SPORTING NEWS. »

Star (Christchurch), Issue 8248, 22 February 1905, Page 1

SPORTING NEWS. »

FAR AND NEAR. (By THE POSSIBLE.) The Jackson Stakes, which will be run on tne second day of the Wanganui Jockey- Club's meeting, promises to provide a very interesting contest this year. About forty horses survived the last payment in November, but the field is likely to be very materially reduced on Friday. ' Pi-obably the field for the race will be drawn from Achilles, Stronghold, Martello, Cuneiform, Noctuiform, Sungod, Boomerang, King Billy and Multifid. The fact that Achilles has not been showing so much brilliancy this season gives added interest to the race, as he is unpenalised, and if he were in his best form the race would look very much like a certainty for him. Even as it is, he has such a pull in the weights that he appears to have a very rosy chance of succeeding. Stronghold will probably be the only tnree-year-old in the field. In the early part of this season he ran very badly, but his showing in the Middle Park Plate was very attractive, and if he shapes as well at "Wanganui next week he should give a very good account of himself. Of the two-year-olds that I have put down as likely to be on hand, gooff form has been shown by Sungod, Noctuiform, Multifid, King Billy and Boomerang, while Martollo and Cuneiform have still to make their first appearance in public. Martello is the higfl-priced Rose of Wellington colt, in Tilley's stable. I hear that he has been shaping' well in private, but whether he will prove equal to a task of this sort is quite another question. Cuneiform, the Multiform — Bluefire colt, attracted a lot of attention when the Yaldhurst two-year-olds were down at Riccarton in the spring, though at that time he did not look fit for serious business. If he carries the yellow and black livery next week, Cuneiform is sure to be a hard horse to beat, with the trying tackle available at Yaldhurst. Some good judges who saw Multifid at the Auckland Summer meeting tell me that he ran very green, but that he is a very promising colt, and likely to develop into a first-class racehorse. If that estimate turns out correct, we may find the Taranaki two-year-old equal to defeating all the opposition. Most prominent American jockeys seem to have a remarkable sense of their own importance, and " swelled head " eventually . contributes to the downfall of many of them. It seems likely to have that effect in the case of Jaiidebrand, who headed the winning list last year. He was riding at the Ascot Park track at Los Angeles last month, and, because ho was Hildebrand, seemed to think he could do as he liked. However, the stewards looked at matters in a different light, and after cautioning him a couple of times, fined him heavily for rough rid-

ing. This annoyed Hildebrand, and he made a special announcement that he would ride no more on the southern track. The stewards did not beg him to stay, and then Hildebrand's business manager went into the stewards' stand and threatened to remove the crack rider if he were not treated better. A Los Angeles correspondent deals as follows with the interview between the manager and the stewards: — "I would hate to tell you just what the stewards said to him, but the business manager went- awey from that place a sadder and a wiser man with a smaller hat measure. Kildebrand has a big contract for the next two years, and he don't care whether he rides or not. The boy is not a bad boy, but he has an inflated notion of his own importance. He thought if he stopped riding the business would fall. away, but " the gates are still open and there is no appreciable difference in the gate each day. There were races in Los Angeles before Eugene Hildebrand was discovered in the wilds of Central California, and there will be racing here when he is a time-expired transfer." In a recent issue of the London "Sportsman," the "Special Commissioner " refers at some length to the victory of Great Scot in the Indian Viceroy's Cup. In commenting on the Australian-bred crack, he says : — It is to be hoped that Mr Apcar will send Great Scot to England when he has done racing, for he would assuredly make a very valuable stallion. It may be said that we have enough Stockwell blood, but that is far from a correct view of the position. "We have enough beyond question of the Dancastef. line of Stock* veil, and also of that which descends through Lord Ronald ; but oi Stockwell's best son (Blair Athol) we have very little, and of Blair Athol's best son (Prince Charlie) we have none. Being intensely inbred to Prince Charlie, Great Scot would be the very horse to give us that line in its most potent developments. His sire (Lochiel) was not only a great racehorse, but an extraordinarily successful stallion, and Clan Stuart, the other Prince Charlie horse in Great Scot's pedigree, is known to us as the sire of the Cambridgeshire winner, Georgic. Great Scot is a white-legged chestnut horse, and he was recommended to me by Mr Yuill, of Melbourne, as good enough to buy for racing in. England when that gentleman first saw him Rt Randwick in the spring of his three-year-old career. It would have been a good purchase had anyone in this country been sufficiently enterprising, but Great Scot was at that time unknown to fame. It was not until he bad proved himself to be about the best three-year-old in Australia that Mr Apcar, later on, gave 2000gs for him. He may have been lucky to win the Viceroy Cup of 1903, for Carabine came to grief a- week before' the race; and Friar Tuck, who had finished third for Ard Patrick's Derby and Sceptre's < St Lcger, was prostrated by fever shortly after landing in India, and this left him wrong in his wind. The son of friar's Balsam has since then been sent to Australia as a stallion. . They have little or no Hermit blood in Australia, and !it is possible ,that FjiM... Tuck may. nrove as successful "~ there as did feay Hermit and St Mirin in South America. However, Great Scot stands out as a champion, both on his Australian and Indian records, and he would be a rare sort to mate with Galoprh and "St Simon mares. It is not as though Prince Charlie and his sons had been stud failures; quite the contrary, ' for the old horse himself did wonders in the U.S.A., and his son. Pirate of j Penzance. is always high in the wini ning sires' list there, not to mention I other good Prince Charlie stallions, such as Wagner, Hayden Edwards, etc. Lochiel's triumphs in Australia need no recapitulation. It is not too much to expect that Great Scot, bred as he is, would sire some of his stock equal to Prince Charlie and sound in the wind. Not even the Flying Foxes would beat that. It must not be thongbt that in thus appreciating Great Scot as a probable stallion of high value T am in any way losing sight of the Herod question. That is even more vital than the restoration of the Blair Athol line of Stockwell, for Stockwell we have, and going strong, too, through other lines ; but Herod is almost extinct in this country, and the consequent decadence of the British thoroughbred will be very .rapid if 'wiser counsels are not adopted, and that forthwith. Is it not one of the si^ns of the times that neither in the South African nor Indian big races this week could English horses get a place? Add to this the absence of so many of the best foreign buyers from the December sales, and we have, to say the least, food for disquieting thought,

The beaver is now pi'actically extinct, and a beaver liat is worth at least thirty guineas. •