SPORTING.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 June 1925, Page 4

SPORTING.

GIFT TO TROTTING CLUB. >y TelefrflDlh.—Frew Awn. —CopyrliMt. Gisborne, June 17. The Poverty Bay Trotting Club has received a generous donation of £<2oo from Mr. R. C. Fisken, a patron of the sport. The gift represented the amount of his winnings with his horse at the recent meeting. PURSER GOES TO INDIA. By Telegraph.—-Press Assn.—CopyrigHtf. Sydney, June 17. Purser, whose win in the Caulfield Cup caused such a sensation, has been shipped to India, where he will be raced by his new Indian owner. The horse will be free to race again in Ootober„ RACING IN ENGLAND. London, June 16. The Ascot Stakes resulted: —Mandelieu 1, Eastern Monarch 2, Carbonaro 3. Ten started. Won by half a length. I , TURF TOPICS. (By “Mo turn a.”) The Napier Park Racing Club’s winter meeting opens to-morrow, and concludes on Saturday. The jumping races on the first day have only filled moderately, but good fields will contest the flat events. The steeplechase course at Greenmeadows is a tricky one, with solid •post-and-rails, which have beaten many a good jumper. Of the six paid up for in the Napier Steeples, Carawock may be the safest conveyance, and it is quite likely that he will be sent out well supported. Six only remain in the Ahuriri Hurdles, with the well-performed Nukumai in a class by himself. Santiago looked well at Waverley, and might show up, while Askari is a promising hurdler, and might go far in the game. In the hack classes Many Colours appears to be nicely placed in the poor field of hack hurdlers, and Mahia and Kovno should give a good account of themselves in hack steeplechases. If Duo is ever going to win another race his chance appears to be at Napier, where he has only 9.12 in the Stewards’ Stakes, one mile. Recent reports are to the effect that the onetime champion has been standing up to solid work, and now that the tracks are soft he may show a glimpse of his former brilliancy. Molyneaux is not badly treated in the Ladies 4 Bracelet at Greenmeadows, and Olympic (who won at Levin) and Polly Peachum, appear to be well in in the Settlers’ Hack Handicap. Eerie’s win in the Hack Steeples at Waverley mulcts her in a 71-bs. penalty in the Napier Steeplechase, which brings her weight up to 11.3. A trifle hot. isn’t it?

According to the Auckland Star of Saturday last the Auckland Racing Club may decide not to accept the entry of Rafa in future, “owing to his bad manners at the post.” Certainly Rafa is no youngster's mount, but Gray handled him without much trouble, and in many of these cases it appears to be more the incapability of the so-called “horsemen’’ than the fractiousness of tho horse which contributes to “mix-ups” at the barrier. Gentlemen riders’ races are almost universally regarded as the most sporting events on the programme, but evidently the Auckland Racing Club is an exception, and the Star winter questions the advisableness of retaining the Carbine Plate as a gentleman riders’ race on the winter programme, and suggests that “a good flat race” would be better for the public and the club. In an attempt to strengthen this argument the Northern writer details the many successes of the well-known riders, Messrs J. Morris (Marton) and W. Howard (Hastings), in the Carbine Plate, and apparently, because these capable horsemen have outridden northerners, tho race should be cut out. There is not much of the true sporting .spirit in such sentiments, and when one considers the strong financial position of the Auckland. Racing Club, and the very large fields of moderates seen out in minor flat races at Ellerslie, the. suggested step appears to be a retrograde one. Heroic, Nigger Minstrel and Spearfelt, who finished within heads of each other in the decision of the Australian Jockey Club’s Derby, run at Randwick in October last, figure among the entrants for the Melbourne Cup, and much curiosity will be centrad in the manner in which the V.R.C. handicapper will range them up when he comes to adjust the weights for the big event of the coming spring, writes “Phaeton.” Another rising four-year-old in whose future a lot of interest is centred, and who also figures in the Melbourne Cup, is Windbag, for he deaf ted Spearfelt in the Australian Jockey Club’s St, Leger, and he has proved himself to be a true stayer. Inferno (by Absurd—Ayah) figures among the New Zealand entrants for the Epsom Handicap, to be run at the Australian Jockey Club’s Spring Meeting, but from the fact of his name being missing from the list of entrants for the Metropolitan Stakes, that would seem to convey the impression that his owner doubts the staying capacity of the bay colt. During the present season eleven races were exacted from Inferno, and he won three of his engagements—the Wanganui Guineas (one mile), Pearce Handicap (one mile), and the Suburban Handicap (.six furlongs). His other eight performances this season comprise three seconds, two thirds, and three times unplaced. The concluding performance of Inferno at three years old was registered in connection with the Awapuni Gold Cup, run over a mile and a-quarter at weight-ior-age, in which he was well beaten a length by the four-year-old Suggestion in 2min. 6sec. Inferno is a big, bounding sort, but I think the probability is that he will win most of his races from six furlongs up to a mile rather than beyond the latter distance.