AUCKLAND RACING CLUB’S SECOND SPRING.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume V, Issue 220, 11 October 1894, Page 4

AUCKLAND RACING CLUB’S SECOND SPRING.

The weights for the Prince of Wales Handicap and the First Handicap Hurdles to be decided on the opening day of the Auckland Racing Club’s" second spring meeting were declared by Mr Evett on Saturday last and will be found in another column. In the mile and a half race, the Prince of Wales Handicap of 165 sovs. St. Kilda has been placed at the head of the eighteen horses entered, with 9.9 opposite his name. That the St. Leger—Matakaaa gelding is a capital performer over certain distances has been made abundantly evident, but that he can give away half a dozen pounds to a performer like Royal Rose over a mile and a half I very much question. Down at Hawke’s Bay he showed what he could do up to a mile and a distance with most respectable weights, but when it came to covering a mile and a half with 9.8 up St. Kilda was decidedly out of it. He could get to the head of the straight with the best of them but then the pinch came That was against a field which included no Royal Rose. However, the King Cole colt is not at all likely to see our November meeting, so whether the Matakana gelding can or cannot give him 61bs over the Prince of Wales distance is immaterial. Next to Royal Rose stands Reynard, whose solitary performance during last season was in the C.J.C. Midsummer Handicap of 200 sovs, one mile and a half, which event this son of Le Loup—Miss Kate annexed in the respectable time of 2.44 J after a hard

fight with Au Re voir. On that occasion Reynard carried 7.0, so that the extra stone imposed by Mr Evitt cannot be said to be uncalled for. Next to the Le Loup .horse nomes Ida with 7.10, Yatteufeldt has lib less, and Grenadier has been weighted at 7.8, Ben Godfrey standing on a similar mark. Up to date Grenadier has been anything but a success, and remembering what he has (or rather has not) done one is inclined, when glancing lower down the list, to wonder why this howling failure is summed up as 21b better than Tulloch over a mile and a half and 31bs the superior of St. Laura. At the same time I am free to confess that Brigadier’s son may be capable of doing what Mr Evett has asked, for I firmly believe that he can do “yards ’ better than his A.R.C. Spring Handicap display would seem to indicate. Still the fact remains that he has not shown such ability in in public and that being so he cannot be regarded as having been let into this handicap with too light a weight. While his chance (on paper) looks hopeless it may turn out to be the very reverse. He can gallop with the best of them and on the 9th of November he may more than justify the A.R.C. handicapper’s weighting. I say perhaps. Ben Godfrey at 7.8 has some decent mile running to his credit, but so far he has not shown much ability to get the extra distance. Eve and Formd are fairly placed at 7.7 and 7.6 respectively, and Tulloch has been placed on the same mark as Formd. Now when one remembers Tulloch’s easy win in this event last year when the Sword Dance horse carried 7.4—21bs under his weight of this year — and won comfortably in 2min 40|sec, one is apt to consider that he is not overburdened for this year’s fight. And the same reflection covers the case of St. Laura, who stands at 7.5. Last season she won the A.R.C. Guineas with 8.5 up, beating Yattenfeldt by a head over a Imin 45sec run mile; won the Waimate Handicap at the Egmont Summer meeting, carrying her 7.7 over the seven furlongs in Imin 34sec; won the Harrison Memorial Stakes, 6 furlongs, at Wanganui, in the Autumn winning easily (with 8.2 up) in Imin 16 4-sth sec, and the Flying Stakes, 6 furlongs (7.9 up) in Imin 17sec at the same meeting; and at the A.R.C. Autumn gathering she carried off a very respectable double, for going out in the Eden Handicap of seven furlongs she easily carried her 8.6 to victory in Imin 30sec, and on the second day of that meeting she again faced the Stewards’ Handicap of a mile with the same weight, 8.6, against her name and won hard held in Imin 45sec. With the extra year over her head the additional half mile may not trouble Miss Laura’s daughter, in which case her 7.5 may be a very handy weight for the mare to carry. In view of her chance and the probabilites attaching to the names of Tulloch, Ben Godfrey, Yattenfeldt, Ida, not to mention Royal Rose and the top weight, I do not think any attention need be paid to the racers standing lower in the list than Doris, who shares the 7.5 mark with the Miss Laura mare, unless one is inclined to fancy the name of Allan-a-dale, 6.11, on his Gisborne Park Stakes win—2min 7sec for a mile and a distance with 8 8 in the saddle. With 6.11 up this candidate may hustle along to some purpose. Accepting Royal Rose as an unlikely starter the best quartette should be Ida, Yattenfeldt, St. Laura and Tulloch. In the hurdle race I fancy Belmont does not bear the aspect of having been too well treated.* At the top of the weights with ii.io, with Marechai Neil at 81b less, Warrior 271 b less, and Skittles at 301 b less, the King Quail —Winnie gelding looks anything but comfortably situated. Contrast his impost with that awarded Skittles, and what do we find ? Mangere’s sister took 221 b from him at the last A.R.C. meeting, and ran him decidedly close in spite of the fact tha she was somewhat short of work, and that the state of the going suited the King Quail gelding right down to the ground. Now when it is a fair argument that the mare’s condition will be better than was the case on September 15, and that the state ofthe track will on November 9th be much more to her liking than it was on the firstnamed date she takes 301 b from Belmont! It is of course very much easier to pick holes in a handicap than to frame one, but Belmont’s weighting certainly does not strike one as correct in the remotest degree. However, the King Quail gelding has been scratched for this event, so the matter may well be left alone. Magpie, therefore, stands at the head of the list at 11.6 Over country this Betrayer gelding has shown decided ability* and last season, although his

hurdling did not meet with first place honours it was far from being of indifferent class. At Canterbury in the spring he was weighted at 10.12 in the two mile Spring Hurdle Race, and followed Clarence 10. n, and Norton 12.3, past the post. The Ascot horse was ‘half a length behind Clarence, and Empire followed Norton by a length. The two miles took 4-tnin lojsec to traverse. At the Dunedin Spring Meeting Magpie had 10.8 in the two mile and a distance hurdle race, won by Rebel, 10.5, in 4-min 29sec, and finished half a length behind the second horse, Smuggler, 9.12. At the Autumn D.J.C. gathering the mile and a half hurdle race, won by Cajolery in 3min saw Empire, 10.7, a length and a half away third. Next to Magpie stands Marechai Neil. 10.2, and at the weight he should be able to do something if there be any merit in him at all. Warrior, 9.11, and the light weights are well placed, and if it were not for the weighting of Mangere’s sister the handicapper might be complimented on his work. With Belmont risen tolb and Skittles only 21b for that race of September 15th, one, however, feels compelled to restrain any desire he may have to applaud this particular adjustment.