RACING.

Waikato Times, Volume 106, Issue 17807, 4 September 1929, Page 9

RACING.

FROM TRACK & STABLE (By “Martian.”) 1929-30 SEASON. September 4, s—Marton. September 7—Otago Hunt. September 21—Ashburton. September 21—Napier Park. September 21, 23—Avondale. September 26, 27 —Geraldine. September 28—Hawke’s Bay. AUSTRALIAN MEETINGS. The’’following are the dates of coming meetings in Australia:— New South Wales. September 7—Canterbury Park. September 10—Menangle Park. September 14—Tattersall’s Club. September 21—P.osehill. -*• September 21 —Newcastle. September 24—Menangle Park. September 25—Wallsend. September 28—Hawkesbury. / Victoria. September 7 —V.A.T.C. September 11 —Saqdown Park. September 14—Moonee Valley. September 28—Moonee Valley. ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. “Reader,” Te Aroha. —Limerick’s win r in the Warwick Stakes was his .third in succession in that particular race. “Starters,” Hamilton. —When Spearfelt won the Melbourne Cup of 1926 there were 23 starters. There were 17 in the field last year when Statesman scored. * “Result.” Kihilrihi. —The Avondale •Cup was run at twelve furlongs last season. Bisox (7.3) won by a length and a half from Royal Mint (7.1) and Te Kara (8.5).

GOSSIP FROM ALL PARTS.

The Marton Club’s Spring meeting will be concluded to-morrow.

The season’s point-to-point races of the Waikato Hunt will be held on Saturday at Fencourt, Cambridge.

The annual race meeting of the Otago Hunt will be held on Saturday.

’ Mister Gamp has been turned out for a spell. He will be taken up again at the end of November.

Mr J. M.. Johnston, secretary of the Manawatu Racing Club, who has been seriously ill for some considerable time, is improving though still in hospital.

' Tahoma, a maiden winner at Danmevirkc, will gain much higher honours during his career. He is the first three-year-old winner credited to Hunting Song.

The fact that Honour stayed on in several two-year-old races was encouraging, hut his breeding is not suggestive of an A.J.C.’s Derby winner, says the Southland writer “Sir Modred.”

Commendation has been going along well In his work at Awapuni. He will probably have his first race of the season at the Masterton meeting and will then go on to Trentham and Riccarton.

All going well, Mr A. B. Williams’s horses will go to Avondale and Auckland after Wanganui. F. Davis will not go to Avondale and Auckland this spring. Mr T. 11. Lowry has decided to race his team at the Napier and Hawke’s Bay meetings followed by Wellington and Christchurch.

Tidal's recent successful form in Australia indicates that the French bred and Auckland owned galloper will require to he respected in his Metropolitan Handicap engagement. Tidal has made very rapid progress under G. Price’s supervision at Randwick.

Whenuatonga is a grey, an unusual colour for an Acre. He gets it from his dam, Otonga, who is a grey by Gravitation from Maureen. Whenuatonga is a useful southern galloper with plenty of size.

(' Wa'llzer is likely to be produced for hurdle racing at the Avondale meetlng. The Hymeltus gelding has some form to his credit in the division and it would not surprise to find him showing improved results as a hurdler over the new season.

Beau Geste is moving along freely in his work at Riccarton. This horse who- has a New Zealand Cup engagement, has shown that he can stay, and he may run well in event/ over a distance at some of the spring meetings.

Red Lion, who was a recent winner of a minor event in Sydney, has been entered for the Avondale meeting, so the intention of his Auckland owners may be to bring the Solferino—Rose Red gelding back in the near future.

The imported colt by Ellangowan, purchased in England as a yearling by Mr J. R. McKenzie, is still running out at his owner’s farm and will he handed over to T. H. Gillelt, at Riccarton, to he prepared for racing later on. The colt will not be three years old until January next and it will be some time yet before he will be produced in public.

