AUSTRALIAN TURF ACTIVITIES

Southland Times, Issue 23736, 7 February 1939, Page 10

AUSTRALIAN TURF ACTIVITIES

EFFECTS OF GAMING LEGISLATION DEFAULTER AND AJAX TO MEET AT RANDWICK

By

SIR MODRED

The premier New Zealand juvenile colt Defaulter is engaged to meet Ajax at Randwick. Racing in Sydney this week will be conducted by the Ascot and Canterbury Park Clubs. The Doncaster Handicap, of £3OOO (Im.), run on Easter Saturday in Sydney has a big entry list of 108. Melbourne’s principal turf attractions of the current week will be the Geelong, Pakenham and Williamstown meetings. Randwick’s noted autumn season mile, the Doncaster Handicap, claims many New Zealand-bred entrants. The C. F. Orr Stakes, of £lOOO, penalties and allowances, w.f.a. (Im. 55yds) will be decided at Williamstown on Saturday. ... Gold Fox, by Paper Money-Artistic, aged, was a recent jumper’s flat race winner in a strong field in Victoria. For the Sydney Cup (handicap), of £7OOO and a gold cup valued at £2OO (2m.) the entries total ninety-nine. New Zealand’s outstanding three-year-old colt Defaulter has been engaged in the Sydney Cup, run Easter Monday. The six-year-old New Zealand-bred gelding Erua (Cape Horn) won the Hurdles, of £5OO (2m.) at Caulfield, on January 21. Reports from Melbourne tracks create the impression that a great galloper in The Trump is rapidly returning to form. The three-year-old filly Leif, who has been entered for the Sydney Cup, is a New Zealander by Limond from Mislaid. Hamurah and Sal Volatile, two brilliant mares by Salmagundi, are listed for the Doncaster Handicap, of £3OOO (Im.) in Sydney. Speculation was rife in Australia as to whether Ajax would contract a Sydney Cup task. The champion has been duly nominated. The Queensland performer St. Aubin, who cost his owner-trainer 65 guineas as a yearling, has now won £2474 in stake money. Three crack West Australian horses in Gay Balkan, Gay Prince, and Tetreen have arrived in Melbourne for the autumn campaign. Mr W. R. Kemball does not race his Victorian horses in Sydney very often, but will probably run Amiable there at Easter.

Silver Bond, by Pink Coat-Victory Bond, was recently beaten by half a head in a valuable race at Caulfield. Victoria’s crack juvenile Nuffield, who has been under a cloud, is working well again in view of Easter races. With a long string of victories to his account Deer Gun, a Queensland sprinter, has won £2280 in stakes. He was a 40 guinea yearling.

Climax, a recent two-year-old filly winner in Sydney, is a descendant on the maternal side from Anna Carloona, a noted New Zealand race/. A promising sprinter in Brisbane is the three-year-old gelding Mungundi, a son of Mr A. Chisholm’s sire Salmagundi. King Sol, a New Zealand-bred son of Lord Quex (imp.) was a winner in West Australia on January 21. His dam Morning Gift was by Boniform. SAL VOLATILE Her connections are evidently under the impression that Sal Volatile can stay, as the daughter of the Southland sire Salmagundi (imp.) has been nominated for the Sydney Cup (two miles). Her dam Voleuse was by a stayer in Magpie (imp.). Hardly to be classed as a first-class juvenile Aeolus, who was originally raced by P. Riddle, is preparing in Sydney to voyage to India. A game, consistent colt, the son of Baralong is not a first-class racer, but he may stay.

Stake money in South Australia does not compare favourably with that on offer in Victoria, N.S.W., and Queensland. Under the circumstances the Adelaide colt Siegift, by the Southland sire Siegfried (imp.) has done well to account for £485 in his races. He is a two-year-old. Mr W. T. Kelly, of Brisbane, who has been racing Haerepo, by Nightmarch, and othtr horses successfully, is reported to be visiting New Zealand. There is a youthful relation to Haerepo at Riccarton, who may take the fancy of the Queenslander.

At the Brisbane Turf Club’s meeting on January 21 the Fourth' Division Handicap (about seven furlongs) was won by the four-year-old gelding Mirth Parade, by Salmagundi (imp.) from Rose of Torridge, by Saltash (imp., and son of Ayrshire from Kettledrum, a mare tracing back to the very stout Australian sire Yattendon). Starting as third fancy in the ring Mirth Parade carried 9.0 and won by eight lengths in 1.30, good time for a contest actually beyond seven furlongs.

