SPORTING.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 November 1921, Page 3

SPORTING.

TROTTING. OTAHUHU RE-HANDICAPS. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Auckland, Last Night. Re-handicaps for the Otahuhu trots are:— Campbell Handicap.—Wild Lad 216 yards behind. Tramway Handicap,—Xffia Bell 60. A FASCINATING STORY. FORTUNES WON AND LOST. A rather fascinating atory of fortunes lost and won on the turf ia told by the Australian trainer, Hughie Munro. Asked by ‘'Cardigan" to name the best horse he had ever trained, Munro replied: "It would be a tall order, dtmsiderlng I have had such horses as First Water, Hortense, Zalinski, Strathmore, Carnage, Wallace, La Tosca., Revenue, Wakeful, Resolute, Aurous, and Bobadil, but I think I would award the distinction to Aurum. He was a remarkable horse, and a wonderful galloper, and at the private tracks. at St. Albans showed ns startling trials. As a youngster Aurum practically swept the board, while as a three-year-old he was third in tl*e Melbourne Cup to such great stayers] as Gaulus and The Grafter, with 8.6, 141 b more than weight-for-age. He was afterwards sold to go to England, but. unfortunately, did not train on, and in due course was brought back to Australia." Hughie Munro was bwn in the atimosphere of the horse. At an early age te was identified with the St. Albans stables. The St. Albans stable was the most famous of its time, and many great betting coups were brought off, and mainly owing to ill-luck many were missed by narrow margins. For instance, First Walter was backed for £BO,OOO for the Melbourne Cup of 1883, but i was beaten by that, good horse Martini-Henry < Munro was a big punter in those days, and,' after winning £2OOO on Carnage in the Victoria Derby, put nearly that amount on him: in the Cup, only to see him narrowly beaten i by Tarcoola. "Of course, the best mares I ever had any- < thing to do with," added Munro, "were La • Carabine and Wakeful. Wakeful was a chain - i pion over all dislanees, and as honest as the ‘ day is long. No wonder she is called the I 'Peerless Wakeful.’ She was everything that! is good, and it was bad luck to strike a good i three-year-old like Lord Cardigan In the Mel- • bourne Cup of 1903, with a feather-weigi t on i his back. She gave that colt 8.6 and ran himi to three-quarters of a length, and he came', out the following year and was second, with i 9.6." Perhaps the most interesting part of Munro’s story is this. He was asked how much I better Revenue was than Wakeful, and why, that horse was backed down to 7 to 4 for the Melbourne Cup. "Well." he said, with a faraway look, “wouldn’t you back a horse to win the Cup with 7.10, if he could beat Wakeful a hundred yards over a mile and a half? That’s what Revenue did to Wakeful, and although he was a big, green fellow, we knew, with ordinary luck, he would win. He did, and I won a fortune, but that was not a new experience, and it went like the others."