Sporting Topics.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume VII, Issue 313, 23 July 1896, Page 6

Sporting Topics.

Forestalled. Whoever forestalled Mr McSweenry in Melbourne must have a very good idea of that gentleman’s intentions concerning Reka, as the three-year-old was subsequently backed by the stable to the extent of £lO,OOO for the Melbourne Cup. Perhaps they got some of the money supposed to have been laid on the other side. Beyond the fact that Reka has shown a fair turn of speed for five furlongs in private little is known of his galloping powers, and 100 to 6 is certainly a short price to take about an untried youngster four months before the race. We shall in all probability see him competing in the weight-for-age races at the A.J.C. meeting, as his owner may not care to start him for any of the handicaps for fear of incurring a penalty for his Southern engagements. —Sydney Referee. The False Rail. A Melbourne turf scribe, who is not carried away with the new idea of providing a false rail at the home turn, thus unburdens himself as to the effect the “ rail” would have on the various race-tracks about Melbourne : — “ One at Williamstown would ruin the track; at Sandown such a thing would be a farce ; Flemington with its expansive sweep certainly does not require it; at Maribyrnong it is turn from start to finish, with absolutely no straight; at Moonee Valley it might form a short cut across from the turn for the use of horses in the rear only; Epsom no; ; more wants it than does Flemington; and at Mentone it might answer the same purpose as it does at Caulfield —occasionally favour a blocked horse. If, however, there is need to have the rail at the home turn at Caulfield, why not also at every turn, so that horses may improve every few furlongs what has been a bad position? ” The Aintree Steeplechase Course. The performances of Australian steeplechasers over Indian courses are perhavs the best line to what they will do in England, with this exception, that out here the going is more like what the “walers ” are accustomed to in their own home, says the Indian Planters' Gazette in touching on Daimio’s departure for England. Speaking from a knowledge of the Aintree course, and from the further knowledge of how Australians fall',, ■ over these brush fences and rails in India, yte should say that in the first place Daimio will find that the mud and the plough which he will have /- to cross, and that in the next the totally different nature of the fences will operate as a severe handicap on him. Someone in a Colonial contemporary flippantly asserted not long ago that Aintree could be “ chanced.” No one who has ever personally inspected the fences, or seen the Liverpool run, could ever come to such a very erroneous impression. Our Colonial cousins seem to think that because an English fence is spoken of as a “hedge,” “brush,” etc., etc., that therefore it can be knocked about and charged in the most casual manner. All the fences at Aintree are growing thorn with enough “ wood ” in them •; : and strength to render any. attempt at “ chancing” them a very perilous operation. At Sandown the fences are not so severe, but even there they •' cannot be treated with such supreme indifference as the Australian critics assert; at Lingfield, Kempton, Gatwick, Aldefshot, and many other • ! places in England, and at Punchestown, Leopards- f, town, and many of tfie hunt meetings in Ireland, there are natural fences to be found, which will take all the jumping that even an Australian timber-jumper can give them. ■ ■ Sifting the N.Z. Cup Handicap. “ Mazeppa” {Otago Witness'), concluding his exhaustive review of the New Zealand Cup handicaps, says:—Before concluding, I may as well show the exact order of merit, in the handicappers estimation, of the horses engaged in the Cup, this being easily done, as I did last year, by turning the handicap inside out, as it were, and arranging the candidates according to their concessions on the weight-for-age scale: —

There are, as pointed out, some calculations 1U this handicap with which I do not quite agree, but, while speaking my mind freely in regard thereto, I feel bound to add that the weights are are in most cases adjusted with a considerable amount of skill. Areally good handicap, provable as such, it would be impossible to make on ' !jhe material provided. Mr Henry has had a paost peculiar set of horses to work upon, andA though lie and I may differ in some respeota,.l..-