Horses valued at £16,000 and imported from England by Mr Sol Green reached Melbourne safely a few days ago. Tire 16 thoroughbreds were quickly unloaded into motor-floats and whisked away to Mr Green’s wellknown Underwood Stud. One of the consignment in the French mare Helleniqua possesses a record of having won 16 races, including the Cambridgeshire Handicap, one of the principal events of the season in England. Gains Tor, another of the prospective matrons of the importations, claims as a full sister a yearling filly recently disposed

of at the Doncaster sales at 2600 guineas. RECORD ATTENDANCES Since December 1, 1936, the attendances on metropolitan courses in Queensland have increased as much as 400 per cent. The increase is worked out at 10 per cent, in the paddock and 390 per cent, for the cheaper enclosures. On many Australian courses there are three “enclosures” at varying costs. The huge increase in attendances in and around Brisbane has been brought about by the operations of the New Gaming Act in the suppression of illegal betting, tipsters and urgers (known in New Zealand as “guessers ). Increased patronage to the extent of 400 per cent, spells a wider and more personal interest in the turf under health-giving conditions, increased stakes for owners, advanced prices where breeders are concerned, and the diversion of a very large sum of money to the coffers of the Government where it rightly belongs. Interviewed on his return to Sydney following his attendance at the N.Z, National Yearling Sales and Wellington R.C. summer meeting the Randwick trainer G. Price did not hesitate to express his expert opinion of the Dominion’s premier juvenile colt. The former New Zealander remarked: All that has been said of him is not too much. He won the Wellington Cup comfortably. Defaulter looks a good horse, and is a good-dispositioned one.” Other Australian trainers recently in Wellington were greatly impressed by the descendant of Defoe (imp., and .by Hurry On from a mare by Son-in-Law). The proof of the pudding is in the eating and Defaulter has yet to extend his peers at weight-for-age in Australia to place the hall mark on his fame. All going well he will assuredly make good, but he is a colt of more than average size and still growing and herein may rest danger. He will be pUt to the test in earnest when called upon to gallop strongly on the firm tracks in Sydney. A juvenile of the very best type of English thoroughbred, Defaulter is a brilliant and resolute galloper and many thousands of New Zealanders will wish him well when he invades Australia to measure strides with Ajax, Nuffield, Allunga, and other w.f.a. contestants. The officials of the Victqria R.C. should be more than pleased to find that the entries for the Australian Cup, run on March 11, total 67. Decided over two miles and a-quarter the Flemington contest classes as the sternest handicap test annually set for Australian and visiting racehorses.. A number of New Zealand-bred performers have been engaged including the Dunedin-owned Royal Order, by Limond. One of New Zealand’s most prominent trainers expressed the opinion to the writer that Royal Order would not prove himself a real stayer because of a physical defect in his breathing apparatus, but this remains to be proved. The descendant of Limond has afforded promise of staying prowess since he developed winning form in Melbourne and the son of a sire of stayers may prove an exception to an accepted, trainer’s antipathy to horses with “narrow breathing tubes.” The Trump, who won the Caulfield Cup and Melbourne Cup in the same year, has also been engaged in the lengthy handicap. He trained off after a remarkable sequence of successes, but following a spell he is again working well on the tracks in Melbourne.’ Nominated for leading autumn handicaps in Sydney and Melbourne his connections are evidently in hopes that The Trump will stage a comeback. Ajax, Nuffield and other cracks are absentees from the entry list, but Burbon Spear Chief, Brown Lance, Marauder, L’Aiglon, Manolive, and other tough gallopers are engaged. AUTUMN RACING IN VICTORIA NEW ZEALAND HORSES’ WEIGHTS (United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright) MELBOURNE, February 6. The top-weights and New Zealand horses engaged in the principal autumn races are as follows:— OAKLEIGH PLATE, £l5OO. Five and a-half furlongs (to be run on February 18). —Aurie’s Star 9.12, Pamelus 9.10, Delmestor 9.5, Judean 9.4, Stretto 9.4, Brazandt 9.2, Amiable 8.13, Disdain 8.3, Lynch Law 7.10.

NEWMARKET HANDICAP (run on March 4).— Ajax 10.2, Aurie’s Star 9.8, Pamelus 9.8, King’s Head 9.5, Regular Bachelor 9.5, Gold Rod 9.4, The Trump 9.2, Stretto 9.1, Hamurah 90, St. Constant 9.0, Buzalong 8.13, Judean 8.13. Amiable 8.10, Disdain 8.0, Desert Chief 8.0, Lynch Law 7.9, Namakia 6.9.

AUSTRALIAN CUP (to be run on March 11). —Donaster 9.4, Manolive 9.3, Spearchief 9.2, Bourbon 8.13, The Trump 8.13, Mikai 8.3, Desert Chief 8.2, Sir Regent 7.12, Royal Order 7.8, Highborn 7.7, Pontoon 7.7. Sporting writers consider that Ajax has not been harshly treated in the Newmarket Handicap, though they point out that the highest weight ever carried to victory by a four-year-old was 9.8, by Heroic, who was Ajax’s sire, ip 1926. IMPROVEMENT DESTROYED (Received February 6, 6.30 p.m.) SYDNEY, February 6. Mr J. T. Jamieson’s racehorse Improvement slipped when he was being given medicine in his stables, broke a 1- and was destroyed.