Turf notes

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19750, 17 March 1934, Page 7

Turf notes

On and Off the Track A BUDGET OP NEWS AND VIEWS FIXTURES Racing: March 17—Ohinemuri J.C. March 17—Wellington R.C. March 17—Birchwood Hunt. March 17—Opunake J.C. March 21, 22 Manawatu R.C. March 23, 24 —Oamaru J.C. March 24—Otautau R.C. March 24, 26—Bay of Plenty J.C. March 24, 26—Westport J.C. March 31—Hawke’s Bay J.C. March 31—Tuapeka C.j.C. March 31, April 2—Wairarapa R.C. March 31, April 2—Feilding J.C. March 31, April 2 —Auckland R.C. March 31, April 2, 3—Riverton R.C, April 2—Beaumont R.C. April 2—Waipukurau J.C. April 2—Kumara R.C. April 2, 3—Canterbury J.C. April 4—Westland R.C. April 6, 7—Grey mouth J.C. April 7—Hawke’s Bay J.C. April 7, 11—Avondale J.C. April 11—Reef ton J.C. April 14—Masterton R.C. April 18—Mar ton J.C. April 19—Waimate R.C. April 19, 21—Whangarei R.C. April 21—South Canterbury J.C. Trotting: March 17 —Cheviot T.C. March 23, 24—Wanganui T.C. March 31, April 2 —Hawera T.C. March 31, • April 4—N.Z. Metropolitan T.C. April 7—Taranaki T.C. April 11 —Manawatu T.C. April 14 —Thames T.C. April 14—Ashburton T.C. Trotting fixtures to-day are Wanganui and Cheviot. One horse who is to essay to capture the Easter-Autumn double is Vintage. Shatter has not won a race this season, and he does not seem likely to capture the Great Autumn. The Taranaki Trotting Club's permit, j which is not being used this year, has been allotted to the Waikato Club. There will be racing to-day at Trentham, Opunake, Ohinemuri, and Invercargill (Birchwood Hunt). First Money is an excitable customer, and on arrival at a racecourse he is fed with peppermints, which have been discovered to exercise a calming influence on him. J. Ellis has selected Auckland in preference to Riccarton or Riverton for Easter. Some of the other South Island jockeys will be at Riverton on Easter Saturday and at Riccarton on Monday and Tuesday. H. Pratt is to ride Speakeasy in forthcoming steeplechases in Southland. A. S. Ellis will not go south with the horse, who will go into F. W. Ellis’s stable at Invercargill until after the Riverton fixture. Rigidity of rules will compel the horses in the match races at Addington to be despatched from a standing start. This will make the times slow, but the difficulty could be got over by the owners agreeing to be sent away from fifty yards behind the post in which case they could be timed for a mile from a flying start. There is said to be considerable doubt whether Indianapolis’s owner will accept the invitation to put the champion four-year-old against Red Shadow, Walla Walla. Harold Logan and Ror l’Or on level terms at Easter. The public will be disappointed if Indianapolis is not in the party, but it is a tremendous test for a growing young horse, and might prejudicially affect his future.

Thirty-six maidens have been entered for the Novice Stakes at Riverton. The race is run at weight-for-age, and is restricted to horses which have not won a race at a totalisator meeting at time of starting. At present it looks like being fought out by Osculate and Jacobin, two three-year-olds who would have to give weight to all the other entrants in a handicap, and who will receive weight from most of the others at weight for age. Some of the others may develop form in the interval, and Osculate may not be eligible by the time the race is run, but if he is a starter it will take a smart novice to beat him.

A striking feature about the horses engaged in the invitation races to be staged at Addington during the Easter meeting is their ages. Walla Walla is twelve, Harold Logan eleven, and Ror l’Or ten. (Among the “emergencies,” Jewel Pointer is eleven, Kingcraft is ten, and Lindberg eight). Alongside Walla Walla, Harold Logan, and Ror l'Or, Red Shadow (seven) and Indianapolis (four) are mere youngsters.

Owners are likely to benefit considerably as a result of the Centenary celebrations in Victoria next spring. Metropolitan racing clubs have already announced the main features of their programmes for the Centenary celebrations, and country clubs are determined to make special efforts to add to the attractiveness of their meetings. The Bendigo Jockey Club will consider the provision of a prize of £I,OOO for the Bendigo Cup—twice the amount of the stake last year.

Country trainers have been having a great innings at trotting meetings this season. o. E. Hooper has been in the first flight for years, blit he is not the only farmer-trainer who is in the limelight. L. A. Maidens (with Blue Mountain and Co.), M. C. McTigue (Warless, Encounter, Peter Locanda and others), T. H. McGirr (Reporter, Warloot), M. J. McTigue (Real Barton, Great Barton), have accounted for a lot of stake money during recent months.

It is probable that a good many New Zealanders will trip to Melbourne next spring to witness the Melbourne Cup and other special events in connection with the centenary celebrations, and a suggestion has been made that the New Zealand Cup meeting should be advanced a fortnight to avoid clashing with the Victorian meeting. This seems hardly practicable. Carnival Week in Christchurch is a composite affair—races, trots, and show —and it would throw the whole New Zealand schedule for the three sections out of gear if any attempt was made to vary the dates.

The Oamaru Jockey Club has de cided to adhere to win and place bett tag at its autumn meeting.

