Turf Topics.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume VI, Issue 270, 26 September 1895, Page 8

Turf Topics.

[By

Reviewer.]

Auckland Cup entries due by 9 p.m. to-morrow. The Takapuna Jockey Club made a net profit last year of £428 12s 2d. Pegasus and Admiral Hawke go South at the beginning of next month. Lady Marion will be nominated for the Christchurch Metropolitan Meeting. The Yaldhurst trio—Mannlicher, Musketry, and Mauser —return to Riccarton this week. Mr Dan O’Brien will in all probability be in Auckland in time to attend the annual sales of blood stock. The Takapuna J.C. Committee meet to-night to appoint officers and draw up the programmes for the season. Hack entries in connection with the Wanganui Jockey Club Spring Meeting are due next Monday, 30th inst.

The Harvester has disappeared from the Melbourne Cup scene, and with bis scratching sinks many a dream of winter backers. Nominations for the Auckland Cup, Auckland Racing Club Handicap, and Auckland Steeplechase are due by nine p.m. to-morrow (Friday). The annual report and balance-sheet of the Takapuna Jockey Club, together with some very pertinent remarks on racing matters by the chairman (Mr E. W. Alison), will be found in another column.

Breeders of racing stock are reminded that entries for the Dunedin Jockey Club First and Second Eclipse Stakes close at 10 p.m. with Mr Sydney James next Saturday (28ih inst). Nominations for the Hurdle race, Prince of Wales and City Handicaps in connection with the A.R.C. Second Spring Meeting close with Mr W. Percival by 9 p.m. to-morrow (Friday). Next Saturday (28th inst) is first nomination day in connection with the Dunedin Jockey Club Spring Meeting. Entries close at 10 p.m. for the Otago Cup, and Federal, St. Andrew’s, and President’s Handicaps. As was the case last year when Mutiny won the steeplechase double at the A.J.C. Spring meeting, this year’s gathering saw the two crosscountry events carried off by a New Zealandbred animal, Waterbury scoring on both occasions.

The recent Randwick campaign of Mr Stead figures out as follows : —Mannlicher, third in the A.J.C. Derby and second in the New Stakes ; Musketry, first in High-weight Handicap and unplaced in Epsom Handicap; Mauser, third in Epsom Handicap. The Hippocampus —Slander mare Satanella (dam of St. Clements, St. Paul, Dinstock, and St. Ella) has a very promising yearling by the defunct Glenora Park sire, Blairgowrie. Mr W. Percival considers this youngster one of the most promising equine babies ever produced by Satanella. The totalisator investments at Ellerslie last Saturday total up to £9Ol in advance of last year’s Pakuranga Hunt Club Meeting. Then, the machine returns figured out at £2698 ; last Saturday they came to £3599. The return for the two days of the meeting figures out at £8197.

The second Melbourne Cup forfeit is due on October 29th. Horses not scratched for the Caulfield Cup on October 14th are considered acceptors. Mr G-. G. Stead’s Maxim colt Musketry (out of Flattery) showed up respectably on the last day of the A.J.C. Spring Meeting by carrying off the High Weight Handicap of 200 sovs, six furlongs. Musketry had 9.2 on his back and got home in the good time of Imin 15|, Attachment (10.5) and Waltzer (10.7) being in the places. Last year Hopscotch, whose brilliant victories have made him favourite for the Caulfield Cup, won this race from Cuwara, King Jewel, The Dancer and others in Imin 16|sec. One of the starters in last Saturday’s race, Bel Giorno, broke his leg and had to be destroyed. Gough who was riding the horse has one of his arms broken and his jaw fractured. The anti-gamblers have had another defeat (says the English writer “ Robin Hood”). It will be remembered that when some months ago the league brought an action against the Jockey Club for allowing betting on Newmarket Heath the bench of magistrates dismissed the case, and when asked to state a case for the decision of the higher Court they (the magistrates) declined 'to do so. This week the league made application to the judges on the Queen’s Bench to request them to compel the Newmarket magistrates to “ state a case.” This the judges, after hearing all the arguments, declined to do, saying the magistrates had decided on a question of facts and not of law, and as they (the magistrates) had so decided, after hearing full evidence, they (the judges) declined to force the magistrates to reopen it.

The only Ormonde yearling alive in California, Orestes, out of imp. Kissing Crust, has been put in training. Mr Macdonough, the wealthy American, who imported Ormonde, has great hopes of Orestes proving a credit to his famous sire.

The Takapuna Jockey Club have elected committeemen for the present season as follows :— R. IT. Duder, F. Wells, W. Adams, W. J. Ralph, A. Alison, G. Lankham, W. Avenall, J. Mays, E. W. Alison. At the annual meeting of the Hobson Racing Club the following officers were elected : —Patron, V. Trapp, Esq. ; President, Mr M. O’Connor; Vice-Presidents, Messrs Lindsay, Lindley, Louis, Frank, and W. Armiger ; Secretary, Mr G. Meredith; Committee, Messrs Hammond, Seymour, Masefield, T. and E. Bassett, Odium, Bonella, T. Smith, Brassington, S. Dodd, J. McIlroy, J. Thompson, M. Cobbald, and P. Moloughney ; Course Committee, Messrs T. Smith and Bonella; Treasurer, Mr Hammond ; Auditor, Mr R. Brassington. No less a sum than £25,000,000 per annum is spent in Great Britain and Ireland on the five principal sports, and, according to Sargent s pamphlet, “ Sport a National Benefactor,’ the greater part of this goes directly or indirectly into the pockets of working men. Yet the idea of the English anti-gambling cranks is to abolish sport! And as the authorities of the English Sporting League pointed out in their circular published prior to the last elections in England, “ National decadence and abnormal vice have in the history of the world followed regularly wherever robust sports and pastimes were discountenanced.”

