IN A NUTSHELL.

Otago Witness, Issue 2372, 17 August 1899, Page 37

IN A NUTSHELL.

>-Tb.e Eangitikei Club has £582 in hand. — Fulmen has accepted for the Melbourne Cap. —Mr Dowse is reappointed handicapper at KVaimate. — Forbury is now in work as a cab horse in Dunedin. — The "Waimate Club lost £26 on last year's .transactions. ' — Mr Gollan was a passenger by the Papanui ! from England. j — A profit of £256 was made over the Marton i meeting of last season. ■ — Belmont is still turned out in a paddock down by the Maori Kaik. ; — The Feilding Club spent £100 on improvements last year, and then saved £300. — Dirk Hammerhand has been backed for the Caulfield Cup to win about £10,000. Clive, winner of the Jumpers' Flat Race at Moonee Valley (Vie) last month, started at 100 to 3. — Nihilist, now running in a paddock in Dunedin, will shortly be taken up again r)y Mr J. M'Kewen. — The Australian mare Acmena was recently sold in England, after being served by Watchmaker, for 900gs. — The cablegram man has sent the result of the Birmingham Handicap, of which German was the winn»r. ' — The .Kurow Jockey Club hav6 fixed on the second Thursday in October, 12th, for their annual meting. — Two guineas was the price at -which Firat Shot, by Nordenfeldt — Lady Norah, was recently sold in Sydney. —At the New South Wales coursing meeting, Lamplighter won the St. Leger, with Slack Mist as lunner-up. — It is understood that Domino, the winner of Saturday's Steeplechase at Caulfield, retires from tho racing track. — The estate of tho late Mr Archer, an In- , dian bookmaker, who was visiting the colonies last year, was sworn at £46,000. — Hie starting machine is now used at al- ' most all meetings in Germany. The Derby at ' Hamburg was started in that way. > — The outlawed Parthenopreus was cold in ' Sydney lately for £100. Mr R. J. Hunter bought the horse, and will take him to India. — It is stated that Doondiah may never quite recover from the effects of the fall he received in tho V.R.C. Grand National Steeplechase. — Rubin has wintered well at Wanganui, and the Referee reports that he is to be taken in hand almost at once to prepare for the New Zealand Cup. — It is rumoured that there is a desire upon the part of somo admirer to purchase the Metropolitan favourite Cravat and that his owner is inclined to sell. —Of the 15 final acceptors for the Grand National Hurdle Race, to be run to-day, nearly all have backers. I fancy Dummy, and Ilex and Dundee are dangerous. — During last year the V R.C. paid to sundry jockeys, out of the distressed and disabled jookej-B' fund, £692 18s. The fund still hns, however, between £6000 and £9000 left to go on •with. —F. Williams, who was badly broken up in a buggy accident in Melbourne some time ago, has arrived in Sydney on the look-out for employment. Williams is well known in New Zealand. — Crysalite, winner of the Hurdles at Caulfield on the sth, pulled off the Hurdle Race at Moonee Valley on the 29th July, arid was thereupon backed down to 8 to 1 for the Caulfield race. —In a letter received in New York from Tod Sloan, the jockey, he says he feels fhat the English jockeys have put up some sort of a job to ruin him. This was written a week before the Ascot incident. — Members of the various sportipg bodies at Goraidine met on Thursday last to give a sendoff to Mr B. O'Malley, on the eve of his departure for Arnuri. Mr O'Malley used to be ■ecretary of the racing club. —Mr J. Crozier had a good win with Cicero at Broken Hill last month, this hoise landing first the City Cup, for which the owner had a :oice bet of £500 to £50, and then pulling off the Licensed Victuallers' Stakes. — Messrs Stephensou and llazlett's racing Btable and cottage wpre offered at auction an Saturday and passed in. 1 believe the buildings cost £600, and the land £100, yet the whole concern could have been secured for £200. — Speaking in the House during the total ieator debate, Mr Rawlins said : " The racecourse at Tapanui is absolutely an Eden. There is no spieler there. There is not one allowed there. Should one be seen or known to ba on the grounds, he is hunted off." — " Pentagraph '' has made up his statistics of trotting, showing that Monte Carlo is the chief winner last season with £439. Mr J. A. Buckland heads the winning owners with £558, and A. Pringle is in the lead of the reiusnien •with 20 wins, two more than G. Grant. —Mr H. Oxenham reports the following among his transactions on the Melbourne Cup: 2000 to SO Fleet Admiral. 2000 to SO War God, 2000 to 00 Wait-;i-Bit, 1000 to 20 Revenue, 1000 to 25 Lancaster, 1500 to 20 Lancaster, 1000 to 6 St. Clair, 1125 to 15 B.allistite. — Says the Australasian : A horse that is coming back to las foirn is Mr S. G. Cook's The Hypnotist, who is rapidly fining down, and , getting into racing trim. Coutiast has done nothing except slow work since her Adelaide ' Cup win, but she is filling out, and evidently ! doing well during her holiday. J — The Steeplechase at tho Ballarat Miners' [ race meeting was surrounded with startling in- J cidents and of the quartette that essayed the task, Trim was the only one to stand up, and lio very narrowly escaped a fall at the second fence, which he struck hard, but a clever recovery by M'Dongall saved him. . — Holbrook, who made his reappearance in > public at Moorefield (N.S.W.) last month, after , an 18 months' absence from the turf, has de- ! veloped into a fine horse, and Sydney Referee j says that provided his leg does not trouble j tim he will probably have to be reckoned with [ in the w.f.a. races at tho Spring meetings. i — Domino, the greatest of Australian steeplechasers, won the Caulfield Grand National last Saturday, carrying 13.5, and romping home. It was apparently a good perfoimance, but it is not a record either as to weight or time, for Iledleap won with 13.12 in 1892, and Larrikin's time in 1896 (Bmin lljsec) beat Domino's by 7sec. — During the Tolalisator debate in the House last month Mr Rawlins moved — " That the abolition or retention of the totalisator he referred to the people of the colony on /the 'same date and under the same conditions, i for a three-fifths majority, as the local option , poll," but the amendment lapsed for want of j a seconder. | —At » meeting of the Committee of ] the Gon Racing Club it was resolved | to hold the spring meeting on October 25 and 26, and the Summer meeting pn the 25th and 26th January, 1900. Draft programmes were submitted, £500 being allotted in stakes for the Spring meeting, and | \£576 for the Summer meeting, an increase of j £135 altogether on the amount given in slakes last season. I — When our latest files left England Ormc was at the head of the winning stallion list, I with £12,426 to his credit. Since then Ftying Fox has -won the Princess of Wales Stakes, of £10,000, so that Orme will probably come out ■with a big lead at tho end of the year. Last season Orrno's total was £9014, and he was twelfth on the list. ! — Major Kennj'a starting machine wag used