There will be one totalisator—paying 75 and 25 on flelds of five or more—at Addington at Easter.

Auburn Lad, who accompanied Walla Walla, has a race record of just under 2.10, and apparently will be rated at

2.8 under the handicapping regulations, unless the Committee issues some fresh directions. He is credited with evceptional speed, and will add considerable interest to the races he contests at Addington.

In New Zealand, when a licensed jockey is suspended, he automatically becomes eligible to resume riding when the suspension expires. In Victoria, it is necessary to obtain a permit from he V.R.C. before the rider can get back to business. Failure to apply for a permit caused one Melbourne rider to miss the big autumn meeting at Flemington.

Colene Pointer, dam of the double Washdyke winner Colene Parrish, won the Timaru Trotting Cup some years ago. Prior to that she had produced Kingcraft. She met with an injury early in her career and was within an ace of being destroyed, but it was decided to breed from her. The rest cured her injury and she raced for two or three seasons before Colene Parrish and Village Guy were foaled.

The Rules of Racing provide that every person committing a breach of the rules regarding joint interests shall be fined a sum not less than £1 nor more than £2O, and, unless the District Committe certifies that such breach or omission was not wilful such person shall be disqualified for a period of not less than twelve months. It may be correct that a club cannot recover stakes won under an unregistered partnership, but the owner (and his horses) can be disqualified until restitution is made.

H. Skidmore, who rode five winners on the three days of the recent Flemington meeting and is at the head of the winning jockeys’ list in Melbourne, will complete his apprenticeship on April 1. He will then become first rider for “Mr. S. A. Rawdon.’’ Skidmore is the best apprentice seen in Melbourne for years, but some time back the V.R.C. issued an ultimatum that, for some months, he was not to ride horses other than those trained by his employer. This penalty was a severe financial one for the lad.

The method of allotting marks to pacers and trotters is officially known as the Handicapping System, but that is a misnomer. It is not exactly systematic, and certainly it is not handicapping. A better term would be assessment scale. In handicapping the ideal is to endeavour to give each horse, supposing it to be at the top its form, an equal chance, but this is just what the trotting system does not do. If it did, Red Shadow would have a chance in any race for which he might be entered. He lias no official rating for a mile and a half, but his mark would be about 3.12, and this -would be fast time for him to make in a race. If he started in a 3.30 class, he would meet horses capable of breaking 3.20 off the limit, and would require to do 3.2—for a mile and a half!

Difference in the rules in Victoria affect the result of a recent race at Bendigo, won by Toy Crow. Toy Crow ran in the name of Mrs G. Mcßae, who is believed to be the wife of a registered bookmaker. If this be the case, Toy Crow is automatically disqualified, for a V.R.C. rule states that “no horse in which any person who is the wife of. or resides with, or is employed by a bookmaker or bookmaker’s clerk, shall be entered or start for any race, and any such horse, if he shall start, shall be disqualified for the race.” Because of a trangresslon of this rule Lord Bounty, winner of the Pines Hurdle Race at Flemington in 1930, was disqualified. He was nominated in the name of Mrs H. Watson, the wife of a bookmaker. The connections of Toy Crow apparently were ignorant of the rule which seems likely to render the nomination of the horse for the race at Bendigo invalid. They reside in New South Wales, where the rule does not apply.

There is a horse in Cheshire, England, who has grown so fond of duck eggs that he will not touch his feed if, after sampling it, he realises that he has been “tricked." His trainer reasoned that the vitamin in duck eggs might be very beneficial to Cinnamon Diamond. Once a day two whisked-up eggs are added to his feed, and it is claimed that the horse has improved so much that duck eggs are being given to others in the stable. Gloaming liked sugar. Persons who observed his trainer, R. J. Mason, filling his pocket with sugar-loafs at afternoon teatime in hotels suspected him of indulging in some boyish prank. “You must be very fond of sugar,” someone said. Mr. Mason explained that the treat was for Gloaming. Mrs. Greenwood, wife of Gloaming’s owner, went one better by feeding her favourite with chocolate creams. The famous sire Pommern is fond of the smell of a good cigar. It is stated that his owner, the late Solly Joel, the diamond millionaire, at Pommern’s head blew the rich smoke from a cigar toward the horse’s nostrils. Pommern threw back his head and whinnied gratefully. “He’s very fond of a good cigar,” said Mr. Joel.

Walla Walla let his backers down badly in the Flying Mile at Victoria Park on March 5 (says a Sydney writer). He started at odds on, but tens were offered against him at the home turn, and he finished out of a place. Walla Walla was considered to have such a mortgage on the race that a number of ringmen bet only on a onetwo basis, while double bookmakers who operated on the first two events had him coupled with Julian Pronto and Wilverley Direct for the Trial Handicap, at the prohibitive odds. Never was such confidence more misplaced, however, though, in fairness to Walla Walla, it must be added that, with any sort of luck, he would have won. Slow to leave the mark, he made little impression on the leaders in the early furlongs, and even when he broke near the half-mile he had made up comparatively little of his 72yds handicap. He was just beginning to make his run at the time, and the mishap unsettled him completely. It was some little time before he found his legs again, and at the straight entrance it was apparent that his chance was hopeless. Walla Walla made up a tremendous amount of ground over the last two furlongs, but the fact that he finished a close fourth was little consolation to his supporters.