RACING & TROTTING

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXX, Issue 20166, 22 July 1935, Page 12

RACING & TROTTING

On And Off The Track BUDGET OF NEWS AND VIEWS FIXTURES Racing: July 24—Rangitikei H.C. July 25—Waimate District H.C. July 27—South Canterbury H.C. July 27 Manawatu R.C. Aug. 3—Christchurch Hunt. Aug. 13, 15, 17—Grand National meeting.

Trotting: Aug. 10, 14, 16—Metropolitan T.C

Acceptances for the South Canterbury Hunt meeting will be received until 9 p.m. to-morrow.

The new totalisator house at Riccarton is to be given a trial run early next week.

Aladdin is expected at Washdyke within the next day or two. He is to be schooled during the week by .1. Kerr, and it is intended to give him a race on the flat in the Claremont Handicap on Saturday.

There seems to be a disposition in some quarters to favour Rebel Lad for the Winter Cup. On Wellington form the Washdyke three-year-old can have no chance. In the Cup he is in receipt of lib from Arctic Star, who gave him 111 b and a beating at Trentham.

The net profit from the Southland Racing Club’s two meetings this season was £957, compared with £279 in 1934 and £375 in 1933. A surplus of £155 is shown on the year’s working, compared with a deficit of £555 last season, and of £490 in 1933.

There will be three Hunt meetings this week —Rangitikei on Wednesday, Waimate on Thursday and South Canterbury on Saturday. There will be a one-day fixture at Awapuni, also, on Saturday. This will complete the calender for the season.

Australian papers blame the rider of Full Charge, the odds-on favourite in the Grand National Hurdles at Flemington, for the horse making his blunder at the first fence. It is asserted that Full Charge was under such a strong pull that his head was between his legs and that he was practically unsighted at the jump. It is definitely announced that V. Langford is to ride Punchestown in the Grand National. If Dunmure starts it seems pretty certain that his pilot will be T. A. Langford, who rode him when he won the Great Western Steeplechase at Riverton. T. A. Langford is now due from Winton with the hunter Trisox. Radius Rod, one of Mr L, C. Hazlett’s nominees for the Pareora Steelpechase, is a half-brother to Loughrea and Circulation. He has raced twice at Riverton last year. On the first day he was beaten by a head by Circulation, and on the second day was eased up after cutting himself at a fence. If he were tuned up, the Tractor gelding might he the pick of the field.

The V.R.C. Grand National winner Riawena, like another fine ’chaser of recent years, Mosstrooper, is descended from the Panic mare Nameless. Panic was the sire of Redleap, and founded a great line of jumpers in Victoria. Riawena’s sire, Costello, is by Mareo, while her dam is by the Clanranald horse Sharpshooter, who was bred by Sir George Clifford and sold to “Mr . SA. Rawdon,” of Melbourne. Windsor Lad’s win in the Sandown Park Eclipse Stakes atones for his defeat in the race a year ago, when he finished third to King Salmon and Umidvar. The added money in the Eclipse Stakes is £IO,OOO, and it Is one of the richest stakes run for in England. It has been run annually since 1886, except in 1887 and 1890, when the entries were few. Strangely enough the Eclipse has never been won by a mare.

According to a North Island paper, W J, Bowden could have won the Wellington Steeplechase on any of the three placed horses. It may be so, but It is no certainly that he would have stayed on board had he been on Dunmure when the Southlander made his worst jump. The veteran North Island horseman has had a lot more experience than V. Langford, but when it comes to sticking tight one would be inclined to vote for the young man from South Hillend.

According to a statement made at the Racing Conference, there are a thousand “union” bookmakers or tote odds merchants in New Zealand. These gentlemen and their clients are in possession of practically unrestricted telegraphic and telephonic facilities for the transmission of wagers, but the same privilege is denied to patrons of the totalisator. It is illegal for a totalisator clerk to sell a ticket to any person under the age of 21, and nobody objects to that, but vendors of tickets in what is now a State lottery can set up a stall on any footpath and do business with any child old enough to tender half-a-crown. It‘s a queer world, my masters. The four-year-old paced Lawn Derby is the most discussed horse at Sydney meetings just now, and is referred to as the next Australian champion. He has won his last two races easing up in 3.25 4-5 and 3.25 1-5, but he would have to more a lot faster to win against the best New Zealand four-year-olds. A horse Is not even certai of winning a maiden event in this country unless it can do 3.25, and a good many of our two-year-olds have bettered Lawn Derby’s figures. There is probably something in track or other conditions which make Sydney times look poor by comparison which may be ample justification for the “foreign horse” penalty imposed by our handicapping scale.

