IN A NUTSHELL.

Otago Witness, Issue 2921, 9 March 1910, Page 55

IN A NUTSHELL.

Cl7bt CC^?CeS the Racing Club s meeting are due to-day. ri7Jl° minat T S fo - r the R ' v erton Racing t ??-?- Ual l meetin & are due to-day. * urn- ,""7? takes Possession of Sir Geo. MLeans stables at the end of the month. A hydriey cable states that the 4 .JC programme for 1910 provides for £3o,~o6o'in stakes.

- Nominations for the Southland Racing Club s autumn meeting are due on Monday March 21. *'

The Forbury Park Trotting Club still adhere to the old-fashioned method of posting dividends.

The Lord Rosslyn gelding Peridot, sold last week, was purchased on behalf of Mr F. M'Lean.

The ISiew Zealand 'chaser Kiatere was amongst the runners at Flemington on Saturday last. Bcbrikoff will probably make his first appearance under silk in Sydney on Saturday, March 12.

Armlet has incurred a 14lb penalty for the Great Easter Handicap as a result of her ■win at Wanganui. • day of. the F.P.T.C. meeting got away about a second before his Hell.

Probable, who has been off the scene for some time, was amongst the runners in the Peninsula Cup last week.

N Most of the winners on the second day of the Wanganui meeting' were fairly well supported away from the course. —lf is considered probable that a bill •will be shortly passed in Holland closing all the English betting agencies there.

When riding- Erin's T'racev in the Wai-a-ewa Trot at Little River, "R, Raay fell and sustained a broken collar-bone. A Melbourne cable advises that Mr J. Wren. has decided to give a £IOOO prize for another Produce Stakes for two-year-olds.

Wild Bill showed & glimpse of Lis old pace when racing at the Forbury meeting, tut lie failed to stay at the business end of his tasks. A

Sydney cable reports that at the yearling .sales the Bobadil —Our Queen colt brought 600 guineas, and a Gladsome filly 525 guineas. Only one favourite scored on ihe second day of the Porbury Park Trotting meeting, and it is not astonishing to hoar that some of the fielders had a royal win! The Seer was amongst the starters in the Hurdle Handicap at Little River, and later in the day carrie out and ftnished tbird in the Flying- Handicap, of five furlong. ;—The farcical pace set in the V.E.O. Champion Stakes cost the winner 500 soys, as only half the prize-money, goes to the •winner if the race is hot run in smin 45sec or under. :•■ —Acceptances for the Great Easter and Great Autumn. Handicaps, together with entries for the minor events in tbe C.J'.C. autumn programme, are due on Friday of this week.

Amongst the yearlings sold at the Melbourne bloodstock sales was a sister, to True Shot (Pistol — at 210 guineas, and a Multiform—Rattler fiHV (sister to Nautiform) at 380 guineas- — For answering unsatisfactorily when questioned as to the interference to which he was subjected in the February Stakes rat Rosehill. F. Hood (rider of Quentin) was suspended for a month. Captain Tracey's win in the Farewell Handicap at Forbury Park was a good wind! up for the books. One of them did not even know the horse was in the race, and did not have his name on the board. Captain Tracey is one of the very last cf the sto-ck General Tracey left in this country before he was sEipped to Australia. General Tracey was on Bis way to the boat ■wh'frn he was bred to Trilby. -—Trafalgar met wit'-- a mishap in his box tJnipUgh .-getting foul of a tether. He etrftined the muscles of one of his front lees, and in consequence was not a starter at the V.R.C. autumn meetins - . The death is reported from England of M'r F. Spencer-Mott. well-known under the mom de plume of " Nathaniel Gubbins." He foad !>een connected with the London Sporting Times for over 30 years. During the late English season the amount won in stakes totalled £546,099, a recora. In 1897 the half irnllion was nearlv approached'; it was passed next year, and foas been exceeded every year since. Seventy horses have been entered for this year's Liverpool Grand National Steeplechase. The French-bred champion Lutteur HI. who led the field home last year at Aintree, figures amongst the entrants. White Cookade ie apparently developing staying powers, as Ibet week he won the Peninsula Handioap with 8.7 in lmin 57sec. The field, however, was not particularly etiong, and Passion 8.18 wws amongst the \ unplaced lot»j

