Sporting and Dramatic REVIEW AND LICENSED VICTUALLERS’ GAZETTE. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE WEEKLY STANDARD. Thursday, March 11, 1897. THE TWO-YEAR-OLD OF THE SEASON.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume VII, Issue 346, 11 March 1897, Page 4

Sporting and Dramatic REVIEW AND LICENSED VICTUALLERS’ GAZETTE. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE WEEKLY STANDARD. Thursday, March 11, 1897. THE TWO-YEAR-OLD OF THE SEASON.

The two-year-old. of the season is a subject upon which a sporting writer may dwell with pleasure, especially in the autumn of the year. The form of spring may occasion a fancy which the experience of autumn materially alters. Thus, this year in New Zealand (in the spring), many were prepared to aver, and to support their opinion with money, that Multiform was the best two-year-old of the year, but the unbeaten record of Gold iV edallist, which commenced at Ellerslie in December last, has caused the vast majority to change their opinion, and a vote of sporting men would credit the son of Medallion with being the crack two-year-old of 1897. In Australia the early form, especially in the Maribyrnong Plate, pointed to Keera, with Fleet Admiral and Patriot a very little bit inferior, but the autumn has developed a colt (Aurum) who promises to rank as an ornament of the turf with such great horses as Chester, Malua, Abercorn, Commotion, Carbine, Nelson, Grand Flaneur, and Trenton. The youngster is by the last-named horse, and here the interest of New Zealand is particularly felt, because the son of Musket and Frailty was one of our very own and possibly one of the greatest horses of his age. After leaving New Zealand Trenton found a home at Hobartville, but the astute master of St. Albans purchased him, and, at Geelong, he made the acquaintance of Aura, and Aurum is the result of the union. The youngster was one of the prizes of the St. Albans lottery, but the holdei'

of the Aurum ticket did not seem to appreciate his luck, otherwise he would never have sold the colt back to the Squire of St. Albans for a sum of four hundred guineas. It was a good price for a foal, but Mr Wilson either is a great judge or has been born under a lucky star, because now he is the possessor of the king of two-year-olds, and after his deeds at Caulfield and Flemington we are set wondering as to what can beat him in the classic events of the Spring, when he has ripened into a three-year-old. We are told by our Melbourne contemporaries that he races like an Abercorn, but with more brilliance ; that he is a faster beginner than Wallace, and that he finishes with a dash and a meteoric flash worthy of a Newhaven. These are qualities that set us wondering, and suggest the thought that the patriotic and wealthy Australian who owns the colt might extend the fame of Australasia by seeking fresh fields to conquer .in England. Failing that, New Zealanders would very much like to see Aurum and Gold Medallist measuring strides. In the meantime both Mr Stead and Mr Wilson must be regarded as pillars of the Turf, and are entitled to the hearty congratulations of true sportsmen for having produced such colts as Gold Medallist and Aurum.