RACING NOTES

Southland Times, Issue 23378, 9 December 1937, Page 10

RACING NOTES

WYNDHAM ENTRIES AUGUR WELL

STRONG OPPOSITION FOR LOCAL SPRINTERS

The Hororata and Woodville Clubs will race on Saturday.

Nominations for the Dunedin Jockey Club’s meeting close on Friday at 5 p.m.

Nominations for the Oamaru meeting will be taken on Friday up to 8 p.m. and Waikouaiti on Tuesday next. On recent form Sir Hugh will be a force to be reckoned with at Hororata on Saturday.

Greenock, who recently changed hands is to be mated with Phaleron Bay.

Paladino’s recent work suggests that he may be capable of winning a race during the holidays. The Paladin gelding did not race a great deal last season but appears to have done well in his work this term.

Half and Half who is engaged at Wyndham is a newcomer by Balboa from the Solferino mare, Insolence. He is not a big three-year-old but is well put together. He will be raced in partnership and hence the name.

Although Queen of Song is engaged in the Auckland Cup the odds are that she will do her holiday racing at Wingatui, Wyndham and Invercargill. Her weights on the southern circuit will be greater than the 7.12 she was asked to carry in the Auckland Cup, but if her Ashburton effort could be accepted as a guide to her form, this would not trouble her.

Apart from Bay Duke and Viking it would not appear that the Southland sprinters are a particularly good lot to oppose the northern contingent. Gold Boa will be carrying big weights in this company but Janet Gaynor and Top Row, two newcomers to the open ranks, are capable of making the racing interesting. Janet Gaynor’s fine form during Cup week will not easily be forgotten while Top Row is a three-year-old much above average and considered the best of his age outside those engaged in the classics. The Collossus colt is not big in size but there are few possessed of his gameness.

The nominations received last evening for the Wyndham Racing Club’s meeting on New Year’s Day augur well for the Southland Racing Club’s meeting on January 3 and 4. The Wyndham entries show an increase of 40 over last year’s figures while the class is well up to previous years, if not better. The presence of such goodclass horses as Davolo, Cottingham, Petersham, Queen of Song, Janet Gaynor, Gold Boa and Top Row will give added interest to the racing. Entreaty, the dam of Phar Lap, has foaled a filly by Nightmarch. The latter, a Melbourne Cup winner, was one of the best sons of Night Raid, the sire of Phar Lap. For the first time in the history of the race there will be trophies for the winning of the English Derby in 1939. The conditions- state that a trophy valued £2OO will be given the owner of the winner,' a cup valued £5O to the trainer and a cup valued £25 to the jockey.

Silk Wood ran a useful race in her initial start at the Southland meeting last month and when produced during the holidays will have to be considered. The half-sister to Ashaway will be well suited over five furlongs at Wyndham. The big field should not trouble the Woodend mare as she has the ability to begin smartly. There will be good opportunities for middle distance horses at southern meetings during the holidays as six mile and a-quarter races will be decided. These are: Otago Handicap, £500; Wyndham Cup, £450; Waikouaiti Cup, £500; Southland Handicap, £300; Oamaru President’s Handicap, £250, and Invercargill Cup, £5OO. Beaupartir, a member of H. S. Greene’s team at Greenmeadows, will contest two-year-old events at Woodville. When this youngster ran ‘second at Napier Park he was on the big side, but is stated to have fined down a good deal. If Beaupartir shows the improvement expected he will be taken to Ellerslie to contest the Great Northern Foal Stakes.

A. E. Ellis is to ride Argentic in the Auckland Cup and Rereatu in the Railway Handicap. Kinnoull will not be nominated for any of the holiday meetings, and he and Grey Honour are to make their next appearance at Trentham. There was an idea that Kinnoull had gone amiss, but this is not so.

For the first four months of the current season the sum of £2,140,990 has been speculated on New Zealand racecourses, an increase of £398,333 10/-. Racing clubs put through £1,484,938, compared with £1,210,126, an increase of £274,812, while trotting clubs handled £656,052, against £532,530 10/-, an increase of £123,521 10/-. Only one racing club and one trotting club have shown a decrease this season—the Geraldine Racing Club and the Forbury Park Trotting Club, and in each case the decrease was small.

On several occasions before the Takapuna meeting Saccone had galloped exceptionally on the track, but he failed to run up to those trials in the Pupuke Plate—his only start at the meeting. Inability to begin quickly from the barrier handicapped Saccone considerably, but once he got going properly the Surveyor gelding showed plenty of speed and made up a lot of leeway. When Saccone learns to jump away from the barrier quickly a minor event should not be beyond him.

W. H. Jones, who broke a bone in one of his hands at Riccarton several months ago, has been in Auckland for some time and expects to resume riding at Ellerslie during the holidays.

The announcement that the New South Wales Government intends to ask Parliament soon to consider a Bill that aims at the conversion of racing clubs owned and controlled by private companies into non-proprietary clubs, has caused considerable unrest, not only to the directors of the racing clubs, such as Rosehill, Canterbury, Moorefield, Roseberry, Kensington, and Victoria Park, but to the shareholders who have money invested in the concerns as business propositions.

Pelmet has recovered from the lameness that prevented her from racing at Ashburton, and she may make a trip to Auckland, where some sprint engagements have been made for her. It is unlikely that T. H. Gillett will have any others from his team racing during the holidays. Dividend figures in the list of horses remaining in the Great Northern Derby, but he is there through an oversight.