THE TURF

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19836, 10 May 1927, Page 4

THE TURF

FTXTURE3L Way 12. 14 KgnNjnt R.C. Winter. Mr.y 19 and 21—Wanganui J.C. Winter. Jane 1, 3 and 4—Dunedin J.C. Winter. June 3,4, B—Auckland R.C. Winter. NOTES AND COMMENTS | By tl Kestrel?’ [ The Egmont Bating Club’s winter meeting will be the next to engage the / attention, of local sportsmen. \ Bennanee Re-handicapped. lAs a result of Bennanee’s wins at the Hawke’s Bay meeting on Friday and | Saturday he has been rehandicapped for the Cornwall Handicap at the Auckland winter meeting. The Catmint-Fair • Rosamond gelding is now asked to carry 9.5 in the big handicap at Ellerslie. Turned Out at Taihape. It has been stated that Olympic and Ironic are back at Hickey’s stables, but such is not the case. The pair mentioned have been turned out at Taihape and will not be put into work again until the spring, states the Taihape correspondent of the * 1 Chronicle. ”

Brigadier Bill Pleases. Yesterday morning Omahu and Brigadier Bill were sent once round over the battens and the latter jumped in a very pleasing manner, promising well for his engagements at Hawera and Wanganui. Old Omahu was not seen to advantage and evidenced a tendency to run down his fences.

Ruby Bing Not Impressive. Another of J. T. Morris’ string in Ruby Ring was sent over the small obstacles but he did not impress.

A Nasty Accident. There was a nasty accident in the hurdle race at Hastings on Saturday. Merry Singer fell at the first fence and his rider, R. Naylor, had the misfortune to break both arms, besides sustaining concussion. A LuIL A rather,lean time is in store for disciples of the sport this week, as there will be but a couple of opportunities of hacking their fancies, the occasions being the winter fixture of the Egmont Racing Club, which will take place on Thursday and Saturday. First Time of Asking. In the Hawke’s Bay Stakes on Friday. Cimabue carried the colours of his trainer, H. Neagle, and at the first time of asking in them he won well. He drew No. 3 at the barrier, but was soon in front, and was never headed. The time, Imin 19 4-ssec. was only 1-5 of a second worse than that of Gloaming in 1925, the best to date. Rapine’s Great Effort. Rapine’s effort in the Hawke’s Bay Hup called for the most favourable comment, states Vedette.” Ho has had bad luck in a number of good races this year with big weights and with 10.7 in this rare he won like a champion. After the race Mr. A. B. Williams received the gold cup from the president, Mr. G. Ebbett, amidst much applause. The cheers given for Rapine were the heartiest heard on a racecourse for a long time. Apparently there are still many people about who admire a good and courageous horse. Rapine, in contrast to some horses, has not been kept in a glass case, but has been raced in all closes of events, both weight-for-age and handicaps. That he is none the worse for it he showed on Friday and his plucky efforts have made him universally popular. He is a credit to his trainer, J. H. Jefferd. A Good Hack.

Mr. W. G. Stead possesses a nice sort of hack in Sir Kay. The three-year-old son of Lord Quex —Bon Espoir has plenty of size and is fast. It was his first outing when he dead-heated with Hathor in the Poukawa Handicap on Friday and with a little more racing experience he will probably do a lot better. A Good Afternoon. In winning percentage. S. Davidson received £298 16s for two races at Randwick on Sydney Cup day, but that would not be nearly half what he g.t for his afternoon’s work. There is a lot of money in racing nowadays for a successful jockey, and it is not unusual to hear the remark, 11 It’s a good game for bookmakers and jockeys. They get most out of it.” Sir Roseberry Will Decline. Sir Roseberry who, it is stated, is unlikely to contest the Great Northern Steeplechase next month, won the event in 1924 with 10.2, while in 1925 he carried 11.5 to victory. This year he has been asked to carry 11.10, topweight, but it is likely that he will survive the first acceptances. Much-Valued Gelding It is unusual to hear of an offer of 4000gns being refused for a ten-year-old gelding that was given away as a three-year-old (remarks a London writer). Yet it was so in connection with Thrown Tn, who at Cheltenham (England) in March won a three and a quarter miles steeplechase, the Cheltenham Gold Cup of £7BO. He was but little fancied, starting at 10 to 1 in a field of eight, and, ridden by the Hon. H. Grosvenor, won comfortably from Grakle and Silvio. The late Fred. Hunt gave Thrown Tn away and he eventually became the property of Mr G. Sanday, who. after winning several races with him, sold him for £lOOO. The offer of 4000gns was made from America last year. Lord Stalbridge is his owner, and the Hon. H. Grosvenor, who is that sportsman’s son, had not long recovered from a broken collarbone when he won on Thrown In.

