OTAHUHU MEETING.

Observer, Volume 7, Issue 233, 28 February 1885, Page 4

OTAHUHU MEETING.

The Otahuhu races came off on Saturday last, and were unquestionably a great success, especially when we look at the meeting as the first of a young club. There was only one drawback, and that lay in the shape of the course, which at the stand is badly cornered, far too sharp a turn being made. It has the makings of a thoroughly good course, when a bad dip just before the home turn and this ugly corner are toned down. The Steeplechase course is a beauty, and the horses are in full view nearly the whole course. As usual, the railway authorities made things as nasty as they could. The 11,30 train, -which took out several hundred race-goers, besides the usual Waikato travellers, though passing within two minutes walk of the course, could not be allowed to stop there, though the ground was a dead level, and every thing suitable for alighting. No, that bit of red tape was across the way, and the public had to get out at Otahuhu station, and scramble across fields and through furze hedges for 15 minutes before they reached the convincing ground. That is the way the railway authorities strive to make things pleasant to the travelling public. The young club have erected a convenient stand, and charged only a reasonable figure for admission to it {2s 6d). They have also a neat totalisator box erected, and stewards' room, jockeys' room, and nearly every convenient requisite that could be expected at so short notice, and on the initial performance. The hon. sec. , Mr J. Gordon, was most courteous and obliging to all alike, and the general conduct of the meeting was, without any flattery excellent, and I may say that it is a long time since I so thoroughly enjoyed a country race gathering. Mr Owen McGee was starter, and he gave pretty general satisfaction. In the Maiden Plate there were seven starters, and Watties mount (Kahikatea) and Luna were favourites. Luna ran out very wide at the bad turn before referred to, ■and Kahikatea went on in command, and stuck there to the finish, winning anyhow, in fact almost walking home. Luna, from last, after her mistake, gov up second, but the winner was too far ahead to be caught. -Disappointment was third. Time, I.sßmin. The Maiden Pony Race brought out another good field, and was clevexdy won by Mr Frank Burt's polo pony Emblem, ridden by McMinimim, Ruby 2nd, Little Mary 3rd. Burns, who rode Ruby, tried to cut inside .after McMinimim had a lead up the straight, but of course the latter promptly jambed Iriin, and Burns protested, but the weight of the evidence, let alone what the Committee -themselves saw, was dead against him, and -the protest was dismissed. The Hurdle Race was a well-contested •event, though it was plainly evident that at least one of the starters was by no means a competitor, being evidently running weight off. Eight horses faced the starter, and

Nigger (lOst 71b), Alaric (lOst 71bs), and "Frivolity (9st 61155) were the most fancied: The former, however, started slowly, and was never in the hunt. Bushman and Worm dashed off with the lead, the former running down the hurdle, and nearly cannoned Worm off his feet, but both stood. Bushman raced like a demon at the head of affairs. He fenced rather slovenly, as did Over-the-Hills, and they knocked the hurdles all over the shop. This was right in Alarics's favour, but he would have won anyhow. Being taken to the front at the back, second time round, and winning, with any amount in hand, by eight or ten lengths from Bushman, Frivolity a bad third, and Nigger, whipped up the straight ! 4th. The Selling Hack Hurdles was won by Bob Thorpe's Bob Sawyer. Rover should have won, but ran round a hurdle, and before he could get over the other was too far ahead, though he made a fair second. The O.R.C. Handicap, of 60sovs, 1£ miles, brought out a good field, and produced a slashing race between the favourite, Mystery, (Sst), and the feather-weight, Nannie (6st). Victoria was scratched. Revolver's rider tumbled off soon after the start, and Nannie led by so far at one time that it looked as though she would never be caught. But the handsome little mare came up hand over hand when the question was asked, had got to Nannie's girths at the home turn, and shot out and won handsomely by two lengths at the finish, Linda a fair third. Time, 3— 2lf . The Steeplechase was looked upon as almost a moral for Sunray, though many fancied the plucky little brown, Whalebone, who looked as fit as a fiddle, the very reverse of Suuray, who appeared overdone and stale. Alaric wasscratched. Sunray went with a great jead, soon after the start, jumping well, as did his next attendant, Whalebone, and, indeed, all fenced excellently, excepting New Year, who ran off at the first furze hedge. At the back of the course, when hidden from sight for a moment from the stand Sunray and Whalebone came down. From this Whalebone

