IS A NUTSHELL.

Otago Witness, Issue 2303, 21 April 1898, Page 32

IS A NUTSHELL.

■ — Blazer is to have a spell. —Mr J. M'Kewen has bought the Globe Hotel.

— Toxa, after winning at Tairlie, was bought in at £9 10s.

— There was a hack called Mahaki running at Wairarapa.

—Mr Stead's cheque over the C.J.C. meeting came to J31400.

—In his later races in England, the Australian chaser Dairuio bled at the nose.

— The D.J.C. Committee meet tlr's evening to further consider the Ned ivally case.

— Survivor, sent to England by Mr W. Kelso, has been bought by Lady Meux for 2000gs. — The Australasian suggests that the Champion Race distance ought to be reduced to two miles.

— Musketry has been ta^cn uj> again by M'Ginness. His knee has fined down considerably. —It is reported, but the report lacks confirmation, that Mr Gollan has sold Norton in England.

— Mr J. Grindley has taken an hotel at Uore, but does not propose to resign from the D.J.C. Committee.

— Marionette and Avondale fell in the Final Scurry at Feilding, and the former got a bit knocked about.

— Newhaven was engaged in the March Stakes, to be run for at the First Newmarket Spring meeting yesterday.

—Mr W. Kelso, the Sydney sportsman, was one. of the passengers by the P. and O.s China when she was wrecked.

— The T ahuna Park nominations for the May meeting are quite up to the mark as to numbers, and many performers of quality are engaged. — The proposals made to the Wellington Club to increase the stake of the Cup and raise the status of the race generally were not ad p l .ed.

— Dan O'Brien's Bob Ray is said to have much of his old dash still left, but he does not seem to stay as well as when a three-year-old. — The distance of the Caulfield Grand National Hurdle Race has been reduced from four miles to three miles three furlongs and 128 yards. — The V.R.C. Committee has reinstated H. Underwood on the list of licensed and registered jockeys, and also granted him a permit to own horses. • ,' — The Hon. H. Mossman's horses have been taken to the owner's new place at Mangere (Auckland), and Harry Franks is, I believe, installed as trainer.

—In Russia, two miles is the minimum distance trotted in a race, and the horse that cannot do that distance in six minutes does not rank a3 a trotter.

— The Wanganui J.C. has removed the ban from P. Raill, who was disqualified and warned off in 1893, during the pleasure of the club, for corrupt practices. — The Calcutta Racing Ciub charges bookmakers £40 a day for the privilege of plying their vocation at al> meetings held under the auspices of the club. — Syerla's being fancied for the A.J.C. meeting was the result of his running the Rosehill Autumn Handicap, doing the mile and three furlongs in 2mm 24Ssec. — Beaucin, the winner of a Maiden Handicap at Rosehill last month, is by Bowmont (brother to Lady Betty and Pigeontoe) out of the New Zealand mare Cinderella.

— A cablegram from London contains 'the intelligence that proceedings in the Rucker v. Calvert sporling action have been stopped, as the case has been settled out of court.

— M. Trahan, the well-known jockey, is, it is reported from India, to visit Australia again for the purpose of securing a horse for the Sahib of Patiala to run in the next Viceroy's Cup.

— Mr B. Curtis has taken the .stablea on the road leading from the Forbury gates, the place that Mr J. M'Keweu uaed to have, and installed <i. Hendricka a« trainer. Prop sal is there now.

— Levels have been taken on the Bendigo (Vie.) course with a view to carrying out a scheme whereby the whole of the course can, when necessary, be thoroughly inundated with water.

—It is reported from Perth that the three-year-old El Norte died on board ship while on his way to Freeniantle. This colt was sold on Mr S. Hordern's account for 165gs at the conclusion of the late V.R.C. Autumn meeting.

— The unprofitable Rip Van Winkle, five years, by Somnus — Waimarama, broke down at Wairarapa. When as a three-year-old he won the Boxing Day Handicap at Hawke's Bay it was hoped that he would prove a good colt for Mr Portland.

