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New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume IV, Issue 161, 24 August 1893, Page 3

Last week we gave an outline of the Auckland Racing Club’s programmes for the season, and we now have before us those of the Hawke’s Bay Jockey Club. As foreshadowed by the committee’s report submitted at the annual meeting of members the other day, the amount spent in permanent improvements to the course, and the fact of the Club now having to pay the per cent, totalisator tax, has necessitated a reduction in the stake money for the season of 1893-4. It has, however, only been found necessary to retrench to the extent of being the present total as compared with last year. Theadded money forthe different meetings is:—Spring, £1,215 ; Summer, £SOO ; Autumn, .ZD ,335 5 Winter, ; there thus being a reduction from last year of on the Spring Meeting, on the Summer, on the Autumn, and on the Winter. The Spring Meeting is fixed for Monday, October 2, and Tuesday, October 3. No change is made in the October Handicap, but the First Hurdles is reduced from 100 sovs to 75 sovs. The Hawke's Bay Guineas of 300 sovs, which closed with the large nomination of a ‘ century,’ is followed by the Maiden Plate, which is kept at 50 sovs. We are sorry to find that the Welcome Stakes, the two-year-old race of the day, is cut down from 100 sovs to 75 sovs, and as the second horse is to receive 10 sovs just the same as before, the prize will not be a very rich one for the winner. The Corinthian Stakes Handicap of 40 sovs and Flying Handicap of 100 sovs are unchanged from last year. On the second day the

Trial Handicap of 40 sovs, once round, for horses that have never won a race exceeding 40 sovs in specie at time of starting, again commences the proceedings, and is followed by the Second Hurdle Handicap, reduced from 80 soys to 75 sovs. The Spring Handicap suffers to the extent of 50 sovs, the added money being 200 sovs instead of 250 sovs. The weights, instead of being issued r t the same time as those for the Firs,; Hurdles and Flying, are to be kept back till the night of the first day’s racing—a most undesirable innovation in our opinion, and one not calculated to attract owners from a distance, as they will not be able to know their weights till they arrive at the scene of action. Another two-year-old race suffers, in that the Nursery Handicap has dwindled from 100 sovs to 75 sovs, but the other events — the Post Stakes of 25 sovs, Welter Handicap of 40 sovs, and Final Handicap of 60 sovs, have not been touched by the pruning knife.

As we mentioned above the programme of the Summer Meeting, which will as usual be held on Boxing Day, only shows a reduction of 25 sovs on last year’s total, this being effected by reducing the Christmas Handicap, 6 furlongs, from 100 sovs to 75 sovs, the other items remaining as under : —Welter Handicap of 50 sovs, once round ; Hurdle Handicap of 75 sovs, about two miles ; Summer Handicap of 155 sovs, one mile and a half; Trial Handicap of 40 sovs, once round; Two-year-old Handicap of 75 sovs, 5 furlongs ; and Post Stakes of 30 sovs, once round. We notice, however, that the acceptance fees have been raised in the Hurdles from 1 sov to 2 sovs, in the Summer Handicap from 3 sovs to 4 sovs, in the Two-year-old Handicap from 1 sov to 2 sovs, and in the Christmas Handicap from 1 sov to 2 sovs. The latter increase is rather peculiar, seeing that the added money to the race has been reduced.

Monday and Tuesday, March 19 and 20, are the dates of the Autumn Meeting. On the first day the Hurdle Race is the first victim to retrenchment, 75 sovs being added instead of 100 sovs. The Hawke’s Bay Cup is reduced from 400 sovs to 300 sovs, but the second and third horses are only to receive 30 sovs and 10 sovs instead of 50 sovs and 20 sovs as was the case last year. The nomination fee remains at 2 sovs and the acceptance at 7 sovs. The Nursery Handicap of 100 sovs, Highweight Handicap of 30 sovs, and Trial Handicap of 30 sovs are not altered, but the Railway Handicap is endowed with 100 sovs instead of 125 sovs, and the second money is reduced from 15 sovs to 10 sovs. On the second day a reduction again occurs in the jumping event, 75 sovs being given ininstead of 100 sovs. The rest of the programme is unaltered as regards added money, the piece de resistance being the Burke Memorial Stakes of 200 sovs, one mile and a half, the acceptance for which, by the way, has been increased to 5 sovs.

At the Winter Meeting, to be held on Friday, June 22, the ever - popoular Hawke’s Bay Steeplechase Handicap of 300 sovs, about three miles and a half, still maintains pride of place. The 20 sovs reduction in the total of stake-money is made, as in the previous programmes, in the Hurdle Race, which is allotted 80 sovs. The Amateur Steeplechase is superseded by the Hunters’ Handicap of 60 sovs, about two miles and a half, which is open only to qualified hunters that have never started in any race other than a qualified hunters’ race. On the whole we think the H.B.J.C. while finding retrenchment necessary have effected it with due discrimination — with one exception, and that is that in a district like Hawke’s Bay it would have been wiser to encourage the owners of hurdlehorses instead of, in every instance, reducing the value of races for that class of horse.