RACING & TROTTING

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 20058, 15 March 1935, Page 13

RACING & TROTTING

On And Off The Track. A BUDGET OF NEWS AND VIEWS FIXTURES Racing: Mar. 16—Cilfden R.C. Mar. 16, 18—Ohinemurl J.C. Mar. 16, 18—Wellington R.C. Mar. 20—Opotiki J.C. Mar. 21, 23—Oamaru J.C. Mar. 22, 23 Manawatu R.C. JMar. 23, 25—Bay of Plenty J.C. Mar. 30—Birchwood Hunt. Mar. 30 —Hawke’s Bay J.C. April 4—Walmate R.C. April 6—South Canterbury J.C. Trotting: Mar. 16—Cheviot T.C. Mar. 23—Wairarapa T.C. Mar. 23—Roxburgh T.C. Mar. 23 —Auckland T.C. The Wellington meeting will open to-morrow. Leeway, who won the two-mile race for trotters at Wyndham, won a double at Invercargill a fortnight ago. He commenced racing as a pacer, but is bred to trot. Black Duke and Membo have been entered for a non-totalisator meeting to be held at Middlemarch to-morrow. Mr G. Fulton is said to be contemplating a holiday in Australia, in which case Scratchmere Scar and Knockfin may make the trip. Colossian on his best form would be very hard to beat in the high-weight at Trentham, but it is reported that he is developing whistling tendencies. Over 100 yearlings were nominated for the New Zealand St. Leger, run at Wellington to-morrow, but only three have survived the final forfeit. The Taranaki Jockey Club has applied for a permit abandoned by the Gisborne club, and proposes to use it on April 13th.

Sporting Blood was king of the three-.vear-olds in the spring, but he trained off in the summer, and Variant may give him a lot of trouble in the St. Leger to-morrow. Le Grand, the big two-year-old colt by Posterity from Eulogy, has shown considerable improvement in his recent track work, and he may be capable of a good effort at the coming week-end. Messrs. Smith brothers, the owners also of Wotan, paid 675 guineas for him at last year’s Trentham sales. Three of the four offspring of Posterity who have raced in the Dominion this season will be competing in the Pacific Handicap at Trentham on Saturday. They are Legatee (topweight), Le Grand, and Entail. The fourth. Heritage, was also nominated, but he dropped out at the acceptance. The English Grand National will be run on March 29. Last year’s winner Golden Miller, is a pronounced favourite. There was some criticism when he was awarded 12.7, the maximum allowed by the conditions of the race, but the minimum is 10.7. so that there seemed little ground for complaint. ...

A “matinee” meeting, arranged by the Owners’ and Breeders’ Association, will be held at Addington this afternoon. The idea has been borrowed from America, where informal races are staged with the object of giving trainers opportunities to educate young horses under something approaching race conditions. It is expected that several Sapling Stakes candidates will take part to-day.

One of the leading bookmakers in Australia stated after Count Ito had prevailed in the Newmarket Handicap, that if La Trobe managed to succeed in the Australian Cup. the liability of the ring in respect of the double would amount to £40,000. It would have been much heavier had Arachme won the Newmarket, but the failure of La Trobe let the ringmen out almost completely. t

R Inkson, Australia’s star steeplechase and hurdle race rider, who was badly injured when Redditch fell with him in a steeplechase at Flemington in August, 1933, has been again granted a jockey’s license by the Victoria Racing Club. For a time it was thought Inkson would be unable to ride again. Luckily he made a good recovery, but though he applied for a license last year, he was advised to apply again six months later. Inkson s last win was on Redditch in the 1933 Australian Steeplechase at Caulfield.

There are trainers in Australia with only one or two horses, which seldom or never win a race, and to the uninitiated it is a mystery how they are able to maintain an appearance of semi-prosperity. One suspected source of their livelihood is the imparting of information concerning track gallops to people who are not admitted to the courses. Another is in keeping horses in races up till the last minute in the interests of double merchants, and this evil has become so pronounced that some clubs are imposing substantial fees for course scratchings. This action is being taken both in Sydney and Brisbane.

An old-timer, lamenting the lack of stamina, as he termed it, in present day gallopers, quoted the case of College Boy, a grey gelding once familiar in Timaru streets. He stated that at a meeting at Kurow he saw College Boy run two races over a mile and a half and another over a mile in one afternoon. Reference to the records shows that he was technically correct. College Boy finished third in the Kurow Handicap 15 miles, third in the Jockey Club Handicap 11 miles, and won the Consolation of one mile. But the mile and a half took 2.50, and the mile and a quarter 2.18, on a dry track, so that it is obvious that the grey had really run in two sprints home when he came to tackle the Consolation. To encourage owners and trainers to put more horses to jumping, the Williamstown Racing Club has made a bold move. It has decided that at its Easter meeting on Saturday, April 20, and Monday, April 22. no nomination fees will be charged for the jumping races. These are the Seaford Trial Hurdle Race, of £2OO, on the first day. and the Seaholm Hurdle Race and the steeplechase, each of £350, on the second day. For each event the acceptance fee will be only £l, so the cost of starting a horse will be considerably lower than hasV previously been the case. Explaining the reason for the decision of his committee, the secretary of the Williamstown Racing Club said that in three years a total of only 22 horses had started in the Seaholm Hurdle Race. Victoria is the stronghold of jumping in Australia, but even there fields are shrinking steadily. In New South Wales, races over obstacles have never been popular.