AUCKLAND TOPICS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3017, 10 January 1912, Page 55

AUCKLAND TOPICS.

By Taihoa

The Auckland Racing- Club concluded th® most successful racing carnival yet held ah Fllersiie on Tuesday last. The attendances on each of the four days were exceptionally large. It is estimated that on both Boxing Bay and New Year’s Day upwards of 3-0,800 people were on the course, while on the other two days the attendances were not reduced by many thousands. It would be a conservative estimate to cay that the total attendance for the four days was well over 100,000, which must be accounted a very striking record fop New Zea- . land. The totalizator figures afford a fail,* indication of the popularity of racing, as) well as the general prosperity that obtains in the north. No less a sum than £176,908 parsed through the totalizator during the four days, which was an advance of £82,V7 on the returns for the club’s summer meeting last season, and £39,225 in advance of the total amount of the C.J.C. metropolitan meeting last November,, which was previously the record for New Zealand. In view of the large profits that have accrued to the A.R.C. during the recent carnival there can be no doubt that next season the stakes will be materially increased, end It - is probable that no race on the next summer programme will be of a less value than 203sovs. It, of course, eoems somewhat ridiculous that the public should invest between £6OOO and £BOOO on races that the club were only offering £125 in stake* for, and this is what actually occurred on several occasions. The following compari sons are instructive: —In 1905 the club distributed at their summer meeting £8585, as against £15,250 for the recent meeting, while the totalizator returns amounted to £176,908 this year, as compared with £84,272. These figures reduced to percentshow that while the stakes have inecl 54.69 per the totalizator in.ments have increased by 109.92 per * cent. Surely this would indicate that the A.R.C. could well afford to be more gener- y ous to owners in the way of providing in- / creased prize-money. V Tlhe greatest Surpirise, and from an y Auckland point of view the most gratifying. feature of the recent racing was the sterling performances of Prince Soult. who won a treble in a stylo that undoubtedly y ©tamos the Soult —Lady Hester colt as one of the finest two-year-olds wo have seen. Judging by his rncrioriou.s wins.it is tolerably certain that had he been sent out to contest the Foal Stakes ho would have as easily defeated Winning Way as he did in the Royal Stakes on the fourth dayl There can V>e no question that he got the worst of the running in the Royal Stakes, and it was only the colt’s gameneas and , brilliancy that enabled Doeley to pilot him to victory by forcing a way between Winning Way and Culprit as the two Canterbury cracks raced neck and neck down the straight. There seems ©very reason to confidently jmtieipate that thie descendant of the groat St. Simon horse is destined to prove one of the best of the* defunct Soult’s progeny, for he is a well set un youngster of good bone and shape’y proportions that indicates, a fine stamp of a thoroughbred. The performance of Counterfeit in placing the Auckland Plate to her credit in 2rain 35 2-ssec certainly entitles the daughter of Treadmill to lie classed as the finest filly of the season. She certainly had not much to beat in the contest, for the only two other starters were Bobrikoff, who was manifestly far from his best, and Goldfinder, who went out apparently )ore. However, Counterfeit led from start to finish, making all her own running, and finished up without a (sign of having exerted herself to »nv degree, quits an easy Counterfeit’#? performance in the Great Northern Derby, which shd took three-fifths of a second more to <30, ! was nevertheless a particularly fin© exhibb tion, because she wa« chopped out on Hired occasions, and altogether had a very bad passage; yet the manner in which she fcft was enough to stamp her out as a chara-ifon easily capable of bavin o- set up a now record for the Derby, which is held bv Husbandman, a halfbrother. with 2min 35 4-fisec. At tho conclusion of the yearling salog

here last Saturday week Mr H. R- Mackonzio offered to sell a yearling colt by Souit from Lady Hester for 750 gs, but he received no response. On the following Tuesday, however, after Prince Soulbs victory in the Royal Stakes, an offer came to hand by a local sport on behalf of toi Australian buvor, of 750 gs, but Mr iMackenzie refused', and it now seems tlrat anything short of IOOOgs will now buy the youngsor.