IN A NUTSHELL.

Otago Witness, Issue 3111, 29 October 1913, Page 49

IN A NUTSHELL.

People without horse-sense should consult a vet. Some of the critics prefer Andelosia to Beragoon for the Victoria Derby. La Notte, the dam of Midnight Sun and Noctuiform, haa produced a filly to All Black. > , Tlie Victoria Pacing Club will give 32,00050 vs in stakes at the Melbourne Cup meeting. The New Zealand-bred colt Beau Souls has been blistered, and has been turned out for a spell. / The Native has developed soreness, and will be treated to a spell before racing again in Australia. The well-known Stepniak gelding Kremlin is still on the active list, and Is in work " at Takapuna. Sometimes one is in doubt as to whether a jockey is riding in a race or participate ing in a tug-of-whoa. Mira in the New Zealand Cup. F. E. Jonea will be up on Undecided. , The A.J.C. Derby was worth 4200sovs to the winner. In the point of value this is not far behind the English Derby. New Zealand-bred horses, have won the Dowling Steeples, run at the A.J.O. spring meeting, seven times in nine years. Minsteod, who ran second in the Toorak Handicap, was got by the local horse Blackstone whilst the latter was in Australia. Kinaldo is making a fairly quick recovery from his attack of strangles, but ia not likely to be seen out again this spring. A Melbourne cable states that TT.o Parisian’s hoof trouble lias recurred, and he will probably bo withdrawn, from all engagements. t—A mixture of equal parts o£ tincture of iodine, turpentine, and sulphuric ether, applied once daily for several days, will stop the growth of new splints. Until Aleconner won this year's Epsom a Victorian horse had not won the race since 1900. On that occasion Ampler, a Caulfield- ■ trained horse, gathered the money. At the Doncaster blood stock sales 327 vearlings sold at 223,387g5—an average of CS3gs. Of these 58 sold at over lOOOgs or over, and made a total of 133,750g5. The New Zealand Cup candidate Midnight Sun arrived at Blurt' oji Monday front Melbourne, en route to Riccarton. 'I ho sea of Multiform is in splendid condition. There is a time in the affairs of men, in this case alleged sportsmen, which, if taken at the flood (a wave of temptation us it were) should lead to disqualification and diagrace. . Accommodation has been engaged at Riccartou for seven of the Hon. J. D. Ormond s and eight of Mr E. J. Watt’s horses, for the Canterbury Jockey Club’s meeting next month' I run being a genuine trier, but I will not allow them to dictate to me aa to which races I shall run my horses in. —Mi j. "Baron.” , New York exchanges to hand ayato that the celebrated Brighton Beach track will be scld at public auction to satisfy a judgment obtained against the association owning the truck ior 94.000d01. Three well-known performers on the turf in their day have lecently made contributions to the Stud Bock. Armistice hm produced a colt, Helen Portland a colt, and Crucinellu a colt —all to Signor. The New Zealand Cup winner, lortulln. has thrown a colt to Achilles. If etocis nicked or, form, such a mating should produce a champion, but. unfortunately, that only follows on extremely rare occasions. correct, some well-fancied articles have no chance at Riccarton. Still, it is not uncommon for horses to show a most remauahle improvement in the course of a lew most famous daughter. Wakeful, who won the right to be considered one of the greatest mares the world lias knownlias produced n colt to St. Alwyne. So fa" Wakeful has not produced anything in tlu* same class as herself. ' The hurdlers Beacon and \V hukaweira returned to in e w Zealand last week. The latter went amiss whilst in Australia, and so did Prince Eddie. Other New Zealanders. i n the shape of Glenmore, Marton, and Lech Mubin, were taken on to Melbourne. The payment ior the New Zealand Cup, which fell due on Friday last, left a field of 21 remaining in the race. It '"/as a matter of mild surprise to find Mudniglifc S un ctill in the race, and his presence in the field would land additional interest to the contest. , , Form dose not take long to discover itself at times. In the Gwyn Nursery mn on the last day of the Caulfield Cup meeting, Bob Bunsow, Spica, and - Traquetto we're handicapped to give away 3st or a htuo less to some of the other youngsters engaged in the race. Of the original entry of 160 there woos only 11 stirters for the Toorak Handicap, and its accompanying 1200sov». Inis \a Melbourne writer points out), it must bo confessed, is- a poor return for the club » liberality, and there was nothing > of extra class among flic 14. _ Maple Loaf, who won the Ngarvcno Handicap at the- Moonoo Valley meeting on Saturday, was until recently owned and raced bv the Otago sportsman, Mr J. LMackenzie, and was trained by E. ocoullaP at Riccarton. She competed with a fanamount of success last season, and won four, races and finished second on three occasions. The Hungarian Jockey Club has taken very stringent measures to prevent doping. It has issued on order that no trainer must administer medicine of any kind to a hoi so within the 43 hours preceding a race m which that horse is running. Should a dose of medicine be absolutely nccc.-s.iiy. the vet. officially appointed by the club must administer it after reporting to the stewards. The numbers had been up for ages, and the four runners were actually leaving the paddock, and still he waited nervously at the appointed spot for the news of the “goods.” His lips were dry with anxiety when at lad his turf adviser arrived on the scene. “ It’s no earthly, guv’nor,” panted the child’s guide to the turf; “they’re all triers. Keep your money for the next race; it’s a sin to waste' it.” away carried 9.7, and completed the sixfurlong course in Imin 12 4-ssec. He squeezed" home only by a head from Evansdalc, whilst Flying Orb was a neck away third. These two-year-olds cost fiOOOga, 3400g5, and 2flOOgo respectively last year, and it is rather a coincidence that they should have finished in accordance with their original value. Tho Tetrarch made a hack of Stornaway when they met just before the last mail to hand left Englapd. A lot of money woe apparently phut out ovgr the principal event at the Gore rood

