NOTES AND COMMENTS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 196, 20 August 1931, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS

(By "KESTREL.") ■ Optimistic followers of the racing j i game are looking to the Pakuranga ! Hunt Club meeting at Ellerslie on j ’ Saturday to make up some of their ■ Grand National losses. The fields up I ! north, however, present just as many | ■ problems as did those at Riecarton last j week. Wanganui Nominations I On Friday of next week nominations i | will close for the Wanganui Jockey I : Club’s spring meeting. Taranaki Hunt Club Acceptances for the Taranaki Hun! Club’s annual meeting will close tomorrow night. Hunt Club Trophy For the owner of the winner of the Hunt Club Cup at New Plymouth next ; Saturday week there will be a han 1- ■ some canteen of cutlery presented by ! the New Plymouth licensed victual--1 lers and the trade. Although the Hun' Club trophy has been advertised as beI ing valued at £2O, through the generi osity of the New Plymouth Licensed I Victuallers’ Association and the trade ■ and Messrs Walker and Hall. Auek- ; land, the value of the trophy has been ' increased to £55. The canteen of cut- : levy is a beautiful Jacobean fumed I cabinet containing 114 pieces. Martian Blood The value of Alartain blood as nn : aid to stamina was further illustrat ed at the Canterbury Jockey Club's meeting last week. The progeny nf Martian did not take to jumping and though some of them were tried, few turned out successful. Martian .nares, however, have earned distinction as the dams of jumpers. Snowfall, the • winner of the Grand National Steeple chase, claims a Martian mare, Martian Nell, as his dam. as does the Grand National Hurdle winner, Calinmart, who is from Martial Dawn. These two horses are sound stayers and doubtless owe their stamina largely to the Martian str«.in

' Defeat of Wiltshire • Reports from Christchurch are to the ■ effect that Wiltshire was a ‘‘good i thing” beaten in the Lincoln Steeplej chase at Riecarton on Saturday. He 1 saddled up a greatly improved horse, i and his jumping was done in his best ; style. He had charge at the second to lust fence, but lost ground at the last fence, Copey heading him. However, he drew up to Copey again on the flat, and would have won if he had not been hit with the stick. : Twice in Succession ; Rascal, who annexed the Heathcote l Handicap at Riecarton on Saturday, won that event last year. He showed fairly good form at the meeting, being fifth in the Winter Cup and fourth in the August Handicap, both of which ’ were won by Kahikatoa. He paid a good price. To Race at Taranaki I The Author, who was brought across. [ from Gisborne last week, is not engaged at the Pakuranga meeting, but will race at the Taranaki Hunt meeting, to be held on August 29. He figures in the Hunters’ Hurdles and the Hunters’ Flat Race at the latter fixture and w r ill most likely contest both events. , His First Mount The apprentice, C. T. Fuller, who is attached to F. Gilchrist’s stable, has been granted an apprentice’s license and will have his first ride on Hampton Park in the Dunedin Handicap next , Saturday. This boy has been riding work at Ellerslie for some time past and shapes well, and as he is never likely to be troubled with an overabundance of weight should have a , good future ahead of him. Riders at Ellerslie . Riding engagements at Ellerslie on Saturday include: G. Carmont, Crua1 chan; K. Voitrc, Prince of Orange; R. E. Thomson, Ruby Dawn, Royal Visi- ■ tor; H. Gilmer, Cargen; O. Mclnally, • Unoco. Gay Cockade Gay Cockade has not had a race since the Taumarunui meeting, but he has done a lot of solid work since then and will strip a very fit horse for the Jellicoe Handicap on Saturday. This gelding gallops well in any ground any ' has raced prominently in several big handicaps during the last few months. He is now getting up in the weights a bit, but that should not prevent him putting up a bold showing in the big ; race at Ellerslie next Saturday, in which he will be ridden by A. Parsons. Well Anticipated The success of Historic at Riecarton on Saturday seems to have been fairly well anticipated after his race in the August Handicap, which was his first for some time. He is stated to have been finishing on very fast in that event, in which he carried only 179 ' tickets On Saturday he had 1722 ' tickets invested on him, and he won 1 well. Historic should be hard to beat in big handicaps during the spring. A couple of seasons ago he won the Winter Cup, Avondale Cup, and Mitehelson Cup, and he is quite as well forward at present as he was then. L Te Hoia’s Prispects When Te Hoia won the Taumarunui . Handicap at Ellerslie last month it ' was his first attempt over ten furlongs , in open company, and his performance was very impressive. He is due to make his next appearance over a similar i distance in the Jellicoe Handicap next ; Saturday, and, judging by the way he is reported to be galloping at Te Awa--1 mutu, should have excellent prospects of repeating that performance at the end of this week. Te Hoia won £490 in stake-money last season, but, with ordinary luck, should earn a much larger sum before the present term is over. Winner Last Season. Last season Royal Survey ran several !■ good races, being a winner on three oc- ; casio ns, and if he can reproduce the same form this season he should soon win his way out of hack class. On several occasions recently the Surveyor gelding has been brought to Ellerslie for galloping purposes and has shaped ' satisfactorily. He is included in the field to contest the Sylvia Park Handicap at Ellerslie on Saturday, but may not be quite forward enough to compete successfully against some of the ' better seasoned horses in that event. May be Improved. Dominican has been paid up for in the Ladies’ Braclet at the Pakuranga meeting, an event in which he ran second to Pennyplain twelve months ago. He has only raced once since, but was not quite forward enough to do himself justice, and should be an imj proved horse next Saturday. The amaI teur rider Mr J. Morris has been engagj ed to ride Dominican in his race at the lend of the w*eek, and this will ensure ' the big grey gelding being capably rid- • den, an important factor in races of this > description. “We Parted on the Shore.” j Early racing days at North Shore : were recalled in the speech which the ; Hon. E. W. Alison, president of the ; Takapuna Jockey Club, gave at the club’s annual meeting on Monday. Up jto 18S1 country race meetings were | held at Christmas and New Year at Devonport and Takapuna, but the first proper race meeting took place on December 27. 188 f, on a five-furlong

