RACING FIXTURES.

Observer, Volume 7, Issue 347, 1 August 1885, Page 14

RACING FIXTURES.

NEW ZEALAND. Aug 7 — Ashburton Hunt Club Steeplechases. Aug 12 — Christohurcb H.C. Steeplechases. August 28.— North Canterbury Steeplechases. Oct 1 and 2.— G-eraldine Spring Meeting. Nov. 10, 12, and 13.— C.J.C Spring Meeting. DECLARATION Ol? WEIGHTS. Aug. I.— Christ-church H.C.S. Aug. 15.— North Canterbury Steeplechases. NOMINATIONS, ACCEPTANCES, &C. Aug. B.— Acceptances Christchurch H.C.b. Aug B.— Nominations North Canterbury Steeple- - Aug?22— Acceptances North Canterbury Steeplechases. AUSTRALIA. September i2.— Great Metropolitan Stakes. October 17.— Oaulfield Cup. « 3i — Victoria Derby. November 3.— Melbourne Cup. Clarence did not go to the post for the V.R.C. Grand National There is no change to report in the betting market quotations for the past week. Leo received such severe injuries in the Grand National Steeplechase that he had to be destroyed. The ' books ' came off second best at the Grand National Meeting. Commotion, it is said, has never looked better than he does at present. July has been backed for close on £1500 for the Melbourne Cup. Duke of Athol, Revenge, and King of the Gipsies have been scratched for the Melbourne Cup. Messrs Vallance and Harris, well-known members of the Southern ring, have left for a trip to the other side. Tommy Lyford is still in a very weak state, but he is progressing most favourably towards Tecovery. Sandal scored three wins at the Port Augusta Meeting, winning the Port Augusta Cup, the Shorts, and Flinders Handicap. Welcome Jack had a nasty fall while doing a gallop at Flemington lately. He did not, however, sustain any serious injury. '■• Several accidents occurred at the V.R.C. Grand National Meeting, Croker, Malone, and Roddy M'lvor coming to grief. The latter had his collar-bone broken ' Grand Flaneur,' the well-known and popular Auckland sweep promoter, announces in another column of this issue that he has opened a consultation on the Great Metropolitan Stakes, to be run on September 22, at Sydney. The manner in which ' Grand Flaneur's' sweeps have been conducted in the past is a sufficient guarantee of straightforwardness. See his programme. Mr George Belcher, one of the oldest bookmakers in New Zealand, has taken up his residence amongst us. He is located for the present at the Imperial Hotel, Queenstreet, where he is ready and willing to lay the longest market odds on the Melbourne or New Zealand Cups. Any private correspondence will find him at box 389, Post-office, Auckland. The following are the results of the minor events at the V.R.C. Grand National Meeting, taken. ■ from the Sportsman : Maiden Hurdle Race : Hippogriff, 1 ; Sea Breeze, 2 ; Duration, 3 . Maiden Steeplechase : Reticent, 1; Lady Ashton, 2; Kulkyne, 3. SellingHurdle Race : Student, 1 ; Flamborough, 2 ; Doncaster, 8. Flat Race : The Ghost, 1 ; Plausible, 2 ; Bohemian, 3. Jacob Pinko showed me his book on Saturday last. He is doing some very steady betting on both Melbourne and New Zealand Cups.° Jacob is a very steady better, and he does not put out his hand any further than he can draw it back nicely and comfortably. His advertisemement in our sporting column shows that he has books open on the Hawkesbury Handicap, Great Metropolitan, Melbourne Cup, New Zealand Cup and Derby, and Caulfleld Cup. His address is Tattersall's Club. ■' Ada Mantua's ' consultation on the Grand National of Melbourne closed with "a full complement of subscribers. Again we are furnished with the names and addresses of members of the Committee, aud of those who were fortunate enough to secure the chief prizes, members of the Press being associated -with leading citizens of Dunedin on this occasion, and under their . supervision everything was carried through in accordance with the rules never departed from by this far-famed promoter. The first prize (£292 2s net) was drawn by a well-known publican at Reefton, the second (£146 4s) fell to a sailor at Lyt-

telton,\and the third (£97 10s) was secured by the better-half of a Dunedin newspaper man.