Bermaline over-reached and pulled off one of her boots at the start of the Farewell Handicap at the F.'.T.C. meeting, and Dragoon, who was sent out favourite, got badly away, and did well to get second under the circumstances. The well-known neure of Mr James Jeffs, the popular clerk of the course, was missing from the scene on iho second day of the Forbury Park Trotting Club's meeting. . MiJeffs was temporarily indisposed, but is once more in evidence about town. The time registered by Armlet in the Jackson &takes at Wanganui on Saturday (lmin 15 l-ssec) is by no means a record for the race. It equals the performances of Achilles and Isoft, but Provocation covered the distance last year in lmin 13 3-ssec. Little George put up an excellent performance for a pony when he went 4.52 in the Progressive Handicap. H-e was ridden in capital style by E. M'Kewen. and scored after an interesting finish with B'ermalm© (F. Holmes), and Arbitrator, who had the services of A. Pringle in the saddle. There was a particularly close finish for the Wangonui Stakes, on Saturday. The judge placed Lady Lucy first, Osiris second, and Outlander third, but it was so close (says an exchange) that many people thought that Sandstream, who was placed fourth, should have received M-> e winning verdict. —ln winning the Wanganui Cup in 3min 1 l-ssec Milan established a New Zealand record for a mile and three-quarters. The Australasian record stands to the credit of Dumont, who covered the distance at Randwick, in 1904,' in Sarin OJsec. Private watches made the time 3min OJeeo when Boomerang won in 1906.

- A Sydney cable states that Alawa, with 9.12, is top weight for the Doncaster Handicap. The New Zealandere, Bobrikoff (9.10), Artillerie (8.8), and Ngauruhoe (7.6) also figure in the list. In the Sydney Cup Poseidan, with 9.0, heads the list. Bobrikoff has 8.3, Downfall 8.1, and Artillerio 7.3

A close finish took place in the Peninsula Cup last week. White Cockade acted as pacemaker, but in the straight Lovelorn and Boutade put in Btrong challenges, and as the leaders 3wept past the post in ' a fighting finish a head and nose divided the placed horses, whilst Passion and The Libyan were close up. When Mr S. Green's colt Comedy Kingfinishes racing he may, all going well, take the place of Posita.no at his owner's stud. When his dam, with Comedy King- at her side, was bought for 1700 guineas, the buyer refused, it is said, an offer of 1100 guineas for the foal, the .would-be purchaser being Count Lehndorf, director of the Rovai Graditz Stud. J

The Waiinate Racing Club will hold their annual meeting on Thursday of next week, and as there is a good prospect of fair fields being seen out, the club should experience a successful gatheri'iisr. The V\ annate meetings are very popular with sports in the immediate vicinity of the course, and also have a strong attraction for North Otago and South Canterbury racegoers.

—He was a punter looking for good *]"?*■ th& otber d ay at Woodville, and (says The Squire") with this object in view singled out a well-known trainer who was getting ready one of his charges for tie conflict. "Is he worth a pound?" he queried. The educator, with a solid, busi-ness-like ring in his .voice, replied: "Well. I do not know for certain, but I do not think his owner would take that for him." A well-known Wellington penciller has deserted the S.P. business and taken to following the meetings. lie states that when the S.P. money comes along it seldom misses fire—particularly when the trigger is pulled by one or two little cliques operating in the North Island. In fact, the good things so seldom go astray that he more than suggests a collusion between folk whose names are well known in the racing world. The Vancleve horse Quincey aroused a good deal cif admiration by the sulendid displays he put up in hie races at the Forburv meeting. He finished two and a-half lengths away from Bamboo, who went 6min 17 l-ssec, and as he was in receipt of l<fsec from Quincey the latter was acting- at a 2mih 26sec gait over two and a-half miles. This shows that Quincey i<? well endowed with stamina as we l ! as s^&ed.

