Turf Topics.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume V, Issue 260, 18 July 1895, Page 7

Turf Topics.

[By

Reviewer.)

The racehorse Muscovite has been sold for India.

The V.R.C. have declined to re-license Chris. Moore.

Swornbearer is in the private sale list in Melbourne.

Sydney touts think Webley will pay his way at Rand wick.

I hear St. Hilda will be nominated for the C.J.C. jumping meeting.

Advices from the other side state that Vanitas is rapidly getting into form. According to “Castor” 'lhe Winchman can get under the 14.2 standard. If The Possible comes over for our Cup keep an eye on him. Also the market. Cannon (Nordenfeldt —Sister Agnes) has been sold to a foreign buyer for IOOOg*. The winner of the last Melbourne Cup, Patron, is once more facing the training music. Bombardier and Marech d Neil were brought back from Gisborne last Monday. The Caulfield racing season will .extend over fourteen days next season instead of twelve. E. Cutts has been laid up with sciatica at Riccarton, and at last advices was confined to his bed.

Capt. Russell has been requested by the H.B. J.C. to appoint a date for the Annual Racing Conference.

Ebor and Busaco are to be given two months spell. From all accounts this pair want a rest very badly. The pony Virgin, whose vagaries at the starting post were very much in evidence last season, is dead.

Sydney writers describe Lady Thornton as “ another Brown Mantle ” in the matter of kicking up at the post. A pair of Potter’s Paddock trotters, Dinah and Pioke, are wintering in the shafts of a Pullan and Armitage waggonette. George Wright has three members of his string in the A.J.C. Metropolitan Stakes, viz., St. Hippo, Royal Rose, and Osculator. A Trenton horse (Climax) out of a Grand Flaneur mare has been sold for 80 guineas to go to Queensland on stud work.

Patron has reappeared on the Flemington training track and is described as looking vastly the better for his recent spell.

Repo has joined Mr S. H. Gollan’s string, and 'has been sent to Christchurch in company with Norton, Lascar, and Mystical, Lottie’s future movements are still wrapped in mystery, but I can’t say she will not start for the New Zealand Cup. The totalisator main at the Wellington United Hunt Club Meeting last Saturday shows an advance of £29 compared with last year’s total. Saturday’s betting amounted to £3,141. The scratching of Ebor for all C.J.C. Grand National engagements hardens the idea I have entertained for some time that this horse has been knocked out by his repeated falls.

The report comes from the U.S.A, that the mighty Ormonde is almost impotent and has developed a frightful temper.

The grey gelding Musket, recently sold to. a southern sportsman, has been taken up again. It is expected the horse will stand a preparation. Nero, the Gisborne Park Steeplechase winner, was offered at auction after his victory, but the bidding was of only £3O strength so the prad was passed in.

The riding record .of John Rae for the past season shows that this popular cross-country rider has scored 7 wins, 6 seconds, and 5 thirds out of 22 engagements.

One of the candidates (Mr J. Paterson) for election to the V.R.C. Committee is a thick and thin supporter of the totalisator since he saw it working in Adelaide.

A Sydney Referee training note says ‘The Dancer is again o i the track after his trip to New Zealand, and iooks pretty well, as does Royal Rose and St. Hippo, but none are sent fast. The death is announced of Dame Agnes, Mr W. A. Long’s well-known Hermit mare. Dame Agnes was foaled in England in 1882, and was by Hermit out of Belle Agnes by The Cure. I have been looking for the name of Kahurangi in the nomination list for the C.J.C. Grand National Hurdles but it does not appear in the lists supplied to the Northern and Southern papers.

The V.R.C. Committee-men and members discussed the totalisator question at a special meeting held last week, and according to the cableman the meeting decided in favour of the machine.

It was understood that Mr S. H. Gollan had sold Leontini to Mr E. D. O’Rorke of “ The Pah,” but it transpires that the present owner of the horse is Mr R. O’Rourke, a coastal racing man.

Mr Geo. Mcßride has written to the Secretary re his dispute with the Auckland Trotting Club. He hits straight out at the Auckland Trotting Club and charges them with all kinds of mismanagement.

Nominations for the A.J.C. Metropolitan Stakes will be found in another column. This year’s list, totals 72, a result that shows an increase of seven entries compared with last year’s return.

