mr R. M'Kenna to show " Ter- , linga" a photograph of the horse as a contradiction of this report. Iv the photograph the old hero' looks as sleek as a mole, and Mr M'Kenna say Highborn's lines are cast in very pleasant places. — Racing in England is very different from the sport ia America, says the American trainer, John Higgins, and from observation I fesl justified in saying that no poor man has a right to go lacing there. The sport is too expeusive, for, while a tiptop racehorse can win more money Iheie than i"n the United States, it must be lemembered that owners are running for their own monoy, and that the beaten ones must do all the paying. — Pays Melbourne Sportsman : Neither Amiable nor Battalion has a Bruce Lowe number. Each horse derives his or her number from his or her maternal ancestress— the tap-root mare. Amiable and Battalion may really posses 3 excellent numbers—that is, they may come from first-class mares — but, as nothing is known of their pedigrees oa the dam's side, very far back, of course

they must go without numbers. At the same 1 time judged by the various strains brought into the pedigree, Amiable is considered well bred by Bruce Lowe students. - I