for the Lee Plate, for tw.o-year-olds, and the Flying Plate, a five-furlong selling race, in Ireland last month. In both instances ,the result was highly satisfactory. The starts"*were excellent, and so pleased are the Cork Park executive with the results of the experiment that it is their intention to have all the races started ; from " the machine " at their next meeting. Said Lord Durham recently: — "He had noticed — and he had no doubt other members had — that if the jockeys wanted to catch » train, or if it was very wet, they got off for the i last race in the most remarkably quick time. ; He thought that was because there was a kind ' of tacit agreement amongst them to assist the starter to get them off. Over and over again he had noticed the la3t race started in very good time." — At the Easter meeting of the Johannesburg Racing Club, a well-known trainer was failed upon for an explanation, when the chairman put the question, " Did you ever sti^en a horse?" The trainer hesitated a little, and on looking round said, " What a question to ask ; there are nine of you present, and as I have trained for eight, you ought to kuow that I would not do such a thing." Ha w»s told to be careful in future. — At a boarding house in Perth it has been the custom amongst the boarders for some time past to fine each one at the table who used slang Id for each word used. .A few days ago, before the V.R.C. Grand National SteeplY caase was run, the sum of 10s was in hand, co it was decided to invest it in- two- sweep tickets with a local promoter, with the result that Ouyen was drawn, ending in ihe lodgers having £15 to divide between them. There's some virtue in slang after all. — Morny Cannon leads a very temperate life. When he has finished riding he will have a whisky and soda, and walk back to his hotel. While a cup of tea is being got ready he wil, write to his wife. Golf, cricket, or the -writing of business letters fills the time till dinner, and whatever if here served, the mainstay of the meal will bo one of three ihings — chicken, fillet of beef, or cutlets. He has never smoked a cigar in his life, but takes half a dozen whiff 3of a pipe after dinner, and then puts it down. If he is not dining out, he is in bed at 10. — More -cases ot ponies than of horses reaching great length of years afe recorded. Mr Edmitnd F. Dease, of Gaulstown, County Westmeath, in December, 1894, lost a pony nearly 39 years old; he had been ridden by four generations of his owner's family. In 1896 a pony mare belonging to Mrs Pratt, Low Pond House, Bedale, iTorks, died, aged 45 years. The pony record in age, however? comes from Devonshire. On Christmas Day, 1R63, Mr Dampisr, of Silworthy, near Clovelly, lost a pony who was within p. few we&ks of his 60th year. He was touched in the vrind, but was otherwise sound. — ■ Quito an amusing episode was witnessed at the Rosebery Park pony races, says Melbourne Sportsman's Sydney correspondent. The recognised attending farriers were refused free admission. They indignantly declined to pay, and it was amusing to sea the owners and trainers trying to make shift at removing and adjusting plaies. Many of the pomes wero sent to the post with c full set of shoes on, whilst others were but partially shod. A couple of owners showed great foresight in sending their ponies out to the professional " smith " to have their shoes *uken off, as the nfove was attended in each case with vioiory. --Some few yeacs ago a stone tablet could be seen built into ihe wall of a certain oldfashioned garden in Middlehara (England). The inscription it boie told of a memorable day in Doncaster anuals, and ran as follows: '■This stone was erected by R. Roues MiJnes. Esq., to commemorate the honesty and skill of James Croft, as the trainer of the Hon. E. Petre's Theodore, Mr Gascoigne's mare Violet, the Duke of L';eds's grey coit, Mr Gascoigne's chestnut co!t, beating nineteen others in tho St. Leger Stakes, 1820, 73 subscribers. 