Turf Topics.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume VI, Issue 280, 5 December 1895, Page 8

Turf Topics.

[By

Reviewer.]

Lady Marion’s full brother was sold in Melbourne recently for 75 guineas. From the records of English bloodstock sales ir appears that the first dispersal took place in 1715. Acceptances for the Auckland Cup and Steeplechase are due with Mr Percival by 9 p.m. to-mor-row (Friday). Mr T. Bell’s brood mare, Reproach, has foaled a chestnut colt to the Defunct Blairgowrie, and is booked to visit Hotchkiss. Nominations for the Summer meeting of the Waipawa County Racing Club, to be held on the 27th inst., appear in another column. Waterfall, the winner of the Caulfield and Wagga Cups, has been given 9 13 in the Queensland Cup, which is run over two miles. Owing to “Gipsy King’s” review of the recent Feilding Meeting reaching the office as we were going to press, it has been unavoidably held over. The dam of Whakawatea, Becky Sharp, after missing for several seasons, has foaled a colt to Apremont. The youngster is full-brother to Whakawatea. Nominations for the Thames Jockey Club Summer Meeting appear elsewhere. Mr W. Knight’s handicaps for the first day’s card are due on Saturday next (7th inst ) Quiltiri has been backed already to win the next New Zealand Cup, 1,000 to 20 having been taken about the chance. The early bird catches the worm —likewise the non-acceptor. Bonovoree and Levanter were introduced to cross-country jumps last week at Ellerslie, but both made a poor fist of it. But that doss not say they will be bad ones at chasing. The crosscountry game requires a lot of seasoning. The summer programme of the Gisborne Racing Club is to hand. The meeting has been fixed for Wednesday and Thursday, 22nd and 23rd January, the prize money for the two days being 315 sovs on the 22nd, and 280 sovs on the 23rd. The leading item on the first day will be the President’s Handicap of 100 sovs, one mile and a quarter, besides which there will be three 50 sov events, viz., the Flying Handicap of six furlongs; the First Hurdles, one mile and a half; and the Park Stakes Handicap, one mile and a distance. On the second day there will be a couple of 60 sov purses, the Grandstand Handicap, one mile and a distance, and the Second Handicap Hurdles, one mile and three-quarters. Nominations are due with Mr Nasmith on Monday, 23rd December, at 9 p.m.; weights for first day will be declared on the 17th January, and acceptances close on the 20th January, at 7 p.m. “Faithful to custom, the small bush town was en fete on the local race day, and amongst those who thoroughly celebrated the occasion in Queensland fashion was the local doctor. That night, as he lay in bed with his head in a whirl, there was a knock at the door, and a voice called, ‘ Doctor, a man in the township has a bad fit; will you come over an’ see him ?’ ‘ I’ll back After Dark,’ hiccuped the doctor, still thinking of the day’s diversion. ‘ You don’t understand, doctor. A man has a fit, and his friends want you to come and see him.’ ‘ I’ll back Bluenose ; I’ll take 6 to 4 Bluenose,’ murmured the medical m n. ‘ There’s a man in a fit,’ yelled the messenger at higher pitch ; ‘ if you can’t come, tell us what to do.’ The doctor seemed to understand it this time. . ‘ Oh,, just let him cool down,’ he said;, ‘ many a better man had a fit before him.’ ” — “ Woomera ” in The Australasian.