From a Sydney paper : —“ You can’t beat New Zealand names when a swindle is on. A turf job wouldn’t go off properly without something ‘cronk’ from New Zealand being in it.” Nice reputation to have . ynging to us. The Hawkes Bay Coursing Club intend holding their first meeting on September 4th if they obtain the consent of the National Coursing Club. The programme will show an All-aged and probably a Consolation Stake. Tn addition to being fairly well supported locally for the V.R.C. Grand National Steeple, Dart was heavily backed by Dunedin and Wellington backers. If he had got home the Southern penctllers would have had a bad time. It was thought that Nancy Hanks, the famous 2.04 trotting mare, was in foal to Vatican, but the last American files to hand declare her to have missed. She was bred to Arion, 2.07 J, last spring, and later to Vatican, but both efforts were failures.

Liberator leaves Hawke’s Bay “ broken down ” (according to press reports) and arrives at Christchurch looking very little the worse for wear. When this victim of a “ hopeless breakdown ” scores at Riccarton next month I’m going to chuckle.

George Hope left Napier at the end of last week for Riccarton in charge of Mutiny and Conran to. The first named racer is very well and will shake up Liberator, Norton and Co. before the C.J.C. Grand National Steeplechase journey is concluded. Empire has so far been a rather unlucky horse» but he may have his turn next month. This jumper is very well at present, and may do good service for Free Holmes before long. Empire has 10.3 in the Grand National Hurdles, which impost gives him a 131 b pull of the weight he had to carry in last year’s race. The Caulfield trainers recently met to discuss the total’sator and decided that the machine should not be supported. But it’s worth remarking that the leading Caulfield trainers, viv., Messrs Redfearn, Martin, Foulsham, Davis, Griffiths. Carmody, Gardner, and Brewer never attended that meeting. Daimio’s victory in the V.R.C. Grand National Steeplechase last Saturday was a trifle better than his performance last year, when he won the same event. Then, he had the feather of 9.3 and won easily in 7m o|s, but last Saturday he had the steadier of 11.10 and yet cantered home in 6m 45Js. If lam not mistaken this time cuts a quarter of a second off Redleap’s record. The winning payments in connection with the Wellington United Hunt Club Meeting last Saturday are as follows:—J. E. Pilbrow, £BO 15s ; F. Pearce, £52 5s ; H. Peters, £47 10s ; J. D. Ormond, £42 15s; C. Cress, £33 5s ; J. Chrystie, £33 ss; A. Portland, £l4 15s; W. B. Buick, C. Hawkins, F. H. Gibbons, Wi Hutana, and T. H. Gillot, each £4 15s; Mrs McKenzie, bracelet value 30 sovs ; Mrs Benton, bracelet value 5 sovs. Total, £362 15s. I think New Zealand owners who visit Australian tracks in search of prize money will be wise if they refrain' in future from introducing their prads to the Sydney and Melbourne people as “ hacks.” The cattle we have been sending over lately under the name of hacks will probably give animals so-called a larger allowance of poundage than if they went over as pearls of breeding. The Sydney sider is being taught to purse up his lips and button his pockets when you whisper the word hack—or pony.

The first number of The Flag, an Australian sporting and dramatic weekly, came to hand by yesterday’s mail. It is printed on fine paper and contains some excellent photo-process, blocks. The general arrangement and clever writing of the paper should make it a dangerous rival to some of the other-side sporting journals.

It was reported that Forma, the champion local two-year-old of the dying season, had gone to the stud. This is incorrect. Her relative, Forme, left the post for the paddock, but Forma re-entered Geo. Wright’s stable last week. The fleet daughter of Hotchkiss and Formo is wintering famously, and will strip a perfect picture when she faces her three-year-old work. Australian papers to hand by yesterday’s mail show no marked change in the betting on the two Cups or Derby. Atlas is favourite for the Caulfield Cup at 20 to 1, and Taranaki and Best Bower are next at 25’s. Dreamland heads the Melbourne horses at 20’s, and Rewi, Carnage, Delaware, Newman, and Bruin stand next at 33’s. Auraria, Bob Ray, and Wallace are the Derby favourites at 7 to 1 each. Mr Frank Lawry’s attempt to legalise turf consultations was strangled very smartly. The legislative opponents of this measure may be right in throwing away a chance of keeping in the colony tbe thousands of pounds that drift away every year to the ever open maw on the other-side consultation people. It has been estimated that in one year alone £97,000 was sent from New Zealand for Tatt. and others of that ilk. Can we afford that leakage ? Parliament says Yes, or rather it gives us no chance of stopping it, which amounts to the same thing.