Mangani, the winner of the Grand National Hurdles, may re-enter the scene at Avondale this month. The Day Comet gelding figures among the candidates nominated for ihc batten event on the second day of the coming meeting. '

All going well in the meantime, t says a southern exchange, L. J. Ellis (will probably pilot Royal Duke in the EpSom Handicap and Briar Root in Hie Metropolitan Handicap. Ellis left for Sydney by this week’s boaf from the Bluff.

Whaka King in the interval since terminating ills racing on the flat in the closing ptrt of last season has Been prepared for a jumping career. The King I,u pin—Karilca chestnut is down to make his initial appearance as the hurdler on the opening day at 'Avondale,

Trainers at Wanganui are experiencing a shortage of boys to ride work, there not being light lads with sufficient experience in the game to do horses justice in their preparation. In consequence older horsemen have had' to be pressed into service, among them being a well-known trainer of light-harness horses.

The Maiden Plate, which event is to be decided on the opening day of the Avondale meeting promises to attract a very useful field for the grade. Prairie King, Lucky Alice, Belle Star, Gay Duke, Fraser, Bert Hinkler, Ruby Dawn, Te Hoia, and Glenison are among the horses entered from stables in this district.

On September 11 the last of the valuable and coveted English classic three-year-old events .will be decided, when the St. Leger Stakes (one mile and three-quarters and 132 yards) comes up for decision. At fastest advice the field eligible included: Cragadour, Mr Jinks, Osris, Trigo (Derby winner), Waiter Gay, and Pennycomequick.

Marble King was a starter with the sprinters in the Dunedin Handicap at the Pakuranga’ meeting, but he failed to reach the money. The Marble Arch—Miss Amans gelding, who is entered in this grade at the coming fixture at Avondale, is likely to be better suited 'by the lower scale of weights. Marble King is well advanced so far as racing condition is concerned.

RIDING IN VICTORIA.

VIEWS OF “BOBBY” LEWIS.

We got a fair amount of over-the-water criticism, not by any means always favourable, of the horsemanship of New Zealand jockeys who make occasional appearance on Australian racing tracks. Apparently the veteran Vlotorian rider “Bobby” Lewis, who ought to be a fair judge, has no very high opinion of the equestrian standard in his own State. There has been a good deal of discussion lately on the subject of racecourse accidents, and he maintains that .many of these were the results of boys not being taught to ride properly. The standard of riding in Melbourne, he said, never has been so low as it is at present. You oan count on your fingers the numbor of boys who will give one another a fair go. Six months’ suspension should be the minimum penalty for convicted offenders. In nine cases out of ten permits are granted after tests which are not one-quarter severe enough. “I saw a boy riding recently who had brought one horse down just before, and nearly caused another accident. He had hit his mount in a tender spot, and when the horse hung in ho continued the punishment, Instead of taking hold of the horse’s head and straightening it.”

Frank Woolton, the Australian-born trainer who has done so well in England, once declared that he preferred to put up a good light-weight with a parcel of dead-weight in preference to an inferior horseman of the correct poundage. it was his contention that the lead could he balanced, whereas an indifferent horseman could not. Many New Zealanders appear to think differently.

Kingfleld earned £530 in stakes last season. The King Lupin gelding did not have an uninterrupted run in his training during the term. He is being prepared again at Cambridge for the racing of the new season and it is probable that lie will sport silk at the coming fixture of the Avondale Club.

London Sporting Life says that there was keen competition at the Newmarket sales for the yearlings from the National stud. The chief attraction was the charming brown filly by Tetratcma from Dolabella, a White Eagle mare from Gondonletle, darn of Sansovino. She brought 11,000 guineas.

F. D. Jones told a Sydney pressman recently that Paquito will start in botli the Epsom Handicap and the Metropolitan, in which iic is weighted at 8.9 and 8.7 respectively. Success in the shorter race means a 101 b. penally for Ihc second leg of the double, which has never yet, at least •during the last 30 years, been landed by the one horse at the one meeting.

Sleepy Sol, wiio was schooled for jumping in the closing part of last season, displayed marked aptitude for the game in his work at Ellcrslie. Indications point to Sleepy Sol, with experience, proving capable in the department. The Marble Arch —Solitudo gelding is entered 'with the hurdlers ,at the coming meeting at Avondale.

