CAP AND JACKET

Observer, Volume 1, Issue 2, 25 September 1880, Page 11

CAP AND JACKET

The Derby of 1882 closed Avith 210 ancl the Oaks Stakes with. 159 subscribers. The entries for the Grand Prize of Paris of 1882 number 338. Mr. Lo'rillard, the popular American racing man, has been two years on the English turf and spent £40,000. Mr. R. Jardine Avas in luck about midsummer. He won the Liverpool Cup, Goodwood Stakes and Brighton Stakes straight oft' the reel. Mr. CraAvf orcl's Bay Archer, Avon the Brighton Cup, beating Edelweiss, Solver and Advance. Betting 9 to 4 on Bay Archer. Value of the stakes, £418. St. Julien, the famous American trotter, has accomplished the extraordinary feat of covering a mile without a break, in _mins. Usees. The " Sporting Tinies " of August 7th, says " Lord Rosebery is lumping down the money on Cipolata, especially for a place." The St. Leger has once before been Avon by a bookmaker's horse, and that was in 1832, when Mr. Gully's Margrave beat Birdcatcher and fifteen others. Mr. Farmer's thoroughbred mares Tui and Hannah have arrived from Gisborne on a visit to Musket. Derby Avinners have been terribly unlucky at Doncaster of late years. With the exception of Silvio, no Epsom hero have got home first since Lord Lyon won the treble event in 1866. By keeping Cipolata in the stable on Oaks day, Lord Rosebery literally threw away the Ladies race. It must now be evident to everyone that had the filly started, she would have won in a canter. The Adelaide assembly are doing a veiy sensible thing in legalising the Totalisator. Let us hope their good example may be the means of indxieing our legislators to follow suit. When tlie mail left England, the betting on the St. Leger was 5 to 2 against Bend Or, 7 to 2 Robert the Devil, 100 to 8 Cipolata, 100 to 7 Mask, 100 to 6 Zealot, 100 to 6 Mask, etc., etc. The Avhole of the famous Middle Park Stud at Elthom, consisting of eight stallions, sixty brood mares, thirty foals and yearlings, was to be sold in September-. Mr. Edgar's Ariel is noAV training at Epsom, under the care of E. Williams, and will be nominated for the steeplechase at the Auckland Racing Club's Summer Meeting. The mare's jumping has, so far, been very promising and satisfactory. Flatcatcher, after AA-hom OAven McGee has named his foal by Pacific out of Maymoon, won the Two Thousand Guineas of 1848, ridden by the famous jockey Robinson. The race was then in its infancy, and there were only six runners. Sir Charles is no longer first favourite for the Derby of 1881. Prince Solhykoff's Scobell, a half brother to Scamp (by Carnival, Lady Sophie), who run second for the Richmond Stakes at Goodwood, now claims that honour. Cipolata avlio Avas second for the St. Leger> is a bay filly by Macaroni out of Duckling. She ran six times as a two years old, and proved successful on ioxa occasions. Her best race was the Second October Nursery at Newmarket, vdlue £397, when the filly carrying 7st. 21bs, defeated fourteen others. The Abbot is as unlucky a horse as the famous Yellow Jack. He was third for the Two Thousand Guineas, second for the Manchester Cup, second for the Prince of Wales's Stakes at Ascot, and now he is third for the St. Leger. The colt must nave cost Mr. Naylor a small fortune in stakes alone. The finish for the SteAvards Cup at Goodwood between Eordham on Elf King and Archer on Hackthorpe, was one of the finest sights ever witnessed on a race course. Fordhain came with a rush half-way up the distance, and Elf King just getting up in the last stride won a grand race by a head. The Liverpool Summer Cup Avas a dead failure. Only six horses came to the post, the favourite being the Cosorewitch, good thing Westboume, who, however, ran a regular rogue. Mr. Jardine's Blackthorn by Macaroni — Black Rose, won in a canter by two lengths; Lindrick second ; and Misenus third. The Astley Stakes, at LeAves, AA'hich has developed into one of the most important two-year-old contests of the English racing year resulted in adeadheat between Prince Soltykott's Scobell and Mr. Chaplin's Wandering Nun. Mazurka, by See-Saw— Mabille, was third. Like Pero Gomez, Lord Clifden, the Marquis, and Sir Tatton Sykos, all famous thronghbreds renowned in history Robert the Devil has won the St. Leger after running second for the Derby. His owners must have won an immense sum in bets. Immediately after the Epsom race they accepted £12,000 to 3.000, and several other big wagers have since been chronicled. The result of the Goochvood Cup Avas a tremendous turn for the fielders. There were only two starters, Chippendale and Dresden China, and backers laid 3to 1 and 7to 2 freely on the former. Their feelings when they saw Dresden China close with the favourite head him and win by 3/4 a length, are easier imagined than described. The English papers to hand by the mail contain full reports of the racing at Liverpool, Goodwood, and Brighton. The Goodwood meeting was most uninteresting. With a very few exceptions the fields were miserably small, and the Cup itself, the irresistible attraction of the great and popiilar fixture, dwindled down to a mateh — the first since 1828. Those avlio Avitnessed the race for the Midsummer Stakes at the Newmarket July Meeting, little thought that they were then receiving the straight tip for the Doncaster St. Leger. On that occasion, it will be remembered Cipolata beat Robert the Devil, when in receipt of 121bs. At Doncaster, on Wednesday week, Cipolata receiving 51bs. only was beaten by Mr. Brewer's colt. The victory of Robert the Devil Avill have hit the Ring pretty hard though they are in a measure compensated by the fact of Bend Or not being placed. It is highly probable that the Duke of Westminster's colt didn't start. Ono of his legs was always gamey, and. he may have succumbed to the hard ground or some other eventuality of training. The Ring are seldom for out, and when they showed a disposition at Ascot to lay good prices against Bend Or, wise men prognosticated misfortune for the colt. A rather good instance of the Avay in Avhich race meetings are sometimes worked so as to favoiu* certain horses was demonstrated in the R. M. Court, Wanganui, the other day. In a civil case in which the trustees in the bankrupt estate of a stable-keeper sought to receive from a well-known sporting man for the keep of a horse, the defendant in his evidence swore that he and. the plaintiff were in partnership at the time the horse was stabled. He had been appointed a steward for the Aramoho Steeple-chaso meeting, and the horse had been put in training for one of the events. '.There was a distinct xmderstanding that he was to endeavour TO ARRANGE A RACE THAT WOULD SUIT THE HORSE, and. it ■was not to be entered in his name, as he did not wish it to be known that he had any share in race horses. The career of Robert the Devil is almost too well known to need recapitulation. As a two years old, he run twice only, i.e., for the Rons Memorial, at Goodwood, worth £2,067, and for a Two Tears Old Stakes, at Newmarket, First October meeting. On both these occasions he was successful. This year, his first appearance was made at Newmarket in the Biennial, when, to the surprise of everybody, the colt succumbed to Lord Falmouth's Apollo.- Not being engaged in the