Mr J. J. Corry, of Blenheim, bred Revision, and leased her to the late R. C. Keeper. She won at her second and last start as a two-year-old, but failed at three and did not race in the following season. As a five-year-old she was returned to Blenheim and went into T. R. George’s stable. From Blenheim she did a lot of training and racing. Last season she was tried over hurdles, and looked a likely winner at the New Zealand Cup fixture when she tried to dive off at the last fence. Later in the meeting she won the Otaio Plate, an dother flat race successes last year included the Ashburton Cup and the Marlborough Cup. Revision won her first hurdle race at Otaki on Labour Day, and her second at Riccarton in November.

New Zealand Trotting Stakes. Nominations of sires whose progeny will be eligible for the New Zealand Sires Produce Stakes (for three-year-old trotters!, which is to be run at the Timaru Trotting Club’s autumn meeting in March, 1937, must be made Dy Thursday next. The total stake Is £SOO, of which £SO will go to the nominator of the sire of the winner. It has been a common complaint that sufficient

er eouragement has not been given to the development of unhoppled trotters in New Zealand, and the Timaru Club, at the suggestion of Mr J. R. McKenzie, has taken a practical step in the direction of removing that reproach. So keen is Mr McKenzie on the inauguration of such an event that he has. offered to guarantee the Club against loss up to £IOO for the first three years. The success of the Stakes will depend largely on the response made by owners of sires, as only the progeny of nominated sires will be eligible for entry. The winner of the race will receive £3OO and a cup, the second horse £BO, third horse £4O, and fourth £ls, and as previously stated a premium of £SO will go to the nominator of the sire of the winner. Man v. Horse. A week or two ago the fallacious idea that a man might beat a racehorse over one hundred yards from a standing start was referred to. “The Watcher” relates a story of a match race in which a horse was beaten over the hundred by a fleet runner, but there was a turn in the course and a “catch” in the race. The story runs this way:— ‘“ln the early days of the present century the Jeffersons, of Marton, owned a horse named Merry Boy, who was by Merrie England from a Phantom mare. His name is on record as a winner of the Wanganui Century Hurdle race, for those who like to look it up, but it is not his race record that concerns this story. Before being put to racing he had been used as a stock horse, and he developed a most unusual faculty of being able to stop dead in his tracks, and wheel sharply in the reverse direction. A party of sportsmen of the day, and they included the names of several men still prominent on the turf, fell to discussing the ability of Merry Boy to reverse himself so suddenly, and conversation led to argument, and argument to a wager. The wager was that Merry Boy could not beat a man over 50 yards, turn and come back the 50 yards to the starting line. The man chosen for the job of beating the horse was Charlie Morris, a well-known professional runner of the day, and Merry Boy was ridden by a man of 14 stone. The 50 yards was measured out; a mark put up for the turning point, and all retired for the night. In the early hours, just before dawn, one of those who had wagered on the success of the man stole out of bed and went down to the turning mark. There he dug a hole, and embedded the post firmly in the ground, also smoothing its rough edges well, and went back to bed again. The hour of the contest drew a big crowd, and the oentestants lined up for a proper pistol start. At the crack of the gun both sped away to the turning mark, and the astonishment of those who had laid on the horse was great when they saw Morris fling his arms round the pole, swing himself round in a flash, and start off again for the winning line with the loss of a minimum of time. He won, but only just, Merry Boy losing only by a fraction, despite the advantage that the runner had gained at the turning post. History does not relate the remarks of the backers of Merry Boy." Charlie Morris was either a negro or a South Sea Islander, and up to a hundred yards was one of the fastest “pros.” for a long time.