went ahead, passing the stand the second time about one hundred yards to the good, Sunray looking full up, and Marmion going on third. They subsequently finished in this oi'der, the little glutton, Whalebone, looking* quite disgusted at being pulled up. He seems never to have enough. The Publican's Purse, 1 mile, was won by Revolver (Bst), with Mystery (Bst 41b) close up, and Nannie third. The Selling Hack Race, won by Merlin, brought a very pleasant meeting to a conclusion at a decent hour. There was no unpleasantness or delay, and everybody prophesied a good future for the 0-R.C. Sir Garnet is still first favourite for the Newmarket Handicap, run to-morrow (Saturday), at 100 to 9. When Archer was asked in America whether he would ride during his stay, he replied : « Not for £5000 this trip." The Sportsman prints a splendid portrait of that prince of true sportsmen and grand English soldiers, the late Colonel Fred. Burnaby. To-day (Friday) nominations for Easter Handicap and Steeplechase, to be run at the A.R.C Autumn Meeting, are duo with Mr Percival, at his oifice, Queen- street. I was very fortunate in my tips for the Otahuhu Races last week. I got Mystery in the Handicap, Alaric for the Hurdles, and Revolver for the Purse, while my choice ' (Sunray) was second in the Steeple after, falling onco. The Referee's Melbourne correspondent says that " Mr Fennelly has arrived with j Bargo, Tremando, Mascotte, Monte Christo, TJralla, and Matchlock. The latter, by Musket from Onyx, is a splendid colt, and if he does not curry the blue and white with credit I am sadly mistaken. A valued correspondent writes from Otahuhu : "The Observer's tips for the Otahuhu Races have, as in other cases, proved the correct card, or nearly so in every race. In the Steeples Sunray got second, Mystery won the Handicap, Revolver the Publicans' Purse, and the Hurdles was

won by Alaric, as predicted by you." This sort "Sf '" appreciation makes a felloe feel good, and desire to go and do likewise in the future.

Mr W. Filgate, the popular secretary of the Adelaide Tattersall's, writes a splendid letter to the Advertiser, showing up the disgraceful Puritanism which has made Adelaide the laughing stock of the whole world, by rendering betting in any form a penal offence, and ruined one of the healthiest racing clubs in the world. The use of the totalisator will be the queston on which aspirants to Parliament will stand or fall at the approaching elections. Mr H. Watson, an amateur, rode a horse called Mernder, by King Tom out of Pandora, in the Open Steeplechase at Caulfied on Saturday, -February 9th, which he had trained himself, and won with ridiculous ease from a field of eleven. Mr Watson also won the Selling Steeples on Beresford. The win on Mernder w r as all the more meritorious, as the horse had never appeared on course before. Mernder is, says " Vigilant," the tallest horse that ever graced an Australian race-course, being quite 18 hands ! 'Twas at the Otahuhu races. They had it all readied up lovely. A few backers were inclined to plunge on Mystery, so they fixed up a pill for them. The trainer was got at (so they thought) * they kidded themselves their little £50 was going to stiffen the pretty daughter of the Painter. They fixed up some amateur bookmakers and got them laying 50's to 20 and auy other odds almost anyhow, till Joe and his friends wondered where all the •obligation come from, and began to smell a rat. They asked, "Is the mare speeling, Ted?" and Ted replied, "She is." Theother crowd heard this, and asked Ted what it meant. "Ain't we all right, old man, eh?" " It's a square affair," says Ted • " I've given her a bran mash and a bucket of water, and if she can win with that lot, it is funny to me." So they laid her in the double with Sunray, and they kept on laying to all who would

take. When she cauie up and won as good a race as she ever did in her pretty life, they knew they had been borrowed, and the biters were bit. There was no bran mash about her then they knew. Then they rushed off frantically to try and buy the other " leg," Sunray; but in Mr John Marshall they tackled the wrong man. If his name ever gets sullied on tlie turf, it will be when he is not looking: so he just refused their £-90, and let the horse speel for the money. As it happened, he fell, and was beaten by Whalebone, -and so saved these smart people from coming a regular mucker. But the feelings of those who had been put on to lay the mare, and of course laid on their own account at the same time, may be better imagined than described. And let me add, these people were not regular bookmakers who had readied this affair up, but " mushrooms" and "fellow citizens " — and the very sort who run down the regular dustmen.