miist say that his task has for the most part been ■well performed. He has, at any rate, given us a puzzle, and that is one sign of a good handicap. I do not feel the least confidence in selecting a batch that shall include the winner. Being, as it were, driven to the task by inexorable duty, I shall take Euroclydon, Fabulist, Lady Zetland, Saracen, Searchlight, The Shrew. Pompom, Dauntless, Anita, Lord Zetland; Epaulet, and Lord Roslyn as a dangerous dozen, and, if pressed for a narrower selection, would take The Shrew and Lord Zetland among the seniors, and associate with them the best of the three year-olds (to be yet discovered). But, as I say, I don’t profess to be able to pick the winner, and in my judgment the man who thinks he can do so just now has a good conceit of himself. Racecourse Friends and Schmoozers. - In the circular to be submitted to the Racing Conference by the bookmakers, requesting to be licensed, one of the conditions —the last in the • circular—is open to argument. The pencillers urge “ much unpleasantness between owners 'J and their friends, through the former’s reluctance to divulge stable secre's would be overcome, as once an owner had fixed odds he could candidly inform his friends of his horse’s chance, and they would invest freely on the totalisator.” Of course, this is an old yarn, and, by the way, the lamest of the otherwise sound arguments mentioned in the circular. What horseowners want to know is, if any plan has yet been suggested so that an owner can get his money on before his friends help themselves. •“ Once an owner has got his money on 1 ” makes one smile. The bookmakers must be sweet, innocent things if they cherish the idea that the friends are going to wait till the owners get on. The New Zealand “racecourse friend” wants to know the full strength of things long before the races commence, consequently, before the owner ■gets his money on. If an owner tells these racecourse friends ” (many of whom do not know the owner when next they meet him in the street, and perhaps do not care if the owner were dead after they get the information they are after) to wait until just before the race, so that he may ’ have a chance of enquiring the odds about his horse, the “ racecourse friend ” haunts him until he knows something. Let this “ racecourse -friend” —who is standing by, at a respectful distance — see the owner transfer some banknotes to a bookmaker, and the friend (?) nearly drops dead. Then, without waiting for the owner, he ■ ' rushes off to get something on, and when he meets the owner again during the day, it is more than likely he is much annoyed with his conduct, and thinks the owner has tried to dodge him. I am very familiar with the “ racecourse friend.” If owners had their way, they would have these sort of people shut up in an enclosure by themselves. Yes, the great puzzle for owners is to know how to get their money on. There is another kind of “ racecourse friend ” — the schmoozer ” Being the Sunday before the ■races, and a fine day, he calls on the poor owner in a friendly way, and is always careful to arrive before feed time, so that he can see the horses. The “ schmoozer” takes an owner into his confidence and gives him imaginary information about his neighbours’ horses, and that he is sure the owner he is calling upon has something better, and that he need not be afraid of meeting Brown’s horse. It is strange how quickly people tumble to the “ schmoozer.” There’s nothing genuine about him. When he is leaving the stable he will probably place a couple of pounds in the owner’s hand, with the off-handed remark, < "Put that on any of yours at the meeting. I’m satisfied with what you do.” He then drives away in a hail-fellow-well-met sort of style, so that the owner has no chance of telling him to invest his own money. On the day of the races, when the " schmooozer ” fancies he knows this poor worried owner’s "best” in a certain race, the “ schmoozer ” rushes up to him —“ I say, old fellow, have you invested that two pounds of mine, because I am going to put a couple of •pounds on so-and-so, unless you say leave it on yours.” That’s the way he fishes. But the schmoozers ” are pretty well known. 1 know one. His limit, he will tell you, is a “noate.” But he has asked for information and obtained it so often, and then boasted quietly afterwards how much he won over the race, that he is just about played out now, unless he can get some recruits. "This “ schmoozer ” owns a nag or two, but it -would break his heart for him to put anyone on ho them.

Gipsy Grand Euroclydon Bombshell... 71b more B. McCarthy 151b 3 less 99 51b 11b » *> Mahaki ... Irish Twist 171b 171b Dauntless ... 11b less The Shrew 181b 99 Armilia 11b B. Scotland 201b Fabulist ... 21b n 1 Casket 211b Defiance ... 51b GoldnPlover 211b 99 Epaulet 51b Pompom 211b 99 Ldy. Zetland 61b Lotion 211b 99 Brooklet ... 61b 99 Maximus ... 221b 99 Curassow ... 81b 99 Chaos 231b 99 Oceur deLion 81b 99 Pinrose 231b 99 M.o’ Zetland 81b 99 Penrose 241b Sabreur 81b 99 Man-o’-War 251b Korematuku 81b Nicolo 251b 99 E.Cureton...' 81b 99 Waihau ... 251b 99 Osmanie ... 81b 99 Anita 251b Antares 91b >9 Black & Red 261b 99 F. Impres’on 91b 99 Belligerent 261b 99 Wehikore ... 91b 99 Marino 271b 99. Day Star .... 101b Lrd. Zetland 281b 99 Lrd Rosalyn 101b 99 Jane Eyre... 301b 99 Omah 101b 99 Aldtrshot... 311b 99 Hippodrome 111b •> * New Forest 321b 99 Ngatuere ... 121b 99 Popgun ... 331b 99 Quiltiri 121b 99 Captive 351b 99 Saracen 141b Crim. Streak 351b JJ Searchlight 141b 99 Vandyke ... 351b 99 ■ Oulverin ... 141b 99 Voltigeur ... 371b Lorelei 141b n Esau 371b 99 Bellicent ... 14!b L. of Misrule 381b 99 The Possible 151b 99 Brigand ... 391b 99