Ing. After the horses had concluded their preliminary a largo number of people wended their way to the totalisator, only to-find that it had been shut down. The delay in getting the field out evidently cost the club a good deal of money, and was a source of annoyance to patrons, who did not get a chance to bet. The machine bandied more money on the Waimea Hack Handicap than, on the principal race.

The Tetrarcu is claimed to be the best two-year-old seen in England since the days of Ormond and St. Simon, “Lucky is the man,” says the “Special Commissioner ” of the Sportsman, “ who can find a colt to live with The Tetrarch for a single furlong this year or next. He beats his opponents just as Hanlon at his beat used to beat the best of our sculling- champions—that is to say, the beating is done right off, and then the race is a mere procession. Ho man nor horse, demoralised in this way in the first half or quarter of a race, ever seems to bo able to get going again until the race is over, and the winner can lob home at his ease without any need for a display of Etamina.

—rThe installation of a steeplechase on the Gore programme lent additional interest to the meeting. The race attracted a largo field, but accidents thinned the runners considerably before the course was completed. Owing to the fences not being winged on the rails, two homes jumped into the inside of the course, and they were unlucky in getting put out of the race. The highest obstacle is a sod wall, standing 3ft Sin. A post-and : ra,il and a log fence are each 3ft 7in» and the reniaining obstacles are composed of hurdles lightly brushed. It is by no means a difficult course, but some of the fences do not give too much room to a field.

The Caulfield Cup of 1894 was the last one stai'ted with the flag, and there must have been about 20 breakaways. Paris stood on the mark as calmly as a trooper’s horse -until the flag went down, and the delay must have been all against some of his opponents. He just beat Devon, after a great finish. After running in the Melbourne Cup he was taken to England. In his second vear Lord William Beresford had him, and 'he started by winning the Northamptonshire Stakes, of £IOO9. The steadier of 9.9 beat him in the Metropolitan ;• but he won a thousand-pound race at Gatwick, was second for the Liverpool Cup with 9.0, and won the Lewes Handicap, of £I2OO, carrying 9.0. A sale of blood stock took place after the A.J.C. meeting, at Payten’s stables, Newmarket, Sydney, but the prices realised were very ordinary. Brood mares were at a discount, as only one, and that subject to owner’s approval, reached three figures, namely. Polenta, by Goya, the price in question being 135 gs. Upwards of a score of untrieds were submitted, and not one brought a century”. Racehorses in work a’so dragged wearily 'in the market. Hot Cake, however, brought 250 gs, John Willie lOOgs, Irishman 13Cgs, and Duke of Waga 240 gs. Amongst others passed in were Azoic at 140 gs, Mineral Hill 80gs. Sunburnt lOOgs, Black and Gold 180 gs, and Wyadra 250 gs. Despite his good mile and a-quarter gallops prior to the meeting, Soltano failed to demonstrate his ability to get even that far in a race, but as his four starts resulted in two wins and £IOBO in prize money, he more than ©aid expenses. Before the Derby I heard (says “ Pilot ” in the Sydney Referee) F. Davis say he would not be afraid of Beragcon or any other of our three-year-olds at six or seven furlongs, and there certainly can be no two opinions as to th-~ New Zealander’s pace. Still, in the Craven Plato Duke Foote had him settled after going six furlongs—a fact which caused M’Lachlan to remark. “ I think I could have won at half a mile.” This merely' goes to show the superiority of the best of the older horses, to any of the younger division. The London Sportsman reports that Prince Palatine has run his last race. It will be remembered that ho broke down while running for the Goodwood Cup. and Mr J. B. Joel has sent him to the stud, in preparation for his season next year. His fee is 400 gs. and at that figure his sub.-crintion list is full for 1914, 1915. and 1916. When Mr Joel, bought the 'Prince” last July- from Mr Pilkingtou, for 4 S.OOOgs. there was the contingency that should he be bsaten in the Goodwood Cup, oOOOgs should he knocked off the purchase money, so that the net sum at which he changed hands is 4O.ODOgs. Large as that sum is, Mr Joel will receive in etud fees nearly the whole of tho amount ho paid for the son of Persimmon and Lady Lightfoot. and. doubtless, in duo course, the whole of it will be recouped by his services at the stud.

