THE MELBOURNE CUP.

Otago Witness, Issue 2436, 21 November 1900, Page 40

THE MELBOURNE CUP.

After visiting Bidlarat just before the opening N of the campaign, "Terlinga" wrote that Scobie seemed to have the strongest team of horses that evei one man had under' lns charge in Victoria. And there is no harm in saying now, remarks the Australasian, that, in Scobie's opinion, one of the least valuable -horses in that string at the time was Clean Sweep, who won the Melbourne Cup just as Teasily as the great Carbine won it m IS»U. [When the second forfeits for the Derby\£ecame' due, Mr, Forrest was advised not to incur any further liability for Clean Sweep, and ~the colt, went out.. It was thought that, he anight win. the Toorak Handicap, but he iplayed up at the barrier, got left, and was -nW^eenlt the finish. flicap Mr Forrest took £100 to. £6 on the "off chance," and the colt won m good style irom George Frederick and War God, two fancied Melbourne Cup candidates.. lnen came the Moonee Valley Cup. Clean Sweep, . ■with only 7st 41b on his bach, was set down «is a certainty by the public, and he won ma canter. ' But even then James Scobie would , not hear of his being within a stone of Maltster. And on all he had seen of the two colts at this time this was a legitimate opinion lo give. Subsequent work, however, showed ithat Scobie had been entertaining "an angel thinawares." Every gallop improved Clean Sweep, and on the" day before the race his trainer — a very cautious .man— felt justified m '/telling his friends that if they felt inclined to Iback anything outside Lancaster, they ouglit 'to "have a little on Clean Sweep. It was '«, great triumph for Scobie to run first and 'eecond in the greatest race of the 3' ear after '.-winning the Derby, for Mr Orr; and Mr X.* T Forrest, the owner of Clean Sweep, is a 'sportsman of the right kind. The favountfian 1 of Lancaster, despite his poor showing in the actual race, was well justified. It is- au Wery well for the "I told you so' division to "idecry~Eancastef now that^he -has-been-beaten, . Jbut since Melos was defeated in 1889 we have iiever'had a hot favourite for the Melbourne 'Cup whose .right to the position of favourite Was' more thoroughly Tecognised— and we do mot forget Ruenalf— by the' soundest judges 'of racing than Lancaster. He was ridden the We .kind of race that- Carnage" was ridden.when Tarcooia'won, and he failed -to stay out 'Ahe two -miles.. In the Melbourne Cup Stakes Lancaster won as though staying was •ihis'forte, but there was another six furlongs Lto go in the .Melbourne Cup and Clean Wetp had the measure of the favourite halt a mite from home. Thus, much to the relief of the bookmakers and Mr V. I\ Dakrn, the '40th' Melbourne Gup was won by a comparative, outsider. From the time Lancaster was first .backed Mr F. F. Dakm was an uncomSxrtaUe man. Why he should have worried, ■himself about Lancaster we jannot understand. If it is possible for a handicappei to 'should a handicapper worry himselr about WS occurs subsequently? He can .only -be Wpected to deal, with the : form of ■atthe time he makes Jus handicap. Mr Da•kin was just as miserable when Ruenalf was ■fovourite in 1894; and while congratulating Sl on being well out of his troubles, w, , feel more inclined to sympathise with Foulsham and -his followers, as Lancaster has cobu them .£ deal of money; .andliad the Hotchkiss colt :w<ki *he Melbourne Cup it wou d only .have jbrou&t them -a fitting reward *<* -tience in sticking to the_ colt as they have .•done., .. - . < '" N.EEDLESS SUSPICION. •' In "Vigilant," there is a 'silly habit of usingthe word "acclimatise m regard to Aurttalarian or American horses as '•iflt-.were.a mere euphemism for "^dying. "People surely do not imagine that -horses can come and show their best form right off were it not for the restraining arm of the jockey. •Six or > seven months at the very least are needed for a horse to acclimatise here, and an many eases it- has taken a vastly longer time. Maluma, for example, .did not come to (herself for- nearly two years, and Old 010 , •who made the journey on the same boat with Survivor, has never really recovered. Mr White backed her both at Goodwood and !Lewes, but she showed no trace of what she used to be, and has quite forfeited her owner s confidence— and no wonder ! Merman came to (hand quicker than any Australian horse that nas come here up to now, but his acclimatisation ' was not accompanied by any attempt whatever to throw dust in the eyes of the jhandicapper for the Cesarewitch. Indeed, the horse was sent out for and won the Lewes Handicap before the weights for the Cesare•witch and Cambridgeshire were published. The suspicious ones-of the racing world must, I suppose, start with the assumption that thorses are machines, and that any deviation -from mathematical accuracy in their running is evidence of conspiracy and fraud on the 'public. The more obvioup explanation of in-and-out running they scornfully reject, aud 1 smile with contemptuous superiority at .the ''•ingenious folly of those who ore ready to acr eept/and- believe any such explanation. Yet ■'■fchereJs nothing more certain than that many • horses come to their best at a certain period •.of -.the year, n'c matter who trains them, .and ' they -will tlien show form altogether," beyond f what they have previously been displaying* Thus it is that we often see hcrses' favouring a -particular meeting partly because- the j=ea- ' son of , the 'year suits them and partly because " the course is* one they like. All these matters are singularly obvious, and do not involve knavery- or even _cunning in the marjfigementof the lior?e But it does not pjease the Britifh public to-'belieye that anything can be really

open and aboveboard on the turf, and if — let us say — Captain Machell were to write to the Sportsman, giving exact details of every trial ot his horses, witli the weights carried by each, the attitude of the great majority of readers would be one of unbelief. They would at once argue that the gallant Captain was trying to deceive them for some ulterior purpose of his own, just as they argued, absurdly enough, about Mr White when he wrote to warn them against, backing Old Clo' for the Liverpool Cup.