TALK OF THE DAY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3743, 8 December 1925, Page 61

TALK OF THE DAY.

By

Sentinel.

COMING EVENTS. There will be an interesting round of racing and trotting commencing with the Dunedin Jockey Club's Summer meeting, which will be held at Wingatui on Saturday, December 26 and Monday, December 28. The club is offering good stakes, which should provide some interesting racing arid boost the Wingatui summer meeting along. Wingatui in the summer is generally a pleasant place to enjoy a day’s outing, and with such excellent holiday dates, there should be well-filled enclosures at our racing headquarters. The Gore Trotting Club will, as usual, hold its annual race meeting on Boxing Day. and the Winton Trotting Club has a programme for Wednesday, Dec-ember 50. r lhe Wyndham Racing Club will, as usual, start the New Year in the south with a good proframme, headed bv the Wyndham Cup of 50sovs. and a silver cup valued at 50 sovs. On the same date the Waikouaiti Racing Club will hold its annual picnic racing meeting, and the Southland Racing Club has a programme for January 2 and 4, which should attract plenty of patronage. The Invercargill Cup of lOOt'sovs, and Southland Handicap of 500sovs, are two stakes well worth winning, and rhey are supported with a good mixed programme. After a lull of a few days the Wairio Jockey Club will continue to keep the game going in the south, and taken all round there is enough sport ahead to satisfy the appetite of the keenest racegoers. THE AUCKLAND CUP MEETING. A meeting between Rapine and The Banker in the Auckland Cup at the same margin as they ran in the Canterbury Cup would be full of interest. The Canterbury Cud did not provide a real line t 6 their form, as it was one of the most muddling races ever run at Riccarton. and there was nothing conclusive about the form. In the New Zealand Cup Count Cavour ran The Banker to less than a length, and with 101 b allowed for such a narrow beating the former has received an excellent chance, of finishing in front of the Boniform gelding. The Auckland liandicapper has made some big margins on Riccarton form. He allows Tresham to come in on 231 b better terms with The Banker, and this, considering that the former was not so very far away from the placed horses, should give him a chance. Tresham looked as if he could be improved when he ran at Riccarton, and he may shape well if sent north. Haze shapes like a stayer, although a bit deficient when it comes to a finish. Still, with 7.3 he may be found going on at the end of a solid two-miles when most of the others are stopping. Count Cavour has shaped well at Ellerslie, and is apparently at home on a right-hand course. This, with a pull of 10lb over The Banker, suggests that he may prove the best of the top weights. The Banker, according to some opinions, will hold his own with Rapine, and if that is so it gives the Solferino gelding more than an ordinary chance on paper. At the present time Count Cavour and Haze read a likely brace to put up a big dispute as to what should fill the places. The Railway Handicap looks a pretty puzzle to wade through, as such a very big field reduces the location of the winner to something like a dip in the lucky bag. Still, horses such as Royal Blood, Money Order, Grand Knight, Mimetic, and Autumne should take a lot of beating if they are dressed in the best on the day. HIE FREE-FOR-ALL. It Is a mnttor of regret that the Forbury Park Trotting Club’s effort to cater for the highest form of light harness racing In the shape of a free-for-all did not receive a sportsmanlike support from some of those who participated In it. The success of such a race depends to a very large extent on the mutual efforts of the relnsman to assist the starter in getting the field away on fair terms. If some of them are playing a lone hand and endeavouring to steal an advantage It Is simply fighting against the Starter’s efforts, and the chance of making ffair start becomes extremely difficult ir he official dot s not promptly strnighten up those inclined to create trouble. If the felnsiucn do not give the starter all possible assistance towards making s falx

start then it will be due to them if the flatfoot dispatch comes back in connection with free-for-alls and such races as are usually sent away from a moving start. The exercise of strict authority wonld help to promptly kill the tactics of those who do not play the game, and by doing so were really proving antagonistic to a club’s efforts to cater for the best class of horse that can be produced in the light harness world. In such races as a free-for-all any driver who heads off the pole horse as a field approaches the starting post or crowds in after a start should be promptly brought to task. No doubt anxiety to gel well off and round the first turn had something to do with the unsatisfactory start in last week’s race, and for that reason the club should consider the idea of extending the distance to nine furlongs if such events continue to feature, as it is to be hoped they will, on Forbury Park programmes. It remains for the club to be congratulated on the introduction of such sportingjjke events as a free for all and the New Zealand Derby Stakes, and it is to be hoped it will continue to meet with all the appreciation it deserves.

A GOOD PROGRAMME. Although the Forbury Park Trotting Club s Spring meeting did not turn out quite the financial success anticipated, it nevertheless provided some very interesting racing. The attendance was a bit disappointing on the first day, despite the star attraction furnished by the Free-for-All. It was thought that a chance to see a particularly high-class field in action would have filled the enclosures, but such did not prove to be the case. The speculation on the result was also somewhat meagre, no doubt because it was generally thought that ti.n result rested with Great Bingen if he met with ordinary luck in the race. The supposed good thing, however, looked in jeopa/dy when it was noticed that both he and Logan. Chief, who went out second favourite, received all the worst of the start. Fortunately Great Bingen is such a good pacer that he emerged from a difficult position with success, and so saved the start from being so strongly condemned as what would have been the case if the first and second favourites had been hopelessly left in a field of five. Great Bingen was got by Nelson Bingen from Bell, by Peter the Great (2.7£ —Corona ‘ Mac, by /Wilkie Boy, son of George Wilkes. Nelson Bingen was got by Bingen (2.68 from Suzette Baron, by Baron Wilkes from Suzette Nelson. Both the sire and dam of Great Bingen were imported from America ov Mr E. E. Lelievre, of Akaroa. Nelson Bingen hts been in the North Otago district for the past, two or three seasons, and under the control of Mr J. 0 Bnen nas been receiving much better opportunities than formerly to enhance his reputation as a sire of first-class performers. TEMPERAMENT. An Australian paper recently collected the oDinions of leading trainers concerning the development of temperament in racehorses and the existence of so many fidgety and • oguish horses. R. J. Mason said that the shoroughbred of to-day is more highly strung than those that were racing a quarter of a century ago, and the main reason is juvenile racing. Youngsters are broken jnd sprinted before they are 16 months old. and naturally the jumping off of juveniles tends to excite them; so do sharp bursts out of the machine. To win short races, ,a horse must be keyed right up to the business, and the impetuous youngster is the one that will hop out and keep hopping. Contented, phlegmatic thoroughbreds seldom show early speed. The nervy, excitable youngster is most precocious. As a matter of course the majority of these turn out sprinters—hence the preponderance of flutters on our programmes. And so the career of these temperamental youngsters who are “kept on their toes” is generally short. Fillies sent to the stud breed nervy thoroughbreds predisposed to excitability. For like breeds like, and so each generation gets worse. Inbreeding probably contributes in the evolution of this class of horse whose nerves are always on edge. But educating and racing them young is the main cause of the trouble. The veteran trainer Joe Burton expressed the opinion that the craze for early speed and hurry-up methods of breaking are responsible for the impetuous thoroughbred of to-day. • Ike Foulsham holds the opinion that inbreeding to St. Simon is one cause of loss of stamina and constitution. Other trainers hold the opinion that over-racing is a cause of all the trouble, .and the general opinion supports that of R. J. Mason and other trainers with a lengthy experience to strengthen their views. It may he summed up by saying that the sooner thoroughbreds are trained and sprinted the sooner they disappear off the turf. Another reason that mav be advanced why there are so many flighty horses is that some trainers are not so competent as they might be.