RACING AND TROTTING

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLII, Issue 20503, 22 August 1936, Page 18

RACING AND TROTTING

On and Off the Track A BUDGET OF NEWS AND VIEWS. FIXTURES Racing Aug 22—Pakuranga Hunt Club. Aug 27—Egmont-Wanganui Hunt Club Aug 29—Taranaki Hunt Club. Sept. s—Otago Hunt Club. Trotting Aug. 29—Auckland T.C. Sept. s—New Brighton T.C. Sept. 12—Wellington T.C. Pakuranga Hunt races at Ellerslie to-day. The stake for this year’s Trotting Cup will probably be £2OOO, in addition to the trophy, and the limit 4.26. The use of assumed names is not permitted in New Zealand, but more than twenty appear in the list of nominators for the A.J.C. Derby.

The Wanganui Jockey Club has decided to continue the single-pool system of betting at its meeting next month, supplemented by a dividend indicator.

The annual conference of racing clubs in Southland will be held in Invercargill this morning, when the principal business will be to appoint a judge to fill the vacancies caused by the resignation of Mr H. B. Ireland.

Four hundred and twenty-two horses at present remain in the A.J.C. Derby, about 75 being New Zealand-bred. A good many are not even in training, and there will be a very big reduction when forfeits are declared early in September.

It is pretty definite that New Derby and Evicus will run at the Cup meeting at Addington, but it is rumoured that the owner of Lawn Derby is demanding appearance money in addition to a guarantee for expenses, and that this is not likely to be acceded to.

There is a Billy Boy racing in Australia. a three-year-old colt by Pantheon which is engaged in the A.J.C. Derby. Billy Boy carries the same colours of Sylvandale, being the property of the Sydney lady who races as “Miss Lorna Doone.”

The Hawera trainer, J. Fryer, will leave for Sydney on September 4, with One Whetu and International, while he will also take Mrs M. S. Curie’s three-year-old, Black Friar, Fryer intended to leave by the Wanganella from Wellington next week, but owing to being unable to secure the necessary space, he had to postpone his departure till the following week.

Sir Charles Clifford headed the winning owners’ list last season, but at the Grand National meeting his colours were never in the money, a fifth to Horcrata being the nearest approach to a place. It must be almost unique for the Stonyhurst colours to go through a three-days fixture at Riccarton without some reward, but their only representatives last week were the maiden three-year-old Recollection, and Hororata, who has shown no form for a long time. There will probably be a change when Wild Chase and Paper Slipper are produced.

The conditions for the Trotting Cup have not yet been announced, thouu it is being taken for granted that the race will be confined to horses “assessed at” 4.26 or faster. To open it to horses that “can do” or “have done” that time would mean an unwieldy field, and on a “have done” basis the limit would need to be about 4.21. Probably the club is awaiting information concerning the intentions of Australian owners who have been offered inducements to bring their stars across. ‘When Walla Walla came, his owner was guaranteed £2OO for expenses, on the understanding that any winnings were to be deducted from that amount. In other words, if the horse failed to win £2OO, the club was to make up the deficiency. It is probable that the same offer has been made in the case of Lawn Derby and New Derby, and if their owners have any faith in the Australian champions they should be soon on the way. • • • • Ponty is still being proclaimed a “good thing beaten” in the Winter Cup, but there is no convincing evidence to support that view, or the innuendoes that are being made owing to the fact that he is trained in the same stable as Wino. Wino won the Cup by a length from Concertpitch, after being in front practically all the way, with Ponty finishing fast half a length away in third place. On the third day Ponty, raised 51b, won the Heathcote Handicap, scraping home by a head from Pukeko, and it was patent that he would not have won if the distance had been the same as in the Winter Cup. Wino, on the other hand, raised a stone, was defeated by only a head in the Selwyn Handicap. He was beaten just on the post, and if the head had been the other way his performance would have looked a lot better than Ponty’s. If the Winter Cup were to be run over again at the original weights the horse that would be backed to beat Ponty would be Concertpitch.

TO STAND AT ELLOUGHTON GRANGE, TIMARU The Thoroughbred Stallion PINK COAT (Hunting Song—Red Edna) PINK COAT was a high-class performer, winning the Dunedin Champagne, Middlepark Plate, C.J.C. Champagne and Harcourt Stakes; 2nd in Great Northern Guineas and C.J.C. Challenge, the only races in which he was defeated. Sire of Kinnoull (Dunedin Champagne, C.J.C. Champagne, Harcourt Stakes, Canterbury Cup;. Silver Coat (McLean Stakes) and many other winners. FEE: 50 GUINEAS Free Grazing. Further particulars from— DONALD GRANT, P.O. Box 57, Timaru.

Valpeen is being hunted and will be qualified for hunt club events. There should be some restriction on Grand National winners in hunter’s races.