Kinglake has been scratched for the Wellington Cup. Nominations for the Auckland Guineas of 1897 will be found in another column. There has been a little straight out betting locally on the Auckland Cup. Euroclydon is first choice at 3 to 1, and St. Hippo is next at 10 to 1. Folly has been backed for a century at 100 to 5. The Sheet Anchor horse, The Buccaneer, has been sold in Melbourne for £7OO to go to South Africa. The Buccaneer’s last win was in the Victorian Club Cup, in which he carried 7.5 and won in Imin 59sec. It is said that the “ Faddists” next point of attack in England in connection with their crusade against horse-racing is no less a place than Epsom itself, the scene of the most highlycoveted race in the w'orld. Mr Evett’s handicaps for the Wellington Cup, to be run on Wednesday, January 22nd, 1896, appear in another column. Any winner of a handicap flat race of the value of 100 sovs after the declaration of weights is subject to re-handi-capping. W. J. Miller, the Sydney-side trainer who brought Osculator over from Australia last Monday, says that the colt did far better gallops before his accident at Rand wick than he did prior to the V.R.C. Derby. So that in missing his chance in the A.J.C, Derby Mr D. A. McLeod had a decided streak of bad luck. Fred Say, one of the Ellerslie jockeys, was badly thrown while jumping Sepoy last Monday, and at latest advices was lying in a precarious state at the Hospital. Say was riding Sepoy over the big walls, and was thrown at the sod bank before the double, fracturing his spine. But fairt hopes are entertained of his recovery. The following programmes were passed by the Auckland Racing Club at their monthly meeting last Monday : —Muriwai Racing Club, December 21 ; Otorohanga Racing Club, December 21 ; Coromandel Racing Club, December 26; Poverty Bay Turf Club, January 15 and 16; Te Aroha Jockey Club, March 13 ; Tologa Bay Jockey Club, March 16. • After the Farewell Handicap had been run at the Forbury last Saturday, an informal m'eeting of the Dunedin Jockey Club stewards was held to consider the action of the clerk of the course in handing Hippomenes’ jockey the lead-bag dropped after the horse had passed the post. No protest was entered against Hippomenes, so the totalisator paid out, but the stakes will not be paid until the matter has been considered at a full meeting of stewards. The Poverty Bay Turf Club are out with their annual programme which is set down for decision on Wednesday and Thursday, January 15th and 16th. During the meeting 770 sovs will be given in stakes, 390 sovs on the first day and 380 sovs on the second day. On January 15th the big purse will attach to the Turanga Stakes Handicap one mile and a half which is valued at 160 sovs. Two 60 sov purses are provided on the same day, the First hurdles one mile and threequarters and the Flying Handicap six furlongs, besides which there will be the County Stakes Handicap of 40 sovs one mile, the Shorts Handicap of 30 sovs four furlongs, the Handicap Flat Race of 15 sovs one mile, and the Handicap Hack Hurdles of 15 sovs one mile and a half. On the second day (January 16th) the leading , item will be the Sunderland Stakes Handicap of 115 sovs one mile and a quarter. The Stewards and Publicans’ Handicaps are worth 60 sovs each and the Second Hurdles has a 55 sov purse. Thp other items will be the Novel Race Handicap of 30 sovs six furlongs, the Forced Handicap of 30 sovs one mile, the Hack Hurdles of 15 sovs, one mile and a half, and the Second Flat Race of 15 sovs, seven furlongs. Nominations are due by 9.30 p.m. on Monday, the 9th inst. Weights for the first day will be declared on January 4th, and for the second day on the night of the first day’s races. Acceptances for first day are due on January Bth, and for second day at 9.30 p.m. on the night of first day’s racing. Full particulars will be found in our advertising columns. A good story comes from Melbourne about a New Zealand trotting man (writes “ Delaware” in Sydney Truth} who smote the Israelites hip and thigh with a famous Maoriland pacer, whom he gave “ dead” to a well-known son of Israel who has a hankering after “ dead meat,” but does not always turn up a fair cut. The trotting man had already done business with the book, who, of course, had all the best of the bargain, and the man of sulkies determined to get even. So he met Sol at Young and Jackson’s the night before the race, and put the famous trotter in the bag, on the strict understanding that Sol was not to tell a living soul about the proposed ramp. When the trot came up for judgment, Solly sent round a little circular to a few “chosen” friends named Ikey, Sammy, Solly, and Abey, and these worthies were soon at work offering 6 to 4 on the field, when it was a 100 to 1 on the Maori. Seeing that the money was coming in free they “ worded” Sol; but that astute party reassured them by stating that the owner fiad given him all his money, £l2, and a receipt of the horse. After which explanation they went back- to “work,” and judge of their dismay when they saw tbeir dead’un win by two furlongs. How they squealed and surged around the owner, who calmly declared the horse bolted. They all returned to Melbourne in the same carriage lamenting, and, when the train reached Solly put his head out of the window—“ Go mirie friendt; don’t stop, let the train go on for ever. I haf lost two hundredt and ten pounds good gilt on a stiff ’un. Go on, go on for evei.” When the son of Abraham went to get delivery of the horse next day, he discovered they ha'd given him a receipt for a horse worth less than £5, which he led away shouting anathemas in la. foreign lingo, informantdid not under l ? stand, but says the chief word was, “ Mish-a-ma-S sheena.” ■ ' I

