TOPICS of the TURE

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20280, 14 April 1934, Page 12

TOPICS of the TURE

CL«bJ AND NEWS FROMEVERYWHERE

•A CCEPTANCES for the South Canterbury Jockey Club's meeting close at 9 p.m. on Monday. * * * * Acceptances for the Nelson Jockey Club’s meeting close at S pm. on Monday. * * -e * Handicaps for the Amberlcy Racing Club’s meeting are due on Monday, and acceptances will close at S p.m. on Friday at the C.J.C. offices. + * # * Nominations for the Marlborough Racing Club’s meeting on ApriJ y 27 and 2S close on Monday at 9 p.m. * 4= V ❖ Nominations for the Great Northern Hurdle Race and Steeplechase, Cornwall, York and King George Handicaps and Winter Steeplechaser, to be run at the Auckland winter meeting on June 2, 4 and 6, close at 5 p.m. on Friday! * * oC * At Riccarton this morning, Fleeting Glance cleared two hurdles in good style. * * * * Emotion may be tried over hurdles this winter. * * * * The annual meeting of the New Zealand Racing Conference has this year been fixed for Fridav, July 13. * * ❖ The trouble which prevented Vintage from racing at Easter has not 3*et yielded to treatment. W AIM ATE RIDERS. The only mounts that L. J. Ellis has so far accepted for Waimate on Thursday are Adult, Nightform and lan’s March, three members of the Washdyke team of his brother, E. J. Ellis. W. H. Jones will be on Shamfight, A 1 Jolson and probably Star Raider. A. H. Eastwood will ride Cleaner and Red Dance. At Washdyke next Saturday, he will be on Friday Night. GOLD TRAIT TO RESUME. Gold Trail has done exceptionally well of late, and it is fully believed that she has thrown off all_ signs of that dry bough which so seriously affected her since the autumn of her two-year-old career. She. rejoins J. M. Cameron’s team at the end of this week, and will be prepared for early spring racing. » DEEDS OF ROGILLA. At four years’ !pld last season Rogilla won a notable position among highclass performers on the Australian Turf, winning the Caulfield Cup, one mile and a half, and the Sydney Cup, two miles, and this season he has demonstrated that he retains his brilliancy. The victory he registered in the- King’s Cup at Randwick. last Saturday was full of merit, for with 9st 31b he met the doughty Peter Pan at a difference of only 21b, and in a stirring finish beat him by a head, running the mile and a half in the fast time of 2min 32sec. Rogilla is bred on very stout lines. His sire, Roger de Busli, is by Hurry On (a great-grandson of the celebrated Barcaldine) from St Genevieve (a daughter of St Amant; son of St Frusquin and grandson of St Simon). Speargilla, dam of Rogilla, is by Breakspear (grandson of Carbine) from Virgilia, by Tartan (son of Lochiel). Rogilla, who was bred by Mr Hunter White, owner of the Havilah Stud. affords another example of stamina developing when ample time is given to mature before racing. Writing in the “ Sydney Referee,” “ Pilot” says: 1 —“ Rogilla was considered too clumsy and unpromising to tackle two-year-old racing, and later was intended for picnic racing. When that form of sport faded out, he was leased to the Sydney trainer Les Haigh, under whose colours he has won , over £14,000 in prize-money.” According to cable advice received this week his aggregate earnings are now £18,564 15s.