A Sydney telegram states that two of Geo. Wright’s charges, The Dancer and Fright, have been auctioned for a total of 38 guineas, 31 for the Dancer and 7 for Fright. Seven guineas is a pretty price for a horse that has got over two miles of hurdles 3min 52sec. At the same time it mnst be confessed Fright has not done much since he accomplished that “go ” in the Autumn of 1894.

The daily papers credit Kalo with cutting out the two miles of the Hunt Club Hurdles at Ellerslie in 3min 50sec ! Bunkum. Liberator took 4min 7sec to do the last Grand National Hurdles, and that track was vastly superior to last Saturday’s going. As a matter of fact the race was not timed officially, but the correct timing was 4min 26sec. The man who read 3 min 50sec on his clock must have forgotten to wind it up the night before the races. Auckland owners are reminded that nominations are due to-morrow (Friday), by 9 p.m., for the Avondale Jockey Club’s Spring Meeting to be held an Saturday, October 12th. The seven events should result in very satisfactory entries being received, especially in the case of the Nursery Handicap, a half-mile event for two-year-olds. With the flock of youngsters in work at Ellerslie the Avondale Club should find the introduction of a two-year-old race a payable innovation. The Avondale Cup and the Hurdle Race are worth 50 sovs, and the Steeplechase figures as the leading attraction, 60 sovs being attached to the cross-country item. As stated above entries close at the office of the Club, Vulcan Lane, at 9 p.m. to-morrow, and Mr Evett’s handicaps are due on or about Monday next.

The next New’Zealand Cup payment (7 sovs) is due on October 18th. The final payment (10 sovs) has to be met on October 31st. We have started the season badly from a steeplechasing point of view. Three ’chasers have already been killed at Ellerslie, viz., Union Jack, Nero, and Crusader.

Three important stallion sales were effected locally this week. Major George’s Robinson Crusoe horse The Workman was purchased by Mr F. Sparks of Wanganui, the Musket horse Brigadier was bought by Mr A. Black of Aratapu, and I hear Tulloch (Sword Dance—Welcome Katie) has been sold to a Hawera breeder. T. Taylor, who has been retained to ride Mahaki in the N.Z. Cup, leaves to-morrow' (Friday) to ride the Maori-owmcd racer in his Cup preparation. By-the-by, the reports circulated so persistently some time back re Mahaki’s alleged unsoundness, are being revived, but I have no definite knowledge one way or the other. All the same, I think the horse will race for the Cup.

The King Cole—Rosalind horse, Royal Rose, went very close to the Sydney Handicap run on the third day of the A.J.C. Spring Meeting, but a miss is as good as a mile. If Royal Rose had got his head in front of Sundial history would have repeated itself, for the Sydney Handicap was the race won by George Wright’s charge at last year’s A.J.C. Meeting. On that occasion Royal Rose carried 7.5 and going out at ten to one won comfortably by a couple of lengths in 2min 39sec. Last Thursday the mile and a half was cut out in the good time of 2min 371sec — 2.)- seconds faster than Nobleman’s Metropolitan clocking, and 3 5 better than Bob Ray’s A.J.C. Derbv.

Mr W. Walters, of Glenora Park, had a stroke of bad fortune last Friday, his thoroughbred stallion, Blairgowrie (by Vespasian —Atholine, by Blair Athol), falling dead while doing an exercise gallop. A post mortem examination points to heart disease as the cause of death. Blairgowrie was imported from New South Wales in 1893, and was coming into favour with breeders on account of the finely shaped foals produced by him. I may say Mr W. Percival has a very promising rising yearling filly by the dead stallion from Satanella, the dam of St. Clements, St. Paul, Linstock, and Pirate.

The Spring programme of the Poverty Bay Turf Club will be found in our business columns. The fixture lias been dated October 22nd and 23rd, and 470 sovs will be distributed in prize money, 250 sovs on the first day and 220 sovs. on the second day. The principal item on the opening day will be the Spring Handicap of 80 sovs, one mile and a quarter, in addition to which there will be a Handicap Steeplechsse of 40 sovs, about two and a half miles, a six furlong Flying Handicap, and a mile and a half Hurdle Race of similar value. A2O sovs Shorts Handicap (four furlongs) and three 10 sov events complete the card. On the second day the Makaraka Handicap, one mile, will be endowed with 65 sovs, and the Waikanae Handicaps (five furlongs) with 40 sovs. The Second Hurdle Race carries 45 sovs. A Disposal Stakes Handicap and a Forced Handicap of 20 sovs each and two hack events and a Scurry of 10 sovs each also appear on the programme. Nominations are due with Mr J. TI. Aislabie on October 4th at 9.30 p.m.; weights arc due on October 10th ; and acceptances close on October 14th.