ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.

Observer, Volume 7, Issue 234, 7 March 1885, Page 4

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.

Emigeant (Cambridge). —La wson's Emigrant, brown horse, bred in England, 1831. JBy Tramp (son of Dick Andrews), Bluclier (son of Waxy) Camillus— Gabriel— PoLßos— Elyer, by Sweetbriar. Imported to N.S.W. by Mr Lawson in 1838.

Wanganui races Thursday and Friday. Dargaville races to-day (Friday) and to-morrow. A good number of sports have gone up. Ravenswood bids fair to be a worthy successor to Clarence over the big and little sticks. He won the double (Hurdles and "Steeples) at Dunedin, racing under his big weights like a true-hearted one. The lucky eight 'vho backed the hack Leopold on the outside machine at Forbury had a great throw in on Saturday last. Out of £521 on the 'zator, only 8 were on the winner, so their dividend would be £oS 12s. It is to be hoped the owner had one or more of these 8 tickets. A feature of this year's racing, all over Australia and New Zealand, is the splendid of St. Albans' progeny. The Newmarket Handicap winner, Coronet, and the third, Sheet Anchor, were both St. Albans' get. Tasman is another who is doing yeoman's service for his great sire, also Malua and Ringwood; in fact their name is legion.

The Referees Melbourne correspondent is a bit off in his pedigree of Matchlock. He wrote, after naming him, " the latter, byMusket, from Onyx, &c." It is almost superogatory to state that Matchlock is by Musket, out of Yatterina. No doubt, the writer was thinking of the same owner's Nordenfeldt, who is bred as he wrote.

The Champion Race is run to-morrow, at Flemington. Commotion is first favorite, at 7 to 4, and I expect, after his beating Malua in the Essendon Stakes, he will shorten on even that. I expect him to win, as, in the gcod nick he evidently is, there is not his daddy at w.f.a. in Australia. If anything does beat him, I shall expect the crack three-year-old, Silver King, to do it.

Mr Murray Hamilton, of Parnell, was the lucky dog who drew Vanguard and £168 in Grand Flaneur's sweep. The second prize went to Mercury Bay (Mr Morrison), and the third (£4B odd) to Mr Brookes, steward on one of the Waitara boats. Brookes has gone off to have a birthday on the strength of it at Wanganui races. G. Flaneur has now a consultation open on the Auckland Easter Handicap and Steeple run in April.

Nothing is more unaccountable in the world than a horse's form. Lady Emma, twice the heroine of the Dunedin Cup, was reported to be in as big form as ever she was in her life ; a private wire told me better than ever. Yet, with only 51bs more up, she could not get a " shop " in the big race this year ; and we don't nose a sell aboutgthe Hon. G. McLean's horses, either. They win if they can ; if they can't, how can they ?

The Australian Cup was run on Thursday. It had most of tho best horses in Australia engaged. The Newmarket Handicap winner, Coronet, would have to put up a threepound penalty, which would bring his weight up to 6st 1 libs, a nice racing weight, if he can stay, and all the St. Albans can stay. Silver King's win in the St. Leger would make a difference of 61bs in his weight, the condition saying, "the weight of the winner of the V.R.C. St. Leger to be not less than 75121b5," and as the colt was handicapped at 7st 61bs, another 61bs would Tiave to go up.

We have received the names of the lucky individuals who drew Ist, 2nd, and 3rd

prizes in Ada Mantua's raweep on the Dunedin Cup. The first was drawn by a musician of Stuart- street, Dunedin, the amount being £896 net. The second, £448, -was' drawn by an employee of the Black Eagle Brewery, Invercargill ; and the third, £224, by a carpenter of Leith-street Dunedin. We notice that no unfortunate press-

/: .man ever conies in for these ■ plums. What 1 Tiave we done? I ..may add Jthat Ada has : , J ;now a fresh Consultation open on the. C.J.C. Autumn Handicap, run April 6th, £' %)00 members at 10s each. See advertise- \\ iaent. -.-„ *

race till he won by a half head, giving Sou'wester 201bs and Captain "Webster 411bs over a mile and three-quarters.

