On and Off the Track

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLII, Issue 20538, 2 October 1936, Page 13

On and Off the Track

A BUDGET OF NEWS AND VIEWS FIXTURES Racing: Oct. 3—Kurow J.C. Oct. 3—Otaki Maori R.C. Oct. 3, s—Taumaranui R.C. Oct. 8, 10—Dunedin J.C. ’ Oct. 10, 12—Auckland R.C. Oct. 15, 17—Masterton R.C. Oct. 17—South Canterbury J.C. Trotting. Oct. 3—Methven T.C. Oct. 10—New Brighton T.C. Oct. 17—Waikato T.C. Oct. 17, 19—Westport T.C. Oct. 24, 26—Auckland T.C. Oct. 24, 26—Greymouth T.C. Oct. 26—Oamaru T.C. Oct. 26— Manawatu T.C. Kurow races to-morrow. Methven Trotting Club’s meeting tomorrow. Southdown is unlikely to start in the Kurow Cup. The A.J.C. Derby will be run to morrow afternoon. Entries for the Trotting Cup will be taken up till Tuesday next.

Entries for the South Canterbury Jockey Club's spring meeting are due on Monday next, not Wednesday as stated in a Christchurch paper. An increase of £53 in each race on the programme lias been decided upon for the next meeting of the Forbury Park Trotting Club.

Sunny Morn is not likely to be entered for the New Zealand Totting Cup tills year. He is on the sale list, and it is said to be likely that he will go to Australia.

Vintage, who has not raced since he finished out of a place in the New Zealand Cup last November, will probably make a reappearance at the South Canterbury meeting this month. It is probable that the New Zealand jockey. Turoa Webster will ride cuddle in the Epsom Handicap. M. McCarten was released in order to allow him to accept the mount on the favourite, The Marne.

L. J. Ellis will be at Kurow to-morrow and will attend the first day (Thursday) of the Dunedin meeting. Then he will take the air liner to Palmerston to fulfil engagements at Ellerslie on the Saturday.

Horses with two engagements at the Kurow meeting include Royal Gallant, Ada, Toreador, Polygraph, Brevity. Rousseau, Silver Lark, Pink Paper, Stratosphere, Silver Slipper, Dracula, and Last Dance (in three).

Form at Paeroa may alte the outlook but at present Mazur, Fersen and Floodtide look to have good prospects In the Mltchelson Cup, the principal handicap at the Auckland meeting next week. Form horses in the sprint include Truine, Royal Dance and Galilee. First acceptances for the New Zealand Cup and nominations for the Stewards’, Criterion, Fendalton, Jockey Club, Metropolitan, Members’ and Stonyhurst Handicap, as well as for the Canterbury Cup, are due to-day by 5 p.m.

Now that Silver Streak is amiss, it is understood that T. Hobbs does not intend to wait fo the A.J.C. meeting, but has booked his passage by the Wanganella, leaving Sydney to-day, to resume charge Of his team at Oamaru.

The following corrections in the acceptances for the Kurow meeting are announced: In the Waitaki Trot Silver Laddie scr should be Included, while in the Haka Trot Locust, Suntress and Cyrano should be deleted and St. Lyria 48yds be Included. In the Gillies Handicap Silver Jest was not an acceptor.

“Rebel Lad’s only wins in New Zealand were in ‘hack’ company, but his good lourth in the first division of the Rosehill Highweight Handicap

gested he was one of the visitors for whom a win is on the cards,” says r Sydney writer. Unfortunately Rebel Lad has not been at his best at any time on the trip.

The introduction of summer time has put Australia back on New Zealand clocks, the difference in time now being two hours. The new timetable for Australian racing results on Saturday nights is as follows:—2BL, resume of results, 7.20 and 8.35; 3AR, 9.0; 2SM, rebroadcast of descriptions, 8.30. 2BL is relayed by the more powerful station 2NR (700), and 3AR by 3GI (8.30).

The following riding engagements have been made for Kurow: L. J. Ellis. Brevity, Silver Lark and Southdown; G. H. Humphries, Lord Nuffield, Wine Card and Polygraph; D. O’Connor, Polygraph (high-weight); M. Kirwan, Rousseau and Polydora; W. H. Jones, Rona Bay; C. Hughes, Redolent; A. G. Parsons, Silver Slipper; R. Beale, Acla.

