SPORTING.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 December 1917, Page 3

SPORTING.

RACING FIXTURES. Dec. I—Feilding J.C. Spring. Dec. 5, 6—Woodville ,T.C. Summer. Dec. 13—Wairafapa R.C. Summer Dee. 20—Taranaki J.C. Christmas Jan. I.—Stratford R.C. Annual. TURF TOPICS. (By "Moturoa") Feilding races to-day. Woodville on Wednesday and Thursday. - Golden March is reported to have broken down. H. Gray will ride Toatere in the Auckland Cup.

Waverley form will probably be reproduced at Feilding. Wrestler has gone lame, and is an unlikely starter at Ellerslie.

First Line and Staccato will be well backed in the Trial at Feilding. Lightning is being taken to Woodville, and the Aucklander should be hard to beat there.

Dce>y will ride Lady General, afld Gray, Carlysian, at Feilding to-day. The Aucklanders Penniless, Fionnualla and Glendalough figure amongst the Taranaki entries.

Wavcrfcy (to a man) will be on Calais at Feilding, but the dividend will not be a very big one. Johnny Walker is the Auckland Cup boom, and Deeley will have the mount. Can he beat Toatere?

You don't hear much about Tree Lucerne for Feilding, but on his Waverley running he is not to be trifled with

Chortle has only to start to settle the question of favoritism in the Folding Cup, and on Avondale and Ellerslie form he seems quite capable of carrying 10.1 with distinction.

Uncle Ned, by winning the St. Andrew's Handicap at Takapnna, has earned a penalty of 31bs in the Auckland Cup. The local horseman, H. Gray, was the only rider to score more than one win at Takapnna. He rode the winning double.

There will be any number of scratchings in the Feildiiig Stakes, but Acre and Lingerie have only to go to the post to give the public their money's worth. Turangapito has been sent down for the Cheltenham Hack' Handicap, and the boomed Wanganui nag will now have a chance to prove whether he is all they say he is. Personally, "Mpturoa" thinks he is "some horse." .

M. MeCarten will be up on Nobleman in the Feilding Cup, and R. Bagby Will ride Finmark in the Stakes.

When a crowd of five-bob punters tried to get "tenners" on Stilts a quarter of an hour after starting time, the lay|ers got suspicious, and tliough a few were "set," the "settling" is now a horse of another color. This occurred in a down-the-line town on Saturday last, and the argument is waxing more furious every day. Talking of betting after starting time reminds me: A chap approached a Bar Von five minntes late, and asked for a fair amount on an already solidly backed horse. The Bar Von refused. ''What is five minutes?'' wailed the would-be punter. "It's a dashed long time if I was holding your head under water," snapped the bookie. There was nothing doing. The following winners at Asluirst will be required to put up-penalties pf lOlbs at Fcilding t,o-day: Dribble, Rose Pink, King's Armor and War-Maid. ■■< "Charlie" Birkett, whose death was announced this week, was well known along this coast. He served his time with Mr. Henry Redwood, of Nelson, and was associated with the victories of Masthead in the Nelson and Marlborough Cups. "Afterwards he took up training at Waverley, and prepared Halberdier when that horse won the New Zealand Cup.. Amongst other good ones he had were Johnny Faa, Daisy Clipper, Epilogue and Vedette. His untimely end will be regretted by a whole host of friends. After the running of the St. Andrew's Handicap at Tokapuna races on Saturday, the backers of the winner, Uncle Ned, did not handle the dividend before experiencing a shock, the result of an objection lodged by Mr. J. C. Gleeson, one' of the owners of-the second horse, Colonel Soult, This was based on the fact that the rider of Uncle Ned, in taking his seat on the scales to be'weighed in after the race, inadvertently dropped his breastplate, which the rules stipulate must be weighed. The jockey had been m dared weight, when the breastplate was'noticed on the floor, and he was revelghed and passed by the clerk of the scales. The stewards, after hearing evidence, dismissed the objection.