Mr Joseph Gallagher informed me that he he has laid the following wagers within six days for the Melbourne Derby and Gup :— For Cup : 500 to 10 Reginald ; 500 to 10 Merlin ■ 400 to 20 Commotion ; 500 to 5 Leslie;' 5)0 to 10 Tom Brown; 200 to 8 Oudeis; 300 to 8 J?he Pencil; 1000 to 10 Trenton; 400 to 6 Lennox ; 600 to 12 Warwick; 1000 to 10 July; 1000 to 30 Coronet; 500 to 10 First Demon. N.Z. Cup : 1000 to 40 Trenton ; 1000 to 40 Tasman ; 1000 to 50 Lady Emma; 1000 to 30 Lady Evelyn. Joe has not had what is thought a very good Melbourne Cup book up to the present time. Last year he laid the winner Malua for his full amount, viz., £1000, and the year before he overlaid Martini-Henry for Derby and Cup to the time of £1500, but he was at his post on settling day, and come up smiling on both occasions. He is still to be found at Tattersail's Club, or his ' post,' at the comer of Vulcan Lane, pencilling the wagers down every day. My advice to backers is bet with tried men—' Tried and true ' is Joe's motto, The Sjwtsman of the 22nd has the following :— ' Although but one absolute favourite managed to get home first at the V.R.C. Grand National Meeting last Saturday, 1 have heard of several backers who won big stakes. First and foremost conies the commissioner to the Ballarat stable, who, after backing the doubles, Sheet Anchor and Morven, Sheet Anchor aud Sailor, and ihe Agent and Morven for the stable, took a couple of thousands about The Agent and Wymlet "on his own hook." As he also stood Hippogriff for a bit, his settling book on Monday showed a credit balance of over four monkeys. The Agent party divided considerably more than that sum amongst four, the followers of that stable also having a decent win over Eeticent. Perhaps the luckiest of the winners on the day was a Sydney bookmaker, who got into Melbourne about twelve, drove down to the course, took six ponies about Hippogriff, a hundred and twenty to eighty about Reticent, didn't fancy Sheet Anchor at the short odds, and laid five hundred to four hundred against him, backed Wymlet for the Steeplechase, Student for the Selling Hurdle, The Ghost for the last race, and left for Sydney the same evening more than a thousand pounds richer than when he crossed the border twelve hours earlier. ]N T ot bad business this. Another case of successful puntiag is worth recording. A backer, renowned for a propensity for ' playing his bit up,' invested a pound on Hippogriff for the Maiden Hurdle at 6to 1 ; this coming off, he took nine pounds to six about Ketieent, staked the lot on Sheet Anchor, and fell. Having then a pound left he commenced afresh ° took 7 to 1 about Wymlet for the Grand National Steeplechase, 30 to 7 about Student for the Selling Hurdle, and invested the lot on The Ghost at tens to 1. lie went home with a clear profit of nearly four hundred pounds. As in England just at present says BelVs Life, the ready-money betting question is, according to our latest exchanges, attracting great attention in New South Wales. A correspondent of the Australian Sportsman writes as follows ; — ' According to the notices posted in the Rand wick Paddock at the recent meeting, no betting is allowed under any circumstances, because the law does not permit it, and any bookmaker guilty of so doing is instantly expelled and his license cancelled — in other words his £25 confiscated. On the other hand, in the Leger enclosures, which adjoins the Grand Stand and paddock, and resembles it in every sense of the word, cash and ticket betting is carried on as in any other country in the world, except South Australia. Can anyone explain to me the difference of a cash bet in the Leger Stand and Grand Stand Paddock ? There can be no difference, legally or morally. I simply ask why is it allowed on one part of Randwick and not on the other? Why are the public of the Leger Stand to have a benefit which those who pay more for the Grand Stand cannot enjoy. Admit for argument, a man unknown to the bookmaker, and there are thousands at Randwick anxious to back their fancy or tip, how can they possibly get on if they are strangers ? A bookmaker certainly could not trust them if they are not allowed to stake their money. The excitement of racing is the interest a man has in certain horses, and if the public are debarred from having an interest in the shape of betting then racing will die a natural death, as in South Australia. One need go no further than that colony to see that betting is a necessity to support racing and to attract the public. It may be a necessary evil, but whether so or not, it will never be suppressed. Under these circumstances why is the law so arbitrary in the Grand Stand Paddock at Randwick? Why is it that only members of Tattersall's and a few chosen of the elite should be able to back horses and not the chief support of racing, the public ?' Plenty of similar notices to that referred to are to be found in the cheaper rings in England, but they are taken very little account of. We are a moral country, we are, we are, we are. We are blessed with the most fatherly and motherly — not to say grandmotherly — legislators that ever kept the feet of an errant and fractious people upon the straight path of virtue and moral rectitude since the days when the first good man went astray in. the Garden of Eden ; of course, our legal system is not perfect ; no human institution is ; but it averages splendidly. The

strong arm of the law does not always plant its blows quite at the right time and place, but if it misses the erring one, it makes amends by dropping with crushing force upon the next offending culprit. There are, for instance, certain trying evils and glaring sins among us at which our high-toned and pure-souled justice might appear to shrink, but there be some other faults and foibles and naughty habits of the people which, howsoever carefully they are concealed, can never be hidden from its all searching gaze. Take, for instance, that wicked sin of b etting and getting up consultations, and mark with what diligence, cunning, and persistence the law means to pursue and punish after the Ist of November, 1886. • No matter where men may bet, or with whom they bet, they will not escape the majesty of the law. The eye of the law can see through the walls of a club or a public-house ; the arm of the law can reach into the most retired streets and most cunningly-devised secret places ; the officers of the law will stoop to any disguise or subterfuge or stratagem, for the law will behold consultations and betting as a deadly sin. The latest instance of this kind is a case of two bookmakers being fined in Sydney for betting in a public-house. The law is a beautiful and a wonderful thing, and common people cannot expect tc understand it. Even che judges blunder ten times a day in their interpretations of its meanings, and how then are poor bookmakers and journalists to get the hang of the thing. As for betting as an abstract question we do not care to attempt a dictum. Some men bet because they like the excitement, some because they like" to win, and all because they think they have a right to do as they please with their own money. Then again, some do not bet because they think betting is wicked, some because they have never contracted the babit, but most because they are afraid to lose. The latter reason is not a very high or pure one ; but a great deal of very reputable human charity, and chastity, and honesty, and holiness rests upon no better foundation. _It is a cyniccil thing to say, no doubt, but if no men behaved themselves but those who were inspired with pure and fearless love of virtue for its own sake, there would be fewer Christians in the world than there are now ; and if all those men who liked to bet dared to bet there would not be enough policemen to arrest the bookmakers, nor magistrates to try them.