— During 1897 the totalisator was at work in New Zealand on 250 days -n tne year. Thi revenue received by the Government was £12,079, representing (at 1J ocr cent.) thn Irovernnient tax. Over £800,000 passed through the machine. — The Manawatu stewards fined Mr G-. M'Carty £10 for committing a breach of the rules of the club in causing Spermaceti to be nominated in the name of " Hugh M'Carty," thus preventing her being bracketed with Opai on the totaliaator. In the Eastern States of America the handicaps are made by but one person, the official jockey club handicapper, and there is never any chance for a difference of opinion in the matter of weights, such as was formerly the case when the work was divided. Ten days before the Doncaster Handicap, Vedette, while moving along at a solid pace, at Randwick. overtook Blanche Florence on the track, and collided heavily with her. The mare received a nasty knock, and, though Vedette went on apparently uninjured, the mishap would not do him any good. A Sydney cable states that at the yearling sales the ELirkham stock realised good prices. The Abercorn— Tempe colt brought 400gs and two gogsoon fillies 305gs and 230g'J .respectively Ihe Grand Master — "First Uove colt (included m the Duckenfield Park draft) brought 340gs, and the Lochiel — Dona colt 300gs. According to recent statistics, horse-racing is improving in Ireland, thooigh thpre is a falling off in point of numbers of racehorses. A recent exchange states that the number of racehorses in Ireland in 1897 is given at 1293, being a falling off from the high-water mark of 1894, when the number reached 1448. Mr Gervis George, once a very prominent racing man on the wefet coast of the North* Island, can still produce winners of his own breeding. It would be a particular source of gratification to him to win the Easter Handicap at Patea with Kahoi, since this gelding is 1 out of his old mare Confidante, by Daydawn. —At Rosehill (N.S.W.) last month backers selected Miss West, a handsome daughter of Nordenfeldt and imported Miss Westbourne, as the best of the score in the Nursery Handicap, and at the close of operations the absurdly short price of 6 to 4 was the best to be had about Mr Hordern's filly. She won a great race by a head. — The Hon. James Carroll, speaking at a reception tendered him by the Takapuna Jockey Club, repeated his promise that he would confer with the racing conference and with, it settle the programme of permits for the year, so that at the commencement of the season all clubs interested would have details as to the disposal of permits. —Mr Horatio Bottoimey, who marked his accession to the English turf by the purchase of the Derby colt, Hawfinch, and Count Schomberg among other horses, met with his initial success in March, at Plumpton, where the Ame-rican-bred Rigo carried his colours first past the post in the Selling Steeplechase. The colt won in a canter, and was bought in for 230gs.

— The A.J.C. had to ask a question about Vedette's age before allowing him to run. The confusion arose through a mistake in the Australian Stud Book, which has him entered as fegfeg, ifi %jsjk, Qm. Swa Sow; 3figW £&&

Book has the gelding properly entered, and it was a simple thing to give the A.J.C. the assurance required that the age was as represented by the owner. — Merloolas is by St. Swithin from a mare by Ivingsborough from Vain Glory, by Maribyr- ; nong or Beauclerc from Vanity (imp.), by Orest. Neither his sire nor dam, says " Milroy," was worth a row of pins for racing purposes, which, combined with the fact that he was bred by a " scientific " breeder, is a rude shock to those who believe in the like-beget-like make-aii>&-shapo theory.

— Prince Barcaldine, this year's winner of the Lincolnshire Handicap, was sold, at the disposa l of the late Colonel North's stud, t, to Cpptain Macliell for 2000gs. He ran nine times last season, and won twice — viz., the Cleveland Handicap Plate, 440sovs, with 7st 7lb, at Doncaster; and the Longest Reign Handicap, 35&sovs, at Windsor; while on four other occasions he ran third.

— Says the Age : The system of honorary stawards is bad, and from day to day it is exercising a baneful influence on the progress of the turf. The V.R.C. ought surely to recognise without delay that the turf is too precious an institution to be prejudiced in the favour of the community through the supineness or incompetence of those who are supposed to exert themselves to suppress dishonest practices.

— When in training Positano gave the impression that he was a sour-natured, bad-tem-xaered brute, but after all it may have been that his sojourn on board steamer had made him only tricky, for after he had been at Neotsfield a few days Mr R. H. Dangar had him as quiet as the proverbial lamb, and '• The Vagrant " says tkat the English stallion is now used daily on the estate as a hackney and stockhorse.

— Melody, dam of MeLos, died at the Tocai stud farm on the 29th ult. She was by The Barb from Mermaid, by Fisherman (imp.) from Sweetheart (imp.), by Red Heart from Helesina, by Harkaway from Polteen, by Young Blacklock from Brandy Bet, by Canteen from Biggotini, by Thunderbolt from a Gohanna mare, from Fraxinella by Trenthani, and at the time of her death was rising 23 years old.

— Sloan was accorded a great reception on his first public appearance in the saddle at Oakland, California, since his return to the Stales. He rode in two successive races, biit failed to land either of his mounts. Sloan is said to have considerably altered his style, riding with, longer stirrups and sitting farther back and more erect than formerly. ■ On March 3 Sloan had four rides at Ingleside and won the lot.