Paganelli put up a very fine per- • formance in Sydney on Saturday, when '• the Waikato galloper, carrying the • burden of 9.i2, and conceding the j winner, Killarney, 131bs, ran him to a | neck. Killarney had to put up a j course record (1.12 J) for the six fur- j longs to heat Paganelli. M. J. Car- j roll, the trainer of Paganelli, has the j latter in excellent trim and lie well j warrants a win in the near future with j his brilliant galloper. i

The necessity for running a steeplechase event in two divisions does not often arise, but it was necessary at Victoria Park, Adelaide last month, in connection with the Fullerton Steeplechase. The first division comprised eleven starters, and the second division twelve. The respective winners were Karachi (by Lanius) and Exbourne (by Blankney II.)

Cybele should be in advanced condition by the time she undertakes hurdle racing at the Avondale meeting. The chestnut descendant, of Cynic—The Hook had placed form to her credit as a jumper in the autumn. She has a lot of pace for the game and fences well.

•The race selected for Ceremony’s first appearance in Australia is the Canterbury Stakes to be decided next | Saturday, when M. McCarten will l have the ride. The event 'is to be j run over six furlongs, and is at j weight-for-age, .with a 71b penalty for j weight-for-age winners above the value of £4OO. For horses not having won £l5O there ,are liberal allowances. Ceremony will thus have to carry 8.7, and if anything like himself he will give the opposition something* to do.

The ex-New Zealand horse Reonui again has a number of admirers for the A.J.C. Epsom Handicap at Randwick. Reonui was weighted 9.1 for the Epsom, a weight under which he was narrowly beaten in a big held by Shankara. Twelve months ago, Reonui at 8.6 for’the Spring sprint, and after having the luck to draw No. 1 post position, he stood at the barrier. Now rising six years, he appears to be better than he was then, and during the year he captured the A.J.C. Villiers Stakes with 8.11. A fast beginner, who can finish determinedly at the end of a mile, Reonui is the right type for the Epsom, but he has his share of weight, and may not be so good a proposition as the other representative from G. Price’s stable, Ramulus, who is growing in favour.

Air Laddie should soon he getting a stake. He is an Australian-bred three-year-old by Biplane from Comedia, a half-sister to Radnor, who raced well in Australia, and Tanadees, who won the Auckland Cup. Air Laddie raced three times last season, finishing third in the Novice Handicap to Last Mark and Roundelay at Trentham in July. At the recent Grand National meeting he ran third in the Cashmere Plate to Leader and Desert Song. Air Laddie is owned by Mr A. J. Toxward, who also trains him.

Ramulus, a member of George Price’s team, has been favourite for some time for the Epsom Handiacp, of one mile, one of the leading events at Australian Jockey Club's Spring meeting, but at latest accounts Gils Edge, from J. Scobie’s Melbourne stable, has joined him at the head of the quotations. These two horses are four-year-olds and they are an interesting pair. Ramulus, who started his racing career by winning the Breeders’ Plate, is by Rossendnle from Royal Pet, and tiros is a brother to Rarnpion, who beat Limerick more than once as a three-year-old. Gilt Edge, who is by Valais from Glittering Gold, came into the limelight first when he realised 5000 guineas as a yearling, and though he was slow in making a start as a winner, he showed some good form last season. He has 8.7 in the Epsom Handicap, while Ramulus has 9.2.

