IN SADDLE AND SULKY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3982, 8 July 1930, Page 55

IN SADDLE AND SULKY.

The speedy’ but unreliable Hal Chimes has joined S. August’s stable. Nominations for the Metropolitan Club’s August meeting are due on Thursday of next week.

W. J. Tomkinson has Prince Pointer in steady work with a view to racing him at Addington next month.

Nominations for the trotting event at the South Canterbury Hunt Club's meeting are due on Friday. Logan Park is in steady work, and he will. probably be raced at the big Addington fixture next month.

The best of Lee Todd's racing days appear to be behind him, and he will find it hard to win another race. J. Dynes was the most successful trainer in Otago and Southland during the season, 11 winners having come from his stable .at Wyndham.

Great things are predicted for the two-year-old Travis Maxwell, who was recently purchased by’ the Auckland trainer, J. Shaw.

If trotters were made, instead of bred, then they might be turned out by the thousand, like a well-known make of motor car (says an American exchange).

The Auckland trainer J. Shaw ha - onlv Warplane and Stoney in work at present

The former looks like being a winner early in the new season.

Arachne is enjoying a short spell, but will be taken in hand again in time to be prepared for the special relief meeting to be held in Auckland.

Great Ballin, who paced good races at the recent Auckland meeting, has been put into work again after a short spell. He will be in favour for the next race he is started in.

The gelding Whakihihi, who is one of the biggest pacers in commission in Auckland, has been showing inrprovement-in his track work, and is expected to win a looseclass race early in the new season. A. Julian has two likely-looking threc-year-old colts by Worthy Bond, one being from Haricot and the other from Miss Rolfe. All going well they will be Great Northern Derby candidates.

Free Advice, who has been enjoying a spell, has wintered well, and it is her owner’s intention to put her into work again soon. The best has not yet been seen of the Blue Mountain King mare. Miss APEhvyn (2.43) half-sister of Mr M'Elwyn (1.593) has a colt at foot by Spencer (1.593). On breeding the youngster has every’ prospect of being a champion.

The American-bred trotter Sam Williams continues to do well in Germany, and at Hamburg in the early part of May’ he won the Long Broead Prix, showing a rate of 2.103, and -winning easily. Stand By has- settled down into being a very solid trotter, and the indications are that before the end of next season he will be racing in the tighter classes. He has been staying on well in his races. A pacer with whom W. J. Tonkinson should gather good stakes next season is Morrison, the Great Audubon three-year-old. He is a good looker, and his speed is in keeping with his looks. The three-year-old Lady Antrim, who came into the limelight during the season, has her share of speed, but it remains to be seen how far she can carry it. Her size may not help her in that direction. Kensitas, who now races in the interests of J. Bryce, has done most of his racing down south, and in some of his races has shown a useful turn of speed. He is an aged gelding by Four Chimes. The wonderful French mare Uranie, who was recently retired to the stud, contested 80 races during her career on the track, and she won 47 of them. She was out of a place on only five occasions. At the Derby meeting in Vienna in May 100 mannequins wearing fine fur garments paraded down the straight with the object of giving a boost to the Austrian fur industry.

Of Goldworthy, who showed such promise in the Sapling Stakes, it is said that she could beat anything of her age over a mile. The Guy’ Parrish filly’ carries every prospect of having a brilliant track career. Alva Lass, the half-sister to Erin’s Fortune and Nelson’s Victory, showed improved form during the season, and it will not be surprising if she eventually goes into one of the leading northern stables.

Al. Holmes, who is one of the best saddle sitters in the Dominion had a most successful season, and he finished second to C. S. Donald on the winning drivers and riders’ list.

The regular harness racing season in America was recently opened at Urbana, Ohio. A feature of the meeting was the success of the driver, H. Al. Parshall, who had ten drives in the twelve races and won eight of them. The Austrian Derby, which was run at Vienna on May 11 in the presence of 17.000 spectators, was won by Alraune. who was a pronounced favourite. Alraune is owned by Mrs Caroline Auer, who also owned last year’s winner Freichling. Writer will be one of C. S. Donald’s candidates for the better class trotters’ races next season. The Author Dillon gelding has shown considerable improvement during the season and is still on a good mark. If C. S. Donald succeeds in getting St. George to mend his barrier manners, the Rey de Oro pacer will reach the best of company’. St. George has a fine turn of speed, and he can run a two-mile journey right out.

