Topics of the Turf

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 470, 3 June 1932, Page 10

Topics of the Turf

from everywhere^

'J'HE REEFTON JOCKEY CLUB’S meeting will be held to-morrow. Greymouth form should be a good guide. * * * * The Dunedin and Otaki meetings will be concluded to-morrow, when the Auckland meeting will be continued. * =*= * * The yearling brown colt by Night Raid from Entreaty, a brother to Phar Lap, has been named All Clear. G.N. STEEPLECHASE. The Great Northern Steeplechase will be the chief event at the Auckland Racing Club’s meeting to-morrow. The form in the Great Northern Hurdles may provide a good line to the result, many horses being engaged in both ■ events, but Wiltshire, Billy Boy, Beau Cavalier, Mangani and Copey will be among the fresh horses in the crosscountry race to-morrow. AUSTRALIAN RACES. Nominations for the Melbourne, Caulfield, Williamstown and Moonee Valley Cups, the A.J.C., Epscm and Metropolitan, the V.A.T.C., Toorak Handicap, the V.R.C. Cantala Stakes, also for events for now yearlings (the important, two-year-old races of next season, and the classic events of the 1933-34 season) will close on Tuesday. STARTERS LONG TRIP. Few starters have to travel as far to a meeting as does Mr R. E. Hatch, who officiates for the Greymouth Jockey Club. He arrived at Greymouth yesterday from Palmerston North, and will return home to-morrow, as he does not act at Reefton. Results at Otaki will be of more interest to him than those on the West Coast, as several members of his team hold engagements at the North Island fixture to-day and to-mor-ASHBURTON S NEXT. The Ashburton County Racing Club will hold another meeting on Saturday. June 28. In view of the success of the May fixture, the club decided to give the same amount of prizemoney as at the corresponding 1931 fixture. The .total is £675, and the programme is as follows:—Hurdle Handicap, of 100 sovs, one mile and a half; Hack Handicap, of 80 sovs, six furlongs; Trot Handicap, of 90 sovs, class 3min 45sec, one mile and a half; Hack Handicap, of 90 sovs, one mile and a quarter; Hack and Hunters’ Steeplechase, of 120 sovs, two • miles; Open Handicap, of 100 sovs, seven furlongs: and Trot Handicap, of 95 sovs. class 3min 36sec, one mile and a half. GOOD-BYE TO NEW ZEALAND. H. B. Lorigan, who has been in Wei- j lington for several weeks, completing hi? arrangements to take up his permanent residence in Australia, sailed from Auckland for Sydney on Wednesday. He took Lavington, Waratah and Cockpen with him. Lorigan intends to remain in Sydney until after the A.J.C. spring meeting. He will then go on to Melbourne, where he intends to settle. A SKILFUL TRAINER. James Scobie, the veteran Australian trainer, has done some notable things in the way of winning events with horses who have had no previous racing for months. Bitalli won in Adelaide in July and was not produced in public again until the first Tuesday in November, but he then duly won the Melbourne Cup. Trivalve did not have a race as a three-year-old until the A.J.C. Derby, which he won. That Scobie has not lost his skill in this direction, which embodies the true art of training a racehorse, he showed by winning the Gellibrand Handicap at Williamstown on May 21 with Illustrious, who had not had a race for some months.

At the meeting of the Wanganui Jockey Club's committee to be held on Monday, one of the matters to be decided is whether the Wanganui Guineas shall be retained. * sfc * * The former New Zealander. Love Song, was heavily backed when he won the Ba>- View Handicap at Williamstown (Melbourne) on May 21. It was a good betting event, and the price i available about Love Song must have | made the win very profitable. j THEY WON THE DOUBLE. j The Great Northern Hurdle and ! Steeplechase double has been won by the one horse on five occasions. Horses ; who performed the feat were Liberator I (1895), El Gallo (1915 and 1916), Lochella (1920) and Sir Roseberry (1925). Liberator carried l2st 91b and list 121 b, El Gallo 9st and 9st 71b in 1915 and lOst 131 b and list 51b in 1916, Lochella 9st 131 b and list, Sir Roseberry lOst 121 b and list 51b. * s*c sje * A report was in circulation recently that Gallant- Fox had gone to Melbourne, but S. G. Ware has made no move in that direction yet. The Hunting Song gelding has been laid aside lately, as the result of a mishap, but he is all right now and he will be racing at Wingatui this week. He may leave for Melbourne next month. This arrangement, if carried out, will enable him to compete in fiat events at the Victoria Racing Club’s Grand National meeting in July. AN INTERESTING SCHOOL. Late track-watchers at Riccarton yesterday were treated to a good display of clever jumping, when Mr FI. V. Wareing was a visitor to the track in order to try his horses over the big timber. Dukla, a chestnut gelding, rising eight years, by Danilof—Tollgate, and therefore a half-brother to Eden Hall, had G. Murfitt up, while Seaboy had the services of a lightweight. Dukla, for a novice, gave an excellent display of clever fencing, and out-jumped his experienced mate at every fence. Both horses pulled up well. Novices are usually inclined to be “ brush shy,” but Dukla, in his initial effort, took his fences like a veteran, leaving the impression that his owner-trainer will not have long to wait before the chestnut takes the major honours over country. RACING FIXTURES. June 1,3, 4—Dunedin J.C. June 3. 4—Otaki-Maori R.C. June 3. 4. B—Auckland R.C. June 3—Greymouth J.C. June 4—Reefton J.C. June 16. 18—Hawke’s Bay J.C. June IS—South Canterbury J.C June 23—Egmont-Wanganui H.C. June 24, 25—Napier Park R.C.