J — The Cromwell Argus reports that the stewards of the Cromwell Jockey O,ub met last -vcok and decided the protests in the Two-mile Trot. The second and third horses were distanced under the last clause of Rule 136, trotting rules, and the tote naoney ordered to be returned, less ! 10 T>er cent, to all investors who produced a recognised ticket with owner's signature. The fourth and other horses not having weighed in, no stakes are to be paid out. At Kiewa (Vie.) on March 4 the local stewj ards came to the conclusion that a case of sus- ! picious practice had been made out, and dis- { qiialified the mare No Name, together with the owner (T. SheeKan) and jockey (—( — Leslie) for one month. The matter came before the V.R.C. Committee, and in indorsing the disqualification the committee decided to call the stewards' attention to the lightness of the punishment compared with the gravity of the offence. — On the 19th ult. the meeting of the Western Australian Turf Club was held at Perth The chief feature of the meeting was the downfall of, the Derby winner, Tarquin at the hands of Bruce Lowe and Scarpia. Towton has been very easy with the three-year-dlcl, and is allowing him every chance for development, and to that may be accounted his loss. Lucky Dog ran his first race on Western soil, but was easily defeated by Western Peer, a son of Australian Peer. ( —Last month, at Newcastle (N.S.W.) a toi bacconist's shopman was charged with laying & double. The magistrate dismissed the case. There was, he said, no evidence before him that the defendant was a bookmaker. .The evidence was that on two occasions only, -within a period of 10 minutes, he made wagers in some other person's shop. These might be casual bets, and did not afford sufficient proof of the defendant having been a user of the place for betting purposes. — " Terliiiga," having returned to Melbourne, writes an account of the Dunedin Cup meeting, in the course of which he says: Eurociydon was far and away the finest horse seen at Forbury. A golden chestnut, with a white face, he is a very handsome, powerful thoroughbred, and from what I saw of him in the race I can quite understand that he might have had a show even against Newhaven if that match, i talked of in the spring of 1896, had come off. j No doubt Eurociydon was a racehorse. Now ! he is only a magnificent cripple. _ —An English writer, in commenting on the great falling off in late years of the amount of winter betting on the Derby, says there are three great factors in-the decline. The first and most important is the publishing of the daily training reports ; the second is that nowadays— especially since S.P. betting came into fashion —most of the wagering is done at the post; and the third is, that the average present-day owners of likely Derby horses very often never bet at all, or if they do, content themselves with a modest wager -when their representative has completed his preparation. — A London correspondent writes us (Sydney Referee) as follows:— I notice that Old Clo is coining this way. Whilst Lochiel is doing so ' well in Australia, it is strange that Prince ! Charlie blood appears to be dying right out m England. With the exception of Prince Rudolph, at Cobham, I cannot call to mind any other sire by him now serving, although there may be some not advertised. Prince Charlie, like Musket, stood at her Majesty's stud at Hampton Court. Another line fast vanishing ! here is the Wild Oats strain, but through Gozo | it appears to go strongly- with you. •■ — Speaking of his visit to Dunedin, • Terlinga," of the Australasian, says It seems lmI perative that the D.J.C. must seek fresh pastures. The only wonder is that the Forbury | Park owners have not seen the advisability of arranging a compromise. It will be a l°. n £ time before they get another tenant at anything like £1200 a year. Forbury is one of the prettiest, if not the prettiest, racecourses I have seen, but it is not an ideal track for racing. To begin with, it is only a mile round— about the distance of Moonee Valley. A mile course must necessarily be cramped, and without those nice racing stretches which come into a mile and ahalf track. — The Australian rider Hickey lias been interviewed in England regarding a discussion as to comparative heights of English and Australian fences. He considers that Englisii steeplechase fences may be a great deal bigger than those of any country, except, perhaps, Ireland, but ridicules the idea that they take anything like the same amount of getting over. At first sight an obstacle standing, say, sft ingn, looks formidable indeed, but if a couple of feet at the top consist of brushwood, or some mate- j rial through which a horse passes nearly as easily as £ circus rider through a paper hoop, it is manifest that it does not take nearly so much jumping as does a solidly-built obstacle, , the height of which does not exceed 4ft 3m. | —It is said of the late Lord Bradford that : though his notable successes were few and far between, considering the liberality of his entries and the superior class of animals he bred , he never expressed himself dissatisfied, never grumbled, and never hinted at retiring from the sport, as many a man under similar circumstances has done before him. He was a sports- j man to the backbone. The way his victory with Sir Hugo in the Derby of 1892 was re- j ceived showed more plainly than anything else could have done the esteam and respect in jKhifih. JUfiifl. JlE&<llpjKl was held, fey, gjg r&oin£

public. Almost'to a man backers had lost tlieir money, but they did not allow this to silence their cheers or to weaken their congratulations. — The Sportsman's special writes: When Mr W. R. Wilson did me the honour of consulting me as to the purchase of a St. Simon stallion, I thought of Dunure, whom Mr Houldsworth was willing to sell for SOOOgs, and whom, when offered by me for that sum, the Austrian Government refused as not good enough, and then within a fortnight gave 6000gs for him to another seller. Verily the ways of these governments are inscrutable! Dunure, however, ha<i not done enough for Mr Wilson, and then came the idea, which has always been a leading one, so far as I am concerned, that it is better to get a really first-class horse with a " crab " about him than a mere bourgeois commoner whose chief merit is that lie is undeniably sound. So it was that I fixed upon Bill of Portland.