Premising Steeplechaser. The steeplechaser Beau Cavalier was purchased by the present owner for use as a hunter and stock horse. He was a jumping competitor in the show ring, when purchased and later displayed pace, and was put into training. He has won stake money to the extent of £9BO since he commenced racing. Beau Cavalier will probably be seen out at Hawera and Wanganui. T. Green’s Bad Luck.

111-fortune is at present dogging Tommy Green, the Awapuni lightweight, for after being stood down for a month by the stewards of the Auckland Racing Club, he was fated to meet with a fall while following the hounds at Palmerston North on Wednesday, which has laid him aside for a further term. Green was mounted on the Kilbroney gelding Askari, and was one of a strong company who was following the sport which has so many enthusiastic followers in the Manawatu district, when he crashed at one of the fences. Green fell heavily, and it was found that he had sustained a fracture of the collar-bone. X-ray examination on Thursday disclosing that the break was a bad one, being situated close to the neck. Instead of returning to the saddle at Wanganui, there now appears to be little prospect of Green donning silk prior to the Wellington winter fixture. From Australia.

J. Lowe has received the Valais gelding Lausanne to train. Lausanne is a five-year-old brother to Valicare, and on the tracks he is reputed to be extra smart, but he has failed in his races. As he is unsexed he has to do everything to return his Westmere owner, Mr. John Donald, the rather,long purchase price by winning on the race-track. As Lowe has some stylishly-bred and expensive rising two-year-olds also placed with- him to train he is faced with a busy period during the next few months. Lausanne may be seen out at Wanganui next week. Taranaki Dates.

The following dates for race meetings in the Taranaki district during the forthcoming season were approved by the Taranaki District Committee last week:—Egmont Racing Club, February 1 and 2, and May 10 and 12, 1928; Taranaki Jockey Club, December 26 and 27, 1927, and February 9 and 11, 1928; Stratford Racing Club, January 2 and 3, 1928, and March 31, subject to a permit for an extra day’s racing being granted; Opunake Racing Club, March 17, 1928; Taranaki Hunt, September 3, 1927. THE WANGANUI MEETING NEXT WEEK’S FIXTURE. Now that Mr. H. Coyle has announced the handicaps for first day events at the Wanganui Jockey Club’s winter meeting, which, commences on Thursday of next week and will be concluded on the Saturday, more interest will be added to the form of the horses engaged, and the results of the Egmont Racing Club’s fixture at Hawera on Thursday and Saturday of this week should throw some light on the subject. When the acceptances close on Monday next, at 8 p.m., it may be anticipated that there will be a satisfactory response from owners and trainers and a successful meeting should result. Nastori (7.7) and The Swell (7.5) I were omitted from the list published !yesterday, of those handicapped for the "purua Hack Flat Handicap, the opening event on the programme. A GOLD MINE FORTUNE IN VALAIS. Who wouldn’t like to possess Australia’s champion thoroughbred stallion? asks “Poseidon.” Valais is the champion, and he cost the Thompsons no less than 14,400 gns. three years ago. It is pretty safe to guess that he now shows a profit in their books. The Thompsons —Herbert, of Oakleigh. A. W. and A. E., of Widden—have been notable breedeis for years, and when they acquired Valais at the Arrowfield dispersal sale three years ago no one was surprised. But some scepticism was expressed whether they made much of a bargain in giving the record price of 14,400 gns. for the chestnut —it has since been exceeded by the 16,000 gns. which Mr C. B. Kellow paid for Heroic, the most distinguished son of Valais.

No sooner, however, had Valais been bought than his sons and daughters proceeded to heap honours upon him, so that those who wanted his yearlings had to go to fabulous prices for them. That is why the Thompsons have a fortune in the one horse, their interest in him having been divided into shares. An Early Return. For two years Valais, in addition to serving his owners’ mares, had a subscription list at £5OO for the two seasons, a fee which secured a choice selection of mates. Receipts from this source went a long way towards recouping the purchase price of the horse as well as his expenses of maintenance. It probably remained for the first sale of Thompson yearlings by Valais to turn any little deficit into a profit. Three youngsters sold by Mr A. W. Thompson have realised 3800 gns., and two others were passed in at 2900 gns. between them. Mr Herbert Thompson has done better still, as he has obtained no less than 10,300 gns. for three yearlings. And in all likelihood the best is to come yet. Valais, who is 14 years old, is now reserved for his owners’ choice collection of mares, which means that, beginning with the 1929 sales, they will have several more yearlings to offer every year. At the present standard—an average of considerably over 1000 gns. each —Valais should bring in an annual income of anything between, say, £20,000 and £40,000.

