SPORTING.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XII, Issue 3705, 5 May 1880, Page 2

SPORTING.

tHE STEEPLECHASE MEETING. [ " Spar," the sporting writer of the New Zealand Times, says : — The programme for the Wanganui Steeplechase meeting, which is to be held . on the 19th June, appears to have been carefully , arranged by the Jockey Club, and there are seven stewards, all of whom stand high in experience as racing men, while they are also selected from the ranks of the leading settlers in town and country. The same remarks apply to the other officers* The total amount to be given away in stakes is £330. This meeting should cause some goodsporti The course is a good one, the preparations are sure to be first class, amd the time is chosen so as to avoid dashing with other meetings. Ido not know whether Wanganui is likely to bring . ojutf such good horses as those which performed on that course in the days of ~ Supplejack and Warrengate, but as many of best steeplechasers in the Colony hail from that district, arid ihave broken their ice there,l shall certainly feel disappointed, if some of the local blood does not come to the fore.' . I have only one fault to find with the programme, j namely, the 71b penalty imposed upon the winner of the fiyst event mease he should start for the AjCaiden Plate, which iej the second on the programme. Not only should the hard work in the first evens prove sufficient to handicap, him, but as ; the second is a weight for age race,^ would be just as well' to let the 1 starters get away on level terms.. f (PER UNITED PRESS. ASSOCIATION.) Ohmstchuroh, May 6. The following additional weights have been declared for the Grand National Handicap Steeplechase — Hard Times list, Thilo lOst 71b, Swindler lOst 61b, Harkaway lOst 51b, Mickey Free lOst, Ada lOst. Little John lOat. There are altogether 22 horses in it.