MY NOTE BOOK,

Observer, Volume 3, Issue 60, 5 November 1881, Page 116

MY NOTE BOOK,

By "Saul." "Is Saul also amongst the prophets." — " Zulu — Zu lose," as the bookmaker said to the backer on Tuesday evening. — Darebin' s Derby time is the fastest on record. — Who drew Zulu and The Czar in Thoodorc Brown's sweep ? —Tbe gentleman who peppered Somerset for the Derby did rather well out of the game. —Had Wheatear not fallen tlie result of the Cap might have been different. — Sweetmeat, like Dagworth, has been twice placed for the Melbourne Clip. — Joe Gallagher wins over £500 on his Cup book, and Bill Lyons about £350. - — The Star was the first in the field with the result of tho Cup. —Tantrums, dam of Jaugler, has foaled a chestnut filly to Albany. — The well-known stud horse Roebuck is to be disposed of on the consultation principle at Clyde. — En Avant foaled a bay colt to King of Clubs on Wednesday week. — For tho C.J.C, run on Tuesday next, I fancy Libeller, and for the Derby, Amulet. — Fred Edwards wins the iirst prize in Jones' sweep on the Cup, and Mr Barring-ton, Mrs Lynch's. —Edward Day has had a nice filly by Yattendon named Ouida, sent to his training quarters. — Old Mason tried to sell his half-share of Zulu for £10 before leaving for the "West Coast. — Wheatear is in tlie same stable as Zulu, and was tried the better horse at Cup weights. — "Mazcppa" informs his readers tliat York has been relegated to the stud, and will stand at Hokitika. — Calumny's sister, Gossip, has foaled a filly to King of Clubs; Gossip is at present located in the Wairarapa District. — Mr Webb sends TJempleton's sister, Miranda, and Virginia Water's dam, Wave, to Cadcgan, while Ada (dam of Danebury) will visit Leolinus. — Vortex did a sensational gallop the other day, and his owner considers him a good thing for the Auckland Cup. — Boniface, of Parnell, has taken a sporting bet of 90 to 6 that George Eaynes' Vortex does not get a place for the Auckland Cup. — Profitt's horses have been in physic since their arrival in Auckland. Next week, however, strong work will commence. — There were only three persons on Zulu in Adams' totalisator, Messrs E. Russell, Oxley and Rathbone. They drew £30 7s (nett) a-piece. — The Melbourne Ring must have won enormous sums over the Cup. Neither first, second, nor rtuird were heavily backed.

