IN A NUTSHELL.

Otago Witness, Issue 3772, 29 June 1926, Page 59

IN A NUTSHELL.

Mr J. M. Samson has sold Ratana to an Auckland buyer. New Zealand owners made 55 entries for the A.J.C. Derby of 1927. Only seven runners went to the post for the A.J.C. Steeplechase, of 2000sovs. It is reported that Mr A. Chisholm is now the sole owner of Glentruin. Mr A. T. Pettigrew has been elected president of the Gore Racing Club. Llewellyn has been out with the Pakuranga Hounds to qualify as a hunter. Listening Post is said to be shaping fairly well in his schocJing over hurdles. Nominations for the Christchurch Hunt Club’s meeting are due on July 16. Nominations for the Waimate Hunt race meeting are due on June 29. Nominations for the South Canterbury Hunt Club’s meeting are due July 1. A. E. Ellis is reported to be making a good recovery from the effects of his fall at the Dunedin Winter meeting. Southland is represented in the Grand National Steeplechase by Frenchman, Mazama, Uncle Bob, and Osterman. Liberator is the only horse that nas succeeded in winning the Grand National Hurdles on wo occasions. Cawnpore, Quaker Oats. Bright Light, and Subdivision have joined R. 0 Donnell s stable in Sydney. _ ~ . The Solferino gelding Tommy Dotul is now a member of W. J. Harley’s team at Caulfield. ... , The successful sire Tea Tray will stand at a fee o£ 150gns during the coming season. . , , , ~ Carnot is an improving sort, and should help to make matters interesting if raced at Trentham next week. The annual meeting of the members of the Dunedin Jockey Club will take place on July 27. _ . It is reported from the north that Nigger Minstrel is likely to stand another preparation. . . There is- a possibility that patrol stewards may be appointed at the Racing Conference. . , - _ , , Tigerland, Whipcord, and Charlatan gave a go.id display over the schooling fences last week. _ , . , . , Passionate is reported to be doing good work for his engagements at the Wellington Winter meeting. Tuki continues to get through usetul work, and will probably be seen out at Trentham and Riccarton. Grey Star, Skilful (by Masterpiece) and Vice Regal were winners at the Waimate Hunt Point-to-point meeting held last week. The Boniforin mare Filagree, who produced a particularly nice colt to Solferino this season, is to visit him again. The placings in the last Grand National Hurdles were Penury Rose 9.4, Nukumai 11.6, and Maunga 10.1. The Wellington Winter meeting will take place on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday of next week. Acceptances are due on Thursday. J. MUombe has purchased Rebuke (Clarenceux —Reproachful) and Glenalmond (Bonny Glen Prim) from G. Murray-Ayns-ley, and they have been shipped to Sydney. T. Green will leave for Sydney after the Wellington meeting and do the lightweight riding for F. D. Jones at' the Sydney Spring meetings. The nominations received for the principal events to be decided at the Grand National meeting total 251, or 41 in excess of last year’s figures.' F. D. Jones will leave for Sydney on July 2 with Limerick. Youn* Lochinvar, andi Battlement. Probably Reonui will also form one of the team. Record Reign’s success in the Grand National Hurdles with i 2.12 in 1900 still stands out as the greatest performance ever achieved in the race. If Frisco Mail retains the form he displayed at the Dunedin Winter meetting, he should shape well in his engagements at Trentham. One of the most likely hacks the writer lias seen out this season is Mime, who is engaged at the Wellington Winter meeting. Mr B. S. Irwin has purchased S. G. Ware’s interest in Bachelor Gay, and the Coronata "elding will run in the sole ownership of Mr Irwin. Apparently the mishap to Eerie is more serious than was originally thought, as ' she has not been nominated for the Grand National meeting. Both Tuki and Fireblight, who ran first and second in the Grand National Steeples last year, are again engaged in the race. Master Peter’s win last week was a long overdue one, as his previous success took place at the Ashburton Spring meeting of last season. General Advance is evidently regarded as anything buf a back number, as he has been engaged in the principal events to be run at the Grand National meeting. The Otago Hunt Club's programme will be the same as last year, except that it will carry an extra trophy, which will go with the open steeplechase. The Advance gelding Sturdee, who won at the Hawke's Bay meeting last week, ranks as the winner of the Grand National Steeples of 1924. W. Robertson is training a couple of geldingv *»y Balboa for a local owner, and nas secured stable accomodation at Winga tui. Sun Up may be raced at the Sydney Spring meetings. A smart beginner like the Sunny Lake gelding should win races if taken to Australia. Messrs W. D. and H. O. Wills have now received a further shipment of coloured racing prints, and are presenting them in return for Three Castles and Capstan cigarette packets. The punters were shooting fairly close on the second day at Hawke’s Bay, where four first favourites and two second favourites were amongst the winners. It is reported that Sir Rosebery has been backed to win the V.R.C. Grand National Hurdles, but so far it has not been made public if he is to make the journey to Melbourne. Roy Reed is now well clear in the lead of successful riders during the season. As C. Emerson is leaving on a trip to Sydney, there is no chance of Reed losing his position.

