TURF TOPICS.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 245, 19 November 1914, Page 5

TURF TOPICS.

T The plough track at Eiccarton is commencing to get hard again, especially down the straight. This portion of the gallop receives the full force of the north-west wind, consequently the loose soil blows off. Were the track kept well watered the difficulty could, to a certain extent, be minimised. As it is, trainers using that track will have to wait for rain.

Irish Eose and Chorale ran half a mile in company at Eiccarton this morning. The former is improving in looks, but the same cannot be said of her pace. Chorale gallops well in private, but he is a hard puller, and. makes too much of his work.

Warstep has resumed work, and looks bright and well after her few days' respite. T. Sheenan is. working Bonny Maiden on the lead. The filly has lightened up a good deal. Andrea and Philadelphia sprinted a half-mile together this morning. The latter is commencing to show improved form, and with another race or two should do much better.

F. Claridge is keeping Mumura, Sea King, and Owhetoro up to. the collar, in view of the Hororata fixture. Owhetoro has been striding out freely in his work. He should catch a race if placed in company not too select. The Treadmill gelding Nithsdale is putting on condition. He is booked for the West Coast meetings at Christmas time.

D. Eoberts has Medal looking, nice just now. This filly can muster up a lot of speed, and performed well in a sprint task this morning. She ' may not be long before earning a winning bracket.

Stevedore is again in steady work. He has put on condition during his enforced let-up, and it is a great pity that he is not a sound animal, as he can gallop fast, and looks like being able to stay. Unsoundness is evidently a characteristic of his family, as both his brothers, Quarantine and Wharfinger, are nonle too sound. Gutts has Merry Trick, the three-year-old full-sister to Counterfeit, doing good work. During her early essays Merry Trick -was invariably in trouble one way and another, but when right she can command a great turn of speed. Should she continue to train on satisfactorily, she may trouble the best of them by the autumn. The Enfield Lodge mentor, H. Thomson, is at present on the sick-list, suffering from a rather severe attack of the gout. "Thomson's luck is evidently right out, as he had not long recovered from a similar attack.

Harlequin, the two-year-old fullbrother to Counterfeit, is growing into a good-looking sort. He is neat, r and shows a lot of quality, and there" are not many more attractive movers frequenting the local tracks than the son of Treadmill.

Wise Bird is still on the easy list, not having thoroughly recovered from the cutting about stie gave herself through getting tangled up in a fance. Most of the visiting trainers have taken their departure from Riccarton, and matters there are likely to be decidedly quiet for some time. Mummer, who was showing signs of soreness on the last day of the CtJ.C. Meeting, has been scratched for all engagements at the Feilding J.C. Meeting. Mr C. J. Patterson, of Wanganui, who ac>ed as stipendiary steward at the Christmas meetings held on the West Coast last season, will officiate again this year.. As the result of Mulligar's victory in the Auckland Guineas Mr W. Walters became entitled to £IOO, as the breeder of the winner. With characteristic generosity Mr Walters handed the amount over to the Belgian Belief Fund. Captain Dermot McCalinont,, of the Seventh Hussars, who is so well known as the owner of The Tetrarch, has gone to the front as A.D.C. to General Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien, and has lent Arrowe Hall, near Birkenhead, to the Government for the use of wounded soldiers and sailors. He has also placed his French villa at Beaulieu at the dispossal of the Government of France for the benefit of wounded French troops. At the last meeting of the New South Wales Trotting Club, Little Doctor and his owner, were placed under the ban for six months for suspicious practice. Some years ago Little Doctor was a well-known performer :on Canterbury tracks.

Storm was made a staunch favourite for the chief event at the last meeting of the New South Wales Trotting Club, but the New Zealander could do no better than finish third to Brazil Junior and Cullinan.

Field-Marshal Sir Evelyn Wood, in making an appeal to the Masters of Hounds not to stop hunting, states that it is a very important training for British officers, the very dash of the cavalry being attributed to hunting in the Old Country.

Forfeits and acceptances in connection with the Feilding Jockey Club's Meeting fall due to-morrow. Backers were in great form on the. opening day of the Marlborough E.G. Meeting, no fewer than six out of the eight events falling to first favourites, while the remaining two races were appropriated by second fancies. Holiday and Bold Stroke will probably be Sir George Clifford's representatives at the Feilding Jockey Club's Meeting, which takes place on the 28th and 30th insts.

Beport has it, says an English writer, that R. Wootton has decided to give up training at the end of the present season, and that Mr Hulton's horses will be transferred to the charge of Mr R. C. Dawson at Whatcombe, while S. Wootton will set up on his own account at Treadwell House.

Papatina, who won the Introductory Handicap at the Otahuhu Meeting, is a

again.. And in the case of the strawberry and other plants of the more elaborate kind, the restoration of a crop that has been '' hanging fire'' to the extent indicated is not an easy task. Surface cultivation, to be effective, must be continuous right from the time of planting. The implement must be put over the ground whenever the surface has been set by rain or any other cause, provided, of courso, that the soil is not too wet for the purpose.

promising daughter of Papanui, and if one of the first of that horse's progeny to race. The Otahuhu Trotting Club's Meeting will be concluded on Saturday next, when the leading attraction will be the Liverpool Handicap, of 130 sovs., in which a number of speedy horses are engaged. Edward E, who ran second in the Campbell Handicap at Otahuhu, is probably the bldest trotting horsu now in commission. . TEMPLAE.