RACING AND TROTTING

Timaru Herald, Volume XCVIII, Issue 18084, 11 July 1923, Page 4

RACING AND TROTTING

j On and Off the Track. A BUDGET OP NEWS AND VIEAVS. FIXTURES. Uarfri s . July 7, 13, 14 —Wellington R.O. July 18, 21—Hatumats-Eranklin . (Ellerslio). July 28 —South Canterbury Hunt, July 26—Wnimnfo District Hunt. July 28, 28—Gisborne R.O. Aug. 14, 10, 18—C.J.C. Grand National, Trotting. July 28—S.C. Hunt (one event) i July 27 —Poverty Bay T.O. ! Tho Wellington meeting will be | continued to-day and concluded on Saturday. The annual session o£ the Racing Conference will be held at Wellington to-morrow. During the last ten seasons the progeny of Martian have won over £212,000 in New Zealand.

Master Peter and Vociferate were the first horses to come to grief in the Wellington Steeplechase. Handicaps for the South Canterbury Hunt meeting are due tomorrow. Acceptances close at 9 p.m. on Monday next.

The Trotting Conference has passed a motion providing for 6 yards (the equivalent of half a second) in handicap events. Some backers of Kukumai in the Trentham Hurdles on Saturday claimed that his rider lost the race through dropping his hands too soon. Happy Voyage is still at Addington, and it is said there is a possibility that he will not return to Australia just yet. At the last meeting of the Canterbury Jockey Club’s committee gentlemen riders’ licenses were granted to A. G. Macdonald, C. L. Orbell, and G. H. Paul.

The win of Oakleigh in the Wellington Steeplechase has settled the question of what horse will be allotted top weight in the Grand National.

Mr H. P. Nicoll, the president of the Trotting Conference, is at present in England, and the deliberations of delegates at Wellington yesterday were presided over by Mr J. Rowe, of Auckland, Mr Nicoll’s predecessor In office.

The entry for the South Canterbury Steeplechase, the principal event at the Hunt meeting, was a trifle disappointing in numbers, but the class was above the average, the ten horses nominated including seven Grand National candidates. The opposition to compulsory payment of riding and driving fees has at last been overcome. The remit framed by the Canterbury Owners’ and Breeders’ Association, and sponsored by the Timaru Trotting Club, ■was carried by the Canference yesterday.

Air Balloon, an English horse who is among the top-weights In the Australian spring handicaps, is a five-year-old (he will rank as six to Australian time.) by Stedfast—Highness, by Cyllene. He is evidently a pretty useful customer, as he won over two miles in England last season, and also carried 9.8 to victory at Ascot in the Alexandra Stakes (2§ miles). Penury Rose, the badly-named gelding by Penury—Merria Rose, was expected by Wairarapa folk to do well at the, Auckland winter meeting, but failed to get into the money there. The experience apparently benefited him, and since his win at Wellington his admirers are giving him more than an outside show at Rlccarton next month. It Is understood that the motion proposed by the Auckland Racing Club to have a separate Licensing Committee for each Island will be withdrawn before it comas before the Conference. The movers realised that there is a strong body of opinion in favour of the existing system, w‘ ich only came into vogue a year ago.

Aouen, who has yet to make his appearance in public over fences, has a good many friends in connection with the Winter Hurdles at Trentham, Rouen is a good weightcarrier and of much better class tuan the average jumper, and he will lose nothing through being in the hands f A. M. Wright, who has turned out a lot of winners over fences from Foxton.

It was reported a week or two ago that the Boniform—Dearest yearling In W. Hobbs’s stable at Riccarton had been sold by Mr E. S. Luttrell to a Sydney agent. It is now stated that the trainer’s uncle, Mr M. Hobbs, forestalled the Australian buyer. The youngster, who will race under the name of Bohito, is evidently reckoned to be above the average. '

A Press cable from Sydney a day or two ago announced the demise of the thoroughbred stallion Malster, at the age of 25. Until the influx of imported horses commenced Malster for many years topped the list of winning sires in Australia, the majority of his stock displaying excep,fonal speed over sprint and middle ■’stances. The total amount won :..y Malster horses was in the vicinity oL’ £300,000, a long way ahead of the figures of any other sire in the Commonwealth. _Mr Rowe, vice-president of the Trotting Conference, entered another .•lea for the straight-out trotter when delivering his opening address at the Conference. “It is undoubtedly true” 3aid Mr Rowe, ‘that racegoers admire exhibitions of 'great speed (especially when a pacer like Happy Voyage registered such fine perf 'nuances as at New Brighton and Auckland),but I venture to assert that the majority of our patrons prefer watching the straight-out trotr.er, though I fully recognise iiovr much the fast pacer has done to build up the sport.”

