TALK OF THE DAY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2355, 13 April 1899, Page 35

TALK OF THE DAY.

By MAZEPPA.

THE FIVE-FURLONG RECORD. Suzannah ran -the five furlongs at the C.J.C. meeting last week in one minute exactly. This is precisely one second faster than the record which has stood in New Zealand ever since November of 3886. 1 refer, of course, to Forester's gallop in the Flying Handicap at Spade Guinea's Now Zealand Cup meeting. The course was pretty fast at that meeting. Mirella, o-vmed, by the way, by Mr H. Piper, our starter nowadays, had on the second day rattled off the five furlongs in lmin 3sec, which waa, I think, the colony's record to that date, and on the third day Sextant broke the colonial record for four furlongs, doing this distance in 47i?sec. These performances help to prove that there was no mistake in timing Forester's gallop in the Flying Handicap. As a, matter of fact

it has never been questioned. There were some very fast horses in the field for that race, a3 will be seen : — Forester ... 3yrs 7 3 (Woods) ... 1 Russley ... syis 8 3 (White) ..: 2 Pu&lia oyrs 9 7 (Cliftoid) ... 3 Rubina ... byrs SlB (Purdb-m)... 0 Rocket ... aged 8 9 (Dorrett) ... 0^ Molly Bawn... aged 8 6 (Cochrauo)... 0 Apropos ... 3yra 8 6 (Stratford)... 0 Jack 6jTi 7 7 (Williiin.s)... 0 Galatea ... 3yra 7 2 (Lac-or) ... 0 Merra 3yra 7 0 (Jactson) . . 0 Tarantilus . . 3yrs 6 10 (Cl*rk) ... 0 St. Ives ... 3yis 6 0 (Holmes) ... 0 This represented pretty well the strength of the all-aged sprinters of the south that were available at that time. St. Ives, it will be remembered, ought to have won the race in which Ruby established the sevenfurlong record that stands even to this day ; and in Russley, Molly Bawn, "Rocket, and Apropos we had a quartet any of which might have broken records if specially trained for the task. In the race Forester and Pasha made the running up to the home turn, where Forester disposed of his opponent; but he was at once taken on by Russley, who made a gallant effort up to the distance, from which point Forester drew away for an easy win by two lengths. Time lmin lseo. In that race, as in Suzanna.h'B. there was a gale of wind blowing up the straight. In beating this, the oldest record standing up to last week, Suzannah has accomplished a feat which few would have expected of her. On form nho is more than a couple of stone behind the best of her age. Courtier can give her that weight, and Courtier is not co good aa Screw Gun. It would have lreen interesting to have seen what ono of these cracks would have done in Suzannah's race. As a matter of fact they were a brace of indlfferents that the filly waa meeting. I am afraid that we can hardly hoist Suzannah to high rank amongst the two-year-olds on this one performance. She has shown extraordinary pace, and the timing alone is a big feather in her cap, but the bare fact 4s all the praise we can give her until she does something under a weigiit or in the best company. But she may be coming up. I hope such will be the case. Meanwhile, her record is » wonder. It is not only tho Now Zealand record, but half a second faster than Walwe's champion go in Australia, and it is only beaten in the world, so far aa I know, by two American goes — Maid Marian's 56;} sec on the straight Morris Park course' in October of 1&94, and George F. Smith's 59sec in California on May 7, 1595.