CAP AND JACKET

Observer, Volume 1, Issue 4, 9 October 1880, Page 26

CAP AND JACKET

There will be a large assemblage at the Pakuranga Hunt Club meeting this afternoon. A band has been engaged to play in tho enclosure and if the day is only fine, the affair should be a great success. Don Juan, who is in excellent condition and will be ridden by either Saxon or Stephens seems to be most fancied for the Hunt Club Steeplechase. If he meets defeat it will probably be at the hands of Butcher Boy, who is very well and will be piloted by A. Buckland, jun,, Greyhound looks too light and Young Sledmere will most likely be reserved for the Hurdles. The "sharps" opine that Awahou and the Ghost are too light for the rough country and distance and the General is pronounced out of condition. The Pony Race will be won by either Larry or Hotspur. The former is the best animal but the latter will have an excellent rider — namely, young O'Borko. The betting on the Pakuranga Hunt Club meeting this afternoon has been principally confined to doubles on the big Steeplechase and the Maiden Steeplechase. Don Juan and Atalanta are the favourites. The Members' Hurdle Race looks like falling an easy prey to either Young Sledmere or Butcher -Boy, the former for choice. The Maiden Hurdle Race should be a good thing for Sunbeam, next to whom I expect to see Comus, and the Maiden Steeplechase will, in all probability, be carried oil by Atalanta or Sato. A streak of luck for the Orangemen. Mr. Hugh Hamilton has drawn one of the favourites in the United Service Sweep. A considerable sum has been offered for his chance, but he is determined to hold on. The aggregate prizes upon the Cup now advertised in the Melbourne papers, amount to £50,000. The Tasmanian Assembly has thrown out the Totalisator Bill. Mr. Horsfall has King Quail, Ratcatcher, and Spring, 2yrs. by Papapa, out of All Steel, doing nice work on the racecourse. Faublas will be ridden by Hales in the Mel* bourne Cup. Bumour has it that he can put through Suwarrow easily in his gallops. It ii stated that the lucky man who drew Mata in the United Service Consultation was immodiately offered £150 for his ticket. Papapa, supposed to have been, when on the Turf; the fastest horse in Now Zealand, wa3 sold the other day for £130 — literally given away. Chandos and Blink Boy have been bought for Australia, and left Newmarket, en routefor Melbourne, early in August. A sporting know-all tells me that if Lord Burleigh stands his preparation, he will be about winning the Melbourne Cup. Mr. J. Smith has his team doing walking exercise at present. It consists of Xantippe, Maid of Honour, and Tim "WTuffler, all of whom are in blooming health. Robt. Thorpe has Mr. Bobbett's Maid of Sherwell and "Woolbroker at work; also Mr; Ellis* Awahou. The latter is being trained for the Hunt Club Meeting, which takes place on Saturday, the 9th. Mr. J. J. Miller, the leviathan "sweep" promoter, cautions the public against negotiating any vouchers on the Melbourne Cup without the endorsement of the original purchaser, as there are some reported and registered as lost. The Grand St. Leger de France, run on August 2nd. at Caen, was won by Count Lagrange's Fleuret, who started at 20 to 1. Odds of 2 to 1 were laid on Milan, a stable-companion of the winner, but the favourite was beaten off. A plunger at Goodwood laid 1500 to 900 on naming the winners of the Rous Memorial and the Cup. He chose Bal Gal and Chippendale, and when the latter collapsed, he tore off his hat in a frenzy and stamped upon it. Knottingley, for whom Mr. Lockwood gave the Stud Company £75 in cash and a £75 bill, has been re-sold. The price paid was £20, fourteen of which were deducted for charges. The cash received by the vendor consequently amounts to. £6, only. The drawing of the big Consultation at the United Service passed off quickly and pleasantly. There was a large crowd present, but it was a good-tempered one, and the unfortunates accepted their bad luck with equanimity. The well-known entire, Young Perf..rmer4eft for Christchurch in tho Wanaka on Tuesday last, under the charge of Mr. Tom Brown. He is a grand looking horse and a good mover, but has not been sought after or a success in Auckland from want of suitable mares or something. Following the execution of the stable commission in favor of Grand Flaneur at Sydney, this colt has now supplanted all others in the V.E.C. Derby betting, 6 to 1 being the best oiler. Progress and Trevallyn are consequently a trifle easier. Derby and Cup " doubles" are obtainable at 100's to 4 to 1. The Stud Company are standing Capapie at a very low figure— six guineas. Owners of mares should give this horse a trial, as he is of undeniably true blood, besides having good looks and a fine temper to recommend him. Almost any kind of mape would suit him for gettng hack or carriage horses. . I learn that between the Hawke«bury and A.J.C. meetings Hesperion was purchased for 600 guineas by our old friend, Ed'ard Perkins, formerly of the Occidental here. Some difficulty, however, occurred as to. his running at the latter inoeting, and the bargain ;fell through.. - . Ar analysis of the United Service Consulta!,tip..Et shoMfs that twenty-four prizes were divided amongst ta,e, flbcs.t; i&pusand tickets, thirteen only amongst the second^ fourteen amongst the third, and twenty-niije each, the fourth and fifth thousand. Thin should make the high numbers in the now consultation soughtafter,

