Sporting and Dramatic REVIEW AND LICENSED VICTUALLERS’ GAZETTE. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE WEEKLY STANDARD. Thursday, April 22, 1897. SPORTING TOPICS.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume VII, Issue 352, 22 April 1897, Page 4

Sporting and Dramatic REVIEW AND LICENSED VICTUALLERS’ GAZETTE. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE WEEKLY STANDARD. Thursday, April 22, 1897. SPORTING TOPICS.

It was decided by the V.R.C. committee on Monday 12th inst. to insert a clause in the conditions of the jumping races to be run at Flemington in the immediate future that the handicapper shall not go beyond 13st 71b in framing his weights. The committee will also draft a new rule of racing, fixing the maximum in all jumping races at this weight, and will ask the members of the club to pass it, so that the principle shall become general throughout the colony. So far Erl King has proved anything but a success as a hurdler in England, and perhaps it would have paid Mr G-ollan better to have kept him for flat racing. At the Winded’ meeting, on March 3, the bay gelding was well backed for a two mile hurdle handicap, in which he had list 71b, but he failed to distinguish himself, being a bad fourth in a field of seven. Writing concerning the number of horses in training at Randwick the Sydney JDailr Telegraph remarks : —“ Once again Mr Kelso has the longest string in work—not a novelty for him by any means of late years—and while he is responsible for 16 regular attendants, J. Allsop has one less. Mr S. Hordern is represented by no fewer than 15, so that that gentleman’s name should be found very high up in the list of winners between now and the close of the season. T. Payten’s team consist of a dozen. Mr Lamond has 10 in work, and E. Key presides over eight. About 30 other trainers adopt Randwick as their headquarters.

Mr Wm. Lockhart, secretaryl to the Otahuhu and Suburban Racing Club, has produced the programme for the annual race meeting of his club, and a glance at the advertisement, which makes its first appearance in this issue, tells one that if the weather is any way fine on the Bth of May a good day’s sport may be looked forward to. The principal event to be decided is the Otahuhu Cup, a mile race of 20 sovs, which should attract a good number of trainers to give their noddies a spin on the popular suburban •race track. Nominations for all events close on Friday, April 23, at 10 p.m , and Mr Evett will adjust the handicaps on or about April 27. Bombshell is said to be giving his trainer in England the greatest satisfaction. An English exchange states that the well-known rider H. Luke has closed his career as a jockey, and commenced as a trainer. Though Luke won the Two Thousand Guineas on Petrarch, it is in handicaps that he has made his record, as he has accounted for the Cesare witch, Cambridgeshire, Chester Cup, Northumberland Plate, Chesterfield Cup, Shropshire Handicap (twice), Liverpool Spring Cup (twice), Lewes Handicap, and many other good races. Mr Jas. R. Keene, a prominent patron of the American Turf, recently sent two three-year-olds to England to be raced, one of them, St. Cloud (Candlemas— Belle of Maywood) having engagements in the Derby, St. Leger, Eclipse Stakes, the Princess of Wales’ Stakes, and Jockey Club Stakes at Newmarket, and the Grand Prize of Paris. The colors of Mr James R. Keene are not strange to English racecourses, and are more particularly identified with the victories of Foxhall in the Cesarewitch and Cambridgeshire of 1881, in which year the colt also won the Grand Prize of Paris. The V.R.C. committee on April 12 considered the question whether it is desirable to adhere to the system of fixed penalties, or to adopt the re-handicapping principle in respect of horses winning races after they have been weighted for events. After discussion it was decided to continue the system of fixed penalties for all events for which entries close on June 1 next. Idolatry is proving a good investment for Mr S. Hordern, as her three representatives —Hindoo, Adoration, and Maldon—have each scored winning brackets, and will no doubt do their dam further credit in the future. Idolatry, it may be remarked, went to the stud as a two-year-old, her first foal being Hindoo. The Sydney Referee remarks : —•“ Mr C. M. Lloyd, who is managing Mr W. Cooper’s racing in Australia, has made arrangements to send Newhaven to England by the Oroya next month. He wll not go back to Flemington after the A.J.C. Meeting, but will be shipped direct from ■Sydney on May 17. A deputation from several N.S.W, northern race clubs waited on the A.J.C. committee on Tuesday of last week. The deputation was made up as follows: Messrs Gillies (West Maitland), Maroney (Newcastle), Fletcher and Thurling (Wallsend), and Pinucim (Singleton). They pointed out that country jockey clubs were under a disadvantage in not being able to accept the entries of “ small horses ” that had competed at pony and galloway races. So many horses had drifted into the ranks of the ponies and galloways that the number of horses now eligible for nomination under the A-J.C. rules in the country districts was considerably reduced. Previous to the present condition of things, the “ small horses,” who now ran at pony and galloway races, took part in the meetings of the district race clubs, and it was sought to return to the former state of things by requesting the A.J.C. not to apply the rule disqualifyng ponies and galloways to places outside the metropolitan area. The deputation was informed that the committee would consider what could be done in the matter, and a reply would be given in the course of a month.