Two Thousand, Robert was kept quiet till Derby day, when, as everybody knows, he ran second to' Bend Or, being beaten by a head only. A trip across the channel enabled him to score an easy victory in the Grand Prize of Paris, and his only other race up to now was the Midsummer Stakes, at Newmarket, in which he failed to concede Cipolata 121bs. The English sporting papers contain long obituary notices of the famous bookmaker, J. B. Morris. " For over a quarter of a century (says the " Sporting Times ") the deceased gentleman was a magnate of the sporting world, and so extensive were his transactions that it is computed that, at his death, in his books were outstanding debts due to him of over £100,000. The orange jacket and white cap of Mr. Morris were in their day among the most famous colours on the English Turf. They were borne by Knight of St. George when in 1854 that horse won the St. Leger. A still greater standardbearer was perhaps the celebrated Kingston, who was taken for a gambling debt of £1,000 due by Lord Ribblesdale. It was in 1854 that Mr. Morris stood by the scales at Chester anxiously watching the beam that did not turn, when George Fordham, then a mere child, weighed in after coming in first on Epaminondas, and when George, as cool as a cucumber, refusedto get out of the scales until his master was sent for, or, what was perhaps more important still, the bridle, which set matters right. That must, indeed, have been an anxious moment for Mr. Morris, who then trained at Black Hambleton, whose party stood £60,000 on Indian Warrior, who was second. The year before that the party had gone a raker on Talfourd, who also gained the tantalising place of second. This was the year when the division started about half-a-dozen horses to keep the track clear for the crack, and as their jockey towards the finish was more intent on flogging tb^a rider of the third than looking after his business, he thus let Aldcroft steal away on Goldfinder, who wa s the property of Palmer, the poisoner. "Ah!" said Mr. Morris, with a sigh, almost the last time we met him, as he spoke of the fortune that had been so messed away, " and to make it all the more aggravating Palmer came to me the night before the race, and said that if I could lay the odds to £100 against Goldfinder for him the horse should not run, and I wouldn't do it." Saul.