Sporting Topics.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume VII, Issue 359, 10 June 1897, Page 6

Sporting Topics.

Carlton, the Newmarket Handicap winner, has sailed for India. The disqualification of three years imposed by the Waikaia Hack Racing Club on John Black and the mare Ike, for ringing in; has been endorsed by the Dunedin Jockey Club. >7Few in this district, states the Hawera Star, gave Bradshaw any more than an outside show in the Wanganui Steeplechase, and Mr M. J. Goodson’s win was a popular one when the game little black ran home in front of his field. Bradshaw’s win is all w the more meritorious when his inches are considered. Whilst the popular owner and trainer of the chaser Levanter was in Wanganui he was subjected to a lot of good-natured chaff re a telegram ,which was published announcing the capture of the Auckland levanter at Inglewood. “Jack” was relating the incident to one of Auckland’s, most popular hostesses, and also in the presence of a well-known Auckland man. The latter exclaimed, “ You did not train that Levanter, or, when he bolted, he would have gone clean off the New Zealand track on to the course known as the ‘ Pacific slope.’ ” Sweeps conducted on the same principle as Tattersall’s have become quite the rage in the Transvaal. No restriction whatever is placed upon them. They are publicly advertised, and are drawn in the theatres in the presence of the subscribers. Referring to these, the TransVaal Licensed Victuallers' Gazette and Sporting Hevietv remarks : —“ The great danger that I see in these very big sweeps is the temptation which it gives to owners to run their horses according to the results of the sweeps. It is easy to comprehend that in the case where there is (in an extra special sweep) a prize of £5,000 offered for the winning horse ticket, there is a strong inducement for an owner to tout with the drawer of the ticket, and to threaten him that, if he does not give him a share, he will scratch his horse. This, I learn on good authority, was actually done at a recent meeting. If sweepstakes are to lead to this state of things, the sooner they are done away with the better for horse facing and all matters connected with the Turf.” The Association of Mines has joined with the anti-gamblers in the Transvaal in an agitation against sweeps. The wrath of the Transvaal Sporting Review has been aroused, and it remarks; —“ None of these people, many of whom are monied men, can be said to havq made their money out of legitimate mining, that is to say, none of them have looked to the dividends paid by the mines as their source of income. Some few have gambled in mining shares, but more have arranged the gamble for the public, rigging the market to the ruin of small men, well knowing how they were picking the pockets of those not ‘in the know,’ and all with perfect equaminity. And these are the people who set themselves up to teach us morality !” - Stock breeding in Victoria is a funny game, (states “Javelin”). At the present time a good fat bullock is worth about a tenner, while thoroughbred horses with all the blood of the equine Howards in them frequently realise no more than a guinea in open competition. If the masses in this colony had cultivated a Persian taste for hirse flesh as an edible instead of only utilising it for gambling purposes, Mr Archie Yuille would have no cause to complain of business being dull. Fancy what fun it would be to hear Archie drop, “ You never saw one shaped like him that couldn’t gallop,” for “How would a bit of that fellow go with a few mushrooms ? Now then, you gourmands, speak up if I don’t see you! ”

The Sydney two-year-old Kilt has been sold to go to West Australia. “ Randwick ” thinks Burleigh is about the best of the Sydney two-year-olds. The much-improved Paul Pry carried 9st. 91b., a,nd won the Birthday Cup at Perth on May 24. Luster is the first two-year-old winner that Mr- S. Miller’s stable has turned out this season.

The stallion Launceston, by Tasman —Rubina, has been selected to do stud duty at Currawong station, New South Wales. Mr. Tom Hales intends taking a lengthy sea trip to recuperate his health. His racing stock and residence at Moonee Ponds will shortly be brought under the hammer. £5OO to £1 was laid the double, Thunderer and Eleusinian, for the City Handicap and Birthday Cup in Adelaide. And the man who laid still won £BO on the book.

