Topics of the Turf

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 235, 3 October 1931, Page 12

Topics of the Turf

yVoTES AND NEWS EROMJVFRYWHERE

{YWING to the indisposition of their trainer, H. Nurse, Palace, Metal Bird and Knocklong did not make the trip to Kurow. * * * * The Mitchelson Cup will gain in interest from the presence in the field of several New Zealand Cup candidates, including Historic, My Own and Taneriri, the last-named the sole Auckland candidate for Riccarton. * * * * Reversion to the summer time table at Trentham will be commenced next Monday. The racecourse gates will be open from five o’clock each morning and this arrangement will continue until May. * * * * If present intentions are adhered to, Ammon Ra and the Victorian colt. Illustrious, will leave Sydney for Melbourne to-night, after competing in the Australian Jockey Club’s Derby today. They are due to meet again in the Caulfield Guineas next Saturday. * * * * The first four horses in the Avondale Stakes were all sired by imported horses, the winner being by Musketoon and the other three by Chief Ruler. The result indicated that this year’s batch of Chief Ruler two-year-olds are possessed of the speed that has been characteristic of that sire’s stock.

Juniper has left W. G. Hobbs’s stable and has joined F. D. Jones’s team. Hobbs is now left without any horses and he will have a rest from racing in the meantime. Evidently there are plenty of three-year-olds about as the Stonyhurst Handicap, a mile race confined to horses of that age, was the only event to show an increase when nominations closed for eight events to be run at the Canterbury Jockey Club’s meeting in November. The Jockey Club Handicap, a mile race for three-year-olds and upwards, showed a decrease of fourteen, compared with the 1930 total. Although Ephialtes has been out of the news since he ran unplaced at his one start on the final day of the Grand National meeting, he has been by no means idle, and he should be in good condition for his engagements at Otaki next week. He has done no fast galloping for some time at Trentham, but solid pace work has kept him fit, and he requires but to be speeded up two or three times to be ready for racing. He won at Carterton last year, and paid a sensational dividend when produced on a light preparation. All going well, he is to contest the New Zealand Cup in November. * * * * By the failure of Taneriri to survive the first acceptance for the New Zealand Cup, Auckland has lost its only representative in the New Zealand Cup. Straightcourse, who was severely injured in the Geraldine Cup, was withdrawn, and other Geraldine competitors to drop out of the Riccarton race were Inevitable, Rational 11. and Dulen. King Colossus, runner-up to View Halloo in the Avondale Guineas, was not among the first acceptors. J. M. Cameron accepted with Nea Lap, but not with Hunting Cry, who was, however, nominated yesterday for other events at the Canterbury Jockey Club’s meeting. Thirty-four remained in after first acceptance as compared with 27 a year ago.

The Stewards’ Handicap (six furlongs) is down fifteen and the Fendalton Handicap (one mile and a quarter) has sixteen fewer this year. The Criterion Handicap, seven furlongs, had ten more entrants twelve months ago, but the Members’ Handicap, over the same distance, has 46 nominations this time as compared with 48. There are 24 in the G. G. Stead Cup as against 30 a year ago, while the mile and a half Metropolitan has decreased from 46 to 41. The respective totals are 1930, 371, 1931, 304. * * * * The Australian Jockey Club’s meeting will be continued on Monday, when the Metropolitan Handicap will be the chief attraction. * * * $ Unlike the autumn, important Sydney and Melbourne meetings clash in the spring. While to-day will see the opening of the Australian Jocke\ r Club’s spring meeting at Randwick, the Victoria Racing Club will conduct at Flemington its October meeting. The Melbourne fixture will be notable as it will be the first occasion on which the totalisator has been in use at Flemington. Many Cup candidates are engaged, including the Sydney gelding Vigne, favourite for the Caulfield Stakes. He is in the mile October Stakes, weight for age, in which likely opponents*'include Waterline and Glare. The first two-year-old races of the season are also part of the V.R.C. programme. Next Saturday, the final day of the Australian Jockey Club’s meeting and Caulfield Guineas day clash.

Duellona, one of the Trentham horses undergoing a New Zealand Cup preparation, is to have her first outing since the New Year at Otaki next week, when she will contest the Kereihi Roera Handicap, run over seven furlongs. Duellona has been in work for over two months, but the long spell of wet tracks has prevented her coming on quite so rapidly as her trainer (J. M’Laughlin) hoped. However, she is by no means backward, and has galloped satisfactorily over sprint courses on occasions when the track has been suitable. A race or two should effect a lot of improvement in her, and there is yet plenty of time before November for her to reach her best form. She is bred well enough to succeed at the longest distances, for she is by Chide’s sire, Paladin, from Warlady, a daughter by Martian of the 1909 New Zealand Cup winner, Lady Lucy. This year’s will be her second essay at the Cup.

The Melbourne writer, “ Chiron,” of the “ Australasian,” says that in Sydney the only “ sport ” or industry—call it what you will—is the Government lottery. Day after day you will see crowds of people in the vicinity of the State Savings Bank in Castlereagh Street waiting their turn to purchase tickets in the lottery. One would not for a moment imagine there was any shortage of money or distress in the community. The lotter}’ - must be seriously affecting racecourse attendances, as people cannot afford to spend money on both racing and the Government gamble. As there are greater possibilities in connection with the lottery the State gamble gets the money. Racecourse attendances have been declining for a long time, and small as they were for the autumn racing, they appear to have shrunk greatly since. Sydney racing is passing through a period of extreme difficulty, and everybody associated with the sport is pessimistic regarding the immediate future.