The price of blood stock has been steadily mounting in England, and it nowtakes a lengthy purse to buy anything highclass at any stage of its career. At the Doncaster sales 327 vearlings made 223.357g5, and tho agerage of GB3gs was far and away the highest ever obtained at the sales. The returns of each of two days at this -year’s exceeded the total made at a whole week’s business at many previous Doncaster sales, and another idea of the great growth of value can be gathered by the fact that until this year a grand total of IOO.OOOgs had only been exceeded on two occasions. In 1912 the number of yearlings sold was 31], and they totalled 153.407g5, or an average of 493igs, which marked a record, until being* excelled bv this year’s returns. In 1911 the number that went under the hammer ran to 310. and they sold at a total of 117,893g5, or an average of slightly over 380 gs. Prior to that the highest total was made by 278 yearlings, sold in 1907, at 98,268g5. A very effective treatment which will remove bots within 24 to 48 hours is as follows. The day preceding the treatment a small amount of hay and a moderate amount of oats is given in the morning; in the evening the food is withhold and a purgative given—Barbados aloes, loz; or raw linseed oil. 1 pint. The day of the treatment, at 6 o’clock in the morning, give 3 drams of carbon bisulphid in a gelatine capsule; at 7 o’clock repeat the dose in the same manner; and at 8 o’clock give the third and last dose, making in all 9 drams of carbon bieulphid in three gelatine cansules. The above treatment is for the -adult horse. For a yearling colt half the quantity of carbon bisulphide used for a mature horse will give the desired results. If properly administered tho gelatine capsule reaches the stomach intact. but soon dissolves, and tho carbon bisulphid rapidlv evaporates, suffocating all hot larvai and other parasites with which it comes in contact, but not injuring the horse. Worms are unite often expelled as well, The well-known sportsman. Mr E. E. D. Clarke, who arrived from Australia last week, has compiled a miniature stud book of the thoroughbreds nf his farm. Mr Clarke gave a copy of the booklet to Mr A. Moss, whom. Jt will be remembered, sold Canteen to Sir Superb Clarke, and Mr Moss kindly passed on the book to your humble servant. The tabulated pedigree of the mares and stallions in Mr Clarke’s stud are all laid out, and, accompanying each pedigree are some interesting notes. For instance, in coniunction with Tho Welkin’s pedigree is given the facts that Jardv, another son of Flying Fox, got *tock which won in 1911 70 races, worth

