AUSTRALIAN TURF ACTIVITIES

Southland Times, Issue 23767, 15 March 1939, Page 10

AUSTRALIAN TURF ACTIVITIES

Dominion Blood Holds Its Own BRIGHT FUTURE FOR HIGH CASTE By SIR MODRED The first rank Australian autumn campaign will now move on from Melbourne to Sydney. The Victoria Amateur Turf Club will distribute £3BOO in stakes over six races at Caulfield on Saturday. Disdain has proved in Victoria that she is a worthy half-sister to Silver Scorn for speed efforts. It is recalled in Australia that Silver Scorn (9.11) won over six furlongs in New Zealand in lmin 9 2-ssec.

Pageant, winner of the Australian Cup, has displayed a tendency to stay on since his first turf appearance. High Caste threatens to make turf history for a New Zealand-bred youngster in Australian stakes winnings. The Australian Cup winner Pageant is a son of Windbag, a horse of noted Dominion maternal family.

Only three jockeys M. McCarten, H. Badger, and E. Bartie have ridden Ajax in his racecourse efforts. Like his countryman Defaulter the Melbourne-owned colt Wilson, by Sigfried is apt to “loaf” in his races. Victoria’s crack youngster filly Zonda is not eligible for the Australian J.C.’s Sires’ Produce Stakes, of £3500. It is stated that the time is not. far distant when the Australian J.C. will consider abolishing hurdle races. Windbag scored heavily as a sire at the V.R.C. meeting with Tempest (St. Leger) and Pageant (Australian Cup). Dark David, runner-up in the Australian Cup (2|m.) comes from the ranks of minor performers in West Australia.

The Australian-bred sire Windbag was eleventh on the winning sires’ list last season his lowest position for several years. Recent track and public performances suggest that N.Z. trainer S.W. Reid is getting The Trump into racing shape again. Unless there was a change in the Australian Cup market since the last mail left Melbourne Pageant gave the ring a benefit. The jumper African, who fractured a knee and was destroyed in Melbourne on Friday, ranked as a useful performer and winner of flat and hurdle races. He was a son of Dark Fox (imp. and by Son-in-Law) from Majuba’s Daughter. A SIEGFRIED COLT Noticed in cabled turf news as a New Zealander the juvenile colt Crojick is a son of the Southland sire Siegfried. Trained by L. Robertson in Melbourne his dam was Top Flier, by Top Gallan (imp.) from Skyline (imp.) Very few of the progeny of the Southland sire Salmagundi (imp.) are racing in Victoria, but two of the number performed well' at Flemington on Thursday. The gelding Hotch Potch, by Salmagundi’ (imp.)—Princess Edna, ran second to the filly Proof, by Metallurgy—Credant, in the Hopeful Stakes,. of £7OO, for two-year-olds (sfur.) in lmin. Isec—the V.R.C. record at headquarters is 59Jsec. Later in the day the Salmagundi gelding Irving, when well up in the weights to the placed trio, was placed fourth in a good finish when Con Devon (7.2) won the River Handicap, of £7OO (l|m.) from Grecian Princess (7.9) and Fearnought (7.11) in 2min Irving is a very useful performer, in and around Melbourne.

Gay Lothario, whose yearlings sold well in Melbourne last week, may be classed as Victoria’s most favoured sire of platers and open handicap racehorses. As a horse he is good to look upon, while he is an imported English son of Gay Crusader, by Bayardo, by Bay Ronald. The defunct Auckland sire Gay Shield, who passed away all too soon, was a son of Gay Crusader. Not extensively used at the stud in Victoria Gay Lothario has sired winners operating in the various states of the Commonwealth. At the yearling sales of the past week in Melbourne two sons of Gay Lothario changed hands at 1100 and 1150 guineas respectively. Eleven of his yearling progeny realized 6725 guineas at the recent sales. HIGH CASTE’S ABILITY The New Zealand-bred colt High Caste by reason of the fact that he has won three races since his arrival in Melbourne for a total of £3910 in stakes at Flemington may be advanced in Australia as the one and only two-year-old of front rank by Bulandshar (imp.), but there are others. In New Zealand there are several of the first crop of youngsters by the Blandford horse well known as very smart performers. Racegoers will recognize the colt Baran, winner of two races at the New Zealand Cup meeting, as one of the number, and the Chokebore Lodge filly entrant Winning Rival as another. The last-named is a very nice feminine galloper and the winner of two races in four starts. Heroic did not have matters all his own way at the recent V.R.C. autumn meeting in the contest for the Australian sires’ supremacy, with Ajax as his main support. The Buzzard (imp.), who is solidly pursuing Heroic on the honours list, was represented by two good winners in Marauder (King’s Cup) and Anpapejo (Elms Handicap of £700). In the event of a descendant of The Buzzard accounting for one of the two leading events of the A.J.C. Easter fixture in Sydney Heroic may be toppled from his proud seat on the stallions’ throne, a position of honour which he »has occupied for six consecutive seasons.