course. This was part of the present race track, which, in those days, was covered for about two-thirds of its area by the sea. Eight races were run at the first meeting, the total stake money being £235. Most of the horses which were entered were conveyed across the harbour in a scow. A totalisator was used, and tickets were procurable at a cost of ss. The last public appearance of bookmakers on the Takapuna course was at the May meeting in 1911, when the band played ‘‘We Parted on the Shore” and the patrons gave three rousing cheers for the departing men.

Pleased Punters. Mr T. G. Dawkins, who has retired from the position of handicapper for the English Jockey Club, will be pleasantly remembered by punters in the Old Country. The last handicap he made was for the Wokingham Stakes at Ascot last June. It was one of the principal norint handicaps of the meet- • ing, and Hcronslea. who wound up favourite at 100 to 30 in a field of 22, won easily. Some handicappers are upset by the success of favourites, but others look at it in a different light. One well-known Victorian handicapper reckoned the greater the number of winning favourites, me octter it was for the clubs for which he worked. It improved attendances, in his opinion. Rode a Double In addition to riding Flying Dave to victory at Rosehill last Saturday, the er-New Zealand rider, M. McCarten, had the mount on Ammon Ra when that three-year-old won ' the Flying Handicap.

A.J.C. Derby Favourite After being off the scene since last April the crack three-year-old Ammon Ra made his reappearance to the racing public at Rosehill last Saturday, and by winning the first division of the Flying Handicap he proved that. Trainer J. T. Jamieson has him well forward for early spring engagements. No doubt the chief mission of Ammon Ra’s owner will oe the Australian Jockey Club’s Derby, with its wonderful stake (in these times) of £BOOO. This event is usually hard to win, but as Ammon Ra always finished well in his races when a two-year-old last season, at which age he won over a seven furlong course, and the fact that he claims Limond as sire, suggests that he will have little or no difficulty in running out the mile and a-half of a Derby course. Gustavo’s Promise In the early part of his career Gustavo gave much promise, and he looked likely to play a prominet part in last year’s Derbies, but unfortunately he went wrong after racing at Trontham last spring and. although he finished third in both the New Zealand and Great Northern Derbies, his form was much below expectations. Gustavo appears to be again regaining his earlier form, and his forward running at Riecarton last Saturday suggests that he may be a dangerous candidate in some of the early spring races. Raitonal IT. Sold

The Wellington owner, Mr C. Boyle, sold Rational 11. to the Greymouth owner, Mr P. F. Thorpy, at the conclusion of the Grand National meeting, and he will join Mis? Mercia in W. McDonald’s stable at Riecarton. Rational If. is a six-year-old Australianbred gelding by Rossendale from Sundream, and though he failed to race prominently at Riecarton last week he has proved himself a useful performer in the North Island in events up to a mile and a-quarter. Injured Riders A. McDonald, who was rendered unconscious when he suffered a fall off Omeo in the Lincoln Steeplechase on Saturday, escaped wtih a broken rib, and has returned north to Palmerston North. F. Foster, E. Mackie, and A. E. Ellis have also recovered from the slight injuries they received on the second day of the meeting. A.J.C. Loss The Australian Jockey Club had a loss to report for last season. Depression was not the sole factor in bringing about this result, says the Sydney Referee. The immediate fall in attendances, following the Winning Bets Tax, brought- about a sudden drop in revenue which the club could not contend against, already committed, as it was, to big prizes for the Ledger and Sires' Produce Stakes and other classics, arranged over a year previously. Probably no principal club in Australia was caught in a worse dilemma than the Australian Jockey Club when the Winning Bets Tax cut attendances by two-thirds, and thus put many of its meetings on a nonpaying basis. It was a disastrous blow at racing. But having realised the extent of the injury, the Australian Jockey Club has set about a policy that will meet the changed situation, and all future expenditure will be ordered nearer to the club’ < ’ diminished revenues. A Compliment A couple of weeks ago living Dave, from G. Price’s stable, was backed and beaten by the New Zealander Cypress. Flying ’.Dave divided favouritism with Cypress, and anhd J. E. Pike on top. but although Cypress ran very “green” lie won easily. Last Saturday the pair met again in a similar class race, but. ridden by the exHawera boy, M. McCarten, Flying Dave reversed positions with Cypress. The fact of Pike being taken off Flying Dave and McCarten substituted was a big compliment to the New Zea-