Toper, who defeated Ilic favourite Holdfast in the HobarLville Slakes at J Warwick Farm on Saturday, is a brown j gelding by Tippler from Tehama, j owned by Mr John Wren. Tippler's j stock made quite a name for t'nemi selves last season as two-year-olds, j which was the first time he had been j represented, and Saturday's result I makes it fairly plain that they train ! on. Malvina was possibly his best | get last season, its she scored in the | A.J.C. Gimcrack Stakes. Tippler is | a son of Polymelus, the sire of Phalaris, the leading sire in England for the past two years, and was a highclass racehorse himself. He ran unplaced in the Derby, won by Sansovino on the occasion of one of the wettest Derbies on record, and was then bought for Australia while at a very high figure. Firbolg, second to Perception on Saturday, is another of his stock. Toper was little known as a two year old. but at the end of July in Melbourne he was heavily backed in a seven-furlong race for two-year-olds, and won well. Toper won previously in Sydney, but failed twice at the Flcmington Winter meeting. His defeat of Holdfast, who was sharpened up by his race against Paquito the previous week, speaks , well for his Derby chance. :

! W. Stone has his three horses looking in the best of health at present, 1 and if they go on all right during the next few weeks they should he in great order for spring* engagements (says the Christchurch writer Argus). Silver Paper, who finished up last ; season with a first-class record, has ' wintered well, and he should carry on successfully as a four-year-old. Just how far he will go remains to he ; seen, but on his form up to a mile he : should he capable of running out a .'mile and a quarter this season. He | may have a race at the Dunedin Spring j meeting, and then go to Trentham, | with Riccarton to follow in Novem- ; her. Aspiring, the three-year-old : half-sister to Silver Paper, lias shown ! some speed in tier work, without be- • ing seriously tried out. It is intendicd to race her at Ashburton this month, as a preliminary to the Dun- : edln meeting, where she has a Guineas engagement. The Tea Tray—Victory Bond fitly, ttie Iwo-year-old member of the team, has shaped well in a few short sprints. She has a fine burst of speed, and though only lime can tell how far she'will carry on. she appears to have excellent prospects in the meantime for early juvenile events. Provided she trains on all right, she may go south for the Dunedin meeting, where she is engaged in Hie .McLean Stakes, a race that Aspiring won last year.

Suggesting that short stirrups were

not the cause of spills on racecourses, Mr Colin Stephen, chairman, stated at the annual meeting of the Australian Jockey Club that falls were inevitable on circular courses, no matter how skilled the jockeys. Mr Stephen said that following the remarks of the chairman of the V.R.C., the A.J.C. was willing to meet in conference the principal clubs to discuss methods that might result in improved riding. The chairman of the V.R.C., said Mr Stephen, had suggested that short stirrups had something to do with present-day race accidents, hut over and over again the A.J.C. committee had considered that aspect of the sport. He had frequently told apprentices that they should not try to emulate certain 'jockeys who rode a little hit short, and that they should obey the instruction of their masters. But after having .watched racing for 40 years, he was satisfied that no methods could he devised that would prevent falls. Horses travelled at the rate of about 17 yards a second, and at such speed jockeys had scarcely any time to make up their minds what to do when an emergency arose. When a horse racing on the rails suddenly dropped back, horses galloping behind it were generally affected. Conse-. quently, people were often inclined to

describe wrongly such incidents as foul riding. Such happenings, however, were inevitable. Furthermore, some horses couhl not he prevented from running out wide at the turns, and when, in doing this, they bumped another horse, it did not necessarily mean that the riding was indifferent, lie was not at all sure that short stirrups could be blamed for these happenings. Great care was taken in the granting of licenses to apprentices, and the system of training the boys viaui about as perfect as it could be.

The Riccarton trainei-, F. Christmas, has only Red Heckle and Flair in preparation for early spring engagements, and it is probable they will start the season’s racing at Ashburton. Red Heckle has not done a great deal of fast work, but he looks in excellent health, and a few smart gallops should bring him to his best. Flair won at her only start as a two-year-old, and she shapes like being very useful this season.

