END OF SEASON

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 84, Issue 178, 31 July 1940, Page 9

END OF SEASON

Conclusion Of Racing Year “BIRTHDAY" TO-MORROW NOTES AND COMMENTS The 1939-4 U racing season in New Zealand ends to-day, and all horses in 1 the Dominion will have a ‘ birthday” j to-morrow, as they will rank as one year older than during the season now ; ending. ♦ ♦ * • 1 The first meeting of the new season will be that of the Christchurch Hunt : Club at Riccarton on Saturday. Th s ■ club’s 1939 meeting fell at the conclu* sion of the 1938-39 season, being held ’ on July 29, so actually there was no 1 Christcnurch Hunt Clun fixture in the ’ season concluding to-day. The Canterbury Jockey Club's i Grand National meeting is the next important one to claim attention. It will open on Tuesday, August 13, and . will be continued on Thursday and ‘ Saturday, August 15 and 17. The Christchurch Hunt Club meet- ’ ing on Saturday should provide a fairly reliable guide for tne Grand! National meeting a little over a week | later. Brabazon Handicap candidates. who are engaged in the Winter Cup > < acceptances include Haughty Winner,! Black Thread, Disdain, Dictate, Kil- J' robe, Lockit, The Wrecker, Strip, St. I Cloud, Nigger Boy, Greay Honour, I Winning Rival, Wagner, Straightdel, >' The Raker. Wardress, Paper Note, Rebel Star and Flame Queen. All the Homeby Steeplechase acceptors save Baitruin and Frenchy are engaged in the Grand National Steeplechase, and the top half of the handicap in the Longbeach Hurdles claim Grand National Hurdles engagements. The surprise defection from the Winter Cup at first acceptances was Royal Star 11, who was installed as one of the favourites after his double win at Trentham. There is nothing i amiss with Royal Star 11, his connec- i lions declining the engagement be-; cause of his weight 19.12), which! would have placed him on an awk-| ward mark in future if he were to I have succeeded. The imported horse ■ is being reserved for Important spring j meetings, at which a lighter scale of weights will be in his favour. The aged Lucullus gelding Lucullus' Boy, scored his only win of the season■ when he registered a success in the' Springrove Farewell Hack Handicap,! at Marton on Saturday, though pre-; viously he had earned place-money on

several occasions. It is interesting to recall that Lucullus Boy filled third place to Liberal’s Mint and Te Ore m this race 12 months ago, and his only win in that season was in the Rewa Hack Handicap at the Feilding Easter meeting in 1939. He was confidently supported at Marton, nowever. and proved a class above the opposition. Gnohill was backed and beaten at Timaru on Saturday, but should bej kept in mind for Riccarton later on. Trained by R. McKay, at Riverton, Gnohill is a rising four-y.» -old gelding by the Australian-brei Garnish, and had not raced since his surprise win at the Dunedin winter meeting last month. As a gesture of appreciation of the splendid work done by the retiring president, Mr. L. A. Nolan, the Taranaki Jockey Club, at its annual meeting last week, elected him patron of the club Mr. Nolan, who is the first to hold this office in the club, which has been racing for over 50 year?, has served as a member of the Taranaki Jockey Club Committee since 1908. being chairman in 1914, vicepresident in 1926, and president from 1928 till his retirement last week. The Wanganui-owned All Bunsby nearly brought off a big surprise in I the concluding event at Marton on Saturday. A week earlier the Captain Bunsby gelding had finished fourth in the Otaki Hack Handicap at the Manawatu Hunt Club fixture. That the race had improved him he proved by leading for the greater part of Saturday’s race, only to succumb to Luculius Boy’s challenge. Had he i won All Bunsby would have returned j a * win” dividend in the vicinity of half 1 a century, and as it was his ‘ place" 1 supporters secured a handy return for their money. At the Rotorua and Bay of Plenty meeting on Saturday an inquiry was held into the interference with Heroic Maid in the Haere Ra Handicap. After hearing the evidence of several riders, the judicial committee found that F. Hain, riding the winner. Hum a Song, was the cause of the interference, and suspended him for one month. Golden England carried off a double at Rotorua. The Little England gelding gave a dashing display in the Rotorua and Bay of Plenty Hunt Cup on Saturday, in which his rider, J. H. Mcßae, put up 101 b. overweight and still won by a furlong. On Monday, weighted at 10.6, as against his firstday original impost of 9.0. Golden England carried off the Hack and Hunters’ Steeplechase. Prior to last week-end Golden England bad been off the winning list for a long time. Lady Ex, who scored an easy win in the Glenmore Maiden Race at Marton on Saturday, has an interesting pedigree. She is by Lord Quex from Extravagant. a half-sister, by Tea Tray, to Defaulter. The second dam. Expense, is by Paper Money from Lady Jean 11. dam of the New* Zealand and Auckland Cup winner Scion. The brown colt by Ringmaster from Jewel of Asia, bought at the Trentham sales by Mr. B. Nausbaum for 210 guineas, will race as Master Jewel. He is a half-brother to Sir John, Viceroy, Farmer, Coronation and Asia. At Rotorua on Saturday the New Plymouth-trained Liberal’s Mint was made an each-way favourite for thei Hack and Hunters’ Hurdles, but he failed dismally. He was going nicely in front about five furlongs from

