SPORTING REVIEW. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1893.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume IV, Issue 177, 14 December 1893, Page 4

SPORTING REVIEW. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1893.

During the next fortnight we will be in the thick of the racing season, and the town, suburban and country courses will ring with the music of galloping hoofs from the 23rd inst until the second day of the New Year. The Auckland Trotting Club will open the Christmas ball on the 23rd, and the trotters and ponies will continue at Potter’s Paddock on the 27th and 30th. Down at the Thames the 26th and 27th will be devoted to the worship of the horse, and Ellerslie will be en fete on the 26th inst., and the first two days of the New Year. If the racing public are not satisfied with these various dates they can journey to Drury and attend races there on the 28th inst. The trotting enthusiasts will find a plentiful bill of fare set out for them at Potter’s Paddock, but the interest of the racing man will centre in the A.R.O.’s three day’s meeting, at which a trio of splendid programmes will be presented. On the opening day, December 26th (Boxing Day) two important events, the Auckland Cup and the Great Northern Foal Stakes, will be decided, and both these races will cause a great amount of excitement amongst followers of the Sport of Kings. The I’ony Cup with its purse of 100 sovs will send a flood of minature racers round the course, and the Handicap Hurdle Race of 150 sovs, should attract a good field of prominent performers over the little sticks. Keen interest will be taken in the second day’s sport, from the fact that the St. George colt will show us a glimpse of the form which electrified Australia until Carnage came along and took the electrical matter out of him. The battle which will be fought between Loyalty and Skirmisher, may be a most exciting one, although hosts of people can be found ready to assert that the son of St. George—Fair Nell will lose Skirmisher in the run for the Derby. But a race is never won until it is lost. What a commotion there would be if Mr O’Brien’s colt failed to win, and there is more than a bare possibility of such a boil over. The Vanguard colt gave weight to Loyalty in the Challenge

Stakes, and after getting the worst of the luck he was only beaten by a bare length. If defeat does come to Loyalty in the Great Northern Derby his reputation on the other side will not be enhanced. In addition to this classic race the second day will see the decision of the Glasgow Handicap, A.R.C. Handicap, New Year’s Hurdle Race, Midsummer, Country, Maiden and Pony Handicaps. The Auckland Steeplechase is the trump card of the concluding day, and the Musket Stakes will show us the pick of the two and three-year-olds. Then there will be three other prominent events, viz., the Grandstand Handicap, Auckland Plate, and the Newmarket Handicap. General entries are not due until to-morrow, Gut it is certain that there will be large fields nominated for the various events, the total prize money for which amounts to £4050.

The question should brushed hurdles be used ? is causing considerable comment on the Australian side at present. The riders seem to be pretty equally divided on the point, and Corrigan, Ferguson and Wise, three prominent Victorian riders, who were badly shaken at the last Flemington Meeting in consequence of their horses falling at brushed hurdles, appear to be in favour of the brushing system provided it is properly carried out. Corrigan, who ought to know as much about steeplechasing as anyone in Australia, remarked to an interviewer who sought him out to ascertain his views in connection with the serious falls which took place in the run for the V.K.C. Steeplechase (in which nine out ul the ten horses fell): —‘ There’s this to be said about brushing the fences. After the grass has been mown between the fences it was thrown on top of the brush, and, instead of the latter being of use to the horses it proved just the reverse, for there was no difference between the turf and the grass covered brush. It was at the solicitation of myself and several other cross-country riders that the idea of brushing the fences in steeplechases was adopted by the V.R.C., and those persons who say that obstacles which have been properly brushed are the cause of more falls than when the fences are not so treated, know nothing about the subject.’ The Sydney riders, however, seem to differ from Corrigan, for we notice that a petition signed by nearly all the leading N.S.W owners, trainers, and riders of hurdlers, is to be presented to the Associated Sydney Clubsaskingthat in future hurdles similar to those used at Randwick should replace the brushed ones.