Prime Minister, by Westminster —Stockdove, cost Mr, Proudfoot, £lBOO when he purchased him out of Watty Blacklbck’s stable. A couple of weeks ago this stallion was sold at auction for 42 guineas' to Mr. D. Duff, of Tamworth, New South Wales. Melbourne news is to the effect that the entries for the rich Maribyrnong Plate are sixteen more thap last year, but the V.R.C. Derby and the Champion. Stakes entries show a falling off, there being a score less in the Herby and half a dozen.less ,in the Champitiii. As a set off, however, there is an increase iii the St. Leger of seventeen, while in the SjfVi'ii’g Stakes there are lliirly-two more than la§t year. Taken all round the. entries show a total increase of fifty-one.

At the Sydney Central Police Court last week, Mr. Addison, S.M., the chairman of the Metro politan Bepch, announced that in order to check the evil of getting the magistrates had decided, after Tune 1, to fine any person convicted of carrying on a tote-shop £5O for the first offence, and inflict a sentence of six months’ imprisonment for a second offence, while persons convicted of. Lying doubles would be fined twice the amount; it had hitherto been the custom to make. the. penalty,

After racing, very, successfully in New South Wales, the ..Queensland horse Ldttalion has gone back to Brisbane, where on Queen’s Birthday he won the Brisbane Cup with 10.3 in the saddle, cutting out'the two miles in 3min 35fseo. .It is not often they turn out anything above the common in Bananaland, but when they do it is generally a good one, Le Grand, Megaphone, and Ben Bolt to wit. Battalion will probably have a cutjih for .some of the good things in the south of Australia in the Spring of the year. The Queensland St. Leger was won by a gelding called Brazpnface:

: The real triumph of the Faddists in the Dunn ease, writes “ Vigilant,” was that from the decision of the five judges there was no appeal. Even so, the resources of civilisation were not exhausted, nor the ingenuity of lawyers blunted. Rather were they more set on finding a loophole of escape, and that is what such eminent council as Sir F. Lock wood and Mr. Stutfield think they have discovered. A friendly action by way of testing a legal point is never a hard matter to arrange. Accordingly the Kempton Park Racecourse Company are to be sued in a civil court for a penalty on account of doing certain things which they believe they have the right to do—namely, set apart an enclosure for the accommodation of bookmakers and others caring to pay the price charged ‘for admission. Let this con- 1 tention be established—and the question will be fought out right up to the House of Lords —and such judgment, in direct conflict with the implication in that delivered in Hawke v. Dunn, will, as being more authoritative, overbear it. Thus the common sense principle, so long acted on, will be affirmed and established that a racecourse is not a betting house, and, in the Act directed against those houses, was never in the remotest degree intended to be regarded as one.

The crusade against English bookmakers continues, C. Hibbert, R. S. Fry, and John Edge had their names taken at Kempton Park on Easter Monday, and summonses were to be issued against them for betting in the reserved enclosure. These are three of the biggest bookmakers in England. Hibbert is the owner of Rory O’More, the steeplechaser, and recommended the owners of the Australian mare Emmalea to send her to England. Another injustice to Ireland! At the Sydney Turf Club’s meeting recently the Steeplechase was won by Gladstone, while Parnell, a well backed favorite, could get no nearer than third. Pat, however, had won the Hurdle Race, so backers of Hibernian alliteration would have been on velvet if Parnell had got home. Although it has been said that the quality of the jumpers in Australia is not of a high order, it is very evident that there are plenty of them, 81 having entered for the V.R.C. Grand National Hurdles and 46 for the Steeplechase. Among the entrants for both races are Tiritea, Donald McKinnon, Mutiny, and St. Simon. New Zealanders would like to see the last-named fairly handicapped and measuring strides with the Victorians over the little sticks.

The Caulfield Cup winner, Cremorne, has been thrown out of work. Although he is eight years of age, his trainer, J. Allsop, states that he is as sound as ever he was in his life. After a short spell he will be prepared for the Spring.

The entries for the Melbourne and Caulfield Cups, which are published elsewhere, must be regarded as highly satisfactory by the great Victorian institution. It will be observed that there are two Battalions entered for the Melbourne Cup, the one being by Trenton out of See-saw, while the other is the winner of the Brisbane Cup, in which he cantered home with the heavy impost of 10st. 31bs. This Battalion, who will probably come into notice for the Spring Handicap, is by Battalious out of Nancy Till.