— The Gas Company took 3G tickets in Abb ott's £10,000 sweep, which they divided into 72 5s shares. The return is £872, or about 12 guineas a-piece. — Mr Adams deserves great credit for the strict and business-like principles upon which his Derby and Cup totalisators were conducted. They gave every satisfaction both to winners and losers. — The redoubtable Mick Gallagher was again the first to receive the result of the Victoria Derby. The message came through a few minutes after seven, but neither of the papers had a line till next morning. The bookmaker who had laid over £1000 against Darebin for the Cup, looked rather yellow about the gills at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, but soon after 7 he was shouting champagne to an unlimited multitude. — Of 73 investors in the Dunedin totalisator on the Caulfield Cup only two were on Master Avenal, and they consequently received the handsome dividend of £32 17s each. --Messrs Mason and Vallancc have shipped Morpheus during the week to Wanganui. From his appearance, breeding, and constitution, he should make a very useful animal at the stud. — The Star boasts that its Cup message came through in the shortest time on re cord, but, as a matter of fact, Mick Gallagher got Grand Flaneur's win in 1880 ten minutes earlier. He has the message to prove the fact. — Somerset was an immense favourite for the V.R.C. Derby down South, as little as 5 to 4 being taken freely. Here, however, 2to 1 could always be obtained, and in some instances 3 to 1 was laid to money On Saturday afternoon. — Tattersall's Club did well to appoint Mr Mowbray and Mr Fox members of committee. People who live in tho country have neither the time nor the inclination to attend meetings. Moreover, some of the old committee are not bettors at all. — The utter fallacy of the time test is again proved by the running of Somerset and Somnus in the Victorian Derby. The former at his trial did the distance in an incredibly short time, and yet wheu it came to a race he was last all the way. — Poor Blaikio was the sole member of the local Ring who fai'ed to " skin the lamb" (i.e., to miss laying the winner) over the Cup. Only a few days ago be accommodated a backer with 200 to 1 Darebin and Zulu for the Derby and Cup. • — Mick Gallagher's Calcutta sweep on the Cup was one of tbe most successful ever held in Auckland. Blaikie bought the winner and Lyons the Czar. The latter was drawn by Steve, the driver of the Ponsonby 'bus. — Mason, the property man at the Theatre Royal, who went to the front' the other day in search of glory or a wooden leg, is the winner of half the first prize (£1350) in Abbott's £10,000 sweep on the Melbourne Cup. His brother gets the other half. — The result of the Victoria Derby satisfied only a few. Darebin was not a favourite with the majority, and yet the bookmakers had laid him in doubles d straight out to a considerable tune. Had Santa Clans or Commotion won the Ring would have enjoyed a "skinner," as neither were backed for a shilling in Auckland. — Sweeps were the order of the day on Monday last, and especially so in the Government offices. The distressed civil servants " went" their bottom dollar on. tbe Melbourne Cup. It is said that the sporting community are now taking counsel together for the purpose of finding some safe means of evading the Act in order to minister to the jmblic taste for betting sxieculations. — Several " cards" who pretend to' know something, are always wanting to bet that Foul Play will be top weight for the Auckland Cup, I cannot, however, see how this is to come oif, as the last time Foul Play met Le Loup, which was on the Christchurch Plate, the latter carrying 9st 12lb, gave Foul Play, who carried 9st, fully a 71b beating. — There was a good deal of mild betting on the Auckland Cup aud Steeple on Wednesday evening. Rnwenata and The Agent were backed to win £600 at 100 to 1, Stanley and The Agent had 100 to 2 and 100 to 3 booked several times, and a fair amount of money went on Moonstone and King Don at outside prices. In addition to the above, Foul Play has beeu backed straight out for the Onp at 100 to 12. — Bar the bookmakers, Ted Russell is the chief local winner over the V.R.C. Spring Meeting. It appears he carefully examined Zulu's performances, and was sufficiently impressed by them to invest £1 on Darebin and Zulu at 200 to 1, besides putting 10s on the latter in the totalisator. The result is, that his outlay of 30s returns the handsome total of £230 10s. Not a bad shot, was it ? — Last year, when backers won over the Melbourne Cup, they were anxious to have the settling the night after the race, but this anniversary, the Ring having won, the backers growled terribly at the idea of paying up so soon. The result was that on Wednesday evening the bookmakers paid out without receiving. People who bot in Auckland appear to think themselves injured, if by any chance, they lose. — When a person pays special and heavy rates in order to get the result of a certain race through early, it is not quite the thing for others to filch the information and deprive him of any advantages there may be attaching thereto. On Saturday evening several persons obtained the result of the V.R.C. Derby from tbe Thistle and stuck it up in their own window. This of course arrested the stream of sportsmen wending their way to Mr Gallagher's hotel, and without doubt I deprived him of a certain amount of custom. I — Some absurdly exaggerated reports relative to the winnings of various persons over the Melbourne Cup were current in town on Wednesday. One was that Alf Isaacs had "potted" £1000 in bets and stakes, whereas, as a matter of fact, his winnings only amount to one-half of tbe third prize in Abbott's £10,C00 sweep, i.e., £200, minus commission and £60 which he laid off to the Ring, or, in other words, £120. Mr Isaacs can't ' be very much obliged to the blatherers who made him the hero of such a preposterous yarn; — "Siubad" says, " Holders of Derby consultations are advertising them as the last to be held in New Zealand. Ido not think this will be the case, as I see in Canterbury the electors. are insisting on the various candidates pledging themselves to knock out the clauses in the Lottery Bill in reference to sweeps. This is quite fair, as this a bsurd Bill decidedly interferes with the liberty of the public, and is at the same time perfectly childish. It would be as well if our Otago neighbours put the same test to the candidates at their elections." — The first favourite, Hon. J. White's Segenhoe, won the Maribyrnoug Plate. He is by Marybyrnong out of tbe Fawn, aud consequently full brother to the famous Richmond and less celebrated Bosworth and Palmyra, the latter of whom won this race in 1879. Mr White gave 1000 guineas for Segenhoe when he was six; months old. He is a bay, showing he.xps of quality, a bit on the small side, certainly, as are all the family, but with steely legs, deep girth, and powerful but drooping quarters, to which his tail is set on low, his appearance behind being marred a good deal thereby. — Mr Theodore Brown's £10,000 sweep on the Melbourne Cup was drawn ou Monday evening under somewhat peculiar circumstances. The notification of the drawing in the daily papers was such as to lead to the inference that the drawing would take place at halfpast six p.m. at No 19, Grey-street, but the crowd of subscribers who assembled there at the appointed hour, were surprised to find on enquiry of the landlady that . no preparations had beeu made for the drawing at that X)lace. They accordingly proceeded nr- -a body to Mr Brown's residence, Grace-street, Ponsorfby, and found that the drawing had been in full swing since 6 o'clock, under the supervision of the following committee: Messrs G. White, T. Matthews, J. Campbell, J. Low, Smeidel, Stanwick, Tenchert, and another who declined to give his name. The full number of the tickets in the sweep was nearly 9000. The results of this drawing and the music instrument art union have been published. Mr Brown informs me that it was his intention to hold the drawing at the oflice in Grey-street, but in consequence of a number of persons having threatened to break the windows on the Saturday evening, he changed the place of drawing to his private residence. ' He further states that he paid a man named Griffin to attend at the ofilce for the purpose of answering inquiries and directing subscribers to his house, but the man absented himself from the office, and hence the fact that the subscribers were ignorant of the change. Notwithstanding Mr Brown's explanation, I am at a loss to understand why he did not have the sweep drawn in as public a manner as possible, so as to enable, the subscribers to elect their own committee.

— A " well-known bookmaker" writes to the Southland Noivs about the Gaming and Lotteries Bill as follows: — "No doubt Mr Dick thought he had done a very good stroke in getting the Bill passed, but he -wouldn't think so if he knew as much as I do. Why, the effect will be to cause at least £50,000 to be sent annually over to Melbourne. Within my own knowledge, there was last week sent from lnvercargill no less than £68 for tickets. Now what I want to know is wherein the wisdom of compelling people who will invest a pound or two to send their money ont of the country ? To be sure, some of it may come back again, but only after the percentages have been taken off. To my mind, it is just a piece of foolishness to prohibit lotteries in New Zealand unless the other Colonies do the same, and even then people so disposed would take tickets m the foreign lotteries that are far less likely than local sweeps to give returns. I don't believe you will ever be able to put down lotteries and hotting altogether, and the next best thing would be to legalise them, and prevent, as far as possible, all unfair practices. I suppose it would be too much to expect the Government to interfere so far as to make it imperative for those who get up sweeps, etc., to give security for the faithful performance of the work they undertake— i.e., the allocation of the money subscribed, but it would be a good thing if such were tbe law — it would spoil the little game of such ns North, of Wellington, and other marauders."