41,65650v5. Val d’Or had winners of 19,331g5, whilst other sons were also returned as successful sires. The sons of Flying Fox had progeny who won 80,000 gs in stakes during 1911. In addition to The Welkin, Mr Clarke has also Eye Glass at his stud. This hoi»e was a good winner in his colours, and as he was got by Isinglass (winner of 57,450 gs in stakes), from a sister in blood to Wakeful, he should make good at the stud. Several of the mares in Mr- Clarke’s stud have been imported from England, but amongst oho colonials are Demeter, the dam of Rinaicio and Armigera, the dam of Ingoda. When Lord Rosebery won the Derby with Ladas he remarked sorrowfully that it came too late by 20 years; and that reminds me (says “ Milroy ”) of a once very wellknown Gympie man who was prospecting the ridges, living on half rations. He at last got to the end of his tether, when he could not get “tick” for a pound of flour, and was fossicking all one day without food, but at about 4 in the evening he turner. over a weighty nugget worth £IOO. He made straight for a Chinese cookshop, ordered a roast duck and trimmings, to be cooked at once, and then sold the nugget to a gentleman who kept a sporting house next door, and whose front name began with Abraham or Solomon. The digger passed the word to the Chinaman to knock on the door when the banquet was ready. Meanwhile somebody introduced a little game to pass the time away*, and in less than an hour the digger had his last dollar down, and just as the dice told him that the said dollar belonged to the sharpfaced man opposite him —smoking a very large evil-smelling cigar—the Cliinaman’s assistant knocked hard, and called him to the feast. He watched his money disappear, and turned in the direction of the Celestial with a tired, sad look, and said: " Chong, you knocked just one minute too late. Eat the blooming duck yourself. I’ve lost me appetite,”.

Diamond Jubilee keeps cropping up as the sire of winners in South America, and of speedy ones to boot. His threc-year-old son, D’Arlagnan, for instance, recently won the “ classic ” Premio Melgarejo in the good time for a mile of Imin 37Jsec. Another wellknown horse, -lardy, which ran second when seriously amiss for Cicero’s Derby, lias also greatly distinguished himself out there as a sire. Jardy’s fillies seem to be especially good, and. one of them, Piscueta, the other dav won a mile race for fillies of the big value of 28,830d0l to the winner in Imin 37sec. Glancing at her pedigree, it is not surprising that shfe should be able to race in the best company, her grandparents being Flying Fox and Airs and Graces (sire and dam of Jardy) on the one side, while on the other her grandsire is Gay Hermit (son of Hermit and Doll Tearsheet). and her granddam is Dawn, by Queen’s Messenger, a stallion to whom the late Lord Falmouth was very ■, artial. Ho was by Trumpeter out of Lord Falmouth’s first Oaks winner, Queen Bertha, who did so much to make the Mereworth paddocks famous. Dawn’s dam, too, is worth noting, for she was Ante Diem, by Musket out of a daughter of Young Melbourne and rare old Maid of Mlashain, whose family, No. 9, runs to the production of good brood marcs, varied by an occasional good hrse, such as the eccentric Peter.

When racing is mixed up with betting there is always' a danger of sharp practices, but to be sharp is not necessarily to be dishonest. In every trade and profession a keen man of business will try to drive a good bargain, to get the best of the markets, and to make as much money as he can by fair and legitimate means. As a rule, when on© man wins, another loses, hut tho winner is not necessarily a rogue or a swindler. And this is exactly how T regard things to-day (says an English writer). There are black sheep in every fold. In every sphere of life there are men intnt on getting money dishonestly, but they are not confined to the turf. When .they are found out they get punished, and when a racing man loses his character for honesty his punishment is heavy. The turf to-day is freer from frauds than' it has ever b-aen. Horses are not machines; they are creatures of moods and ailments. Accidents and mishaps are liable to occur in the course of a race. Young horses improve and old horses deteriorate; and so the element of chance always enters into the contest. Otherwise we should break the bookmakers in a fortnight. If we believe all we hear, careful students of racing are well on the road in 'that direction at the present time. And this is why I assert, with some degree of assurance, that racing is not scr crooked as it looks.

Many of the older sportsmen In this country will retain pleasant recollections of Mr James Alfred Selfe, and will learn with regret that ho passed away at Christchurch last week. Mr Selfe was the eldest son of Mr Henry Selfo, one lime secretary of the Canterbury Jockey Club. Under the nom de he used to bo a regular coipgibutor to t’rre-j&porting columns of the Press, and the Kefercc, a position from which he retired about 25 years ago. In recent years he was to all intents and purposes an invalid, but his memory was quite a remarkable one, and it is-owing to his cleat recollection of many long-past and generallyforgotten incidents of the turf that they are now' recorded in history. He it was who gave me (says “Sir Bedivere ”) some years ago the true facts of the famous Raupo and TPmga case. One of these mares was by Diomedes from Waimea, and therefore clean ■>bred, while the other was from Phoebe, whose pedigree is untraceable. An order was given for the delivery of the Waimea filly, but through some error it was Phoebe’s daughter that was handed over. This mistake, which affected dozens of horses whose names appeared in the Stud Book, had never been rectified, but on Mr Selfe’s evidence being made known the matter was adjusted, a special reference to the case being made in volume iv, whilst a table showing the whole of the descendants of each mare was published in volume v.