The Dunedin-owned Bingen Queen, a six-year-old trotter by’ Nelson Bingen, has an attractive style of. going, but she wastes much of her enegry in the air. Her owner, Mr A. H. Brown, has a small stud farm on the Peninsula, and Bingen Queen is destined to join the matrons there. Aviatrix. who stepped into a place at Oamaru on Saturday, is a five-year-old by Nelson Bingen. At Waikouaiti on New Year’s Day she finished second over a mile to Guy Bingen, and gave the impression that she would develop into a useful performer on the minor circuit. Among the promising young trotters seen out in loose-class races at some of the Otago meetings during the season was Molly Nelson, a Nelson Bingen four-year-old, who spoilt at least two good winning chances by going to breaks at vital stages of her races. Steadiness will come to her with age. Native Bingen, who represented the local owner, Mr C. R. Hadfield, in the last contest for the Sires’ Produce Stakes, has furnished well, and he fills the eye as one who is likely to develop into a useful performer in the loose-class trotters’ races next season. He is very green yet, but he has given a glimpse or two of speed. One of the finest training establishments in the Dominion is that of the Belfast trainer, C. S. Donald, who has sufficient horses to hold a race meeting of his own. There are approximately 100 pacers and trotters on the place, and the three private training tracks are seldom unoccupied. Lily’ Harold was in the boom in the earlier part of tire season, and several buyers priced the Harold Rothschild mare. In her recent races, however, she has failed to step up to her best form, and she has been costly to her supporters. The. writer has always had the impression that, in the hands of a professional trainer, she would win good races. Erin's Fortune has been one of the season’s most consistent performers, and her supporters must have shown a good ' profit. The Erin’s King* mare finished : the season on a 4.30 mark, but she is capable of improving on that, but as she

gets into the tighter classes the tendency to being a bit slow to hit her toil gait may tell against her.

Mr Joseph Ignatius Markey, who was well known in the trotting world through his contributions to the American Horse Review under the pen-name of “ Marque,” died in a hospital near Qhicago on June 2. Recently he had a hip broken as the result of a fall, some weeks prior to which he had had an arm broken. These accidents took toll of a constitution that had been weakened by wounds received in the Spanish-American War.

Globe Derby, once champion of Australia, is now located at Mr Tatlow’s stud in'Tasmania. With Globe Derby at the head, Mr Tatlow is getting together a high-class breeding establishment, and amongst the mares some of the best blood of Australia is represented. They include Bell Logan (imp.), Expedient (by Logan Pointer), and Jessie .Dillon (by Harold Dillon). Two of Mr Tatlow’s Australian-bred mares are Duchess (by Huon Jr.), and Freda Direct (by Directway). Duchess is the dam of Buller, and Freda Direct threw Pattie Alto and Directwood. That good mare, Vendome, who is now holding her own in New Zealand, was bred by Mr Tatlow.

No thoughtful man will ever attempt making light of the value of inheritance (says an American writer). And yet heredity, of itself, is not sufficient. Psychologists have told us of environment and its great influence. They call it the “ Twin brother to heredity.” In the trotting horse industry we may apply the same term with perfect assurance, for of what value is a strong speed inheritance without proper growth and development ? It is one thing to mate a choice mare with a choice stallion, securing in that manner a stoutly-bred foal, . and quite another thing to grow the offspring properly, have its education carried on properly, and in due time pass the colt, or filly, on to a high-class trainer and race driver. To be sure breeding, growth, development, and racing “go hand in hand.” In the case of the trot-ting-bred foal they represent both heredity and environment. You cannot separate them and meet with success as a breeder.

An Associated Pro’s despatch from Dodge City, Kansas, under date of May 24, and published in practically all Sunday editions of Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska daily papers, read as follows:— “ Preaching the same sermon he began his ministry with, 55 years ago, the Rev. J. W. Thompson will celebrate the fiftyfifth anniversary of his ordination at the Presbyterian Church- here to-morrow. May 25. That is “some” record, if anyone would ask. and an honourable one at that (says the Horse Review). Dr Thompson is a graduate of Princeton University and Presbyterian Theological Seminary. He has served as pastor of various Presbyterian churches in Kansas more than 40 years. The doctor has always been a tremendous worker, and still occupies his hours strenuously. Probably that accounts for his hale and hearty old age. From earliest childhod Dr Thompson was an enthusiastic friend and lover of the American standard-bred trotting horse. He is the only resident of Kansas to breed two 2.10 trotters. In addition he bred numerous other trotters with records from 2.11 to 2.15. and still others that gained slower records. During all the years passed in Kansas, Dr Thompson has devoted much time and thought to the trotting-bred horse, and for 30 years wrote extensively for various turf journals, including the Horse Review. In the early ’nineties —sometimes referred to as “the gay Nineties,” Dr Thompson compiled and had published in the Horse Review a most interesting table of statistics relating to Al'Kinney 2.113 and his family of trotters. Older readers will easily recall that table, which was followed by others of like character in subsequent months.