On and Off the Track

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLV, Issue 21086, 12 July 1938, Page 11

On and Off the Track

X BUDGET OF NEWS AND VIEWS

FIXTURES Racing: July 16—Hawkes Bay Hunt Club. July 16—Waimate Hunt Club. July 23—Rangitikei Hunt Club. July 23—South Canterbury Hunt Club July 23—Matamata R.C. July 28, 30—Poverty Bay Turf Club. July 30— Christchurch Hunt Club. July 30—Taranaki J.C. Waimate acceptances at 8 to-night. During the present season totalisator investments at Addington amounted to £489,128.

There will be no summer meeting at Addington next season, but the Easter meeting will extend over three days.

The entries for the South Canterbury Hunt meeting total 135, two fewer than last year.

According to report, Sandy Dix, winner of the Great Northern Hurdles last season, is unlikely ever to race again.

Two Auckland horses, Bryce Street and Hunting Blood, have been nominated for the South Canterbury Hunt meeting.

The Takapuna Jockey Club has disappeared from the list of racing clubs, and its dates have been handed over to the Auckland Racing Club.

For the use of its permit at the in-ter-Dominion Championship meeting, the Kaikoura Trotting Club received £250 from the New Zealand Metropolitan Trotting Club.

Great Pal is held on lease by his trainer, G. A. Feilding, who holds an option of purchase from his breeder, Mr J. Carter, Dunedin. Great Pal has started only a dozen times, although lie Ls rising seven years. t

Cottingham, winner of the Grand National Hurdles last year, is still running out in the paddock. It is hoped that he may become sound enough again to be put into training next winter.

At the Ashburton point-to-point races, the Open steeplechase was won by Miss Williams's Harkaway, from Sporting Lass and Red Sceptre. The maiden event went to Mr A. N. Grigg's Macalpen, from Sportsman and Anvil.

The Heddon Bush trainer P. Boyle has nominated four horses —Black Banner, Quinopal, Bally Brit and Last Post—for the Teschemaker Steeplechase. The three first named are in the South Canterbury Steeplechase also.

A horse named The Freak won a hurdle race in Sydney recently. He is aptly named, as he cannot walk, trot, or canter, and when he has to move about at a slow pace has an extraordinary gait. This peculiarity does not affect his jumping or galloping.

Tire remit by the executive committee to exclude one-eyed horses from racing except those registered prior to August 1 last was carried by the Racing Conference. The Wellington Racing Club's proposal to bar such horses from racing over fences was included in the resolution.

Cheval de Volee, winner of the Cornwall Handicap, the principal flat race at the Auckland winter meeting, has received 7.5 in the Melbourne Cup. Sacrone, who so far has been unable to win a race of any kind, and who would receive over two stone from Cheval de Volee in New Zealand, is on 7.6 in the Melbourne race.

Parisienne’s new assessment of 4.22 is the tightest ever reached by a four-year-old in the Dominion. She has won more money than any other pacer of her age, and has been the best of the season at two, three and four years. Parisienne’s dam. Yenot, died a few weeks after foaling, and the future champion was reared on the bottle at Mardella Stud, Auckland.

In tlie last decade no horse has been allotted the. maximum (12.7) in the Grand National, though, just after the war, Coalition (who won with the weight) and Lochella were two who were so honoured. The only horses during the last ten years weighted at 12.0 or over have been Beau Cavalier (12.5) in 1928, Billy Boy (12.5), Makeup (12.1), and Callamart (12.1), all in 1933, and Valpeen (12.2) in 1936.

Shining Hours, whose sequence of four wins has brought her into prominence, is still owned by her breeder, Mr F. Ormond, who leased her to Mr C. McCullough, of Woodville. She is a full sister to Karl, both being by Arausio from Sunny Hours, who is a half-sister to Fluency, Athens 11., and Passion Fruit. Fluency was a brilliant galloper, and has gained added distinction as a brood mare.

Green Cape, who won the V.R.C. Grand National, was nominated on the principle that “you can always take them out but can't get them in” after entries close. At the time of entry, W. Burke's stable had three more fancied candidates, but Green Cape won two races and had advanced to the position of favourite a fortnight before the race. His name suggests that he is by Cape Horn, whose progeny have done well in jumping events in Australia, but he is by Ethiopian, and gets his name from his dam, Capeless.

Three important decisions have been arrived at by the committee of the Geraldine Racing Club. One is the adoption of the win-and-place system of betting; another the reduction of the charges for admission to the course. The third is to discontinue the payment of inward freight on horses travelling direct to compete at the race meeting. This concession was not a general one, as it applied only to horses arriving by rail, and was not extended to those carried by float. There was no valid reason why this discrimination should have existed.