TALK OF THE TURF

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18253, 23 November 1933, Page 3

TALK OF THE TURF

Uuling Pen, a five-yeur-ohl. gelding by Chief Ruler from Penella, dam ot ’tying Juliet, is to he l ned as a hurdler by R. W. King, and on Saturday, ridden by T. Turner, jumped live hurdles slowly but cleanly. Ruling Pen cost Mr U- .L Barton SOOgns. as a

yearling, but has been a failure as a flat proposition. J ** * *

Mr. W. T. Hazlett intends to return to New Zealand before the. holiday period,! and has cabled E. Seoul hr _to nominate Chief Light and Strong Light ten the Dunedin and Southland meetings. 1 O’Connor intends to make a similar trip with Doiran and High Tor. Ihe hitter, who raced well at the cup meeting, seems to have overcome the foot trouble which previously restricted her activities * * * * Fast Passage has been a regular track visitor for some weeks, and hopes were entertained by her owner of having her ready to contest the Auckland Cup, but her condition after some strong work given her last week, satisfied all concerned that it would not be advisable to carry on her preparation any further, and in consequence her ’permanent retirement has been decided upon. She is to be put to the stud, put will not be mated this season. # * * * An announcement that Lady Quex’s racing days are over and that she will be given a rest before being put to the stud next season was made by tho owner, Mr. W. G. Kmeny, of New Plymouth. last week. The daughter of Lord Quex and White Clover, who was purchased by Mr. Kmeny from her breeder, Mr. John Gleeson. of Bell Block, proved herself a brilliant performer. Tn her six years of racing she won 25 races and well over £6OOO m stakes. In 1932 she achieved her owner’s great ambition when she scored a great win over Hunting Cry and Laughing Prince in the Taranaki Stakes.

Hyperion is an easy first in this season's list of. winning horses in England. His four firsts returned £23,179 10s, which, added to his £5105 for three wins last season, makes Iris total £28,284 10s, and he is to race another season. The two-vear-old Colombo (Manna —Lady Nainie), for whom Lofcl Glanely gave SlOgns., is the winner of six races and £12,587 15s, which entitled him to be rated as one of the greatest bargains of recent. years in England, where the percentage of highpriced failures is probably oven greater than in any other country. * * •» * It is reported that Mr J. A. Phillips, the owner of Gaine Carrington and the lessee of Peter Jackson, is likely to pay an early visit to New Zealand, accompanied by his trainer, C. T. Godby. The object of the trip is to have a look at the stud of the Messrs. Smith (brothers, who bred the two horses named, with a view to seeing if there j is any more promising stock available Peter Jackson has a nomination in the Auckland Cup, but nothing has been mentioned yet about his racing programme for the future.

Master Norval. winner of the Waikato Cup, ran out of hack class after his victory in the Liverpool Handicap _at Ellerslie, when he beat a iiot favorite, Kiltowyn. He is by no moans fashionably bred, being by Romeo from -Miss Norval, who is not in tho Stud Book, but he is a very game and consistent racehorse, and improving. He was produced twice as a three-year-old, without result, but hast season he won three races and was also placed six times in 18 starts. Saturday’s win was therefore his fifth, and his stake-winnings to date are £825. Miss Norval, who won only two races in her two seasons on the turf, was retired at. the end of the 1921 season. She is by Penury from Lady Norval.

Heroic, sire of Hail Mark, retired to the stud with a record of 31 wins, 11 seconds and four thirds in 52 starts. His stake-winnings were 1158,052 10s. His most distinguished sou, in a season and a half, has won eight races, with three seconds and three thirds, his .total earnings being £17,764. It is fair to assume that with ordinary luck, Hall Mark will complete his five-year-old season with a money-winning record almost as good as Heroic’s. What Hall Mark’s position would have been had he been racing for the same valuable prizes ns were offered in Heroic’s time is indicated when one compares the returns for races which both won. Hall Mark’s big win as a youngster was the A.J.C. Sires’ Produce Stakes, which brought him £3316. When Heroic contested this rich event, he was left at the post. The A.J.C. Champagne Stakes was worth £3462 to Herqic, and only £1745 to Hall Mark. Heroic netted £6740 in the A.J.C. Derby, and Hall Mark £3523. The younger horse won £6OO in the Underwood Stakes, which was worth only £390 to Heroic.

The Levin Racing Club’s annual meeting on Saturday is tho only racing tixlme, set down for this week. Interesting competitors in the Levin Handicap _ include the two returned Sydney tourists, Korokio and Fairway.

When the apprentice, rider, A. Russell

won the Derby on Nightly, it was recorded that ho was the first apprentice to win this race. At Carterton oil Saturday, R. E. Hatch pointed out that (•ho honor of being the first apprentice to win the Derby goes to T. Green, who scored on. Agrioti in 1927 when apprenticed to Hatch.

.Shadow King, who has four times grasped at the substance of a Melbourne Cup and all but held it, is probably the unluckiest gelding in the annals of the Australian turf, as well as one of the most consistent. However, the £IOOO stake that went with the winning of the Williamstown Cup on Saturday would bo some consolation to his owners, Messrs. F. Fi Shillabeer and. E. S. Bailey, for his narrow defeat by Hall Mark. Last year, Shadow King finished fifth in the Williamstown Cup, after running third in the Melbourne Cup to Peter Pan and Yarrambn. the last-named winning the Williamstown trophy.

My Ideal, who brought off a surprise win in tho-concluding event at Carterton, had had only one previous race this season, running unplaced in the corresponding event at the Masterton meeting last month. It was also her first success, and in all she has had very little racing experience, her efforts as a two-year-old having been confined to three starts, in all of which she ran unplaced. My Ideal is by Greyspear out of Lady Ideal, a mare bred by G. Neich and with whom he won similar races a few years ago l . She comes of a good Karamu family, being by Treadmill from Ideala, by Birkenhead—ldeal, by Dreadnought. On the way Mv Ideal won on Saturday it should be only the forerunner of further successes. * * * ■» 11. A. Scott, writing in the London Evening News, says: “Gordon Richards’ attack ’ upon Fred Archer’s record of 246 winners in a season has turned the limelight upon jockeys of the past. For years the good jockeys averaged one win in four months, but Archer one year brought his average up to two wins in every five races. Archer had the same genius as Richards has for understanding individual horses. Instinctively he recognised the peculiarities of those he had to ride. There can be little doubt that he took it out of his horses as no other jockey did; ho seemed not to worry at all about what happened to his mounts after the run, His whip and spur took all the racing keenness out of some two-year-olds. It must be said in his favor, though, that he was never harsh with mounts that could be persuaded peacefully to give of their best. Great as was Archer’s knowledge of horses, it could not compare with that of his outstanding rival, George Fordham, whose seat was in direct contrast to the sitting-back ono adopted by Archer. Fordham, a man deficient in education, knew his job from A to Z. His ugly riding rather suggested that this was not so until you perceived his gentleness with horses of all ages, Fordham taught Tom Cannon much—this was admitted by Cannon—but Cannon’s grace in the saddle was as obvious as was Fordham’s inelegance. Both Tom Cannon and his son Mornington, believed in waiting tactics during a race, but they were to see different ideas brought from America in 1897 by Tod Sloan. In his races Sloan went off from tho beginning and came right through. And he rode many winners. Following his triumphs, the beginning of this century saw a big invasion by United States jockeys. It was rather startling to find the Americans adopting Fordham’s forward seat, and still more surprising to find that they bequeathed the style to ► British jockeys as a whole. Tho American seat, as it was called, was taken up both iu Britain and France. Perhaps, in justice, it should have been called tho Fordham seat.”