“ Gipsy Grand ” gives further testimony re Liberator’s recovery. My contemporary writes : —“ I had a look at old Liberator en route to Christchurch on Friday last. Mr Butler’s old battler looks none the worse for his North Island trip. His near foreleg looks a bit ‘corpulent,’ but is callous enough, and he walked down to the boat as firm as a two-year-old. In* reply to my query, ‘ Free ’ Holmes, who was in charge of the southern crack, gave it as his opinion that the blood vessel which Liberator bui’st in the Hawke’s Bay Steeplechase was not likely to hinder his preparation for the C.J.C. Grand National Meeting.” Unless something happens in his work Liberator will win the C.J.C. Grand National Steeplechase and perhaps the double. An American exchange tells a very amusing story of two Frenchmen who recently went to New York to buy a trotting stallion. They avoided the well-known channels of trade, but at last secured a horse which the dealer described as “ a born trotter, a beauty,” in fact, said he, “he is a regular Jay Bird.” They took him to France and described him as by Jay Bird, but as they were asked for an authenticated pedigree, sent over for one. The dealer, when asked about the matter, said he never sold the horse as by Jay Bird, but simply used the phrase as a token of praise ; and further, that he sold the horse on its merits, without pedigree. The horse turned out to be by Wood’s Hambletonian, and now there will be two very mad Frenchmen, who thought they had a l,ooodol. horse at slaughterhouse prices.

An amusing error crept into a Chicago paper in connection with the death of the trotting stallion, Bourbon Wilkes. The telegram announcing the horse’s death missed the sporting editor and fell into the hands of one of the night sub-editors, who promptly placed it in the obituary record of prominent men and women. The N.Y. Spirit of ihe Times recalls a blunder which beats that of the Chicago newspaper man. A swell social club in Buffalo had instructed its janitor to place the club’s flag at half mast whenever the death of a prominent foreigner or American was found in the daily newspapers. The death of the game race horse Prince Regent, followed this order closely, and after reading the flaring headlines in the Buffalo papers the flag of the club was quickly placed at half mast. It remained there a whole day before the error was discovered.

Some opponents of the totalisator are evidently becoming frightened. At Williamstown on Saturday the trainers from Flemington who favour the machine were actively combating the views of those who would keep the totalisator off our racecourses, and they not only stuck to their guns but easily held their own in argument. But the opposition scored a trivial victory later on. Mr R. H. Frew had a petition on the ground for persons in favour of the totalisator to sign. The signatures were coming in fast when the old gentleman in charge was seduced into leaving his post by an emissary of the enemy. He was only away long enough “ to drink a glass of whisky,” but in that time the petition vanished, and it never came back again. The dodge practised by the.opposition was as silly as it was contemptible, and the publicity given to the affair can hardly fail to help the cause of the totalisator. — Australasian.

The Duke of Portland would appear to be delighted with the appearance of Carbine. The Duke wrote to Mr Hart by the last mail, and after thanking him for making such perfect arrangements for sending the old horse home, says: —“ I delayed writing to you about Carbine until I had seen him. This I have done to-day, and I cannot tell you how delighted I am with his appearance. He shows far more quality than I expected, and is, I think, a fine type of a very high-class racehorse. The pictures of him that have appeared in the English newspapers are the most atrocious libels, and instead of having an enormous fiddle-head as he is depicted, I think I have never seen a better countenance on a racehorse, and his nose would go into a pint pot. He is an improved and stronger likeness of Orme, and I could not have chosen a more suitablelooking horse to mate with my St. Simon mares. I also like the yearling very much indeed, and think he will grow a fine colt. I shall send him into training with my other yearlings, work him gently, and try to win some of the big races at Ascot with him when he is four or five years old.’,’