AUSTRALIAN AND FOREIGN SPOTTING.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5436, 11 December 1895, Page 4

AUSTRALIAN AND FOREIGN SPOTTING.

• Mr SI. F. D>»yer hafi not yet forgotten bhe lesson he received in the selling lace line' 'in, rEo gland, -remarks jan "Americiin paper; " Be'ii " Btuah waa entered in the Youthful Btakea at Gravesend to be sold forJEIOOO. leflß than one-third his value. Visions of his Transcontinental lossea and iumonrs of bidding up his rtcent purchase if a winner, and ot Claiming nim if a loser, caußed his owner to put the pea thrrough ihe name, of Bramble's son at the last ininnte. 'Mr Uivy-r thinks highly of r the olaiming clause, too^-and has bo expressed himself. '.:'•'•

' One of theimost Batisfactory features of the Middlepark Pirit6 ii (eay-i the London ! Sportsman), that tho weights are arranged on a'hinh eMle. 6h»blirig.'the finest hprs'etoen of the^day *'to ride. Thus ' when T. Loa tes, ..firat jockey to the PAlace House stable, 'was' 'claimed fbr "Knight of the Thistle, Mr Leopold de, Rothschild wwats t able to; ; fill back .upon P. Pratt for Bt' Fmqttin, to whioh fact was due in no small measure the colt's success. Pratt irbde a beaut if til race, St FrUpquin.beihg the first of the ttir-ie placed hor.es to show •ijigns of tiring, yet with BcchteagnificeU t cJuraSe did he struggle on, assisted by all (he Bkill of a master of tWatt of jockey.shio, that he gradually got, Omladiua into difficulties, • and 'et_ymg -on' beat - wan a I tfrkncHy contested race by half a length., i Pratt ia a, nephew of Fred 'Archer, and ; waßtaugh.'vby hi*» "to ride' when a; Very. | Uttle boy. Thoug- only 'ten yeara old •"when his men tor died; he retains many ,of ! !he famo'ua jockey's maDherisma and ! characteristics," and- to those early lessens may probably bi traced much ' of the flfaish, Bcience.'and txceileace so noticeable in the raoe.

! A ViCNiriao gentleman haa (aaya the Sjdney Referee) dropped, atiroas an item overlooked by most racing people, viz., Chat Water Jail, Wallace; and dttraria ftra ail direeb descendants of the' imported mare Meleeina. Mr Twomey, to whom the credit belongß of drnwing attention to the fact, write* bb" follows:— "In" the year 1858 Mr R. F. Greene imported the thoroughbred mare Melesinn, who was then in tosA toEpd Hart; the foal turned out to be * brown filly, which was called Sweetheart. la 1865 Meleeina produced Fawn to The Premier. The Fawn Watt mated with Maribyrnongand produced Richmond, who is .the sir» of Aura, dam of Amaria. Sweetheart in 1665 foaled Mermaid to Fiehnrman. Mermaid in turn wnp put to The Batb.and produced a bay filly which was called Melody. Melody to Goldafeorough produced Melodious, the daui of Wallace. ' -In 18(62 Swelabheart was pnt to Indian Warrior, and had a filly which 'waa named Caresß.' Oaread "Jaud Millionaire gave ua Milliner ; Milliner and Maribyrnong produced Little Wanzer, who, wben mated with Niagara; produced the colt Waterfall. It will thua be seen t!hati the three great three-year-olda— AurHria. Wallace, and Waterfall — are fill dni-cendanta of the imported mare Melee) nu." ■ I

Mr W. Gray, of Btartiiii? machine fame, ipfoima' me (writes " Umpire " of the S.dney Referee) tbafc hit u«ent in America has made all urrMn^w 11^ for the introdnction of Gray barriers on several raceb'orßea in that country. They are to be installed in California to begin with, though there has been a good deal of opposition made, . probably by persons directly intereeted in delaying the advent of tha machine, finii for tbie the barriers wqiild navo been in nae on several courses before sow. r'/There are certain items of bnsin&a to too arranged Bof ore a new departure, such ns starting machines, dan be installed in America, where such a consideration as •> jhtt -greatest Rood lor '-tho;- gr'eatefit. imn>ber"-iB < not always paramount. In thiit country there »re *lways odd people to be met wi»h who wanb, at least their sh«»nj -yf anything .that is going-outi^of, which eproflt. is likely to be made; ; If it geta a fair trial the race-going people of