The New Zealander S. W. Reid, as an owner trainer led in the winner of the Autumn Hurdle Race, of £7OO (2.1 m. at the V.R.C. autumn meeting on Thursday last. Reid’s representative was the gelding Imitari, by Baralong (imp., and by Galloper Light from Silesia, by Spearmint) from Mimic, by

Magpie (imp.) from Queen Ingoda, by Comedy King (imp.) from Ingoda, by Stepniak (grandson of Musket) from Armigera, by Hotchkiss (son of Musket) from Armilia, by Castor (imp.) from Necklace, by Musket. For some years a resident of Melbourne and after a period of adversity to become trainer of the sensational winner of last season in The Trump it is needless to say that S. W. Reid would be attracted to his hurdle racer Imitari by his very attractive New Zealand pedigree. PAGEANT’S LINES

The Australian Cup winner Pageant is a fo.ur-year-old horse with a family tree' sprouting valuable Musket and St. Simon branches on both sides. From his earliest appearance in public he has displayed promise, not as a marked winner, but a place getter always inclined to stay on. He ran on seven occasions as a two-year-old for three seconds and two thirds. His three seconds were gained over seven furlong courses, a rather remarkable record. When raced as a juvenile the following season he scored twice over one mile, and was placed third in the V.R.C. Stand Handicap (14m.), won by El Bruno in the exceptionally smart time of 2min 3Jsec. During the current season he has raced fairly well. In pedigree Pageant is by Windbag, by Magpie (imp., and by Dark Ronald, sire of Son-in-Law) from Charleville (N.Z.), by Charlemagne II (imp., and by St. Simon) from Nithsevo, by Stepniak (son of Nordenfeldt, by Musket) from Shepherdess, by Fitz Donovan (imp.) from lolanthe (half-sister to Gossip, dam of the brilliant New Zealand galloper Bobrikoff, and granddam of Finland, Estland, and First Blow, dam of Second Wind). A Melbourne Cup winner, Windbag was a noted stayer and descended from a line of enduring performers. Saturday’s winner of the most trying flat race handicap of the Commonwealth is also very stoutly bred of maternal family. Pageants dam was Gay Element, by Comedy King (imp., and winner of the Melbourne Cup, as by Persimmon, son of St. Simon) from Karunda, by Planudes (imp., and by St. Simon) from Wilari’s Sister, by Wallace (son of Carbine, by Musket) from Murna, by Haut Brion (imp., and of St. Simon blood) from Etra Weenie, by Trenton (son of Musket) from Nellie (a noted taproot mare). In her racing days the dam of Pageant won on three occasions over one mile and aquarter and once at twelve furlongs. Trained by F. W. Hoysted in Melbourne it is obvious from his blood strains that Pageant is well and truly bred as a worthy winner of the Australian Cup (2;|m.). The concluding event of the Victoria R.C.’s Autumn meeting last week afforded a result of interest to Southland breeders and a number of North Island studmasters. The Farewell Handicap, of £7OO (one mile) resulted in the three-year-colt Crojick, by Siegfried (imp.) from Top Flier, winning by the narrow margin of half a head from the six-year-old gelding Baryta (The Night Patrol-Boreena). Trained by the one-time New Zealander L. Robertson Crojick is a juvenile son of the Glentruim Stud sire from Top Flier, by Top Gallant (imp.). An attractive field of 10 starters contested the Autumn Steeplechase, of £7OO (about 2£m.) at the V.R.C. fixture on Saturday, and it is interesting to note that Mr W. T. Hazlett’s seven-year-old gelding Frenchy finished in fourth place. An upstanding gelding of some galloping ability and reported to be a reliable jumper Frenchy is by Chief Ruler (imp.) from Moulin Rouge (dam of Latin Quarter), by Kilbroney (imp.) from Directoire, by Wairiki (son of Soult) from Queen Anne, by St. Leger (imp.) from Anna, by Musket (imp.) from Florin, by Traducer. Victoria’s veteran trainer James Scobie, who has trained more classic winners than any trainer known to the Australian turf records his opinion of the New Zealand two-year-old colt High Caste, as follows:—“He’s a beautiful colt with wonderful quarters—a champion in the making.” The son of Bulandshar (imp.) appears to have been aptly named, but, at the same time, there are other descendants of the Blandford horse’s first crop of, foals remaining in New Zealand to run like first-class racehorses in the making.