An Indian exchange says that the horse market in Calcutta is in such a desperate condition that shippers are unable to find, purchasers for the residues of their shipments at even such a low all-round price as Rs. 250 a head, there being no buyers ixi the market. The same paper adds that so far as experience of the past season goes, the class of horse that sells the best and the quickest is the racehorse and the well-bred horse likely to race over fences, and their prototypes of the pony class.

The Sydney Referee of the 14th inst. gives the following description of the Hawkesbury Autumn Handicap, which was won by Mr S. Hordern’s Adoration (Nordenfeldt —Idolatry):—Hopscotch was always favourite on the course, and started firm at 5 to 2, with Adoration next in demand, and Right Honourable third favourite. After that trio long prices were going, The Meddler being in better request than anything else. Unfortunately the mile and a quarter post is at an awkward place to start a big field of horses, as they begin on a turn, and it would be and improvement in future if the distance were made another furlong, which will ensure a fair chance for horses to settle into position before they have to make a turn. Right Honourable was the unlucky horse in the first scramble for places, and he got knocked on to the rails. This treatment he resented by refusing to gallop for a time after it occured, and his many backers were afforded a sight of him when the field was going along the back stretch, toiling about ten lengths behind the last horses of the main body. Between him and the rest there was a cloud of dust, and his chance looked hopless. Meanwhile Thespian

was making the running, attended by Rockwall, and so they ran until after passing the half-mile, when Freedom ran up on the outside and got to the front before beginning the home turn. Though he led into the straight the Queenslander could not sustain his effort, and once more Rockwall took up a leading position and Adoration appeared on the outside. Right Honourable had been missed, but he was now seen again, having made a remarkable run on the inside and got almost up with the leaders inside the distance. He could not do any more, as Adoration drew out and won by half a length, with Rockwall second, a head in front of him. It was a wonderfully good run in a fast race, and though he did not win the performance was very meritorious. It was bad luck for Mr Macken and Allsop that Right Honourable was so badly badly served at the start, for otherwise he could hardly have lost. Adoration got somewhat knocked about, as was proved by her jockey’s leg having come into contact with the rail, several splinters from which were extracted by a medical man afterwards. The Nordenfeldt filly is not a big one, but of rare quality. It was generally supposed Miss Nora would represent the stable, as Adoration was in the Doncaster Handicap, but Earnshaw recommended otherwise, and scored for Mr Hordern his first win in the H.R.C. Autumn Handicap. A doration is out of I dolatry (dam of Hindoo and Maldon), one of the mares selected in England by Mr F. W. Day for Mr Hordern’s stud. This mare is by Isonomy from La Trappe, by Hermit, and her union with Nordenfeldt has turned out well enough to make her purchase a payable investment apart from Hindoo’s successes.

Hopscotch does not generally begin well, and he had to race through the field to get near the leaders. He was in a nice position five furlongs from home, but was in trouble at the turn and then died away—not a recommendation for his Doncaster Handicap chance. Messmate did not last the journey out either, but Sam and Projectile were not distressed, and would have been suited by another couple of furlongs. The Meddler and Dalmeny made no show, and it was a little too far for Thespian. According to an advertisement in another part of this paper, Messrs Buchanan and Son will offer for sale by auction some well-known racehorses. On account of Mr Donald McKinnon, those well-performed racers Lufra and Haria, with the pony Arquebus, will come under the auctioneer’s hammer ; then Fair Nell (who, not later than last Monday, showed her speed at Ellerslie by winning the Pony Handicap from a capital field), Lady Cuisine, and Royal Conqueror, members of Mr J. Livingstone’s team, will be submitted. Reference to the pedigrees and performances of the animals under notice should cause some spirited bidding on the 24th inst. (next Saturday), at Mr Blaikie’s Stables, Greenlane. Messrs Hunter and Nolan notify, in another column, that they have been instructed by Mr A. Standish, the well-known New Plymouth sport, to sell by auction, on Friday, April 30, at the Durham Yards, that first-rate performer, Donovan, and the four-year-old daughter of The Australian and Eilenn (Wai-iti). The Egmont Racing Club have decided that bookmakers, their clerks or agents, will not be admitted to witness the meeting to be held on the club’s course on the sth and 6th of May, and advertise to that effect in another column. A time-table, showing the order of trains from Auckland to Ellerslie, on Saturday next, will be found in an advertisement elsewhere.