Euroclydon and Roscius is the favourite selection with double backers re Auckland Cup and Steeplechase. Levanter is receiving fair attention for the cross-country event, and St. Hippo is frequently named for the Cup. Mr S. H. Gollan, the New Zealand racing man, who has carried on so gallant a campaign in Australia, has (writes the English turf scribe, Robin Hood”) sent five horses over to this country. They are Ebor, Dhurringile, Corrigan, Norton, and Busaco, and they have gone to Swatton’s training establishment to be put through their facings with an eye to the approaching winter campaign. They seem to have been landed in good, healthy condition, but have not yet been seen at work. The Australian Jockey Club are restricting the racing of two-year-olds in New South Wales by limiting the distance oyer which they may be raced, and prohibiting the handicapping of the' youngsters before December Ist. The early racing of two-year-olds has been generally condemned in England of late. An English sporting contemporary, in protesting against the overdoing of two-year-olds, says : —•“ The early waste of our thoroughbreds is absolutely criminal. With far more horses bred each year (at ten times the expense) and running each season—for twenty times higher stakes —than was ever previously known, a worse lot of racehorses all round was never before seen on the Turf. Season after season our over-worked two-year-olds disappear one after another, and at the end of their third year are, almost without an exception, done with for racing. An English representative racehorse should be four years old and an attested stayer, a class of animal we hardly ever now see, or try .to cultivate. To breed from these wretched and crippled babies is to perpetuate animals like themselves — good for nothing. Hence, then, our present soft and unsound breed of racehorses, without stamina, robustness, or any of the essential attributes once constituting the sterling English thoroughbred.”

The Musket horse, Artillery, passed through Auckland, on Saturday, en route for the United States in charge of C. Brown, who has had charge of the stallion for the past three years. The Apremont sprinter, Whakawatea, will now, it is said, leave Sydney after the Carrington Stakes has been decided at the Sydney Tattersall Club’s Summer Meeting, on New Year’s Day. He will become an rinmate of Roden’s stable, and, after taking matters easy at Riccarton for some time, will be prepared for the Dunedin Jockey Club’s First Eclipse Stakes, to be decided in February, 1897.

When Fred Archer died and Charley Woodcame under the ban of the Jockey Club, everyone pointed to George Barrett as the jockey of the future. Their expectation looked like being realised until Barrett himself got into disgrace, not for what is thought, to be the failing of ajockey—pulling, but for an over anxiety to win. He emerged from this little trouble satisfactorily, but then ill-health began to affect his riding, and, in the last issue of the Racing Calendar a notification appears to the effect that he has retnrned his riding license.

