THE TUFF.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 13820, 28 November 1908, Page 9

THE TUFF.

(Uy '-Field Ulav,.") A sivycar-old half-sister to Lady Annie has recently been placd in work in Auckland by >» . (I. Irwin. She is by Hotchkiss, and has not previously been tried. j A would-be buyer of Gold Lace was asked 1000 guineas by Mr G. P. Donuelly during his recent visit to Riccarton. No sale was effected. Mr J. F. Reid, of Burnside. has leased the stallion Vasco (Velasquez- - Seabreeze), recently purchased in England by Messrs J. G. Duncan and J. B. Reid. Tho Special Commissioner of the London Sportsman recalls the fact that at the outset of Aurum's stud career his owner refused 7300 guineas for him, but as the horse did not prove • the success that was anticipated he was eventually sold to go back to Australia for 000 guineas. Waitapu. who proved such a consistent stake-earner last season, will sport .silk again at Feiklinc on Monday next in the Kiwitea Welter, in which he has been placed on the sr.mc mark. 0.13, as Bourra.squc. Waitapu is also engaged in the Manchester Handicap, one mile and a quarter, run on the second day. Crossfire, the dam of Alawa and King's Cross, who is now 2o years old, is boiie\cd to be in foal again to Mal.ster (says "Augur" of the New Zealand Tillies). Crossfire was a top-notch performer in her day. The best performance to her credit, perhaps, was winning the Doncaster Handicap when a two-year-old. Her brother. Arsenal, won tiie Melbourne Cup, and one ot her sons, Long Tom, won the Indian Viceroy's Cup and Prince of Wales Cup iii a big year— during the visit of the Prince of Wales to India. At Newmarket last month the Australian sportsman Mr Lionel Robinson won the Welter Selling Plate with his three-year-old gelding Peter Parley, A\bo was ridden by the New Zealand jockey, L. Hewitt, and started at 7 to 2 in a field of eight. The London Sportsman was tho victim last mouth of a dastardly action on the part of some miscreant, who telegraphed from Ireland, forging the handwriting and using the name of the correspondent of the Sportsman in Dublin, stating that Rhodora, the sub.sequont winner of the Cambridgeshire Stakes, had gone amiss, and would probably not race again. The proprietary has offered a reward of £100 for evidence that will effect the conviction of the offender, and everylwdy viU hope 'that guilt in this instance will be adequately punished. The vastness of ante-post betting in x England emphasises the enormity of the crime of forgery, and perhaps conspiracy, as is illustrated in this case. It. H. Hewitt had hard luck in the Imperial Produce Plate at Kemp ton Park on October 10. The race in question is the richest two-year-old event in England. Hewitt had the mount on Mr William Clark's The Whirlpool, only being beaten by three-parts of a length, after a keen finish with the favourite. Vivid. On the same afternoon Hewitt rode Bellatrix to victory in the Richmond Plate, the Melton mare covering the six furlongs in lmin llsec. But for having to take the mount on one of Mr P. P. Gilpin's horses, the New Zealand jockey would also have ridden Linacre, who won the Oiventry Plate. After winning on Beilatrix at Kempton Park Hewitt rode two winners at the Newmarket First October Meeting, one on Miranda, an own-sister to Pretty Polly. He also rode Rushcutter in the Duke of York Stakes, and All Black in the Cesa rev itch, but was unplaced in both. An exchange writes: "For those who pin their faith to the backing of certain jockeys' mounts, picking out a rider who appears to have a sequence i>f wins, there is food for reflection in tke table compiled by an English sporting paper, showing the results this sjejTson of the £l-a-mount system. Of the 14 riders whose percentages are tabulated, one only — W. Saxby — returned any profit, and his backers received £8 16s 4d for their idol's success of 41 wins in 225 mounts — an average of one win in five. The other 13 involved their followers in losses ranging from Mahcr's £2 14s to Halsey's .ClOl los 6d. Even little Wootton, who has been landing two and three, and here and there four, winners a day, put his backers in the ditch to tho tune of £27 2s 2d, whilst Higgs, who heads the list of winning jockeys, cost his patrons £32 0s 6d. It is somewhat surprising to find that it did not pay to follow Maher, for the winning average of this accomplished rider is exceptionally good — namely, 66 wins out of 253 mounts, equal to 26 per **»nt., or almost one first in every three rid«s. Maher's mounts in many cases an ust be at very short prices, or odds ion, 4v» account for the loss shown to the consistent investors of £1 on each &l his riCWs."