TURF AND STUD.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume III, Issue 873, 27 November 1916, Page 2

TURF AND STUD.

NATIONAL CLASSIC RACES. (By Petronel.) One of the suggested reforms wind' were in tho air a dozen or so years ago ■was tho establishment of a series of classic races for the whole of tho Dominion. There used to be a Derby at! Wanganui as well as at Auckland and Canterbury; but a long time ago the Wanganui Jockey Club substituted the Guineas for its Derby race. Auckland, Avondale, and Dunedin all havo their Guineas aa well, and the Hawke 'a Bay Jockey Club had its Guineas until this year. * My idea at the time I am writing of was that, as the New Zealand racing clubs were bound to make very substantial financial progress, it would bo well if the matter of national classic races were carefully considered. With all the clubs agreeable, the suggestion ■was that the Canterbury Jockey Club should run a New Zealand Guineas race for colts and also one for fillies at the New Zealand Cup Meeting, that the New Zealand Derby and the New Zealand Oaks should be decided at the Auckland Racing Club's Summer Meeting, and that the New Zealand St. Leger should be run, as it always hu.s been, at tho Autumn Meeting of the Wellington Racing Club. Such a comprehensive programme would leave the other clubs free to establish weight-for-age or special weight races, high-class events which even now are all too few in comparison with the largo amount I of stakes annually distributed thro'ughI out New Zealand. When I first propounded the scheme, the late Mr Geo. G. Stead was strongly opposed to it, simply on account of the sentimental objection there might be on the part of those clubs which would have to sacrifice a long-established race started when there was little or no means of transport, and therefore little or no "foreign" competition. Later on, Mr Stead began to change his opinion, and I am firmly convinced that if he had been with us to-day we should have had the New Zealand classics in full swing. We have very few men among our Turf legislators who will boldly take the initiative on a matter which may involve more or less trouble; but times do change, and I am sure if a courageous crusader did make a venture, he would quickly have a large following ready to strive to the uttermost for the benefit of the national sport. Not Much Sacrifice. Really there would not be much sacrifice on the part of the racing clubs concerned. The Canterbury Jockey Club would merely have the Guineas races in place of the Derby and Oaks, the Auckland Racing Club would have the Derby and Oaks as usual, and the New Zealand St. Leger would continue to be run at Trentham. The Dunedin Jockey Club would lose its Guineas, as. would the Wanganui Jockey Club, while the Auckland Racing Club would have to i relinquish the Great Northern St. Leger, • : which was run for the first time last season, and would never have been | thought of unless ilia weak inoment the ; Wellington Racing Club Committee had temporarily decided to remove the St. Leger from its season's programme. However, the Now Zealand St. Leger was never abandoned, and consequently there was no need for the Auckland : race. It is clear, therefore, that, from a financial point of view, the clubs which would have to give way under the national classic scheme could easily frame races which would prove vastly more romuneratvo than the* races they would have to abandon. So far as public interest is concerned, the establishment of five New Zealand classic.events instead of four Guineas, two Derbies, two Oaks races, and two St. Legcrs, . would mean a large growth of general interest instead of spasmodic local enthusiasm. There is no need to say anything as to desirableness of the change from the owner's point of view. Tho prestige of national classic races would \ bo very far-reaching, and, so fnr as mere money is concerned, owners know that weight-for-age races are bound to increase in value as time goes on. Woight-for Age Races. We have very few weight-for-age races in New Zealand. As a rule, racing clubs are bound by the prejudices of their handicappers, and consequently owners and the racing public do not get their fair share of high-class sport. Starting in the far north, the Auckland Racing Club has two weight-for-age races in the season, the Auckland Plate, . of one mile and a-half, and the Islington Plate, of one mile, both run at the Summer Meeting at Ellerslie. The Wanganui Jockey Club runs a very popular weight-for-age event, the ' Jackson Stakes, of six furlongs, for two-year- ■ olds and upwards. At Trentham there has been a fine effort on behalf of weight-for-age racing, and now the Wellington Racing Club is doing very well by owners with the Champion Plate of one mile and a-quater. The Trentham Gold Cup, of two miles, and the Kelburn Plate, of half a mile. The Canterbury Jockey Club has long had the Canterbury Cup of two miles and a- j quarter, and the Electric Plato, of four furlongs, and in comparatively recent years its star weight-for-age race has been the Stead Gold Cup, of one mile and a-quarter. There are minor weight-for-age races run by various other clubs which play their part in bringing local owners into the sport; but the fact remains that the Manawatu Racing Club is the one country racing club which has risen to the occasion by establishing the Awapuni Gold Cup, a ten furlong race run at scale weights. In Into years the Egmont Racing Club, the Feildiug Jockey Club, the Taranaki Jockey Club, and Dunedin Jockey Club, li.-'.vo put on their programmes special weight or weights-for-age, with penalty or allowance conditions, and some smaller clubs have followed suit. All good work this in its way; but the Takapuna Jockey Club is certainly a club that should establish a really good weight-for-age race. So should the Dunedin Jockey Club, whose Cup Meeting in February languishes for the want of a race of tho highest character. The Feildiug Jockey Club requiies a solid weight-for-age foundation at its Easter Meeting, and if the Wanganui Jockey Club had a ten furlong weight-for-age rac9 at its Spring Meeting, that gathering would advam-o greatly in the .esti- ■ ination of owners of three-year-olds deemed likely Derby customers. It Should bo a plank "in the platform of every one of our racing legislators that svery totalisator racing club should give

