AUCKLAND TOPICS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2403, 22 March 1900, Page 41

AUCKLAND TOPICS.

Br Taihoa.

March 15.

The weights for the Eaeter Handicap, to ba run at the Auckland Racing Club' 3 Autumn meeting are due to-morrow, and cousiderabla speculation is being indulged in as to the imposts Mr Evett will allot the southern horses. Should Advance score in the Dunedin Cup ha will of course have to carry 7lb penalty in tho Easter.

The long swell of diy weather has left tha tracks very hard at Ellerslic. Heavy rains would be welcomed.

Record Reign is doing capital work and Rnother that is shaping well is old Res, the winner of the last two Easter Handicaps. He has been off the scene for a good while, and there is a suspicion that all is not well with him, but in the event of rain falling and the course becoming soft it i 3 quite probable that Trainer Booth will pull him through.

The Labourer, in Geoige Wright's term, is among the other regular attendants, and is going on very yell. St. Amy,a two-year-oil member of this trainer's string, is' one that is bought in some quarters as likely to have a sa? •-. the settlement of the Champion Stakeß.

A statement is in ciiv .ilation to the effect that Welletock, the two-y :u old full-brother of Waiuku, purchased b t the Hon. Mossman at 420gs, has gone ami'::.. The youngster is trained in private at M:.,!?e"re, and consequently nothing niuch has bc»r allowed to leak out, though I understand t l^t he will not be seen cut again during his t-to-y ear-old career. Tire's victory in the Hawke's Bay Cup was well anticipated in Ay -k'and. In December last the little son of M- iallion was brought up here with a view to the Auckland Cup, and from the work he did in company with Seahorse Percy Martin held his chance of ■winning that event in high esteem, but unfortunately the day befoie the race Tire managed to knock himself out by wounding one of his 'legs, and the scratching pen had accordingly to be drawn through Iris name. Had this not ■been the case he would have found many at Ellerslie supporting his chance in the last Auckland Cup. Coronet's brace of defeats at Hawke's Bay cost local punters a tidy sum, as he was repented in better condition than when J. B. Williamson

etarted the campaign with him. i There are those who claim that the regular

appearance of the imported St. Simon stallion, Cyrenian, upof the track* at Ellerslie niea'iis that he is to be raced, -but as far as I can gather this is all moonshine, and his exercise is only to keep him in good health. Favona and Knight of Athol" were brought back from the Coast during the week. The Auckland Trotting Club has framed a liberal programme for the Autumn meeting, to i>e held on April 14 and 18, the principal items on the bill being the Stewards' Handicap Trot, cf 75sovs, one mile and a-half, and the Easter Handicap Trot, of 70sovs, two miles. Major George is on his way back to Auckland ■with Seahorse and the chestnut filly by Strathmore — Fragrant, picked up at Messrs W. C. Yuille's thoroughbred sale on March 5. The major conies via the Bluff, thus escaping the quarantine regulations. Of the 23 foals at Wellington Park this year, 14 have so far been weaned.

Among the racehorses that have left our

shoies for South Africa as troopers' mounts are ' Cleopatra (by Nelson — Memphis), who went - "with a member of the Auckland detachment of the fourth contingent, and Scrapiron i,by Mar-tini-Enfield), who left Napier with the same lot.