America will soon declare for the machine, und drive the red-flag man, with bis fantafctic tricks and bad language to the rear. I should say the starting machine will be welcomed as a positive luxury by long-suff.ring owners and the public, who havebrien worried for years by incompetent starters and a wretched Bjßtem of despatching horses. Wben the mail left England St Simon, was ac the head of the winning stallions' with £28,778. His best winner is, of course, St Fruequin, who had secured£B22o prior to taking the Dewhurst PlanMost of St Simon's best winners this year, are colts, and not fillies, as is usually th» c-.se. Omladina see ma to be the crack filly, and she is by Boyal Hampton. Barcaldine and the defunct Isonotny were almost equal for second place with a little over -218,000 each. The Irish horse's great card has, of coarse, been Sir Visto, who won the Derby and St Lager, worth -210.025. Isonomy's beßt winners were La Var, lsio glass, and Ravensbury, who have aii retired from the turf. La Sagesse and The Owl keep Wißdom (dead) in a good place, and old Galopin is well np again. Bend Or was in a bad way until Laveno won a ten thousand pounder. Of the. youn« horses Friar's Balsam, Melanion, and Despair are pretty well up, but -Donovan, and Sheen are not doing too well, and Morion is very low in tbe list. Gallinule, who stands in Ireland, and ib the tire of Gazetteer, Lesterhn, .Rookdove, and Poctmarnock, iB a son of Isonomy, whose Jine Bhould be very formidable when Taint-lass and Ravenfabury come to be represented three yearß- hence. Kendal, who is said to have cost. his. present owner £18,000, has thirteen winners this season, but none of . them, have been capably of winning a big stake. . "-77" .'"".'■ --It how appears (says the Sydney Bulletin) tliat * Onwftld'a " surprise *"* ih I>he V.'R.C. Handicap, -was a droll incident altogether. The' Ballwut colt was started to oblige the -Palo Alto people, who wanted him to make a pace for their stayer. 'Onward.' jockey, however, made the pace only moderate for the first half-mile ; then, starting with a good lead, put in a fast mile and a quarter, md beat them all. If the riders of either Polo Alto, Waterfall or Burrabari had been 'keen 'judges of speed, they would have put on some steam in the early part of tbe race. Then Oa ward would, undoubtedly, have got ran down at ', the finish. D .wes, on Burrabari, showed ■ bad judgment, seeing that the big horse — who was carrying very little more than his Melbourne Cop weight— allowed the time for this one and three-quarter miles to be 7ueo slower in proportion, than the time- for the Two-mile 1 Cup, in which Burrabari ran a good third. Mistakes of this kind upset racing "form" in long distance raceß much more . frequently than bad luck prevents the beat horse from winning. Given a sufficiently strong pace all the way, there's not much fear of the best horse being unable to get through his field to wardß the end of a fourteen furlong struggle— that is,, of course, if he hasn't been previously lamed or knocked down at one of the curves.

| The raca for the Middlepark Plate was (writes the special commissioner of the London" Sportsman) one of the finest ever seen, and the winner Bhould always prove hia superiority on a course that is not down hill, as his forelegs are not built for getting down an incline,- aad he ia certain to be opposed for the Darby on that account. Coming into the Abingdon Dip he was all- abroad, but leaving* . that he %6nt up. the slight in;clteß^tO' : ''the.-'winr': -iiing poit - with tho T bulldog determination wh'ch one likes to ;eee;':in ,a racehorse, Becbndinjj the splendid efforts made by hie pilot,7o?i -Pr^ the finest races 1 have ever seen ; indeed, the remark ota bystander that he ia the only jockey who can keep bis bead with the appearance of Mornington Cannon on the scehe> is .not far off the mark, as he certainly rode ont the finish with the greatest judgment and coolness. _ The Middlepark Plate has been a singularly luoky race for Pratt*, j Who only received a chance mount on Speedwell last year, through 'Cannon having to ride Tirpbrley. Thiß year it was the same, T. Loatee being claimed for Knight _f the Thistle, left Hayhoe without a jockey for St Frusquin, but he m-.de no jmistake ih the substitute, Ap4 I quite ex- i pecfctosee Pratt now permanently engaged ,; lor the stable, and riding St Fru6qm'n through all his engagements'. Speaking of j Knight of the Thistle in connection' with ihe Middlepark Plate reminds me tbat ! the brother to Lady Eosebery: ran very ' well in the'race, though hie performed very jgreen, and seemecTto Have very little idea of what was required of him, but given more time and. experience, I- am pretty confident be will make a good horse, jfersixm'on, who hardly looked himself before the race,, ran a good horee, and his royal owner need by no means despair jof securing the greatest honours of the Turf with him next year. I was gratified to find that my contradiction of the report that the horse- had- gone wrong in .his Wind wbb confirmed by several experts who placed themselves in a position to know while the race was being run. j The London Truth has the following upon the subject of the handicapping of tUna in England :— " The Australian horee Paris 111., has been made a great favourite for the Cambridgeshire, and if he wins ib Will manifestly be necessary for the Jockey Club to engage a new handicapper forthwith', as owners will decline to put up soy longer with Buch deplorable aberrations as those which Major Egerton has recently disgusted them with. The pitchforking of Paris lit. into fhe Cambridgeshire with *7st 101 b, is a glaring scandal of : the most flagrant and incomprehensible description, and I cannot conceive upon what principle or motive it has been adventured. There is no excuse for it, and, indeed, there can . be no excußP.: The horse has been an excellent • performer in Australia, and in October last he won the Caulfield Cup with 9nt 41b on' his back; beating a field of twenty-.eight. The fact that he was allotted each a weight in an .importanthandicap shows clearly enough the sort of estimate which h&B been formed of him io Australia. * With this and other good running before hia eyes, what right has Major E-erton to give the animal such a ridiculous weight aB 7st 101 b? The horse Wins one of the most important racer* in Australia with 9st 4lb from a large field, and, en com **c* to England, the fatuously complacent -jousey club official places him below a lot.of seaond-rate and played-out handicap horses. It would be interesting to learn what excuse Major Eger ton cau advance for his infatuated conduct. That he has. committed a large error is plain enough from the manner in which the horse has been backed since the weights appeared by men who are not in the habit Ot throwing their money away. If any English owner Bent a horse with the antecedents of Paris 111. to race in France or Australia, is it to be for a moment supposed that any handicapper would be such a simpleton as to throw in the creature with such contemptuous levity P If Major Kgerton waa not ncquaintefi with the Auetralian form of Pari-- 111, he should' most assuredly. have made it his bueinees lo inquire into it, and if he did not do so he was guilty of most reprehensible carelessness. On the other hand, if he was acquainted with the fact, why has a borse been given 7nt 101 b which eleven months ago won a bis handicap with 9at 41b from a field of tWenty-eight ?" v