IN A NUTSHELL.

Otago Witness, Issue 2397, 8 February 1900, Page 41

IN A NUTSHELL.

— The Cromwell Club made £20 over the last races. —Mr J. M'Eewen has bought the trotter Laird. — Dunedin Cup weights are due on the 2nd March. — The Charters Towers (Q.) Club voted £500 to the patriotic fund. . — There are two candidates in the Caulneid Futurity Stakes entitled to only 5.5. — The Wyndham meeting turned in a profit of £40 odd, notwithstanding the bad luck. On Viceroy's Cup day the whole of tho races on the card were won by Australian-bred Labourer has recovered from the effects of his fall at Biccarton, and is now galloping at El'erslie. — Douglas got hung up in a wire fence a couple of weeks ago, and sustained injuries which prove to be trifling. Lady Meux has donated Survivor to the war fund. The horse is to be sold and the proceeds given to the fund. The average dividend at Tapanui last week was a trifle over £5 7s 6d. Very good for Hughie Gourley, the handicapper. First prize of £1332 in Tattersall s con- • sultatTon on the Geelong Cup went to Mr Counihan, of Manga weka (ISlew Zealand). VVaipuki, winner of the Pahiatua Cup, is a regular good 'uu on breeding being by the - Bobinson Crusoe horse Quilt, out of Waitm. Edelweiss is nominated for the D.J.C. Pub- - licans' Handicap and Anniversary Handicap. Her name was accidentally omitted last week. . . — Only fancy Resolute being sold in England for 50gs. He is by the famous Trenton from .-Umilta, by Newminster from Ouida, by Yatendon. —On the Wednesday before tho Viceroys Cup Merloolas galloped a mile and a-half in j 2min 37sec. Afterwards 7to 4 »as laid on j him for the Cup. — The stallion Mystical, by WonderlandMystery, was recently destroyed at Napier.- He was the sire of/ Will o' the Wisp, a double winner at Wellington. — Xhe Melbourne Cup winner Tarcoola, who j was recently taken to San Francisco, was, at latest, under offer to a breeder from the eastern ] side of America for £2000. j — Mr W. T. Jones received 3000gs at auction for Airs and Graces at Newmarket in December, the purchaser being M. Blanc, a prominent French breeder and owner. — For the 16 races at Tapanui last week there were 86 starters, and the aggregate dividends were £86 4s. So that if a man had backed every hoTse in every race he would have made 4s. t' A proposal is before the Cromwell Club to raise two of the races at the next meeting to the status of first-class country races; that is to say, a £60 galloping race and a £50 trot. — Antares, by Castor from Hilda, who has been leased by the Hon. H. Mosman to Mr J. Allman, the Warwick sportsman, has now been purchased outright at 500gs by the latter gentleman. — At a meeting of the Cromwell Club on the 2'tth January Messrs Solomon and Murrell were instructed to pay out as arranged on lost tickets on Dolly Emrnerson. So the local Argus renorfcs. I don't know what is meant. —Mr R. S. Sevier, who was known in Australia as Robert Sutton, the cash bookmaker. I lately raised a company of Yeomanry in Bed- i fordshire, but owing to difficulties with the j War Office, Mr Sevier' s company has been dis- I banded. I —As only one entry was received bj the i Clutha Hack Club for the Ladies' Bracelet (horses to be owned and ridden by members of the G.M.R.), the race Eas been deleted, and a Consolation Handicap will probably be substituted. — I hear that Mr C. Newman, who has owned | Kentucky Maid and other trotters, has volun- ' teered for the Transvaal, and that if he goes i his old companions in the printing offices are ! likely to give him a send-off. A well-liked man | is Charlie. j —At the Newmarket (Eng.) sales Mr W. j Cooper gave 500gs for the Lochiol mare Ami- j able. He does not mean to race her, buying j her specially to mate with Newhaven, for which | purpose he also gave 890gs for the brood mare j Hampton Figlia (Hampton— Oblivion). | — £200 to £12 Silvermcoi was <he first be 1 , made on the Newmarket Handicap after tho ' weights were declared. In Perth they were | taking 14 to 1 Tarquin before the weights were ( out, and " The Count " laid £1000 to £70 Sea- | horse for the Australian Cup to an Auckland client. — Although the lata Mr Nnylor, the owner of , Stockwell, had a reputation for " nearness," his I employees did not give him that character. Thomas Chalonei received £3000 for winning the Derby on Macaroni, Godding 1 , his trainer, and others interested in tSe^aorse being liberally rewarded. —Mr George Eulhven informs '' Malua, " that he put Casket into training, with the in- j tention of racing him either at Wingatui or the Taieri meeting at Easier. Besides having Casket "Old George" has Stockfish and Motto in steady work. The latter has not been doing so well as was expected from her. — The champion trotting stallion in Americalast year was Bingen, whose record was 2min 6Jsec. He was recently priced by Russian buyers, and his owner asked £10,000 for him. j A stifnsh figure, but it is said the risk attached to shipping more than the price placed upon the horse prevented a deal eventuating. — Lancer, the winner of the Northern Handicap at the recent meeting at Chaiters Towers, once occupied a menial iDosition on the staff of iho Northern Miner, being employed in the delivery of the paper. Subsequently he was promoted to the shafts of a hansom cpb. pud quite recently won several racos at Klondvk? — Messrs Weatherby have just published the third supplement to Vol. XVIII of the Stud Book. It contains a return of brood mares for 1893 and 1899. and a list of the foals of the present year. The total number of brood maies accounted for in 1899 is in excess of the previous year, the exact figures being — for 1898, 56G2, and for 1899, 5734. — Woid conies from Broken Hill that King William, by Nordenfeldt fiom Pulchra, by Rosicrucian, has been sold as a pony stallion to go to India. King William realised 310gs as a yearling in New Zealand, and afterwaids Mr W. R. Wilson gave 1200^s for him, but his career on the turf was short, and he won only one race, a Queen's Plate, in Queensland, as a two-year-old. — Mr A. Leitch, of New South Wales, has lost Latonia, by Oudeis, from Lstona, by Moorthorpe (imp.) from Miss Phoebe. Latonia had lately been upon a visit to the imported horse, Kingsley. She was a smart mare m her day, and it is doubtful whether a faster two-year-old was over bred about the.Rivorina, and by good judges she was regarded as the be&l of the progeny of Ou'leif. — Writing from Tasmania, "Coronach" says : The most remarkable thing about the Cliudleigh laces, held on the 10th ult., wps that the combined ages of the three placed liojfc.es in the Steeplechase was 44 years. The Baiber, who won, is a colt of 14; Barrington, who ran second, is a frisky grey of sweet 36; ■wLile Uno, who was placed third, is a cocky har.dsome bay of 14 summers. — Competition in the book-making business in America surely cannot be very keen, wlipii an exchange makes .special mention of the fact that 14 odd« merchants were doing business in the big ring at the Oakland track, Sail Francisco, at a recent meeting. At New Orleans, too. iZuaxot wore only 15 bopks operatiuEj; on

