WAPITI'S WIND-UP.

Otago Witness, Volume 25, Issue 2321, 25 August 1898, Page 36

WAPITI'S WIND-UP.

This horse is dead. He deserves an in 1

memoriam paragraph. Bred in Victoria in j 1830 by tho Messrs Finlay, ho was bought j as a foal with his dscm, Realisation, by Major George, and brought lo Auckland in ( company with My Idea, and her foal, after- ; wards known as Nelson. His first and only ', race as a two-year-old was in the Welcome , Stakes at Atickland. The son of Kino- Cole i and .Realisation started at an outside price, ; ihe owner having declared to win with Ncl- ) son. The latter was mastered by Mitrail- i lei'se, but Wapiti came to the rescue and ! beat the filly by a neck. Hodson rode him. , _a.s a three-year-old Wapiti began at the ( Auckland Christmas meeting by running . second to Welcome Jack in the Railway Plate, beating Mitrailleuse— St. Leger, now j the champion sire of the colony, was one ] of the three behind him— and Wapiti was : also second in the Derby, which he could > have won ea&ily, only that Major George had declared to win with Nelson if possible, and ■ Nelson only iust managed to head Escopcta, ' after which Wapiti pulled off. Nelson was _ short of work at the time. On tho &econd • day Wapiti won a race outright, beating Tim Whiffler and Salvage in the Grand , Stand Handicap. That was his only win as ; a three-year-old. Next season he visited ' Ghristchurch and won the Flying at the ! Spring meeting, being ridden by White at ' 6.10, and beating Ike and Taiaroa for places. Remaining in Cutts's hands for the January meeting, he captured the Midsummer Handicap for which Tasman was the great favourite, and the placings on that occasion, strange to say, were the same as in the Elying two months before, namely, Ike second and Taiaroa third. After that he was strongly fancied for the Dunedin Cup, in which he was handicapped at 7.3, but his feet troubled him a bit, and though he started, he had no rfiow with Vanguard. As a matter ot fact the dnly othei race won , by Wapiti that season was the Easter Handicap at Christchurch. In this he was ridden by White at 7.5, and won by a length from Rubina 9.0, paying £21 10s 6d per £2 ticket. In his later racing years Wapiti was owned by Mr 3?. Iledger, who usually ran him at small meetings up Auckland way, but he once came out of his shell, at Napier Park, landing a dividend of £57 17s in the Cup, ' and also appropriating the Flying Handicap. As a sire, this horse was not a great success, though Pompom took a fair place in his day. We might, perhaps, have thought more of Wapiti but for the fact that in lator years he and all the others of his family were so thorotighly eclipsed by the one great horse of the crowd, Maxim, who was, of course, half brother to Wapiti.