IN A NUTSHELL.

Otago Witness, Issue 2499, 5 February 1902, Page 46

IN A NUTSHELL.

— Western Bell is the first of Occident's stock to win & race. — Hawthorn pulled up sore after her race in the Stewards' Handicap at Tapanui. — Bell Boy put up 2.31 for the Mile Trot which he won at the recent Tapanui meeting. — Inventor, the winner of the mile and a-half trot on the second day at Tapanui, is by Dictator. —H. Emmerson has severed his connection with Mr Hardinge, the owner of Wild West and Sharpshot. — Estella, the winner of a double at the last Queenstown meeting, is a full sister to the hurdler Waikuia. — The Stratford Racing Club have appointed three stipendiary stewards to act at the club's meeting on Mtrch 17. —If Fulmen trains on all right he should prove a hard nut to crack in the Midsummer Handicap at Christchurch. — The Tuapeka Jockey Club have received excellent nominations for the:r meeting next week. Weights are due to-day. —L. Lyord has been brought from Invercargill to his home in South Dunedin, and at latest reports was progressing favourably. — The first of Casket's stock to race was seen under silk at Tapanui. This was Witch Winnie, a good cut of a filly out of the Sir Garnet mare Ulva. — Dreamland, the winner of the last -Australian Cup, is handicapped to carry Bst in this year's raca, or 161b in excess of the impost that he was victorious with. — Wakeful, the heroine of the last Newmarket Handicap, heads the handicap this year with 10.3, or 391b more than she successfully negotiated last year. — Cresceus, the champion trotter, failed in an. attempt io lower Alix's record of 2min sJsec for a mile at Los Angeles on the 14th ult. The champion's time was 2min 7ssec. — Finance ■was sold at the Tapanui meeting by "Mr R. Logan. The price paid is said to be £32, which was the amount Mr Logan gave when he purchased the mare from Mr J. Loughlin. — The Tapanui stewards returned the deposit money in the protest against Epic in the Welter Hack, notwithstanding the fact that they were unanimous in dismissing the protest. — His Honor Mr Justice Williams has reserved his decision in Mr P. Grant's appeal against Mr Carew's decision in the tote betting case, in which the magistrate gave a decision against Mr Grant. — Visionary looked better to the eye at Tapanui than Bhe did at either Gore or Queenstown, but the daughter of Stepniakand Illusion just managed to struggle'home in front of Blackpool in the Final WelteT. — "Yes," said the pnnter who hnd fi«i=Tied badly, as he read th~e title of a little rcok, "Horses to Watch, and Horses to .Avoir!,'' hy an "Old Hand," "I knows all about that ; I 'osaes to avoid is race 'o3ses." [ — The Victorian-bred Annoyance Tan a gcc-3 game race when he beat Stimulant in tho Novel at Tapanui, but he was very aoie in frout afteT i the race. Annoyance i* by Box out of Teaze, a j mare imported from Victoria by Mr Max Fried- j lander. j — Weights for the Dunedin Cup are clue o-j Monday, the 17th of February. On the an me elate the weights are also due for the balance of the races to be decided on the first day, and the D.J.C. Handicap, the principal race on the second day's card. — A would-be jockey at Burryjaa weighed out to ride a horse named Buck 8.0 in the Farmers' Hack Race, but as ho turned the scales at 15.1 the stewards qid not allow the horse to start. Declaring 7it overweight is nrobably a record. —Mr H. Gourley wns allowed to dispensa with the starting machine in sending away some of his fields at the Tapanui meeting. The majority of clubs who are possessors of starting machines insist on their being used in each and every race by their starter. — Transport has won two races — the Grand Stand Handicap at Tapanui and a race in Wellington. The Cuirassier gelding won a race at the last Taieri meeting, but owing to it being declared void the race was run over again, and in the second "go" Transport was beat by Wild West. — "Captain" M. H. H. Lyons, of the "British Secret Service, Lorenzo Marquez," who obtained JE22 from Thomas Walton, a recent arrival from South Africa, by inducing him to back horses at Moonee Valley, was, at the City Court, sentenced to six months' imprisonment, with hard labour. — Foray looked a trifle -off at Tapanui, and did not race up to her best form. The Gipsy Grand mare is evidently not a campaigner, and cannot stand the wear and tear of a country circuit at present. She is ft very big mare, And will probably display a littlo more stamina when served by more time,. — Western Bell won 'tho Maiden at Tapanui very easily, but later in the day ran a bad last in the Grand Stand Handicap. In the Racing Club Handicap on the second day she was as game as a pebble and brat Transport, who won the Grand Stand Handicap in a canter, after a great finish by a head. — Donna Rosa was the heroine of the Tccent Tapanui fixture. The daughter of Don Pedro and Red Ensign is half sister to Red Banner And Red Lancer, and has furnished into a handsome mare. Donna Rosa was in tho market after the meeting at a nrice said to be in the neighbourhood of a. hundred and fifty. — The American trainer Huggins was recently asked if he would not like to be training in America again, and he said : " No, sir. I much prefer training in England, where a man has a chance to train at his own home and enjoy Life, instead of living on the track and moving about from place to place like a gipsy." — Old Invader was a 6tarter in a hurdle race at a military sports meeting, held recently at Winton. The race was won by a horse called Manazona, who beat Typhoon, who ran second, and Huntsman. Mannzona also won the Cup on the same day, and beat Captain, Syrian, Iluntaman, Zeehan, Langley, Comot, and Typhoon. — Shogun, the half-brother to the defunct Paladin, and a full brother to Pallas, ran unplaced in the Maiden at Tapanui. He was well backed in the four furlong Tace on the second day, but lost his chance through getting badly away from the barrier. Shogun is by Chain Armour, who is by Chainshot out of Apropos, the dam of Proposal. —J. .Smith, who was cautioned by the str>warcls of the Tapanui Club for interfering •roith Blue Blood in the Farmers' Handicap et their recent meeting, was once well known as a professional rider. Some years agro, whilst riding 1 a horse in a race up north, the bridle slipped off the horse's head as the field was sent away, but Smith kept his mount going, and won the race amidst loud cheering from the snectators. — The D.J.C. at their recent monthly meeting granted T. Buddicomb and L. Lloyd £1 per week for eight weeks. Apart from the nature of the injuries received by those riders, surely Buddicomb, aa a married man, is entitled to a little more than a young lad. The club should exercise some discretion between cases of this sort, particularly in one like BuddiCQmb'a, who has had more than his share of ill-luck aurmg the past two years. — The "tan -gallop" is «aid to have "been ih6 invention of Mr John Whyte, the founder and proprietor of the unfortunate Hippodrome racecourse, which in 1837 occupied the ground which LadbrokfiGrove and adjacent streets JWLcayefr Mr Wavte'a frienai urged him not .