the first day, and this at a meeting in which at least 1200 horses had arrived to take part.

— The Duke of Westminster last December sold his three-year-old Frontier, by Orme from Quetta, to the French Government, presumably for stud purposes. The price, which did not transpire, must have been a big one, as Frontier's breeding is exceptionally attractive. His sire, Orme, stands at the head of the list of winning sires for the past season, his total being £46,703, towards which Frontier contributed £1275.

— The Melbourne Argus says: Hopscotch made an ignominious debut as a hurdle racer at Caulfield, the big chestnut coining to grief at the very first obstacle. The race went to Redeemer. The Lord Wilton gelding was turned out in splendid condition by A. Skirving, who, by the way, has received an attractive offer to go to England to. train and ride jumpers. He has the proposal at present under consideration.

—Qn the concluding day of the Newmarket blood sales in England last December, a filly foal by Trenton from Lady Sterling realised 390gs, the purchaser being Mr R. Sneyd. On the same occasion, "Wiche, a- three-year-old filly, by Saraband from "oils *feg, was sold to Mr M'Cieery for 500gs. Mons Meg was one of the horses sent to England by the'iate Mr James White. She was got by Martini-Henry from Malacca, dam of Singapore. — With, ordinary luck, I think, says the London scribe " Vigilant," that we ought to have an extremely open and interesting Oaks. The pick oi the entry appears to. me to be Bettyfield,. .Vain Duchess," Lucie li ;> Paigie, and St. Nydia, whilst there is a strong second division composed of Dusky Queen, Goosander, Tiresomej.Vane," and Winnifreda. .Any one of these really might win, but probably Vain Duchess and Lucie II have tho best credentials.

— In the cabled list of weights for the Newmarket Handicap the name I3usby should be Bushy Park. In the Australia Cup list Cabin should be Cabin Boy, Goa should bo War G od, Palquin should be Merry Pilgrim, and Argo, with the three that follow, are at 6.13, not 7.13, each. The mutilation of the names arises from tho way they are cabled. To save expense ' War God " is cabled " God," and " God " written hurriedly may be taken for " Goa."

— Commenting upon the figure system of breeding, a leading American authority sums up the theory as follows : Mr Bruce Lowe is not the only man who has sought to ignore the laws of nature and to set up new ones to please himself. ' All those little crochety attempts to create mysteries, and then to explain them without any regard to the universal and immutable laws which govern the transmission of qualities — physical and psychical — from the parent to the offspring, never in the past, and never in the future, will amount to anything more valuable than " milking a he goat in a sieve."

— Not riding to orders is considered a very serious offence in England, and a case cropped up abroad a short time ago. in which the rider wos severely punished. The stewards of the English Jockey Club are also down upon any offender. Otto Madden was reporteoto»to the stewards of the Jockey Club by Lord M. Beresford for not riding Essex according to the orders given -in- "the Catesby Selling Plate at the Northampton Autumn meeting, and -for insolence -after- tho race. The stewards considered the charges jtistified, and severely reprimanded Mp.cideii, and cautioned him -as to his future conduct. .—. — The death took place on December 8, at the Kisber Stud, of the stallion Gunnersbury, who was bought in 1881 to temporarily take thr place of Cambuscan. As a racehorse, Gunnersbury had done nothing to prove himself worthy of" high lineage. By Hermit out of Hippia (a. Derby winner and an Oaks heroine), Gunner&bury was bred in 1876 by the late Baron Lionel de Rothschild, who raced under the name of Mr Acton, and during two reasons on the iurl the colt failecl to win a race. Ai. ths stud, "however, he quickly made his mark, and his offspring won something like £40,000 in stakes in Austria-Hungary alone before he died.

— Cherry, winner of the Viceroy's Cup, is by Lochiel from Peril, by Adventurer from Narina, by Rataplan, and was bred by Messrs J. ?nd A. Thompson at Oakleigh, New South Wales, v:here he won several races, but having been purchased for India in May, 1898, he came on to Victoria, and on Queen's Birthday of that year he carried off the Royal Handicap at Flemington in the colours of Sirdar Jcwan Singh. In India last season Cherry won five races, of the value of 8430 rupees. After winning the Rajpura Stakes, he was bought by his present owner, II H. the Kour Sahib of Patiala, who has won the Viceroy's Cup twice before with the English-bred horse Sprightly.