The Poverty Bay Trotting Club, which will ring down the curtain on the current season on July 27th, will also open the new one. With the idea of inducing owners to make the inconvenient and expensive trip to Poverty Bay, the club has arranged its meeting for this season at the extreme end of the racing year, and will hold its fixture for the approaching season on August 2nd The Auckland Trotting Club has made a donation of £SO to assist the Gisborne body to defray a portion of the travelling expenses of horses from the north.

Oakleigh, the Wellington Steeplochase winner, won over £lB 00 in stakes last season, and this year nas already annexed £2BBO. Oalcleigh's brooding has been the subject of a good deal of controversy, some people claiming that his dam, Jean, is a Conqueror mare, and others asserting that she descended from a trotting side. Since the latter claim was made a few racegoers affect to bo able to detect Oalcleigh's trotting blood by his manner of walking The majority of racing folk, however, scout the idea that a horse not clean bred could win a Grand National in record time with 10.0 on his back. The Timaru Trotting Club lias been allotted Marok 22nd for its next meeting.

The annual general meeting of the South Canterbury Jockey Club will be held on July 25 th; The Trotting Conference yesterday decided to make the yards system of handicapping universal throughout the Dominion,

Dick, who has finished second in both the Great Northern and Wellington Steeplechases, is one of the smallest ’ohasers in commission, being not much above the pony standard. After falling in two hack steeplechases at the last Grand National meeting he proved equal to winning in open company at Randwick a few weeks later. His owner, Mr J. J. Corry p of Blenheim, then made an unsuccessful attempt to sell him. Dick is rated as a good fencer on most courses, but he failed to get round at Riccarton on his two outings there, and an idea prevails that tlie big fences will bother the little chap again. Hunt Clubs in South Canterbury live in a mqre sympathetic atmosphere than some in the north. A North Island writer —"After the farce in connection with the Dannevirke Hunt Club meeting it would be safe wagering, to go nap that there will be no more meetings of that organisation, for the experience that the club went through last week should be the sign that the racing public do not require meetings of that description. There were, practically speaking, no horses to compete and no money to back them. From a financial point of observation the club must have come a purler, for their cut from the machine would not come to more than £3OO, and the stakes distributed amounted to sio3s. There is sure to be a lot of leeway to make up, and, as the attendance and nominations and acceptances were of the meagre kind, the debit will be something considerable.” In dealing with the problem of big fields, the chairman of the Trotting Conference voiced the view that limits must be curtailed to bring tho number of starters within reasonaoie compass. “ A few nominations may be lost,” said Mr Rowe, “but the amount which is now received from these will be more than made up In other ways.” Much difficulty Is likely to be experienced in convincing some clubs of the wisdom of foregoihg any revenue from this source, and the volume of totalisator business transacted on trotting events shows that the public will not realise the fatuity of attempting to select a winner in what Mr Rowe designated as merely scrambles. The average follower of trotting goes to the races in quest of a little mild excitement, and seems to enjoy the added uncertainty of big fields; and few trotting clubs appear to be anxious to do anything which will reduce their revenue. The chairman also expressed a hope that trotting clubs would continue to provide races of tho olassic order. One of the reproaches levelled by followers of racing is that in the whole of New Zealand there is only one trotting event open to horses of all ages which corresponds to a flatrace classic, and that one, the Free-for-all at Addington, is endowed with a beggarly stake ’ compared with second-class handicaps on the same programme. Four or five events for three-year-olds and ono for two-year-olds complete the list of classic events on the trotting calendar, against which one club alone, the C.J.C. provides as many corresponding races at a single meeting.