The cause of the totalisator is being steadily advanced on the Australian side, and it is rather a curious thing that at a time when some of our New Zealand politicians are professing themselves in favour of the abolition of the machine, the legislators of Victoria and Sydney should be becoming persuaded that its adoption is the only way to regulate gambling and cleanse the Turf of the undesirable ‘ undergrowth’ which at present clings around it like an Old Man of the Sea. A powerful advocate of the totalisator has arisen in the Victorian metropolis. The Melbourne is championing its cause, ami when that powerful daily takes up a subject it does not stop, as a rule, until some reform is effected. Here is a clipping from a article which recently appeared in its columns : — If the legislators of New South Wales and Victoria are genuinely desirous of guiding and restricting the unquenchable spirit of speculation in connection with sport, they will throw off the mock morality which has hitherto blocked the passage ot the Totalisator Bill, and follow the example of New Zealand, Queensland, South Australia and Tasmania in legalising that system of speculation. J here has recently been a great outcry about of public money having gone into the pockets of the bookmakers over the Melbourne Cup Meeting, but all the outcry in the world will not prevent the same thing occurring again whenever a Tarcoola can be found capable of snatching the victory from a Carnage. Had the totalisator been in force at Iriemington the greater portion of that sum—or of whatever amount the ring may have actually won—would have been divided amongst a section of those by whom it was subscribed ; a portion of the remainder would have gone towards increasing the stakes ; and another portion to charitable purposes. The introduction of the totalisator, to be used under certain stringent conditions, would be far more rational than the attempt now being made in Sydney to prohibit betting.

The scientist has turned his attention to the jockey’s whipcord, and the result is the electric whip. The handle of this precious development of latter day science is, we are told, made of celluloid,' and contains a small induction coil and battery, the circuit being closed by means of a spring push. The extremity

of the whip consists of two small copper plates insulated from each other, each of which is .provided with a tiny point. The plates are connected to the induction coil , by means of a couple of fine insulated wires, and when the jockey strikes the whip against the horse’s side the animal receives an electric shock which is supposed to make him put his best foot foremost. And this is called the age of Reason and Progress I Lacerating the horse’s side with the spur is apparently behind the times, and so the humane electrician comes along with his electric whip. If a horse cannot race without such a cruel contrivance he should be kept off the racecourse. Jockeys whips are responsible for many defeats, and the number is not likely to decrease when a weapon such as the one described is brought into play and placed in the hands of injudicious and brutal riders. And there are many such individuals in the saddle. The application of an electric shock to a beaten horse is not calculated to give him heart to struggle through a hard fight up the straight, and in the event of the current acting the reverse way and affecting the rider’s arm, his judgment in the matter of a close finish would not, we fancy, be very much aided.

With the Summer Meeting at Ellerslie within measurable distance we would draw the attention of the Auckland Racing Club to the desirability of remedying an evil which is always overlooked at their race meetings. We allude to the neglect to prevent the people on the flat or course from crowding around the double and water jump during a steeplechase run. As we pointed out in a former issue, this is unfair to owners, jockeys, and an important section of the racegoing public. A steeplechaser may be a ‘ractious nervous animal, and in such a case his chance of doing justice to his owner and rider are not likely to be increased if a crowd of excited backers is allowed to line the approaches and sides of the jumps in question and greet the various candidates with a yelling chorus as. they rise in response to their riders’ call. This should not be allowed at any time, and certainly not when an important event like the Auckland Steeplechase is being contested. And apart from the danger of an excitable animal baulking the jumps in consequence of the noise, the committee of the Club should certainly study the interests of those people who patronise the paddock and lawn. It is hardly fair that racegoers who pay half-a-guinea into the Club’s coffers should have one of the best sights of a steeplechase partly hidden from their view. This is a matter we will be glad to see the Club remedy at the approaching Summer meeting.

The particulars of Prime Warden’s fight in the St. Andrew’s Handicap at Dunedin show that he ran a great, game race, which completely wipes out the bad impression left by his previous disappointing efforts. His victory in the Onslow Plate was also a fine performance, and the Otago Witness writer, ‘ Mazeppa,’appears to have been greatly struck by the vastly improved form displayed by the son of Apremont Miss Kate. Our contemporary says :—“ Prime Warden has come to the rescue of his own reputation, and not a day too soon. A most unprofitable horse to have followed, as proved by the ifigures presented a week or two ago; backers were beginning to turn him up ; he was acquiring the character of a fainthearted finisher; and many as well as inyself held the opinion, even after he won the Otago Cup, that he runs best in front—a polite manner of insinuating a lack of courage. In so far as I have had any share in that insinuation, I herewith solemly recant and make apology to P.W. No racer that has started at the Forbury has ever made a more brilliant and dogged rush than this same brown did in the St. Andrew’s Handicap last Thursday.” Half way to the distance post his chance, we are told, appeared to be hopeless, but Warden with the greatest pluck wore down everything, Skirmisher included, but Rangipuhi, who however only gained the victory by a head. An hour subsequent to this fine performance Prime Warden won the Onslow Plate from a good field in splendid, fashion. After these two races he must be accorded a place in the first flight, and backers would do well to carefully watch him in his future engagements.;, • ... ...

Zimmermann,' the champion cyclist, has won 100 events on the wheel. At Jersey on Oct. sth he did half a mile on a bad track in Imin 17 1-5 sec, and won a two-mile handicap from the scratch man in smm 7 2-5 sec,