RACING & TROTTING

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 19904, 14 September 1934, Page 11

RACING & TROTTING

On and Off the Track A BUDGET OF NEWS AND VIEWS. FIXTURES Racing: Sept. 13, 15.—Wanganui J.C. Sept. 15—Ashburton R.C. Sept. 20, 22—Geraldine R.C. Sept. ro.—Oamaru J.C. Sept. 22—Foxton R.C. Sept. 28, 29—Marlborough R.C. Sept. 29—Napier Park R.C. Sept. 29, Oct. I—Taumarumui R.C. Trotting: Sept. 26.—Methven T.C. Oct. 6—New Brighton T.C. Wanganui Guineas to-morrow. C. Greseler now has thirteen horses in his care. The first race at Ashburton tomorrow is programmed for 12.45. Acceptances for the first day of the Geraldine meeting are due at 8 p.m. on Monday. Vintage, who had just recovered from a bruised foot, is reported to be troubled by an abscess on the jaw. Knockfin sprinted hall a mile up the back of the course at Riccarton yesterday in 48 3-ssec. Waltzing Lily, the best mare in Victoria, who beat Hall Mark at Caulfield. was knocked down as a yearling for 40 guineas. Invictus ran badly at Marton, but it is explained that only two days before he had been operated on for an abscess in his throat, this trouble having developed during the Grand National meeting. General Latour ( sire of Te Kara and Karapati) who died last week, was once sold at auction for 21 guineas. On the same day day Te Kara, then a yearling, brought only 41 guineas, but he won an Auckland Cup and a Brisbane Cup, and £12,260 in prize-money. To justify the penal taxation on racing, its opponents often say that it is a business, not a sport. If it were taxed on the basis of a business nobody would complain, but the taxes have to be paid whether a profit or a loss is made. A club may have to pay £50,000 in taxation on a meeting, and yet suffer a loss of thousands.

Windsor Lad is now a cheap horse, even at £50,000, for Mr H. M. Benson. With a St. Leger added to his Derby win, his value at the stud 'will be very high. It is customary for an unbeaten Derby winner to be booked up for three years at about 300gns, and it will not be surprising if Windsor Lad retires at the end of this season.

Koda Pen, who has won two races in Sydney for J. T. Jamieson, was operated on in May last for wind trouble. The operator was Dr. Ring, of Auckland, who received an unwanted advertisement by being prosecuted for practising in Australia without the legal qualification. The success of Koda Pen was some recompense for the Auckland veterinarian.

In Sydney to-morrow the fixture of principal importance is the Rosehill spring meeting, when the Rosehill Guineas, nine furlongs. Hill Stakes, one mile, Spring Handicap, 11 furlongs, and the Camellia Stakes, seven furlongs, will be decided. In Victoria, the Moonee Valley Racing Club, with the Moonee Valley Stakes, a three-year-old race over 75 furlongs, carrying a prize of £IOOO, will have the stage.

The Limond colt, Sir John, has not struck form yet in N.S.W., but G. Price has other smart three-year-olds in his stable at Gladswood and Theo, two other New Zealanders. Gladswood (Limond-Curtain) beat all of his own age in the Chelmsford Stakes, and Theo has been backed by the stable for the Caulfield Cup. Curtain, Gladswood’s dam, is a half-sister to Rational, The Monk, Mask, and Veil (dam of Veilmond).

If Chatham’s lameness, reported a day or two ago, proves serious, a lot of interest will be lost in races in Australia up to a mile or nine furlongs. It is interesting to recall that in the Autumn of the 1933 season the owner of the Magpie horse announced that he had run his last race. It was supposed then that his breathing apparatus was so badly affected that it would be useless to train him again, but Chatham came back in the spring and went on to excel all his previous performances. The Wairio Jockey Club will celebrate its jubilee at its annual race meeting next January, and in addition to increasing the stakes by £IOO, has decided to add a suitably-inscribed trophy to the stake of each race, and present the winning trainers and most successful horseman at each meeting witjlr a trophy costing £5. The Wairio Club races in the coalfields district in Southland, and though it has no town of any size in its district it is one of the most prosperous country clubs in the Dominion.

Sydney has a fine weight-carrying hurdler just now in Greensea, a Greenstead gelding in the Silver Scorn stable. At his last two starts he has won with 13.2 and 13.7, and even if New South Wales hurdles generally are moderate there is a lot of merit in a win on soft going under 13.7. The biggest load ever carried into a place at a totalisator hurdle race in New Zealand was 15.7, under which Arlington finished third at Reefton after winning with 13.13 at Greymouth. Arlington was not a champion, however, as 12.0 pulled him up badly when he came across to Ashburton.

The twenty-eight acceptors for the Novice Plate at Ashburton considerably exceed the safety number, and unless there are numerous scratchings, a division will be necessary. As there are only seven races on the card, the Club will be able to treat each division as a separate event for totalisator purposes. As a result the stake has been doubled, £7O being allotted to each division. The first heat will open the programme, and the second will form the fourth race on the card. The divisions are constituted as follows: First—Unseen, Bella Rosa, Moonbeam, Foreign Star, I Spy, Trumpet Blast, Impossible, Polygraph. Coat of Arms, Orris, First Course, Threaten. Horotui. Second.—Tuirau, Reber Chief, Arrowform, Madam Pompadour, Jeremy, Horn’s Reef, Black Lead, Top Coat, Chidden, Gas Mask, Emissary, Wonderful, Honeste, Guillotine.