A pleasing feature of the Forhurv Park Trotting Club's meetings is that the spectators are not allowed to- trespass into the infield and obscure the starts of the various races, which take place away from tjie stand. At Addington, on the other hand, there arc occasionally a couple of hundred people blocking the view, but the leading C'hristcburch club has always failed to effect a remedy, unless they woke up recently. Some of the bookmakers operating on the second day of the Forbury Trotting meeting were gathering the gold and ing it. One is reported to have won 400sovs and another closed up with 200sovs. Not a bad day's" wages. The man who is. credited with the 400sovs win is identical with .the peucill&r who swept in about 900Osovs over "the' IST.Z. Cur> meeting, and dropped ISOOsovs at too last Wellington mcethu;. Piece-work was made favourite for the Forbury Handicap decided on the concluding l day of the F.P.TC. meeting, but something went wrong, as. after being close up in the early part of the race, he faded out of the danger line. He was third favourite for the Grand Stand Handicap, and won nicely in 2.59 2-s—better than a- 2.24 gait. Piecework was sr-ot by Prince Imperial from Patchwork, by Berlin from The Imp. by Burlington, the thoroughbred son of Albany, and tho Traducer mare Gossip, of the members of the English Jockev' Club, to be held in April, a motion will be submitted prohibiting the publication of th» weishts for any handicap for a longer period than eifirht weeks before the day of running. There is no reason why there should be any strong objection to snei. a rule, either, for the probabilities are that in England, as elsewhere, the very early publication of the weights for any big 'handicap really only benefits one section —tho ring. The Australian gelding Truth was a.monsfst the starters in the Grandstand Handicap, and although responsibl-a for very little work on the track, displayed agood, turn of speed when pacing it with Motorist." Truth would have to be in good shape to have scored, as he was conceding Bseo to a horse working at a 2min 24seb gait. Motorist would have required to show a lot- better than a 2min 20aec gait to have got upsides with Piecework —but the pony did really well in setting a gocd fourth. The Sydney Referee reports that Mr John Schoonmaker, a -prominent American trainer of trotting horses, recently arrived in Melbourne by the s.s. O'rontes. For the past few years he has trained and rsoed trotters successfullv in Austria, Russia and Italy. Probably the be3t trotter he ever raced on the continent was Wig Wag, by Wiggins. This horse trotted the last mile of a mile and three-quarters in 2min Siseo. Mr Schoonmaker intends settling down in Australia, -and hojjes to get together a stable of ! =%" . A. W(WJ,gaj}ui telegr-arn. sfefces that on

Wednesday evening the Metropolitan Club reviewed the facts in connection with the fracas in the jockeys' room at Foxton at the recent races, in connection with which the Foxton stewards fined C. O'Neill, V. O'Neill, W. Young, and A. Atwood £5. C. O'Neill appealed to the Metropolitan Club. It was resolved to inflict on V. O'Neill an additional £ls fine, and to suspend Young during th«ir pleasure. The other decisions are to stand.

Only two meetings have been held on the new course at Forbury Park, but they have fully demonstrated that light harness racing has received a great boost by the change of venue, and already it has been discovered that the accommodation on the lawn and grand stand is by no means too large for the demand on it. In fact, it will not be astonishing to find it necessary within a year or two for the erect a members' stand on the site of the present stewards' stand, in order to relieve the pressure on the lawn and grand stand. Walnut, the winner of both the principal event 3 at the Forbury Park Trotting Club's meeting, was fruitlessly offered at auction during the Gore summer meeting, and W'as passed out of the ring without anyone showing a keen desire to buy the gelding. Mr R. Logan subsequently leased Walnuf, and no doubt several are regretting they did not put in a bid or two when the auctioneer had to pass the horse out of the ring. Walnut has' always shown speed, but was considered more or less unsound, but he was apparently solid enough when he did 4.47 2-5 on a slow track. There has been a slight agitation for the extension of limits attached to some of the events at the Forbury Park Trotting Club's meeting, but. whilst that may suit owners of slow horses, there is no doubt the long . limit races, although sometimes attracting good fields, frequently provide poor sport. It is not uncommon to see a smart maiden performer making one-horse races of a long limit event, and if a horse caiuiot muster better than a 2min 50sec gait he should nab be in training. At the recent meeting there was a 75sovs Trial Handicap for a 4.15 class—2rnin 50sec gait; Amateur Handicap of 50sovs, with a. pony in Major Taylcpr giving away 34sec; Otago Handicap and Crescent Handicap, of 115sovs each, for trotters that can so 3min 42sec or better; the Progressive Handicap, of TOsovs, for a 2.50 class, and if that is not slow enough the club should establish a cart horse class.

—On the second day of the Forbury Park meeting one of the stewards remarked that the best going on the track was furnished by the outside portion. That may be perfectly true, but if all the horses training on the track had been forced to work on the inside, instead of continually having the trestles on it, the best going would have been found where the racing takes place. The continuous training thumps and works the ground into shape much quicker and better than scratching it will narrows that make no impression on the hard patches, whilst at the same time working deeper and deeper into the soft spots. Judged by Tecent inspection, the hard ground requires to be broken up a bit, and the soft patches (apparently caused by the presence of too much sand) removed and. replaced with clay. The state of the going has been the only serious complaint against the new course, and the club should make a big endeavour to get it into good shape by next meeting.. One way to bring about this desirable state of affairs is to allow the horses (or force them) on the inside of the track as much as possible.