TALK OF THE DAY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3860, 6 March 1928, Page 53

TALK OF THE DAY.

By

Sentinel.

THE RIVERTON MEETING

The programme for the three-day meeting of the Riverton Club "has been issued, and it is such as to prompt the belief that it will be a magnet to a big response from owners and trainers. The Riverton Gold Cup Handicap carries a gold cup valued at lOOgns in addition to a stake of 505sovs, and this feature of the first day's card is supported by the Great Western Steeplechase, of 450sovs. In connection with the latter event it is stipulated that “ a trophy valued at £5 will be given by the club to the winning rider if he be an amateur,” but professional riders would no doubt appreciate the opportunity of winning it, and there really seems little reason why the rider of the winner, whether professional or amateur, should not get the trophy. The cards for the second and third days have many attractive features, not the least of which are the two events for pacers on the concluding day. Nominations are due on Monday, March 19.

CAULFIELD FUTURITY WINNERS

Writing of the Caulfield Futurity Stakes in the Australasian, “ Touchstone ” says it was some years before the race became really popular. Quite a number of turfites, including one or two sporting writers, prophesied its failure and extinction, but these were false prophets. Seldom, indeed, has the race been won by a moderate, and never by a bad horse. Although the distance is only seven furlongs, a “ speedy squib ” has little chance of winning. Mr W. R. Wilson won the Futurity for the second time with Bobadil in 1899. Bobadil was a delicate customer as a three-year-old, taking after his dam (She) in that respect, yet he had a brilliant season. Out of 12 starts he won eight races, including the V.R.C. October Stakes, Caulfield Guineas, St. Leger, Australian Cup, Champion Stakes, and All-aged Stakes, winning over distances from seven furlongs to three miles, and he was beaten only half a head by Cocos in the Victoria Derby. Perhans it was this defeat which caused Mr F. F. Dakin to form the opinion that Bobadil was not a good stayer. Anyhow, believing the Bill of Portland colt would fail to see out the two miles and a-quarter. Mr Dakin in a handicap framed on a pretty high scale gave Bobadil the comparatively light weight of 8.4 in the Australian Cup, and had the mortification of seeing him win in a canter. Aurous placed the Futurity Stakes to the credit of Mr C. L. Macdonald in 1901, and subsequently became famous at the" stud as the ancestress of Desert Gold. She beat two good ones in Finland and Maltster, both of whom were destined to become noted sires. Mr Macdonald’s stable was in great form that year. Wakeful followed up her Oakleigh Plate and Newmarket double by winning the A.J.C Doncaster Handicap with 7.10. According to rumour, Aurous was preferred by the stable” for the Doncaster. Both candidates were solidly backed—Wakeful at 5 to 2, Aurous at 8 to 1. The lastnamed ran badly, nevertheless she was pretty good, as she demonstrated in the autumn by winning the Woodcliff Handicap and Bond Cup at Ca.ulfield. Wakeful made a gallant attempt to win the Futurity of 1902 with 9.13. but had to strike her colours to the lightly weighted Sir Foote, for whom no less than 321 b in allowances was claimed. Although a four-year-old horse, he had only 6.10 to

carry. Supposed to be too. unsound to stand training, Sir Foote was bought in England for a trifle over 200gns by Isaac Earnshaw on behalf of the Newcastle coal magnate who races as Mr “ J. Baron.” Earnshaw patched up Sir Foote so well that the imported horse also won the Newmarket and the Doncaster Handicap. He carried 9.4 in the latter event, so Wakeful was attempting the impossible when she endeavoured to give him niore than 3st in the Futurity. Other imported horses to win the Futurity were Playaway, .Comedy King, Eudorus, Flash of Steel, Lucknow, and Top Gallant, all of whom carried light weights, with the exception of Eudorus, who had 9.1, and Top Gallant, who, carrying 10.2. “ spreadeagled ” his field in 1926. Gladsome has a brace of fine performances to her credit, for the New Zealand-bred mare won under 9.7 in 1905. and scored again the following year wtih 9.13. But the best weight-carrying performance in connection with the race is credited to Eurythinic who carried 10.7 to the fore in 1922’ and gave a brilliant mare in Wish Wvnne 171 b and a beating. The merit of‘this performance is apparent when we recall the fact that a week previously Wish Wynne with 8.11 had defeated 'a large field in the Oakleigh Plate.