to put down tan, declaring it would destroy tha turf; but he persisted in bis experiment, laying down a short track, with the result that he was able to report that not only did the tan save the horses' legs from, the jar of hard ground, but stimulated the growth of the grass. — A bookmaker who overlaid his book at the trotting meeting at JTrentham on Boxing Day refused to pay the winning ticket on a certain, horse, but offered to return the money staked. He was prosecuted by one of the backers of the horse for larceny of 30s, the proceeds of a bet at even money. The bench gave the opinion, that the case was not strong enough for committal, as the accused was not a welsher, but had offered to return the money, and following the practice in a similar case, Helwig v. Kohn, the bench dismissed the case. — Hobart Mercury.

— The curious story of how a horse of Mr Stedall's, galloping on Newmarket Heath recently, fell into a well that had been imperfectly covered is explained by a writer in the Sporting Times. This well, he says, with the pump attaching to it, figures in all the old plans of Newmarket Heath. It is about 200 yards from the Bushes, and near the starting ;jost for the Old Cambridgeshire. It was into the locked trough at this pump that Dan Dawson squirted the poisen that killed several horses, for which he was hanged at Cambridge not long afterwards. — Speaking on betting at the Gimcrack * dinner, Mr Porter said:— "l do not suppose* that anyone so intimately connected with tho turf as I have been for the last 40 years has had so little to do with betting as I. Only twice have I ventured to have £100 on a race. I took Col. Paget 10,000 to 100 Orme for the Derby, and on another occasion I stood 100 with Lord. Alington on Matchbox ior the Leger. I was in an. awful funk about the 100, and tried to save it by laying 100 to 100, and when Throstle swooped down upon the pair and won easily, I nearly fell off the stand. This was the beginning and the end of my plunging." — The San Francisco and Sportsman says: — The Breeders' Protective Association,, which buys up old and cheap mares, at thoroughbred sales and sells them South as work horses without pedigrees, was active at the recent thoorughbred sales. The association secured 41 of the 149 head offered ior 1125d01, an average of a little less than 27.50d01. As high as lOOdol * was paid for a mare by imported. Kantaka, and 94d0l for a Longfellow mare. A daughter of Bend Or went to the association for SSdoL and Belle Broeck, the granddam of the two-year-old Heno, went for 15dol. Many mares were bought for 6dol, and will probably sell for as much as work horses as they brought ill the ring with their full pedigree.