Birkenella shaped very promisingly when he won over the Riccarton country at the last Grand National meeting. He has been engaged in the principal events to be run at the next Grand National meeting. Mr W. Quirk has donated a 25-guinea cup to go with the open steeples that will be included in the Otago Hunt Club’s programme. _ Mr R. Acton-Adams will give a cup of similar value to the Otago Hunt Cup Steeples. The Great Metropolitan Stakes, ran two miles and a-quarter at Epsom just before the mail eft. was won by a five-year-old mare named Kyra, who was got by Beau Bill, a son of William the Third, a brother to Tractor’s dam. The Tribulation gelding Huikai put up a good performance at Hawke’s Bay by winning the Final Handicap, six and a-hajf furlongs, with 10.0 in 1.21 2-5. The Hawke’s Bay Stakes is run over the same course, and Gloaming holds the record by winning .vith 10.0 in 1.19 3-5. The Catmint gelding Bennance, who won at Hawke’s Bay, is a half brother to Kick Off. Their dam was Fair Rosamond, by King’s Guest—Dear Heart, by Coeur de Lion—Katie Ferguson, by Musket. Catmint was got by Spearmint from Red Lily, by Persimmon. The Mountain Knight gelding Maunga put' in a sensational run in last year’s Grand National Hurdles when he was one of the last out of the straight in a strung out field, and finally finished third to Penury Rose and Nukumai. Maunga is amongst the nominatiorfs for this year’s race. At a sale of bloodstock held at Hastings last week the Martian gelding Gauntlet was sold at 400 guineas to the Hon K. S. Williams. Mr D. O. Rutherford purchased Tuahine at 250 guineas, and Mali Jong was sold at 150 guineas. My Hobby was not offered owing to having met with a slight accident. Wingatui stables are represented in the Winter Cup with Pink Note. Overdrawn, Last Dart. Tione, and Buoyant, whilst the ; Dunedin-owned Heather Lad and Mountain Lion are aiso amongst those engaged in the race. Southland ie represented by Warhaven, Listening Post, Master Sandstone. Bugle Note, and Ecuador. Mr B. S. Irwin, president of the Otago Hunt Club and Forbury Park Trotting Club, has probably donated more trophies for sport than all the individual sportsmen in New Zealand with a tendency in that direction. For once in a way Mr Irwin is not giving a trophy to go with some event or other on the Otago Hunt programme. The Christchurch Press reports that D. Warren has recently broken in six promising yearlings by the American-bred stallion Wrack,- two chestnut fillies from Pearl Child and a St Swithan mare, and three bay colts from Precision, dam of Ayr, Trix Pointer, winner of the New Zealand Trotting Cup in 1919, Victoria, and Pearl Pointer. The phenomenal success achieved by the late Fred Archer completely dwarfs what any other man ever accomplished in the saddle. In 1876 he won 209 races and then went on as follows: —1877, 218; 1878, 229; 1879, 197; 1880, 120; 1881, 220; 1882, 210; 1883, 232; 1884, 241; 1885, 246; 1886 (the year of his death), 170. He rode five Derby winners and six St. Leger winners. Pericles, the winner of the A.J.C. Steeplechase, was bred by Mr E. J. Watt, and was got by All Black from Perseis. Pericles developed bleeding troubles, and was sold for 350gns to his present owner. The tendency to bleed displayed by some of All Black’s stock is no doubt inherited from Gallinule. Egypt, the brother to Desert Gold, developed the same trouble. In commenting on the fact that Ecuador carried 6.13 at the D.J.C. Winter meeting, the writer inadvertently overlooked the fact that the rule which debars a horse from carrying less than 7.0 did not come into force until August 1, 1925. The rule in question is included in the Turf Register of 1924-25, but the racing of that season w’as governed by the rules in existence in 1923-24. Regret is expressed at the error, which made it appear as if Ecuador ran at the wrong weights. The first Grand National Hurdles were run in 1890. and won by a Dunedin owner who raced under the assumed name of Mr R. Kildare. He was better known as the late Mr Ronald MMaster, who raced Daydream. Galtee, and other horses. A Dunedin horse did not win again until 1908, when Mr “J. Flaneur’s” Stormont won. Here again is an assumed name in use, but it was an open secret that the late Mr J. Gourley was the owner. In 1923 Mr R. Acton-Adams won with General Advance, and this marked the third occasion in which a Dunedin-owned horse won the Grand National Hurdles. When Te Kawa won the Open Hurdles at the Christchurch Hunt meeting he was very harshly treated is being penalised to the extent of 151 b for the Grand National Hurdles. In all probability some owners whose horses claim engagement in the Grand National Hurdles will not, as a result, be particularly anxious to win a race after the declaration of the weights for the big hurdles to be run at Riccarton. Te Kawa made a good deal of the running in the Grand National Hurdles, but the extra stone anchored him in the run home.. The re-handicapping clause in the conditions of a race were surely not intended to be more severe on a winner than a fixed penalty. When I see racing, business, and social lights, buttonholing trainers on racecourses for tips, I often wonder whether the information they glean compensates for the loss of dignity in their methods of obtaining it, writes “Pilot.'* They would bo in-

dignant if a comparative stranger asked them a pointed question about their business, and yet they evidently think a slight acquaintance with a trainer justifies them in asking him about his or that of his employer. Many trainers resent the position, but cannot afford to answer their questioners in the manner they deserve. “It does make you disgusted,” remarked a trainer tho other day. “to be fawned on by people who, elsewhere than on a racecourse, would think they were honouring you by a nod. If some of the people who ask me about my horses’ chances knew exactly the reply I would like to give, it would bo a shock for them.” Many of the minor racing clubs which experience difficulty in getting fair-sized fields at their ueetings would like to see the proposal carried at the Racing Conference which would permit the Ashburton County Racing Club to include two trotting events on each day’s card. In fact, it would be much more appreciated if the rule were made an open order for any racing club to include two or even three trotting events on each day’s card. Some of the up-country clubs experience considerable difficulty in attracting field* because they cannot afford to give big stakes, and owners do not rush race meetings where the stakes do not balance the cost of travelling and general expenses in sending their horses to the meeting. It would be a great help to several clubs if they could mix their programme with two or three trots when it is almost a foregone conclusion that the card is not sufficiently attractive to draw satisfactory fields of flat racers.