In commenting on the Cesarewitch candidates an English writer remarks : — “ Banquet 11. found his best friends among the Colonials. Most of the Australian division declared on the old Yank. Perhaps a sort of clannishness may be expected among Australians and Americans, both being, as it were, representatives of the new school of training and racing as opposed to our old-fashioned methods. These are both believers in the clock, too, and that brings them into accord in estimating form. But be the cause whatever it may be, there is the fact. You generally find our Colonials —Australian, Indian, Canadian, African, no matter where they come from or have been to —you find them inclined to stand American horses in England. A dispute that took place at Potter’s Paddock last Saturday between Mr M. Gleeson, owner of Katie M., and Mr A. Hughes, bootmaker, of Otahuhu and owner of Rosebud, will be discussed in the Police Court next Wednesday, when Gleeson will be called on to answer a charge of maliciously damaging property. When Gleeson was harnessing up Katie M. to take part in one of last Saturday’s races, Hughes demanded £4 from Gleeson for the hire of the pneumatic sulky in which Katie M. has been racing, and which Hughes alleges is his property. According to the lai ter’s story Gleeson refused to pay the amount requested, and whipping out a knife, said, “If I don’t use it no one else will,” following up the remark by puneturing the pneumatic tyres, which act, of course, made the machine useless. Gleeson, on the other hand, declares that he tendered Hughes a cheque in payment of the £4 demanded, but that the latter refused to accept it. On Monday night last Gleeson was arrested at the instance of Hughes, and had the uncomfortable experience of passing that night in the watch-house. He wp.s bailed out next morning, and remanded till Wednesday next. I hear there is a likelihood of the defendant bringing an action against H ughes for false imprisonment. Next Wednesday’s court proceedings will be watched with interest by racing men.

St. Simon headed the list of winning sires when the last mail left England, his progeny having won about £31,000, to which St. Frusquin, with £ll,OOO, was the principal contributor. The following are the principal winners at the D.J.C. Spring Meeting : — M. Sherwin, £391 8s ; McGuinness, £225 11s. ; Stephenson and Hazlett, £2lB 10s.; F. Macmanemin, £204 Is.; J. B. Reed, £l6l 10s,; Kett, £152; R. Ray, £147 55.; P. Butler, £l2B ss; J. Giesking, £l2B ss; J. M. Holmes, £lO4 10s.; V. Harris, £lO4 10s. The smaller amounts won brings the total to £2,653 ss.

English racing men experimented with the starting machine at Sandown Park in October, but, according to the London Sportsman, “it failed to altogether receive the approbation of trainers and others who critically examined and tested it.” Yet,' the same paper observes in a mat ter-of-fact fashion, that when Omladina won the Great Sapling Plate, “ a delay of close upon half-an-hour occurred at the start.” If Englishmen could see a Melbourne Cup field started inless than two minutes, it might cure their insensate opposition to the starting machine.

The Black Eagle mare Bianca foaled a filly to Cuirassier at Wellington Park last week, and has been mated with St. Leger. The Summer programme of the Wellington Racing Club will require the attention of owners on Friday, January 3rd, when general entries arerequired in connection with the meeting. The dates of the gathering are Wednesday and Friday, January 22nd and 24th ; and as will be seen from the programme appearing in our business columns, an attractive bill-of-fare has been provided for both days. The Wellington Cup of 500 sovs, one mile and a half, which closed with fifty-six nominations, is of course the main item on January 22nd, and the President’s Handicap of 125 sovs, one mile and a furlong, forms the other leading event of that card. Besides these two races there are four handicaps with 100 sov purses attached, viz., the Anniversary Handicap, one mile, the Nursery Handicap, six furlongs (for two-year-olds), the Welter Handicap, one mile and a quarter, and the Telegraph Handicap, six furlongs. The Hurdle Handicap is valued at 80 sovs, and will be run over two miles, and 75 sovs go to the First Hack Handicap, one mile and a furlong. On the second day of the meeting the W.R.C. Handicap of 200 mile and a quarter (closed with fifty-nine nominations) forms the principal attraction, and the Metropolitan Handicap, run over three-quarters of a mile, has 125 sovs hanging to it. The other items are as follows : —January Handicap of 100 sovs, one mile and a furlong; Second Welter Handicap of 80 sovs, five furlongs ; Hurdles of 70 sovs, one mile and three-quarters ; and Second Hack and Farewell Handicaps, both worth 160 sovs, and run over one mile. General entries close on Friday, January 3rd, by-9 p.m., with Mr H. M. Lyon. Mr Evett’s handicaps for the first day are due on Tuesday, January 7th. Acceptances for second day close on Tuesday, January 14th, and the final payment (6 sovs) for the. Wellington Cupmiist be made on Monday, January 20th,