THE COLOUR QUESTION. Although there have been many descendants of Eclipse of his own colour (chestnut), those horses become the sires of celebrated performers other than chestnuts (says a writer in the Sydney Mail). For instance, Cyllene, the only horse since Waxy (1809-15) to sire four Derby winners, was a chestnut, and his classic heroes were Cieero (chestnut). Minoru (brown), Lemberg (bay), and Tagalie (grey). This is only one instance of many that could be cited where the transmission of coat colour has no bearing whatever on the merits of the offspring. Yet there are writers who still assert that chestnut stallions beget the best stock among those of their own coat colour. Since 1922 the chestnut stallion Hurry On has sired three chestnut Derby winners in Captain Cuttie, Coronach, arid Call Boy, and this fact has given rise to the question of coat colour; but the case of Cyllene clearly proves that a good horse is never a bad colour. Waxy, the first horse to sire four Derby winners, was a bay by the chestnut horse Pot-8-os, and his four successful sons—Pope, Whalebone, Blucher, a_d Whisker—are described as bays in the Derby records. Lord Lyan. a triple crown hero, was a bay by the ehostnut Stockwell, and Silvio, winner of the Derby in 1887, was also a bay by the chestnut Blair Athol. So all this talk about Hurry On’s chestnuts being infinitely better than those of any other colour is all moonshine. He has certain]}’ produced three great chestnuts, but there is yet time to get bays as good.

ENGLISH STALLIONS’ FEES. In the preliminary list of stallions’ fees for 1928 there is only one at 500gns (says Robin Hood), and that is Solario, who in 1925 won his last three races as a three-year-old—the Ascot Derby, the Princess of Wales's Stakes (Newmarket), and the. Doncaster St. Leger. He is the best horse sired by Gainsborough, who won a War Derby, and Gainsborough himself is one of a number of stallions standing at a fee of 400gns. Whether a fee of 500gns for Solario is justifiable remains to be seen, but he undoubtedly was a top sawyer when thoroughly wound up. In the Derby he had finished only fourth to Manna, but easily turned the tables on the Epsom winner at Doncaster, Manna finishing down the course. Other stallions advertised at 400gns for the coming season are Buchan (a great sire). Call Boy (the winner of the 1927 Derby), Colorado (whose Derby conqueror, Coronach, whom he twice defeated as a four-year-old, stands at only 300gns). Another on the 400gns mark is Gay Crusader, w’ho to my mind was a better wartime racehorse than Gainsborough, while Grand Parade is deservedly also on the 400gns list,. as is Hurry On. Manna, too, figures at 400< T ns together with that wonderful sire Phala”ris’ also Pommern and Swynford. That once great stallion The Tetrarch has vanished, but Abbot’s Trace, at 250gns, is a live proposition, as also is Pharos’ who was unluckily beaten in the Derby by Papyrus, who stands at 300gns. Although The Tetrarch has disappeared, his old sire, Roi Herode, is still doing good service in Ireland at £lO5. Son-in-Eaw, who has sired many good stayers ”1 tlme ’ ls another of those figuring at 300gns. °

PEDIGREE OF MAN O’ WAR. The pedigree of Man o’ War. who has been described as the most famous racehorse of thj twentieth centurv in the States; shows a lot of English blood, for he comes of the same male family as does Hurry On, both going back to West Australian, Matchem, and so on to the Godolphm Barb, which line, from having once been comparatively in the background, is now in strong evidence on both sides of the Atlantic. Yet its origin makes one of the most wonderful chapters °* history. It has been variously told how a famous breeder of the time in Yorkshire became possessed of this remarkable horse, but there is unanimity as to the manner of his discovery in the Paris, in a distressed state, pulling a water cart, and so arousing the compassion of a passing Englishman named Coke, that the lattter, noting that the- animal was of some quality and entire, bought him for something like £4. Then, according to Major J. E. Platt, in his recently-published book, “The Thoroughbred Racehorse,” there appeared on the scene a swarthy Arab, who told him the history of the horse. Briefly, the lattter was originally a gift to the then King of France from the reigning Sultan of Morocco, and- was one of the best-bred horses in the stud. Being too

high-mettled for the Royal stud to manage, he was relegated to the head chef at Versailles, so that he could be used to bring the vegetables in a cart every morning from Paris. Even this treatment did not quieten him down, so eventually the chef sold him to a Paris water-carrier. The Arab in the story seems to have been a groom who ertme over with the horse from Morocco and had been “ told never to lose sight ” of his charge, and he may have come over to England with him, and taken him to Yorkshire, but another version is that Coke, who was a butcher, having coaxed same flesh on the animal’s bones, sold him for £3O to a coffee or chop-house keeper named Williams, and it was in this new ownership that he attracted the notice of Lord Godolphin, who was one of the cafe’s many sportiug patrons. Purchased originally for a more humble purpose at the stud where the famous stallion Hobgoblin held court, the new arrival was eventually mated with Roxana, and the produce was Lath, a very fine racehorse, while the pony which had been found fallen down from sheer exhaustion and emaciation in a Paris street became also the sire of Cade, the sire of Matchem, and so the founder of one of the three great male lines, represented after a period of decline by Hurry On and his three Derby-winning sons, Call Boy, Coronach, and Captain Cuttie, with the likelihood of others to follow, and the hest horse of three decades and the principal winning sire in America.