Donald Taylor has now removed to his new quarters, (Mr. Potter's house) at Epsom wherehehas Othello, Kenilworth and Rifleman under his charge. They all look healthy and well, and next month will be pushed forward in their work. Mr. Edgar has Ariel under his own care and intends, I hear, to nominate him for the Steeplechase. If Mr. Smith's attempt to form a first-class TattersalTs Club breaks down, it will be because the subscription fixed upon is too low. Perkins tried the some game some years back, and it failed for a similar reason. The only thing the Committee can do now is to make the rules as to admittance very stringent. If every blackleg who can raise a guinea is to be a member, the Club won't bo worth belonging to. For the Hunt Club Races there are a goodly number of rough uns working, and from all I can hear the coming meeting promises to be very successful. The best known horses that will probably face the starter are, Don Juan, Butcher Boy, Young Hedraere, Jonathan Wild, Tear-a-way, and Greyhound. Erin-go-bragh, Hardie, The Ghost, and Awahou, are strangers to us. They are, all, however, first-class jixmpers, and will give a good account of themselves. Quite a sensation was created in Sydney a few days ago by a jockey named Bancroft, who stated that some two years ago, Mr Joseph Thompson, the well-known bookmaker, had given him £25 to pull ahorse named Laertes at Bathurst. The jockey in question told a very circumstantial tale, and stated that the money was paid to him after the race on the stairs of Mr D. Mayne's Hotel. The bookmaker indignantly denied the accusation, and sta.ted that he was prepared to make a statutory declaration to the effect that there was not a word of truth in the tale of Bancroft, whose conduct in waiting for two years to divulge the secret does not bear a very creditable aspect. The accused has moved for an investigation of the case. . The favourite f-.r the English Derby of 1881, Prince Soltykoffs" Scobell, by Carnival — Lady Sophie is a remarkably well-furnished colt, more like a three than a two-year-old. He is a hard bay, with a star on his face, and a snip on his nose. He stands nearly 15 hands 2£in. and if he had just a little more length of frame, he would be a model of a Derby winner. His neat little head, clean throttle, muscular and well-formed neck, well-laid shoulders, deep brisket, strong back and loins, and extraordinary muscular development in his rump, quarters, second thighs, and fore-arms, must have commanded the admiration of all horsemen who saw him stripped in the paddock at Goodwood, and no thoroughbred in the world could be blessed with better legs and feet. The death is announced of Mr. Frank Pophani who won the Derby of 1855 with "Wild Dayrell. Mr. Pophani had. a splendid estate at Littlecote, near Hungerford, and on the surrounding downs he trained Wild Dayrell, whose dam — Ellen Middleton — he had purchased, really by accident, for a trifling sum. After a deal of hesitation, she was sent to lon, and the Derby winner was the result, but although she afterwards had. nearly a dozen foals, he was her only notable produce. Mr. Pophain did not intend to keep the colt, and actually sdld him to Kent for Lord Henry Lennox, for 400 gs., but the bargain fell through, the trainer not liking him all round; then he was sent to Tattersall's, and bought in for something under 200 gs. He went through his Derby preparations at and about Lord Craven's place, Ashdown Park. How, in spite of cunning attempts to nobble him, "he walked in" for the dismal "Crimean" Derby, ridden by a country jockey, and how the nobblers were hopelessly defeated in consequence, and a wholesome and much needed check thereby given to such despicable dodges, is well known. As a racer he was undoubtedly a real good horse, and at the stud Wild Dayrell must be acknowledged as a conspicuous success, as thero can be no doubt biit that his sons, Buccaneer and the Eake, were really great horses ; but for the deplorable accident to the latter he would have won Hermit's Derby by many a length. Buccaneer was not only in the van on the turf, but is indisputably one of the most successful sires in the stud-book. 'Mr. Pophain's connection with the turf was tinluckily a brief one, beginning.and ending with Wild Dayrell, he being a class of owner of whom there has been a sad lack of late — e.g.-, those who race for sport and not as a trade. ■ Few figures, says "Bell's Life," were better known on Newmarket Heath, in the York or Doncaster saddling enclosures, than the portly one of Joseph Dawson. Hardly any one who goes racing can fail 'to preserve some recollection of him and his deeply-coloured, good-humoured face, perhaps as he waited all smiles while the chaffing preliminaries for the match between Prince Charlie and Peut Etre were adjusted ; rather moody, it may be, when something of General Peel's had just failed to answer expectations, or standing, whip in hand, amidst a little knot of Bedford Lodge adherents in the Birdcage during a long wait necessitated by a walkover, and wrinkling into laughter, at some joke from one the merry group. Joseph Dawson was first known to many as a" trainer in connection with his lately deceased brother at Middleham upwards ■of thirty years .ago. He was out with the string, if we remember rightly, on that April morning, often mentioned in North Biding racing talk, when a] terrible thunderstorm broke over Middleham Moor, and one fatal flash in a moment laid dead two fillies — Little Nell arid Curiosity — and the boy that was riding one of them. Not many years after he had charge for a time of a small stud belonging to Capt. Stirling Davidson. Anteverta, a rather sinarb two-year old, was another of the horses that " Joe" Dawson had early in his career as trainer on his own account. In 1854 he had removed from Middleham and was located at Hsley with Young England, Kohinoor, and Lady Vernon, who ran second to Grapeshot for the Great Yorkshire Handicap, among his charges. The first big. hit he 'made was with Mr. Sykes in the Cesarewitch of 1855. The horse, previously trained by E. Jones, was placed in Joseph Dawson' s hands after the Egham meeting of that year. A disappointing horse up to this time, he did something so encouraging when tried for the Cesarewitch (in which race he was ridden by F. Bates, the, "present occupier of Tupgill) that he was backed to win a large stake, and brought off the good thing easily under the lenient burden of 92 lbs. Amongst other horses of reputation which Dawson trained may be mentioned Diophantus, Dulcibella, Rupee, Gemma de Verge, Friponnier, The Sake, St, Leger, Thuringian Prince, Peter, and Elizabeth.