Commenting on the recent meeting of the Australian Jockey Club, “ Pilot ” wrote in the Sydney Referee as follows:—"Emperador will now fulfil his New Zealand Cup engagements, but unless the horses he wifi be meeting are much inferior to those which competed in the Metropolitan, it is difficult to see how ho is going to win at two miles with Sst. Mr Mason does not believe our thoroughbreds are deteriorating, for in reply to my query of what he thought of them, his answer was: “There are a number of good handicap horses among them. You cannot get away from the times they make, and it is doubtful whether the tracks are so much faster than they were 20 years ago. Some of those racing now at middle distances with a little less than Sst would have been hard to beat in those days with 9at." I must confess to sharing the above views. All round the times now recorded are much faster than 20 years ago, and I do . not know of any other sport in _ which, under similar circumstances, deterioration would be claimed. I have yet to hear it contended that the man capable of running 100 yards in lOJsec is superior to the man who can do lOsec, and yet that is the position taken up by many people in respect of racing. If the horse of 20 years ago was better than the one of to-day, the same lino of argument might be earned back still further. Perhaps the present-day racehorse may not he as tough as the old-timer, but as a speed machine he is considerably ahead of him.

Frank Wootton (says an English writer) had the hardest of hard luck in not breaking a world’s record recently. During the week he had ridden eight successive winners. One more victory would have established a new world’s -record. It seemed fairly certain that he would crown his career with this achievement when Mr George Edwardes, of Gaiety Theatre fame, engaged him to ride his filly Work Girl in the Rothschild Plate, of a mile and three furlongs, at Windsor. Mr Edwardes has developed a habit this summer of winnings a race every Saturday, and the members of his company have felt more than usually well disposed towards " The Chief.” because his horses won on the day upon which tiie ghost walks. Only three fillies were left in the Plate, and only on© of these, Vinilla, seemed to have any chance of defeating Work Girl. Twice previously they had met, and Work Girl had won. Wootton's mount, therefore, was generously treated in the ring when only a slight shade of odds on was asked by the bookmakers. In the race Wootton seemed to be always going confidently until the last half-furlong. Then, when he tried to come past, Work Girl could not respond, and he lost the record and the race by the shortest of short necks. He may have iound some consolation in the fact that it was disclosed on the course that the stewards at Kempton Park referred the Gant complaint to the stewards of the Jockey Club, not because they held Wootton was blamable, but because they felt that they had no jurisdiction over a race which had been decided at Brighton. Two days later the Jockey Club announced that Wootton had come out of this incident with flying colours.

The following comment on the question of big stallion fees is by a well-known sporting writer at Honie :—“Nowadays, before it is even known that a horse will be a fairly successful foal-getter, breeders tumble over one another to book subscriptions to him at a fee of 400 gs, and pledge themselves moreover to subscribe for a period of three years. There it is—the value of a horse, or, for the matter of that, of anything else, is just what it will fetch, nor can it be denied that, run on the lines of being able to secure a full list of subscriptions at -iOOgs, a stallion is well worth anything from 40,000 gs to 50,00Qgs—possibly more, —-hut none tho less, I have my doubts whether these enormous prices do realiy make for the best interests of breeding and tlie improvement of tho British thoroughbred. To my mind these things represent purely and simply a craze for fashion, and they do, I think, to a considerable extent, lead to the neglect of numbers of horses, some of whom are. from their breeding, make, and shape, and sufficiently creditable performances, just as likely to beget really good stock. There is, too, another point to be considered—the craze for fashion contributes not a little to that excessive in-breeding which leads to the production of so many jady, unreliable, and weak-constituted racehorses. Most of us who have much to do with breeding have our own pet theories; come of us become faddists. For the matter of that, I may be ono myself, for to my mind the mare plays tlie principal part in the production of good racing stock. Given an irreproachably-bred, sound mare of a good racing strain of blood, it would, I think, be easy so to mate her—not necessarily with a very expensive stallion as to put the probability of breeding a winner on the side of her owner. Even more evident, I think, is the soundness of the proposition that mares such as I have described mated with what, for want of a better term, we may caTT first-class stallions, arc likely to produce winners.”