The programme for the Trotting Cup meeting has been issued, and does not include any unusual features. The stakes for the three days total £11,700, with a minimum of £3OO for any race. Last year the prize-money was £10,350. The New Zealand Trotting Cup of £2OOO, and the Louisson Handicap of £lOOO have limits of 4min 26sec. The Cup is for horses assessed at that time, but the Louisson Handicap is for horses that can do 4min 26sec or faster. The big race on the second day is the OUlvier Handicap of £7OO, for horses that can do 4min 27sec or faster.

A feature of the ante-post betting in Melbcurne last week was a plunge on Conondale for both cups. The commission was said to be unlimited, wuich indicated unusual stable confidence in view of the fact that no horse has won the cups since Poseidon as a three-year-old brought off the double in 1906. Conondale has 6.12 in the Caulfield Cuo and 7.0 in the Melbourne Cup. Success at Caulfield would give the V.R.C handicapper the opportunity of increasing his poundage to 7.10 which is the weight allotted Gold Rod.

When the Gisborne trainer T. McIntosh returned from Australia last season he left Sporting Blood in charge of P. Riddle, at Randwick. Mclntosh is in Sydney again and is collaborating with Riddle in arranging Sporting Blood's programme, which will probably include The Metropolitan, the Caulfield Cup, and the Melbourne Cup.

The highest weight allotted to a New Zealand Cup candidate during the last forty years is 10.3, given to Sasanof when the 6.7 minimum was In vogue, Amythas being on 9.13. Waiuku 10.0, Achilles 10.0, Advance 9.13, are other horses which were given more than Silver Ring’s 9.12, and in view of the difference of 71b in the minimum weight these imposts look very high nowadays.

The A.J.C. meeting will open at Randwick to-morrow when the principal events are the Derby, Epsom Handicap, and the Spring Stakes. Most of our best horses are competing, while the New Zealand-bred Gold Rod will be challenged for the Blue Ribbon by other New Zealanders in Mala and Gustos. The timetable for Saturday is as follows, times being New Zealand Summertime: —3 p.m., First Hurdles; 4 p.m.. Trial Stakes; 4.40 p.m., A.J.C. Derby; 5.20 p.m., Epsom Handicap; 5.55 p.m., Spring Stakes; 6.30 p.m., Kensington Handicap.

A Sydney correspondent writes: — "Silver Ring’s win in the Hill Stakes, following on some good stfpport for him during the week, caused him to go to the position of favourite for the Metropolitan. Hard on the heels of his success came a warning from J. Stewart, his trainer, that the chestnut might not start but would be kept to weight-for-age racing. It appears that there is a rift in the Silver Ring camp and a difference of ideas. Stewart does not favour asking the chestnut to carry 9.9 in the Metropolitan, which he considers would prejudice his prospects in the later weight-fof-age races at the meeting. As he has no interest in the doubles ending with Silver Ring, this is obviously also a factor In the decision.”

New Zealand bred or New Zealand trained horses have put up a fine record during the last twenty years in the Sydney Derby. Kilboy (1916), Biplane and Gloaming did the hat trick, and Cupidon made the fourth in six years. All these except Kilboy were trained by R. J. Mason for Mr G. D. Greenwood. In later seasons Ballymena, Prince Humphrey, Phar Lap, Ammon Ra, and Theo were successful, and last year Homer dead-heated with Allunga. Eleven Derbies in twenty years is a fine score, which it it probable will be improved on Saturday. Biplane, Gloaming and Prince Humphrey, of course, were bred in the Commonwealth, but were developed, trailed and owned in New Zealand. In* Gloaming's year, the Dominion provided all the placegetters, the other two being Finmark and Kilmoon.

Polydora is one of the most difficult horses to handicap in the Dominion. If she would always do her best her admirers say she would be a champion, but this mare has ideas of her own about what she should do in a race (says the Dunedin “Star.”). On the concluding day of the Grand National meeting Polydora, carrying 10.13, finished second to Ruaform in the Sydenham Hurdles, with Saltspray, 9.8, eight lengths away third. In the Trial Hurdles on the opening day Saltspray gave Santoft 151 b and a beating, so the class in the Sydenham Hurdles was fully a stone better than that engaged in the Spring Hurdles to be run next week. And on Sydenham Hurdle form Polydora should be given Santoft about 31b in the Spring Hurdles, Instead of 111 b. But Polydora is an uncertain jumper and not always generous, and, even though she does appear to have a long way the best of the handicap on paper she is no certainty. (Santoft has won at Orari since the Grand National, but even so he as well as Redolent and Wexford Bridge, have the worst of the figures).