“All observers at Riccarton appear to be agreed that the star performer among the flat racers was Ponty,” says a northern paper. Nothing could be further from the truth. Ponty would look pretty cheap if he tackled Queen of Song at level weights. The scratching of Gallio eliminated the potential favourite from the sprint handicap at the Pakuranga Hunt meeting. The three-year-old has not started since he won the Great Northern Foal Stakes last summer, but he has been shaping well in his work.

At the Great Northern meeting Irish Comet was second to Tangled in the Hunt Club Cup and in a like position behind Forest Glow in the Winter Steeplechase. These were two sound performances and suggest that he has excellent prospects in the Pakuranga Hunt Cup.

The 1450 guineas paid this week for Rob Roy (Nightraid-Quadrilateral), is exactly the figure given for him at the yearling sales at Trentham, by Mr L. K. S. Mackinnon. As Rob Roy failed as a two-year-old the price now seems a good one. Rob Roy was brought by Mr P. Miller, and presumably will be trained by Peter Riddle, formerly wellknown in the trotting business.

One of the most improved maidens at Ellerslie is Gar Vaals, who has been showing a lot of speed in his recent track work. He was responsible for a good effort over five furlongs on the course proper, and his time for that distance was only a fraction outside the best of the morning. He is engaged in the Sylvia Park Handicap at Ellerslie to-day.

Tooley Street showed fairly good form in the south prior to being brought north for the winter meetings in the Auckland province. He won over seven furlongs at the Riverton meeting and also over a mile at the same fixture. At the Waikato winter meeting he was beaten by a head by Puss Moth over six furlongs. He was started on each day at the Great Northern meeting, but failed to get into the money, while, on being taken to Trentham, the best he could do there was to finish fourth. Tooley Street has been paid up for in the Dunedin Handicap at Ellerslie this afternoon, and, taking a line through a gallop over five furlongs at Ellerslie his is likely to be near the money.

For the fourth year in succession the Hurry On stallion Hunting Song headed the list of sires on Dominion earnings last season. The £14,013 10s his stock won was less than the amount of the two previous seasons, but it placed him well ahead of Paper Money, who was second on the list with £12,106 10s Defunct Chief Ruler, with £8352 10s, is third, and the next sires are Valkyrian (£6648 10s), Lord Quex (£6337 10s), defunct Acre (£324), Iliad (£5709), defunct Gay Shield (£5203 10s), Shambles (£5121 10s), defunct Limond (£4943), and Musketoon (£4935 10s). Among the owners pride of place for last season was attained by Sir Charles Clifford for the second year in succession, his winnings totalling £4450, some hundreds in excess of his previous figures. The Wellington sportsman, Mr R. J. Murphy, is second with £3958, and then followed Mr E. H' (£3730), Mr P. T. Hogan (£2566), Mr T. A. Duncan (£2512), Mr R. T. Reid (£2502), Mr P. A. Swney (£2460), and Mr G. M. Currie (£2346 10s). Mr E. H. Aubrey won £1662, and Mr D. Grant £1522. Pink Coat Readers who remember Pink Coat in his racing days as a rather leggy galloping freak will scarcely recognise him in the solid-looking individual depicted to-day. The turf career of the Hunting Song horse was brief but brilliant. He made his debut as a two-year-old at Oamaru in a novice plate, and created a sensation by giving half-a-cdozen lengths start up the short straight to Waving Corn, who went on to win seven races that season. At this time Pink Coat was owned by Mr J. M. Samson, who had acquired him for 150gns at the Trentham sales, but after his win he was sold to three South Canterbury men for lOOOgns, and raced in the name of one of the partners, Mr J. Morrison. At his next appearance Pink Coat scored a hollow win in the Champagne at Dunedin, won the Middlepark Plate and the Champagne at Ricarton, and was beaten in the Challenge by that fine galloper Silver Paper, mainly because his rider had weakened himself unduly by wasting. That completed his season’s programme.

As a three-year-old, Pink Coat, racing in the name of Mr D. Grant, commenced by carrying 9.6 in the open sprint at Ashburton and spreadeagling the field. He was then shipped to Ellerslie to run in the Great Northern Guineas, but did not settle down on the trip and was beaten by Eaglet, later winner of the Oaks but a long way below Pink Coat’s class. His next and last appearance was made in the Harcourt Cup at Trentham, which he won easily though finishing practically on three legs, having broken down so badly that he was never able to race again. Among those behind him were Commendation, Hunting Cry, Concentrate, Kick Off, and Silver Paper

and Eaglet, the only two horses which ever defeated him. This performance established Pink Coat as one of the greatest and gamest horses that ever carried silk in New Zealand. A*

one or two later attempts to train him had proved unsuccessful he was sent to the stud, and in his second season left Kinnoull (the best colt of his year and three times victor over Cuddle), and Silver Coat (winner of the McLean Stakes).