LATE SPORTING.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 197, 20 August 1931, Page 9

LATE SPORTING.

Phar Lap to Meet Waterline on Saturday. IMPORTANT EVENT. (Special to the " Star.’*) MELBOURNE, August 12. Phar Lap will make his re-appearance on Saturday, August 22, in the Underwood Stakes at Williamstown, where he has not raced before. His part-owner and trainer, Mr 11. R. Telford, stated this afternoon that he had not been able to give the champion the work he would have liked, because of the wet state of the tracks at .his private training establishment at Braeside. Phar Lap has not started since he was beaten in a sensational manner at Flemington in March. He then had a long spell at Bacchus Marsh and was returned to Braeside in June. As Waterline, who vanquished him at Flemington, is almost a certain runner in the Underwood Stakes, the race should be most interesting, although Phar Lap will not be at his top. POWDER GIVEN TO HORSE. Sensation at Racecourse in Melbourne. (Special to the “ Star.”) MELBOURNE, August 12. Harry Johnstone, a stable boy, was warned off the Victorian Trotting and Racing Association courses for life by the stewards at Ascot this afternoon. An official of the club on duty in the saddling paddock told the stewards that he saw Johnstone giving a powder from a paper wrapping to Cyllera. He said to the lad, “What is in that paper?” Johnstone made no reply. He was immediately taken before the stewards.

There he denied any knowledge of the powder. A substance found in the horse’s mouth will be analysed bv the club’s veterinary surgeon (Mr H. Kendall). Cyllera was engaged in the fourth heat of the Third Division Handicap, but the stewards ordered his withdrawal. Johnstone was an employee of Len M’Cann, the trainer of Cyllera. M’Cann told the stewards that he had no knowledge whatever of what had happened. The owner of Cyllera (Mr D. Kenny) was not at the meeting.