It is astonishing how nearly all Traducer' sons and daughters improve with age, like good wine. Vanguard was nothing much as a two and three year old, but at four and five years he conies out and wins under such weights as Sst, Bst 31bs, 9st, 9st lib, 9st albs, Sst 91bs, and 9st 31bs, nearly all in good time and company. Then look at Minerva. The mare never was considered a stayer, and yet at five years she can get third in the best recorded Dunedin Cup, beating such cattle as were behind her in this race, and that after making all the running for nearly two miles. Foul Play was another whom nobody would trust to stay on his early form, but when he carried the stable money at Wellington as a five-year-old he soon settled any such doubts.

The first day's racing of the V.R.C. Autumn Meeting must have beeii a dreadfu. jar for the bookmakers. The three principal events, Essendon Stakes and Killinger and Newmarket Handicaps, were all won by hot favourites in Commotion, Silver King, and Coronet. The latter went out at the absurd price of 5 to 2 in a field of 33 horses. The time is ridiculously slow, but we are told the ground was heavy. Still, it could not be worse than the Ellerslie course on BoxingDay, when little two-year-old Thunderbolt covered the six furlongs after a wretched getaway in 1-1 S£, with Bst lOlbs up; and on New Year's Lay took 1-1 7^ in pretty soft ground with 7st 9lbs up and another bad start, to win the New Year's Gift. While here is a five-year-old with only 7st, takes 1-1 9 £. I rather fancy the remark passed to me by a well-known sport, that " if little Mitrailleuse had been there, she would have won easily,' is about right, If Welcome Jack started he must have had the stoppers on.

The win of Vanguard in the Dunedin Cup last Thursday week stamps him as one of the best horses over bred in this land of good 'uns, It is a pity that we could not have had a meeting between Vanguard and Welcome - Jack at weight-f or- ago before the noble son of Miss Mat left our shores. It would have been worth a lot to see. To

The Herald ought to| pay a competent reader. On Monday they made the time for the Essendon Stakes, won by Commotion, 3min. 47£ sec, instead of two minutes. The distance of the Forbury Handicap, won by Nelson, was given as 2% miles, run in 2min. 4-i^sec ! If this was true, Nelson made a record, and no mistake, only it happens to be one mile and a half. Fair entries for the Auckland Autumn Meeting: — The Easter Handicap, 200sovs., If mile, has 29 ; the Autumn Handicap, 200sovs., 1J mile, 31; and the Steeples, loOsovs., has 19 entries. Nearly all these are local, or at least North Island cattle ; in fact, with the exception of The Poet and Minerva, I don't think any hail from lower down, as Sou- wester will, I should not wonder, be found to belong to Mr P. F. Tancred's string. He bought Ugly Buck, and I should not be surprised to hear that he had either leased or bought the son of Groldsborough also. The ex- Auckland sport, Major Nelson George, had a very fair share of the good things of the big Dunedin Meeting. With the aid of Nelson he appropriated the Ladies Bracelet — a bracelet valued at £80 : a very handsome trinket for Mrs Major — and the Forbury Handicap, of 300sovs. The Major is not wont to let his cattle go out unbacked, so wo may consider that he has quite pulled up the money he lost over "Wapiti in the Cup. My remarks on the folly of making Wapiti such a hot favourite for the Cup have been proved to be quite correct, the horse never having a show at the meeting. "What a grand bit of stuff Tasman must be. "We have always had consistent performances from the game old fellow ever since George Williams rode him to victory in his first race in New Zealand — The President's Handicap, at Dunedin. His grandfinish at Wellington, and the wonderful finish he made with Sou'wester and Captain Webster in the D.J.C. Handicap last Friday, prove that the game son of Saint Albans has lost none of his fire and dash ; while his rider (Derritt) cannot be too highly spoken of for his dogged determination in driving his mount along in such a ding-dong and apparently hopeless

carry 9st 31bs in. such a select field and win at all would have been thought a great performance, but to get the two miles and a distance in the fastest time recorded. -for the race with such a crusher up would satisfy the most carping new churn that we can breed real race-horses here. In Derritt he had the -services of perhaps the clearestheaded horseman and cleverest finisher in ISTew Zealand, and what good judgment he showed is proved by all accounts of the race. This is Derritt's third big Cup this season, the other two being the New Zealand and Wellington. Though beaten, Trenton is far from disgraced by his second in the Dunedin Cup. For a three-year-old, acknowledged on all sides to have been not fully wound up, and only lately in the vet's, hands with a "leg," his performance in carrying 7st 91bs into such a place in such fast time is a remarkably good one, and shows that those who augured well from his two-year-old form are not likely to be disappointed.