M. Ridgway, the Franco-American sportsman, sold off his horses just before the mail left for £16,000. Chief price—£324o —was paid by M. Jacques Lebaudy for Canvas Back, a 3-year-old colt, who has shown fine form. The death is announced of the V.R.C. Grand National Steeplechase winner, Eaglet, who, in conjunction with Redleap, assisted to secure the memorable double for Mr S. Miller in 1889. Larrikin, by his victory in the Steeplechase, at the V.R.C. Queen’s Birthday meeting, exposed the fallacy of having a maximum of 13st. 71b. in such races. The English Derby, run at the Epsom Meeting on June 2nd, resulted, as most people had recently expected, in the victory of the Irish bred colt Galtee More, by Kendal —Morganette. The places were occupied by Lord Roseberry’s Velasquez (Donovan —Vita) and Mr J. S. Harrison’s History (Hampton —Isabelle). His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales’ colt Oakdean finished fourth. A field of eleven started, and the cable informs us that Galtee, who was an odds on favourite, won in a canter by two lengths, the official time being 2min. 44sec. Although not the winter favourite Galtee More’s two-year-old form stamped him as a great colt. He won the Hurstburne Stakes at Stockbridge, but in the Great Lancashire Breeders’ Plate he suffered defeat by a head at the hands of Mr L. de Rothschild’s Brigg. After that he won the Malcomb Stakes at Goodwood, the Rous Plate at Doncaster, and the Middle Park Plate at Newcastle, defeating in the last named Velasquez, who was the winter favourite for the Derby. However, in the Two Thousand Guineas this year he again defeated Lord Rosebery’s colt. That success he followed up by winning the rich Newmarket Stakes. After that he was an odds on favourite for the Derby, and if all goes well with him he should earn the triple crown, namely, the Two Thousand Guineas, the Derby, and the St. Leger.

We have been fortunate this time in escaping the prophetic skill of our 643 subscribers, who, by coupon, attempted to pick the winners of the treble, the Grana National Hurdles, the Great Northern Steeplechase, and the Handicap Hurdle Race, at our late meeting at Ellerslie. Some of them, however, were near it, and although St. Simon paid a good dividend on the totalisator, no less than 63 of oui’ prophets got a leg in with him. However, out of the 63 only five included Levanter in their combination, and in turn not one of these five had selected Annabelle. Next week we will start our £5O coupon on the treble, the Caulfield, Melbourne, and New Zealand Cups. Subscribers will find the benefit of ordering the Sporting Review regularly, as during the past few weeks there has been such an unprecedented run on the paper that the supply became exhausted, and many intending readers were disappointed. Honours were pretty evenly distributed among the sires at the Great Northern Meeting. The progeny of St. Leger and Natator are each credited with two wins, St. Simon and St. Gordon having won for the former, while the consistent Perform put two races to the credit of Natator. The progeny of the following sires won one race each : —Turquoise (Mozel in the Selling Steeplechose), Foul Play (Muscatel in the Maiden Handicap), The Dauphin (Bob in the Pony Handicap Hurdle Race), Nelson (Lady Agnes in the Second Maiden Handicap’ Hurdle Race), Tetford (Recruit in the Second Pony Handicap Hurdle Race), Oaptivator (Levanter in the Great Northern Steeplechase), Lionel (Annabelle in the Handicap Hurdle Race), and Clan Stuart (Bonnie Blue in the Second Winter Welter Handicap. The North New Zealand Grand National Meeting was responsible for a good deal of speculation, and there can be no doubt that the operations of the books who were laying the double for some weeks before the meeting had a lot to do with the success achieved. All last week we were unusually strong in the bookmaking element, because the strength of the Auckland forces had been augmented by the presence of such substantial and genial wielders of the pencil as Mr Barnett (of Barnett and Grant), Mr Ryan (of W» Ryan and Co.), Mr W. Proffitt (of Proffitt and Wilson), Mr Martin Taylor, Mr Livingstone, and other gentlemen whose names escape us at the moment of writing. The presence of so many bookmakers in town at one time was calculated to frighten those who watch over the totalisator with tond and jealous care, but after all it will be seen that the totalisator earned a considerable sum more than last year, when there were not so many prominent bookmakers present. Those who had the good fortune to meet the visitors will be glad to welcome them back next year.