one-tenth of its stake money to strictly weight-f or-ago racing. The Exalting of Sasanof. It has been observed that a comparison of the merits of Carbine and Sasanof has placed the Martian gelding in front of "Old Jack." Surely this is a little bit previous? There is no dovibt that Sasanof is good; but he has done nothing yet which warrants placing him oh a pedestal of superlativeness. Time enough to imagine he is a better racehorse than Carbine when he has registered some deeds that may rank with some of the high class performances of the son of Musket and Mersey. Ido not mean for one second to take any credit away from tho latest Melbourne Cup winner; but it is putting a big strain on the imagination to try and make ourselves believe that Carbine has been displaced by the Martian-Ukraine gelding. Tho other day it was Desert Gold who was the great superior to Carbine, to-day Sasanof fills the eye in uninformed quarters, and to-morrow it may be the winner of tho moment. Poor Sasanof! Almost in the same hour that he is placed in the seats of the mighty he is described as a "mean little rat," "a rabbit," and "nothing like a racehorse. '' Here too, I suppose is a case of the blind leading the blind; because those who knoAV Sasanof could never call him a "mean little rat." I doubt whether some of the uncomplimentary critics have ever seen Sasanof, while I know somo of them have never seen him sinee he raced at Riccarton as a two-year-old. His dam Ukraine was always a handsome mare, and Sasanof has lots of the quality of both sire and dam. A powerful shoulder is one of Sasanof's good points, and his strong back and quarters and length from hip to hock will always favourably impress judges of racing stock. Sasanof has already won more than £IO,OOO this season, and is therefore held to have done something more wonderful than Desert Gold's three-year old record of winning well over £BOOO. But it should be remembered that Desert Gold's record was accomplished in New Zealand. So far as Australia is concerned, Messrs Stead and Luttrell's gelding holds no three-year-old record for last season. Patrobas won five races of the total value of £13,725. It may bo that Sasanof will win races during tho remainder of the season which will bring his total beyond that of Patrobas; but he has to do it. One other Sasanof remark. Mr Tom Wilford has put himself in a thickly-gilded frame as the breeder of the Melbourne Cup hero. As a matter of fact Ukraine was at Kinloch Stud until Sasanof was weaned, and her progeny were the joint property of Mr Jack Buchanan and Mr Wilford, and therefore Mr Buchanan should get a little of the kudos. At any rate he reared Sasanof, and I do not suppose Mr Wilford ever saw r him until he was a yearling. Sceptre's First Winner. The latest English mails bring particulars of the victory of Grosvenor in the Great Foal Stakes at Newmarket, Grosvenor is the first of Sceptre's stock to win a race, and as the Foal Stakes is a fairly valuable event Mr Somerville Tattersall has got something substantial back for his enterprise in giving 7000 guineas for Sceptre to prevent the celebrated mare being bought by a foreign breeder. Two years ago Mr Tattersall sold Sceptre to Mr Muskcr, of the Westerham Hill Stud, and last year the Persimmon mare foaled a fine filly to Swynford. Sceptre has been mated with some of the very best sires during her stud career, and the hope has frequently been expressed that at last sho had produced a racehorse possessing something approaching her own ability. Hitherto, however, the hope has been delusive; but it may be that Grosvenor will now set to work and make up for past disappointments. Mr Musker owns at least half-a-dozen stallions, and I do not know which one Sceptre was mated with last season, or whether the greatest racing maro of modern times was mated with an outside horse.