'Uo start four horses for the St. Leger, and have them finish in the above order, was certainly ■worth recording. — A Tamworth (N.S.W.) paper says:— An amusing scene was witnessed at the scales as the riders weie weighing out for the Welter Handicap on the racecourse. E. Rose secured the mount on Sardou. who was weighed at list. The rider could only draw the beam at about 78t, and half a hundredweight of deadweight had to be made up. Rose filled hia pockets with lead, and the man in charge ol the horse bustled round and secured a variety of lugs, rubbers, a stockman's saddle, etc. With all these encumbrances, the weight was just secured, and notwithstanding all the disadvantages under which Sardou laboured, be finished a good third, being hardly half a length behind +he winner. — One of the greatest horses of tho centuiy was nearly prevented from starting in the Epsom Derby owing to a difficulty concerning tho forfeit list. On the Monday before the race of 1850 Lord Zetland learned that there was some £500 worth of forfeits due from the nominator of Voltigcur, Mr Stephenson, and /«o disgusted was he that he determined to put the pen through thp. colt's name. Fortunately, this came to the knowledge of Sii William Milner, who had, amongst other bets, taken £J O,OOO to £150 about Voltigeur during the fioodwood week the year before, and he , promptly paid off the forfeit himself to secure that the colt should go to the post. How he won is a matter of h-'story. A real good horse ! was Voltigeur. ! — Perhaps the pluckiest race ever ridden j was that at the August meeting at York in j 1786. Benjamin Smith (who, by the way, won the St. Loger no fewer than 'six times) was riding Lord Archibald Hamilton's grey colt Ironsides, and at the post, when under the starter's orders, a horse named Brilliante, beI longing to Mr Garforth, lashed out and kicked , Smith on the leg. The jockey said nothing; , he rode the four-mile race cut in his usual | form, but after passing the post fiiet he nearly j fainted in his saddle, and it was necessary to ! carry him to the scales. When a doctor was ) brought to attend him, he discovered that , Brilhante's kick had broken Smith's leg, so that this jockey achieved the unique distinction of riding and winning a race with a fractured limb. — In Sydney, on the last day of July, W?r God was backed for £3000 to win the Melbourne Cup and Wait-a-Bit for £2000 for tha same event at 100's to 4. Msrry Pilgrim's name was also written for £1000. For the double — Derby and Cup— Gungadin and Fleet Admiral were coupled to win £10,000, and for the Derby, after eight fifties had been accepted on beha'f of Lancaster, £300 to £50 was taken. i —Mr Herries, M.H.R., recently said in the , House: "Many people think more about a j Derby or Oaks winner than about a statesman ; j and people would ask at Home, when you men- ! tion Mr Seddon or Mr M'Kenzie, are they j cricketers or ]ockeys? Tho best-known AmericaD at the present moment is not the President or Admiral Dewey, but Tod Sloan, the jockey." — Seldom nowadays, remarks an Englisk. I writer, do we see such extraordinary consist* I ency of form as that shown by Waxy and Gohauna :n their contests towards the close of I the last century. They first met in the Derby of 1793, and Waxy won by half a length; at I the Newmarket Second Spring meeting Waxy beat Gohanna by a neck over three miles and a-half, but Gohaivna turned the tables in a match over four miles and a-quarter; then "Waxy beat Gohanna over a four-mile course at Lewes, and the redoubtable pair met for the j last time in the King's Plate (foui-mile heats) at Guildford. Waxy won the first heat by

half a head, and the pair ran a dead heat for the second. The third heat resulted in a win for Waxy by half a length. Waxy was by Pot-8-O's, a son of Eclipse out of a Herod mare; end Gohanna was by Mercury, son of Eclipse out of a Herod mare. Waxy stood i 15h lin in height and Gohanna an inch less.