OHINEMURI MEETING TO-DAY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19532, 13 March 1926, Page 4

OHINEMURI MEETING TO-DAY

NOTES AND COMMENTS | (Bv “Earlv Bird.”) Napier Park concludes to-day. The Ohinemuri meeting opens today and will be concluded on Wednesday. Prince Rufus and Pendennis read the best of those engaged in the hurdles at Paeroa to-day. Flying Juliet and Arch Arrow arc promising juveniles, and their chances must be favourably viewed in the Karangahake Handicap. Kinglield and Green Bonnet, at the head of the Novice Handicap field, have winning form to recommend them. Polonett will be the favourite in the Ohinemuri Cup, and the Polydamon gelding is coming back to form. Polonett. Mount Marta and Transformer are the three most fancied. Town Bank is an unlikely starter. There is a big field in the Komata Hack, and given a good run Nippy and Santa Fe should get in the money. In the open sprint are a couple of speedy ones in York Abbey and Le Choucas, both of whom are in great form. Miss Melva (if reserved for this event) and King Abbey may be the best of those left in the Hauraki Plains Steeplechase. Uralla, Mosaic and Ring the Bell appeal most of the thirteen acceptors for the Netherton Welter Handicap, with which the first day concludes. The following re-handicaps have been declared for the Ohinemuri meeting:—Karangahake Handicap. — Arch Arrow 75. Ohinemuri Cup.—Mount Marta 7.8. Waihi Handicap.—Loch Abbey 7.2. Komata Handicap.—Lady Passenger Netherton Welter.—Tinopono 8.4, Loch Abbey 7.10. The following riding engagements have been made for Paeroa to-day; IL Wiggins, Curraghmore and Pinon; H. Goldfinch, Cawnpore; R. McTavish. Kingfield. Flying Juliet, Urally, Royal Form and King Pot; R. E. Thompson, Pendennis and Ngatea; R- Orange, Te Kawana and Quinsilia; AV. H. Jones. Charlady, Arch Arrow and Mosaic; E. Stanway, King Amans; G. Young, Arseno Lupin and Highflown. Gold I.ight was not paid up for in the Napier Cup. The bonny chestnut mare is galloping well, but is perhaps not quite ready to see out a solid mile and a quarter just yet.

Lnndbird, in V. H. Colello’s stable, is looking nice and well for this time of the year, and appears to have quite thrown off the ailment which went against him last year. Fireblight is to be prepared by the same trainer, and with this pair he should annex some jumping races during the coming winter. Next month A. Jackson, private trainer to Mr Frank Ormond, will start on the education of a brace of coming two-year-olds bred and owned by his patron, one being Wreath of Myrtle, a gelding by imported Leighton, out of Europa, and the other Basil, a daughter of King Murk and Pelt. <'onsequmtly, she claims relationship to Pelham, as Pelt is a half-brother by Demosthenes to Pell, the dam of Pelham. Te Monanui has been entered for the following events in Sydney: The liav. son Stakes (weight-f«»r-age) and the Autumn Handicap at li®'*hill: lhe Chipping Norton Stakes (weight-for-age) and the Autumn Cup at Warwick Farm; and at the Australian Jockey Club’s autumn meeting at Easter Ihc Autumn Stakes (w.f.a.), Local Handicap, one mile and a half, Sydney Cup, two miles. All-Aged Stakes, one mile (w.f.a.), Coogec Handicap, one mile and live furlongs. Dangar Handicap, one mile and a-half, and the Final Handicap. one mile and a quarter. Te Monanui is in regular work at Randwick and is going on well.

Australasia is apt to consider itself as holding a fairly big place in the racing world. That idea does not seem to have reached Chicago. “Collyer’s Eye,” a well-known sporting weekly in that city, recently remarked: “January 1 was the birthday anniversary of the horse. It is a rule observed all over the world.” The birthday of the thoroughbred in Australia and New Zealand is August 1. In England, the Continent, and America it falls on New Year’s Dav.

Most curious among the incidental results of a falling franc is the incursion of Fr<>nch horses to compete for the relatively more valuable prizes of the English turf. The entries for the Spring Handicaps are full of them, and there is quite a cluster of nominations for the Ascot Gold Cup—the supreme test of blood stock in point of stamina. There are some difficult questions about the weighting of horses that have not run under the eye of a British handicapper. but the invasion should furnish valuable evidence upon the merits of English and French breeding—a point upon which there has been sonic recent misgiving.