home, when he hit a fence very hard, and after that tired badly, eventually collapsing after jumping the last fence and lying on the ground for some minutes before being able to rise. * * * * The annual report and balancesheet of the Wanganui Jockey Club, to be presented at the annual meeting of members to-night, discloses a loss of £3947 4s 5d after providing for £741 14s in depreciation. Stakes for the pa&t year amounted to £9870, and the I club paid more than £BOOO in Government taxation. During the 1939-40 racing season the Taranaki Jockey Ciub gave stakes amounting to £5G32, secured net totalizator revenue of £5815, and paid lotalisator taxes amounting to £7824. 1 lie year s operations resulted in a loss of £897 19s Id after provision had been made for £7lB 4s Id in depreciation. Beau Vite is due to leave for another Australian trip early in August. 1 Australians this time will see a vastly ■ improved horse from tne colt who I raced there last spring, and in the last ' few months he has developed even ! more strength and quality than that ! which characterised his successful I autumn career. He wiil have his first 1 race in Sydney in the Warwick Stakes. i Hugme, who has accompanied . Padishah on the trip to Riccarton, >s a ; two-year-old blacK filly by Bu landshah, her dam, Fondle, by Leighton, i being the first foal of the Martian ! mare, Caress, the dam also of Cuddle i ana Padishah. Though small, Hugme

( is a shapely filly, who should gallop. I She has had two starts, without show- ( ing any form. Pleading continues to gallop particu- ’ larly well at Riccarton, and with a race in the Maiden Stakes at the , Christchurch Hunt meeting to harden him up, he should be a diliicult horse io beat among the hacks at the Grand . National meeting. A race like the , I Cashmere Plate should &uit him. The I Absurd-Eulogy mare Eulalie, a Stewards’ Handicap winner, was disap- ’ pointing with her early foals, but (says the Star-Sun) to Solicitor General she produced a very promising colt in , Pleading. A brown in colour, he has| had four races without showing form, out the coming season should only be , in its infancy before he takes his first , race. Padishah made his reappearance on ■ the Riccarton tracks on Frida./, and ■ was sent out to cover two rounds of , the sand at a strong pace. However, he proved a little too much for his ’ small rider, who was not able to re- > strain him over the second circuit, and . the horse covered a third round bej fore being pulled up. Padishah did not appear to be any the worse when be came in, although his owner-trainer . was somewhat worried over the t escapade, coming so soon after his arj rival, and said he would have to wait , until later to see whether the horse t suffered any ill-effects. Padishah was > railed from Hastings on Wednesday t morning, and on the previous day he j was schooled over 10 of the steeplcf chase fences on the course proper at , Hastings. Ridden by Mr. G. G. Beat- » • son, he is credited by a Hastings cor- < ; respondent with giving a most pleasing exhibition, negotiating each fence • in typical style. .' <■ • * Ajax, according to his trainer, F. Musgrave, is doing remarkably well, and present plans are that he will . have has first race of the new season . in the Underwood Stakes, the Wil- . liamstown Club's ricn weight-for-age event, at the end of August. Musgrave says that there is little possibility of Ajax racing in Sydney in the spring ; In Sydney recently there has been much talk of a match race between Ajax and High Caste at Randwick on > September 21, but obviously Musgrave . has not been consulted, as he knows ? nothing about the reported match, and, > in any case, such a race does not find favour with him. “There are plenty I of weight-for-age races for the goon horses,” he said, “without staging match races.” Musgrave added that i so far no definite plans had been made i for Ajax for the coming spring, but t if he had his way the champion would i remain in Melbourne for the spring meetings. “There are better opportunities for Ajax in Melbourne in the i spring than in Sydney,” he said. “It . is different in the autumn, when there r are several races in Sydney which suit i him.” i The Claremount Handicap at Washi dyke on Saturday resulted in a sur- . prise win for the Wellington-owned ' Haughty Winner. Ridden by R. J. Mackie (not Didham, as the Press message stated), Haughty Winner was i one of the outsiders of the field. He . was not very prominent until the clos- • ing stages, and his finishing run to . get up to takev the honours from Nig- . ger Boy on the post was a feature of the day’s racing. Although he has not been in winning vein for some time, , he was expected to play a prominent 5 part in the decision of the Winter Cup, - and this success will bring him into ? stronger favour. Haughty Winnei will be ridden by G. R. Tattersail in i the Winter Cup.