THE TURF.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume I, Issue 42, 16 May 1891, Page 3

THE TURF.

[BY

OLD TURFITE.]

Both loud and deep anathemas have been hurled at Mr. Knight since he issued the weights for the Takapuna Jockey Club’s winter meeting, and not without reason. It is wonderful why the Committee employ him, they must have seen long since that he was incompetent for the work. It is not my intention to go thoroughly into the handicaps to try and pick a winner until after the acceptances appear, as this is the last meeting, and many may go for what is called the “off chance,” in hopes that they may get their winter oats, as after the lesson lately given to jockeys there will not be much fear of anything crooked being done. The Hurdle Race is incomprehensible. Kate and Bit-o’-Blue only meet at zlb difference, though at the Lake meeting the latter ran clean away from her. Why has The Peer to give weight to Cloth of Gold, Parnell and Takapu ? At the A.R.C. meeting Sentinel, who won, gives Nap 141 b and beat him easily; now they meet at lolb. In the same race he gives Cloth of Gold, who did not get a place, 21 lbs; now they meet at 1 gib. Bit-o’-Blue, who was third, received 2olb from the winner; now there is only a difference of 141 b; and so on all through the handicap. In the Birthday Handicap Leorina meets Tamora at the same weights as at Otahuhu, when they were second and third. Kapo, who has won several races over a distance, is let in the same as Priscilla and The Dreamer,, who have done nothing. It is impossible to wade through the handicaps, but the fields will prove what is thought of them, so I will only take the Maiden and Welter, both one mile. In the first Octopus gives Theorem 71b, Forget-me-not 141 b, Warrior iBlbs, but in the Welter Theorem gives Octopus 21b ; Forget-me-not and Octopus meet at level weights ; while Warrior gets in on a great deal better terms. The handicapper when asked about these discrepancies said it was a different scale of weights. So it is, but is that the reason why Forget-me-uot, who is only a pony and has been racing as such, should have to meet Octopus and Warrior, who have won Welter races, on worse terms. Theorem has won two hurdle races, therefore should be supposed to be able to carry a heavy weight. In the Maiden Handicap, one mile, Mr. Knight has handicapped Brown Bess, a two-year-old, at Bst. I thought a handicapper should know the rules of racing. (No two-year-old shall run more than seven furlongs.) Taking the different races as they are now, Sentinel if on “ sentry go ” should win the Hurdle Race and Steeplechase, while the majority of the others should go to the selected one of the “ North Shore stables.”

In the Canterbury Times of May 7th there are two articles referring to remarks that were made in the Sporting Review regarding the dispersal of the Middle Park Stud, also saying that they were devoid of truth. It is not

difficult to see from whose pen they emanated. Opinions of course differ in the management and expenses of a breeding establishment. The Canterbury Times says that the dispersal was necessary to close a partnership. Many the same as myself were under the impression that it was a Company. One thing struck me forcibly—the sale was advertised as without reserve, at the same time the two stallions were bought in. As regards the site not being a suitable one, I must say I coincide in it, having had many years experience in breeding in England, with the late Sir Joseph Hawley and Mr. Blenkiron as my mentors. I have my own opinions whether right or wrong. Middle Park is situated too flat and the ground was devoid of lime. The old saying is that where Elms and the Hawthorn grow best, is the proper place to breed the thoroughbred. The remark that horses bred in Canterbury are more lasting though not so precocious as those bred in a balmier climate, is hardly carried out by the record in the stud book. As regards St. George being a failure at the stud, is a matter of opinion; the best of his get after being some ten years at the stud is Merrie England; and he is a long way off a good one. Stud Companies have always been failures. You have only to look back to the Rawcliffe, Cobham, and many other companies who all failed, while the late Mr. Blenkiron, Crowther Harrison, Paiskey, Smith, and other private breeders have made it pay. The reason is not hard to find—the money that should be profit goes in the salaries of managing director, manager, secretary, etc. It is not in hay and oats the expense comes in. Mr. Blenkiron, the most successful breeder ever known, has often told me that he only averaged iz£ per cent on his capital; then he only had to pay one stud groom and helpers, all the rest of the work he did himself. If he had not, where would the profit be ? Stud companies never will pay, especially in New Zealand.

“Cranbrook,” of the Sportsman, writes: — During a chat with Mr. W. E. Dakin the other day, the name of the outsider who won the Two Thousand Guineas at Newmarket last week —Common, by Isonomy from Thistle, by Scottish Chief from The Flower Safety, by Wild Dayrell—cropped up, and Mr. Dakin kindly furnished me with some interesting particulars anent this colt’s maternal ancestry. It appears that The Flower Safety, grand dam of the Two Thousand winner, at one time belonged to Mr. Dakin, and he still retains a very vivid recollection .of a nasty jar she gave him at the Warwick Spring meeting in 1863. On referring to the ‘ English Racing Calendar ’ for that year in the Public Library, I find that Mr. W. E. Dakin purchased The Flower Safety after winning a Selling Race, for 135 guineas on the first day of the Warwick meeting. The morning after the purchase Mr. Dakin tells me he tried her with another horse of his called Inkerman, who had started the week previously at Liverpool in the Grand National Steeplechase, won by Lord Coventry’s Emblem, with the result that Inkerman beat the mare badly over a mile at level weights. On the last day of the same meeting Mr. Dakin started both Inkerman and The Flower Safety for a Welter Handicap, and on the strength of the private spin backed the horse to win a good stake down to 5 to 4. To his utter surprise, The Flower Safety gave the lie completely to. her private form’, and, though meeting Inkerman on pounds worse terms than in the trial, she won in a canter by three lengths. Shortly after that Mr. Dakin, who was in the 6th Dragoon Guards at the time, won the Grand Military Steeplechase over the Rugby course with Inkerman, and the horse’s victory so pleased him that he made a present of The Flower Safety and a very handsome douceur besides to his then trainer, W. H. Scott, of Plymouth Copse, Holywell. The Flower Safety was, Mr. Dakin says, a wiry-looking mare, rather light of bone, and, like most of Wild Dayrell’s stock, very much on the leg. She, however, was a rare bred one. Her dam, Nettle, who belonged to Palmer, of Rugby poisoning fame, was a rattling good mare, and started a great favourite for the Oaks that Marchioness won. Mar-, chioness, that year’s Oaks winner, was afterwards purchased and brought out here by Mr. Fisher, and was one of the gems of the famous Maribyrnong stud—producing Rose of Denmark (whom Harry Tothill, the South Australian trainer, will long remember), the dam

of Hamlet, Horatio, etc. ; also that clinking * good racehorse Fishhook, and Angler. Perhaps, after reading the above, some of Mr. Dakin’s detractors, who were. scarcely born when he was racing horses in England, may feel inclined to confess that that gentleman knows a trifle more about “ legitimate ” racing than they give him credit for. By the way, the Hon. W. Pearson imported a half-sister to Thistle, the dam of Common, named Thistledown, but she was not a success at the Kilmany Park Stud, and she eventually died.” —Well do I remember the above. She gave me a jar.