COURSING.

Observer, Volume XVI, Issue 920, 29 August 1896, Page 20

COURSING.

The postponed meeting of the Auckland Coursing Club will be concluded next Saturday. No doubt, a great many will journey out, especially as this will be the last opportunity they will have for nearly twelve months' of witnessing the sport at Avondale Plumpton. To those who have not as yet witnessed any of the A.C.C. Meetings, I can but recommend them to be present next Saturday, and assure them that nowhere throughout the colony will they be likely to witness better sport. Coursers themselves are satisfied that the sport has now got a firm hold in Auckland, as it is also rapidly growing in favour down the Coast. There is therefore no reason to be fearful of the prospects for the next season, the present one closing as it does so full of promise for the future.

The draw for the Recovery and Champion Collar Stakes took place last evening at the Occidental, and a fair amount of speculation took place. For the Champion Collar Stake?, Shylock and Luck's All hold the pride of place in the betting, even money being taken that one of the two will win the Champion Collar Stake ; next in demand being Mr Charles Whittin's Guy Fawkes, who was well supported by the owner to win a fair stake at two to one. The Recovery Stakes was also operated on, the principal medium of support being Best Bower, who was backed for a good stake down to eight to one, and was also coupled in the double (the Recovery and Champion Collar) with Luck's All and Shylock at 100' ato 2 and 100's to 2^ for about 500. A fow hundreds was taken about Tradesman (Merchant — Katero) at 300 to 2 and 100 to 3 straight out for the Recovery Stake. It is a great pity that the Taranaki v. Auckland football clashes with the coursing, as the latter sport is growing with the public of late.

Quiltiri is fancied in the South for the New Zealand Cup. He is looking very well. Things are quiet at present at EDerslie racecourse, most of the horses being eased in their work on account of the A.li C. first Spring meeting not coming off. Mr Geo. Outts has been patting the 2-year-olds through their facings with the starting machine. Most of them act kindly! Dummy won the Christchurch G.N. Hurdles almost as comfortably as Mutiny won the big Steeplechase. Duramy had only been schooled four times before leaving for Christchurch. He is a natural jumper, and it is hard to say why he was not more fancied previous to the day of the race. On this head, perhaps doubt as to his stayiDg it out was the chief reason. The time was wonderfully good, but several private watches made it even better than the official time :>min ii'l^sec was the official time, while some made it 3min 58sec. Perhaps one of the finest finishes ever witnessed for a steeplechase, was that of the Beaufort Stepelechase, the second day of the C.J.C. Meeting. Gillie won, but he ought not to have won. Dromedary was a fearful long way in the rear nearing home the last round, and must have come marvellously fast at the finish. It seemed, at the entrance to the straight, merely a match between Gillie and Joker, and bets were freely made as between these two. At the finish there was scarcely a head between Gillie, Dromedary and Joker, and Dromedary, had she kept a more forward place during the race, must have won.

Mr Keith has exchanged the chaser Nat for Happy Dream (by Somnns). Mr Douglas has stated his intention not to again start Mutiny. Others of his jumping team have already left New Zealand for Australia. Antares has been going so "well at Ellerslie that he must be looked on at present as a very likely competitor next November at Riccarton. Hope and Redmond accompanied Mr Douglas' team of jumpers to Austrar lia. Mutiny has been taken home to MDouglas' station at Te Mahanga. Magazine was so little fancied by Stewart for the race he won at Christchurch that be took the mount on Clarence instead. Hall rode a good race on Magazine. Tippler, who ian in the C.J.C. Grand National Hurdles, was so injured through coming in contact with one of the hurdles that he may have to be destroyed. Totalisator receipts at the Christchurch Jockey Club Meeting this year showed a great increase over that of last season's Grand National Meeting, viz., £4000. Reka continues to be backed for the Caulfield Cup by the Sydney betting public. Reka maintains his position at the head of quotations as nominal favourite. Trotting in Canterbury is at present par excellence. A superb track, great appointments, big fields of well-bred, fast trotters, and a good sporting public. Trotting in Canterbury goes well. ■ Bookmakers throughout New Zealand are forming themselves into a Bookmakers' Association, for the furtherance of plans to place them on an amicable footing with racing clubs throughout the colony. ' Ignoramus ' tips for the Champion Collar, Shylock or Luck's All ; for the Recovery, Softgoods or Errandboy; the Sapling fell through.only three nominations being received. Mr Martin Taylor has arrived to take part in the two days' coursing, and is supporting his dog Luck's All for the Champion Collar Stake. That good dog Shylock also takes part in the same event. After General Tracy won the Sires' Handicap at Lancaster Park'(Christchurch), Mr Grigg. his owner, offered to match his horse against anything in the colony for three miles. There is some talk of a match being arranged berween Albert Victor and General Tracy at two miles. Albert Victor, is, I think, the faster horse, but the General is a great sticker. Mahaki still remains in the New Zealand Cup. It can hardly yet be known if he will be likely to stand" Later, when hard graft on hard ground will be necessary, it will soon be known what likelihood there will then be of his starting. If Mahaki should stand, then it seems to me that with him well, with 83t. 3lb. he will be the only horse in the race. But I very much doubt seeing him figure in this year's Cup ; that there is a chance of his so doing i 3 apparent through his acceptance. There is another supposed cripple in the race in Brigand, with only a feather weight, who would also make things merry over the Cup distance if he had condition and a good set of understandings. That horses do often dodge the betting public has been exemplified over and over again, and Aucklanders especially will remember not a few occasions when local representatives from the North at various times have, afcer swallowing up a good deal of the not over plentiful, come out when just forgotten or neglected, bearing with their victory a fat enough dividend to replenish the coffers of the extra faithful few. Yet the policy of always following certain horses, in form and out of form, is not a good one, or, except very occasionally, a profitable one, and the followers of such policy, if they are in the end rewarded for such persistency, are at anyrate deserving of their ultimate good fortune. Most Northerners were watching St. Kilda for the Grand National Hurdles. And I myself thought that that race was to be his special effort, and after due consideration of all known conditions of the race, finally plumped for St. Kilda to win. But though Byers' horse demonstrated his fleetness of foot in the Welter Race, and astonished those Southerners who bad not previously seen him race by his superior dash, the Grand National Hurdle Race saw him not. Previous to the meeting St. Kilda was showing signs of soreness, and I do not think his owner and trainer fancied him a great deal for the race which he won. The same reason was the cause of his withdrawal from the Hurdles. I suppose. It was a great pity backers of his in the double did not have a run for the second leg, but a man can hardly be expected to risk a horse of St. Kilda's calibre when he i thinks he has no chance of winning.

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