x z - HORSE IN AFRICA. The Ilaka, the now three-year-old Lord Quex —Dominant colt whom Sir Joseph B. Robinson bought at the 1931 Trentham sales, was highly fancied for the valuable Rosmead Handicap, £IOOO, one mile and a quarter, at Kenilworth (South Africa) last month, but the best he could do was to dead-heat for third with Gay Mode, the only horse preferred to him in the betting. A field of a dozen started, and less than a length covered the placed division, but The Haka for one appears to have had every chance. The winner of this race was an outsider, the six-year-old Hazelhurst, around whom revolves a romantic history as strange as anything that Nat Gould ever wrote about. Hazelhurst was bought by his present owner (Mr P. Levetan) from the trainer E. Booth nearly three years ago a brokendown “ crock ” for £lO, and since then he has won eight races and been placed sixteen times for £2329. He has always been at long odds, so there should be a goodly sum to add to this as well for bets. Mr Levetan is a one-horse owner-trainer, and a coincidence about last month’s race is the fact that Hazelhurst scored at the expense of his former owner-trainer’s charge, Lady Aurora. A RACELESS CITY. It is a poor town in Australia or New Zealand that does not hold at least one race meeting a year. Nevertheless Canberra, capital city of the Commonwealth, has not had a race meeting since 1929. Influential residents of Canberra declare that this lapse into barbarism has lasted long enough, says the Melbourne “ Australasian.” It is to be terminated on April 21, when the Acton racecourse will be reoccupied in circumstances more congenial to the majority of the visitors than ever before. Sixty pounds has been procured for prize money, six events have been arranged, the. A.J.C. has given the meeting its blessing, and the Southern District Rac-ing-Association of New South Wales has promised the services of its chief stipendiarv steward -to overlook the racing. Moreover, there will. be a bar ori the course. The significance of this apparently matter-of-course announcement will be lost to all those who have forgotten that the Federal Territory was a dry district when the last horse races were held within its boundaries. Time has resolved other difficulties encountered by the promoters of earlier meetings. One of the gravest of these was the lack of provision of stables for the horses. Now that Duntroon has been abandoned as the home of the Royal Military College, its large stables are unoccupied, and these have been hired for the occasion. If necessary, fifty horses may be accommodated there. AFTER MANY YEARS. A filly nominated for the Victoria Racing CLub's Oaks in 1905, won by Lady Wallace, was Wandain, who a few years later became an inmate of Mr E. E. D. Clarke’s Melton stud. By an oversight Wandain was left in the Oaks, and her nominator having left Victoria, unaware of his omission to scratch Wandain, his name duly appeared in the V.R.C. forfeit list. His name appeared in the list each month until quite recently. Last spring he returned to Melbourne, and, quite unaware that his horses were really ineligible to run, raced them on one or two occasions there. Eventually officials became aware of what had been current gossip for some time. The trainer in question was much surprised when he was apprised officially of the fact that he had a liability of £lO for the V.R.C. Oaks of 1905. He promptly liquidated the liability, and in due course Mr M’Donald received the last instalment of the stakes won nearly thirty years ago by his bonny mare.

LOWER TOTE TAXES. Proposals in Sydney to Improve Machine. IDEA FOR NEW ZEALAND. New Zealand punters, big and sma' 1 . will read with envy, that the New South Wales Government is likely to give consideration to the question of giving back to the race-going public a larger percentage of the money invested on the totalisator. It is understood that this matter will be dealt with by the New South Wales Cabinet before the next Budget is presented to Parliament. Bound up with this is the A.J.C.’s application to instal a five-shilltng totalisator in the grandstand enclosure at Randwick. This application has now been with the Treasury for about nine months without being approved. Dividends are calculated to the nearest sixpence, and the fractions go to the club, so that unless the percentage deduction was reduced, the halving of the cost of tickets wotild mean a large loss of extra threepences and o+her fractions to the public. Of the I2i per cent statutory reduction the Government takes 9 per cent, and the remaining 3 per cent, plus fractions, is at the disposal of the club. The fractions at Randwick already amount, it is estimated, to over 1 per cent, and if the five-shilling tote was installed in the paddock they would be increased. It is believed that the Treasury viewpoint is that this drawback should be overcome before the five-shilling tote is installed. In Melbourne, where the' 5s totalisator operates in all enclosures, the total deduction from the investments is only 10 per cent. Punters’ Handicaps. While the Government’s decision on the matter is awaited, the five-shilling bookmakers in the paddock are competing at an advantage with the tote, where the minimum investment is 10s. It is not uncommon, however, to hear a 5s bookmaker calling a point or two under the ruling odds, so that those members of the public who desire a 5s bet suffer an additional handicap. In the meantime bookmakers, with the support -of some members of Parliament, have for months been agitating for the reduction of the 1 per cent tax on turnover. It is probable that this will be considered with the totalisator percentage question towards the close of the financial year. NELSON SCRATCHINGS. Per Press Association. NELSON, April 14. Prostration and Ravine have been scratched for all engagements at the Nelson Jockey Club’s meeting. TRAINER’S TRIP. Fred Williams, trainer of Chatham, has not been in good health recently, and he will leave Sydney this month for a trip to China and Japan. He is a wealthy man and has done a good deal of travelling in recent years. ALMOST FORGOTTEN. One of a brilliant New Zealand tribe of gallopers, an almost forgotten gelding from Mr G. M. Currie’s Wanganui stud, turned up a winner at the Brighton (Tasmania) meeting on Easter Saturday. This war Farrago, by Absurd (imp.) from Leta, by Ayr Laddie from Leading Lady, by Grafton from Drama, by Trenton. Foaled in 1924, Farrago is a younger brother to Thespian (well in the limelight of late as the sire of Wanganui crack Jonathan) and a great galloper in day. Thespian, by the way, first saw the light of day in 1918. GOING WELL. * B. Rosen is keeping his end up in India. At Madras on February 17 his score was four wins, two seconds and a third. Two of his winners were favourites. The previous Saturday Rosen won three races.