CAP AND JACKET

Observer, Volume 2, Issue 41, 25 June 1881, Page 456

CAP AND JACKET

MY NOTE BOOK, By "Saul."

" Is Saul also amongst the prophets." — The amount invested in the totalisator during the four clays' racing at Adelaide was £21,000. — Mr D. Lundon, of Wanganui, has disposed of his steeplechaser Stella at a very satisfactory figure. — The price at Avhich Mr Stead's stallion Cadogan was purchased at. Home was 400 guineas. — The Neiv Zealand Studbook is now in the hauds of the printer, and copies will be obtainable next month. — Bend Or's best distance is evidently a mile and a quarter, or he would have started for the Ascot Cup. — The Hon. James Lord, a well - known patron of the turf in Tasmania, died at Hobartville on the 21st of May. — "Tout Cela," the well-known sportingscribe, has been appointed sporting editor of the Melbourne Sportsman. — The owner of Progress proposed to the owner of Mata to make a match for JESOO, but the offer was declined. .? — The amount won in a Southern sweep by the Wellington man Wilkinson, who is now undergoing a sentence for embezzlement, has been very properly paid over to his wife. — On the last day of the Adelaide Birthday Meeting £6108 passed through the totalisater. The best dividend of the day was that on the City Handicap, won by Miss Harriet, the investors of JSI receiving no less than £20 6s. — So Robert the Devil lias set the seal on his reputation by winning the Ascot Gold Cup. Prom the fact of only two placed horses being cabled, it looks as if only two had started. In that case the talent must have laid long odds on Kobert. — Morning Star, the hurdle horse recently purchased by Mr "Dick" Wheeler in Tarannki, and bred in Wanganui, is said to be improving very much on his Taranaki form when he beat Matau in the' hurdle race. In time he ought to make a very useful horse over hurdles. — "Martingale," sporting correspondent for the Cmiiei-hmj Time*, in bis last week's issue gives out that " Pacific," who died a short time ago at Mr Owen McGee's farm, Otnhuhu, wns the sire of Dainty Ariel. I wish old Riddlesworth would get up out of bis grave and kick him. It was the Kiddles worth blood that hauled down the Canterbury flng by his grandson Ariel winning their renowned Cup nt weight for nsye. " Martingale" doesn't always stick entirely to the truth. —The betting on the English Derby the night before the race was, according to a cablegram in the Australasian, 7 to 4 against the Duke of Westminster's Peregrine, 5 to 1 against Mr P. Gretton's Geologist, 10 to 3 against Mr P. Lorillard's Iroquois, 12 to 1 against Lord Rosebery's Cameliard, It to 1 against Mr Cookson's St. Louis, 20 to 1 eacli against Mi W. J. Legh's Sir Charles, Mr J. 11. Keene's Don Pulano, and Mr P. Lorillnrd's Barrett. — The Herald's presumption that Petroncl made a grand race with Robert the Devil for the Ascot Cup is absurdly far-fetched, and if it turns out (as we anticipate) that only this pnir started, and that Robert won by about ten lengths, both our contemporary and the Stud Company will look extremely foolish. The fact is, Muslset as a sire requires no reckless or extravagant puffing, and to try and make out that Petronel is a particularly fine feather in his cap is merely to insult him. Petronel" s race for the Two Thousand was right enough, but he has done literally nothing since, in fact his running in the big handicaps with comparatively light weights has been most contemptible. — The South Australian. Register thus writes of Darebin, who was unfortunately crossed by Dutchman in the Nursery Stakes at Adelaide, and wa's thrown almost completely out of the race : — " Darebin stripped a magnificent colt, and in his preliminary he showed beautiful action for such a big one, but his'size has forbidden a thorough preparation this season, and consequently others in the field looked riper for the contest before them than did the brown son of The Peer and Lurline." After his winning the Handicap on the third day, the writer goes on to say — " The race was a farce, as, getting away first, Darebin kept there throughout, and literally walked in eight lengths in front of Result." —The London Daily Telegraph of April 30th, writing of Foxhall, whose victory in the Grand Prix we referred to last week, says : — "He has beaten everything except the Derby winner, and no better three-year-old has been seen this year in public, although his compatriot, Barrett, despite his steep and upright shoulders, carried the largest weight of American money. Our enterprising kinsmen may be congratulated \ipon having sent us in Foxhall such a colt as must gladden the hearts of all good judges of horseflesh. The colt, too, if he remains sound, will make his mark upon the English sward." — A "Noah's Ark Eace" is an amusing novelty on the turf. Ifc was introduced at the Madras fair, and was a handicap for all animals bred in the country, the competitors including buffaloes, elephants, a goat, ram, emu, and elk, and other creatures, besides ponies and horses. The elephants were as placid as if moving in a marriage procession, and went over the course at a quick walk. The ram and goat, ridden by little boys, ran well, and the buffaloes went at a good gallop, but the emu would not stir, neither would the elk until the end of the race, when it tools: fright and darted down the course at great speed. Finally a ram was the winner, a horse coming in second, and a buffalo third.