RACING IN BRITAIN BIG SPRING DOUBLE. RETARDED FAVOURITES. (Special to “Chronicle.”) LONDON, March 24. The Lincolnshire Handicap (writes “Centaur,” the “Chronicle’s racing specialist) proved a fiasco so far as it concerned those two well-fancied candidates, Friar Wile and Helter Skelter, both of whom made such a tardy start as to be out of it from the commencement. Wretched conditions prevailed, and the limits of capacity of the French horse Asterus were revealed by the soft turf. He will win a mile race—such as the Royal Hunt Cup at Ascot—later on in the season. Orbindos, if we ignore Friar Wile and Helter Skelter, was the really unlucky horse of the race, because he carried 41bs. overweight, and thus, according to the scale of standard weights, would have beaten Priory Park close on a length without the extra. It will not be difficult to place such a nice fast horse as Orbindos, but I reckon his reward will be forthcoming in a race of lesser importance than the Lincolnshire, and over a trifle less ground. His owner, who is a Norfolk commission agent, backed Orbindos at 100 to 1 in the winter, and, when his trainer, Gwilt, reported “all’s well,” had another dash by way of a late flutter exactly a week before the race. The owner made no secret of his hopes, and the horse had a big following. Priory Park made history on his first appearance a couple of years ago at Goodwood, where he won the Lavant Stakes in very fast time. He then belonged to the Chichester butcher, Mr C. Howard, who tired of him as a three-year-old, and sold the colt to Mr J. B. Joel, who last year persuaded Chas Peck to go to Foxhill, after partial retirement, and take charge of a goodly string. We do not associate Mr Jack Joel with success at Lincoln, where his brother “5.8.” is usually the King-pin, but these old records are made to be broken, and Priory Park did what the famous Dean Swift just failed to do in the same colours some years ago.

Peck, I might add, has accomplished wonders with the colt, whose appearance at the end of his two-year-old racing career suggested rabbits rather than racehorses. He made one big show at three years of age, when, after being hopelessly left at Alexandra Park, he just failed to catch Sweet Cicely in a sprint, and was defeated a short head. Now that the horse has “picked up” we can expect him to add another nice handicap to his collection ere the season ends; perhaps a race like the Stewards’ Cup at Goodwood, or the Portland Handicap at Doncaster, or, better still, one of the Epsom sprint next month. Epsom Not Ready.

I was at Epsom, by the way, this week, and had a look at the new grandstands. They are very far from completion, and I doubt whether they will be available for use by the time of the summer meeting, let alone next month, when the Great Metropolitan and City and Suburban —races I will deal with in my next message—are due for decision. The structures are mere skeletons at present, and, despite the feverish hustle of countless workmen, I fail to see how anything more than the wings of the main stand can be finished by the summer.

As a matter of fact, I happen to know that some people closely connected with the running of the Epsom meeting are worried about a possible interruption of the spring gathering. Whatever happens, I do not think we need count on such a setback as this, but, of course, if the stands are not usable the executive will “drop’’ several thousands of pounds. A Likely Ten.

I dealt last week with the Two Thousand Guineas, and will now try to add a few words regarding the fillies which will contest the “One Thousand”—a race, by the way, which has acceptance clauses exactly like those I illustrated last week. Here, then, are the names of some of the likely three-year-old fillies, whose prospects are esteemed: Never Cross, Book Law, Grand Vitesse, Bythorne, Gay Baby, Cresta Run, Endowment, Cavil, All’s Blue, Habibi. The highest-priced yearling of two years ago, Fete, is engaged, but I hear she is to all intents and purposes a failure from a racing point of view, which once again demonstrates the uncertainty of blood-stock purchases. Among the ten fillies I have named above are two of Alec Taylor’s, Never Cross and Book Law, and I shall be very much surprise if one of them does not take a big part in the second of the season’s classics.

Gilpin trains Cresta Run, and I know that she is being prepared for the race. She won.—Sports Ed.) Concerning the colts, of whim I wrote last week, I have heard on good authority that all is not well at Beckhampton. The much rumoured Messenger Boy—owned by Mr “Manna” Morriss —has gone wrong in his wind, while Caledon —own brother to Coronach—is not giving the satisfaction he once was. However, it is full early to discuss the Derby. So we will abide our time. As already observed, I will endeavour to solve some of the Epsom riddles next week.