The first real test of supremacy between the class horses of Australia and New Zealand took place at the Warwick Farm meeting on Saturday, and resulted in a triumph for Limerick, i The Warwick Farm course has a short straight and the distance being, a mile j opinions differ as to whether Limerick | would bo able to defeat his more bril- ; liant opponent, despite the fact that he had won the race for the last two years. According to reports, lie j scored a complete and decisive victory j and there is no doubt that he is as j good now as ever lie was for the op- : position on Saturday was very strong, j Mollison and Aussie had both met i Limerick once previously and both had ; beaten him, so that Saturday’s result j would lie more Ilian pleasing to F. D. j Jones, while Winalot dead-heated with Limerick in the Spring Stakes lat Randwick twelve months ago. A Sydney writer on the eve of the departure of the last mail before the race wrote: —"in some seasons, weight-l'or-age racing in the spring and autumn has fallen short of expectations, but there is little likelihood of disappointment this spring. Limerick has won the Warwick Stakes for the past two years; but, with Molli--1 son one of his opponents, it will trouble him to win for the third time. F. D. Jones has Limerick in fine trim, and when the black went past the other morning, F. Foulsham (Mollison’s trainer) could not help ejaculating: 'He looks well, and he’s still a good horse.” It is easy to endorse the opinion concerning Limerick's appearance, and, if Mollison should be • 100 good in the shorter races at War- j wick Farm and Rosehill, the A.J.C. I Spring Stakes, Craven Plalc, and Rand- j wick Plate will give Limerick greater j opportunity of paying expenses. When j Mollison beat Limerick in the All- | Aged Stakes the difference in weight; was 71b in his favour. in the War- j wick Stakes it will be 311)., and that j should be sufficient to enable him to I down me New Zealander again-.” | Mollison has been responsible for some j excellent track work lately, so there i could be no excuses for his defeat, j He was beaten by a better horse. The ; fact that Ncdda was the last to finish l does not augur well for her chances, j It being her first outing, some excuse ; can be made. At the same time it : is not very encouraging form in view 1 of important classic engagements.

, CONDUCT OF MEEiiNG. i j CLUBS CALLED TO TASK. | i The occasion has arisen during recent months to call certain racing ciuns to io.sk for certain discrepancies in the conduct of their meetings —a uuly which nas devolved on newspaper representatives in the interest of the public and others eoncerne 1, says a Christchurch writer. In some quarters the tendency has been to affix the blame to the stipendiary ’ steward present, but there have been I instances where that official has ■ brought up matters but has not been j hacked up by the judicial stewards. A pointed case recently occurred I where a stipendiary steward asked for lan inquiry into careless riding in a ! race, but the stewards did not take the matter up, as they considered no good would come of it, and this, in face i of the fact that they had punished a rider for a less glaring and serious offence on the previous day. In another, the official was anxious to ascertain the cause of interference met by more than one horse in a race, but could not collect all the members of the judiciary in the short time at his disposal, and the inquiry was not held until the next day, when things had cooled down and the oft-administered caution “Don’t do it again" was the substance of the verdict. There is something wrong with the whole system as far as some clubs arc concerned, and while stipendiary stewards have to hear the brunt of cirticism for apparent negligence of duty, it has often been found that they have not had the support of the judicial officers in carrying out the intricate tasks allotted to them. They have done valuable work in many j ways, and this can only continue by j the" guarantee that Ihc clubs will take ; reasonable notice of their efforts to maintain a high standard in the conduct of racing affairs generally.

WAIKATO HUNT. POINT TO POINT RACES. TO BE HELD OX SATURDAY. The Waikato Hunt will hold a Point to Point meet at Fencourt on Saturday next, September 7, The programme contains four events las follows: — Members’ light-weight race (about 3 miles) JJ.7, which is open to qualified hunters owned and ridden by members of any registered Hunt; horses never to have started in a race. The Members’ Heavy-weight race (about 3 miles), 13.0, lias similar conditions to the opening event. The Open Steeplechase, about 3 miles, 11.7, has conditions similar to the two preceding events with the deletion of the condition “horses never to have started in a race.” The Ladies’ Race (about two miles) is for lady members v of any registered hunt. Trophies are to be given to the owner of horses first and second in eacli event. The nomination fee is 5s and nominations will be taken by the secretary (Mr C. Meredith), box 49, Cambridge. Horses arc to be ridden by amateur horsemen who are members of any registered hunt, The point to point gives indication of fine sport and there promises to be a large muster of the public.