FROM TRACK AND STABLE

Taranaki Daily News, 18 July 1933, Page 14

FROM TRACK AND STABLE

OMEO’S RACING HISTORY

CLIFFORD TEAM FAILS.

FOREIGN QUEEN REGAINS FORM.

(By

“Hurry On.”)

An application was made to the Racing Conference by Hector Gray for permission to go on to racecourses again. Under the rules of racing Gray is debarred owing to a conviction for assault at Auckland early in the year. The matter was referred to the executive for consideration at a later date. An Expensive Error. The Ellerslie owner-trainer H. Rama will be very careful when he goes to the machine to back one of his horses next time. At Trentham on Thursday he invested £25 on what he thought was his own horse Manawhenua, but just before the machine closed discovered that his tickets were on Huntingdon. He endeavoured to get them. changed but this, of course, was impossible and, he thereupon invested £6 on his own horse, who duly rolled home. As a result of his mistake he showed a small loss on ’ bis investments on the race. Mistaken Identity. A Press Association message last week from Christchurch stated that Nightly been scratched for the Grand National Hurdles but as Nightly was not nominated the horse referred to is Nightcap,; who has lost all form since winning at Timaru about a month ago. Nightly is Promising. Nightly, who followed Passion Fruit home in the Trial Plate at Trentham on Thursday, is by Phar Lap’s sire Nightraid from Miss Muriel. He is a well grown youngster and is likely to make a lot of improvement during the next three months. He is trained by F. D. Jones at Riccarton. During the period >he had Amythas and then Ballymena and Limerick racing, Jones was very much in the limelight, but of late years not a great deal has been heard of him. Nevertheless he is a capable mentor and only needs to secure a good horse to be back in the public eye again. Not up to Expectations. When they left Riccarton it was thought that the Clifford trio Zeebrugge, Drumfire and Heather Glow would credit Sir Charles with at least one race, but a second to Drumfire and a third to Heather Glow was all that came their way. Zeebrugge broke down badly during the running of the Whyte Handicap on the first day so' he was out of action from the outset. Drumfire did best in the heavy going on the final day, when he beat all but Foreign Queen, and this may be worth remembering should he , strike a similar track at Riccarton. Heather Glow was raced over six and seven furlongs, journeys and may do better over a distance of ground. As a matter of fact all the South Island horses had a lean time, Make Up and Thurina being the only ones from the south to salute the judge. Question of Dates. The dates of the Avondale club's spring meeting was the subject of -considerable discussion at the meeting of the Racing Conference. The days applied for near the end of October make it imperative for the Auckland Racing Club to hold its gathering in the first week of November, thus clashing with the Canterbury New Zealand Cup fixture. The • position is a rather vital one to owners of the best two and tfiree-year-olds as the clashing of the Auckland and Canterbury /dates precludes horses taking part in both the A.R.C. and C.J.C. Welcome Stakes and in the. Great Northern Gnineaft and the New Zealand Derby, as well as limiting the opportunities for handicap horses. The two northern clubs are to confer and then the- matter will be referred back to the executive, which will have the final say. Likes the Mud.

• When. Foreign ' Queen was running away from fields in novice, and trial events last winter it was freely -predicted that she would turn out a first class three-year-old. She did not race during the sipring and the summer owing to an injury but when she was again in action during the autumn she appeared to have lost all form. However, when the tracks hngan to be soft again she improved rapidly. She won at Foxton and followed with two more successes on the Hawke’s Bay circuit, and then at Trentham on Saturday she led the field home in the hack seven furlongs event in easy fashion under the steadier of 9.12. On this form die would not have much trouble in holding her own: in open company, but it would seem that she will always be at her best on heavy, tracks.

Taranaki’s Good Position. The following tables compiled by a southern writer discloses the fact that the total isa tor turnovers in Taranaki during the past season compare more than favourably with those in other districts. Taranaki and Southland were the only two to show an increase in the total turnover. Certainly Taranaki had an extra day’s racing, but the average per race shows an increase from £1059 to £lll9. This is due in no small measure to the fact that Taranaki clubs were the first to adopt the new straight-out and place system of betting, only one meeting, the Taranaki Hunt, taking place under the old system. Table 1 gives the number of races and the aggregate totalisator investments respectively for the 1931—32 and. 1932-33 seasons, and Table 2 gives the aggregate decline (or increase) in investments this season as compared with last, also the average investment on races in each district for the two seasons:— TABLE 1.

AU the districts, except Tara £ aki ’J close declines in race averages wider Table 2, many of these being of proportions. It may also be noted that although Southland diows * increase in investments, the race ave ag there also declined, the addition o more races on the massed ix-ing sufficient to bring this about. An Unlucky Horse. Omeo’a win in the Wellington steeple-

chase . marked .the son of Quarantine’s first success since he scored a hollow victory in the Adamson Steeples at the Egmont Wifiier meeting of 1929, so it cannot be said that it came out of its turn. In addition to being riot one of the easiest horses to: train, he has been consistently unlucky riot only in races but also iri training, having either hit himself or met . with a minor accident at critical periods in his preparations. Like so many good jumpers, Omeo’s story is invested with romance. He was bred by Mr. H. Raumati, and was sold as a yearling .with his dam (Munitioness) and colt foal brother (later known asMperangi) .at the ■ Urenui saleyards for the modest, sum of. £5., .. Mr.. S. Topless was his purchaser, and he in turn sold him for £27 10k to Mr. R. G. Foreman, who raced him arid won a maiden hunters’ steeples with him before passing him on to Mr. A.,Lile for £lOO. In his first season in Mr. Lile’s blue arid gold jacket, arid when , trained by W. F. Mantle at New Plymouth, he won stakes amounting to £1250, so he amply justified his purchase. Omeb was then six years old, and that was his best season, for he won five races in ten starts. His main success was in the Autumn Steeples at the Auckland Easter meeting, but a better effort was his second to Aurora Borealis in the Great Northern Steeples. Early the next season. he ran third to Aurora Borealis and Corrieroff in the Grand National. His only success since then and prior to last week was at the Egmont winter meeting two years ago. He has been in Knapp’s stable at Awapuni the last two winters. He is a nine-year-old gelding by the Stonyhurst-bred Treadmill horse Quarantine, a full-brother to Sailor’s Hope (the dam of Waterline and Fast Passage), and his, darn is . the . Gravitation mare Munitioness, who traces to Taglioni, a mare of unknown breeding but whose stock are eligible for inclusion in the "New Zealand Stud Book. He has always been a great jumper, and it was undoubtedly his wonderful fencing that carried him to his triumph last week. He was ridden a perfect race by the Trentham horseman Ashley Jenkins, who was having his first mount on him.

District. Auckland .... Canterbury . Greymouth . Hawkes’ Bay . Dunedin Southland ... Taranaki Wanganui .... Wellington ... 1931-32. Tote. Races. £ , 371 862,737 . 202 344,622 . 134 89,228 , 240 154,356 , 167 167,001 , 140 134,149 , 94 99,628 . 184 219,788 , 224 339,001 1932-33. Tote. Races. £ 401 832,455 193 305,537 127 67,542 216 132,492 170 145,491 142 134,911 97 108,561 189 207,452 224 299,011 TABLE 2. District. District decrease. £ 30,282 Race average 1932. 1933. £ £ 2325 2076 39,085 1706 1583 U LXX J* •• Greymouth .. Hawke’s Bay 21,686 21,864 21,510 666 643 1000 532 613 856 762* 958 950 8,933* 1059 1119 Wanganui . • • Wellington . • .... 12,336 39,990 ’Increase. 1163 1513 1098 1335