Sporting Topics.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume VIII, Issue 414, 30 June 1898, Page 8

Sporting Topics.

The weights should see the light to-morrow for the events on the programme prepared for the first day’s racing at the Winter Meeting of the Wellington Racing Club. These will include theSteeplechase adjustment. The acceptances are due a week later. The New Zealand bred Culloden has been sent to the stud in County Westmeath, Ireland. Cui- > loden, it will b remembered, went Home with a big reputation for racing, but on the. English courses he never approached'his colonial form. Whernside has been scratched out of both the V.R C. Grand National Hurdle Race and Steeplechase. Hive has also left-both events, while the names of Leslie and Borderer have been removed from the Hurdle Race, The troubles o the tipster down Hawke’s Bay way mmt be tremendous. “Fetlock,” of the Hawice's Hay Herald, trying to find the winner of the Hawke’s Bay Hurdles, on Monday in laat ' week, said, “ To pick it in five, I shall select Socii^fJi Pest, Plain Bill, Opae, Golden Plover, and Sub ' tador.” As there were only nine runners, “Fet- ’ lock ” must have been on pretty good terms with 6 himself on the morning of the race. But he might just as well have given the other four‘T starters a chance, for of his selected quintette Social Pest was the only one to get a “ drum! ”!k®i Daystar has changed hands, the beautifully-,;-bred Castor — Cissy horse having found new owners in Messrs Stewart McGuinness and M. Mills. The negotiations for the purchase of Daystar were brought to a close on Thursday last, | when Mr E D. Halstead, the well-known veteri-’ij|? nary surgeon, certified to his soundness It is - understood that the price paid was 600 guineas, ' and the horse has been taken to his new home, where he will probably undergo the greater part of his preparation for the New Zealand Cup. The purchase of Daystar by Waiuku’s trainer favors the correctness of statements cently made that last yeai\s Cup winner is destined for Australia, and it furthermore demonstrates that although Daystar could only secure fourth place in the big event, the brdliant out-® late run which he made on that occasion won the 1 respect of VVaiuku’s connections, and there can be no doubt that if Castor’s son is brought to the post fit, and the ground is not too hard, he will r be a dangerous customer to meet. It will be remembered that last year he carried 9st, conceding half a stone to the brilliant St. Paul, and 81b to the equally brilliant Waiuku. That he should have got as close as he did stamps him as a great horse when well, and it is quite possible that we have not seen the best of him, albeit his I performances in the Auckland Cup and other races since have been very disappointing, £

Glaulus, the winner of the last Melbourne Cup, is said to be in a queer way, and is not likely to race again. Merloolas is in work again and striding along freely at Rosehill. ' To-morrow (Friday) the handicaps for the New Zealand Cup are due. Acceptances for the Gisborne Park Steeplechase Club’s meeting should be notified to the secretary to-morrow, Friday. Old Ballyhooley’s glory appears to have departed. He was submitted to public auction on Friday and disposed of for 14 guineas. Donald McKinnon is now receiving his lessons at the hands of J. Fountain. The Caulfield trainer -is pleased with his charge, and is hopeful for the future. The New Zealand climate appears to agree with Peerage, Malatua, and Heritas. Dan O’Brien’s trio are looking very well just now, and are coming on nicely. Quiltiri has been stopped in his work. After a gallop the other morning he showed signs of breaking down, so his trainer decided to give him a rest.

Wanganui horses bad a goodly share of the “ spoils to the victors ” at the Hawke s Bay Winter Meeting. Dante took the biggest plum by winning the Hurdles. The gelding showed very good and improved form, and <c dusted the opposition effectually. Doondiah, who is a fancied candidate for 1 ictorian Grand National Steeplechase honors, won the Bolindorpe Steeplechase at Moonee Valley on the 18th. At the same meeting—Oakland Hunt Club —Sunlight also won a jumping race. Warbreccan, the two-year-old colt by Pilgrim s Progress out of Ringarooma, is dead. During the present year he started started six times, but never gained winning honors. Warbreccan was entered for the Melbourne Cup. Rhino’s victory in the Hawke’s Bay Steeplechase was a bit of a surprise, even to some of his intimate connections. He had not shown anything like the form of twelve months back till this race, and that his win was not altogether expected is proved by the dividend paid by the ma,chine. He was in stronger* favor for the Hurdle Race on the first day of the meeting and made most of the running. Floater, who shares with “ our own” Levanter the honor of being top weight in the Victorian G-rand National Steeplechase, carried 12st 61b to victory easily in a steeplechase last Saturday. He is said to have jumped beautifully, and will probably have something to do with the finish for the Grand National. Bobadil’s name was not long in the list of the handicapped for the Melbourne Cup. Very scon after the weights appeared Mr W. R. Wilson put the pen through Bobadil’s name, leaving it to be supposed that the Bst 61b allotted to Bill of Portland’s son was considered to heavy an impost. But Aurum carried the same weight into third place in last year’s Cup, and we have had it dinned into our ears that Bobadil was even better than Aurum. Perhaps the stable has something better than Bobadil. The death is reported of the grey gelding Muscovite, who ran third to Emmalea in the V.R.C. Grand National of 1895, and was subsequently sent to India. In the latter country he won a race or two, but on each occasion that a good stake appeared at his mercy he cut up badly, and in the Indian Grand National of 1896 shirked the last hurdle when he appeared to have the race won. Referring to this, a writer on the Indian Planters’ Gazette says he does not know whether to condole with, or congratulate the owners of the grey on his demise. Buyers of yearlings in England would seem to have a much better chance of securing Two Thousand Guineas winners than Derby winners. Of the fifteen Guineas winners during the years 1884 98, six were bought as yearlings at public auction —Scotfree for 250 gs, Paradox for 700 gs, Enterprise for 2000 gs, Enthusiast for 2000 gs, Kirkconnel for 520 gs, and Disraeli for IOOOgs. During the same period only two Derby winners were purchased under similar conditions —Merry Hampton for 31()0gs, and Sainfoin for 550 gs.

The soul of the Rev. G. Frost, who presides over the Wesleyan Church at Coromandel, has been frozen at the prospect of a permit being granted to the Coromandel Racing Club. This pure divine probably does not recognise the fact that horse racing is an established sport of the British nation, and that speculation in connection with it is inevitable, and that if it is not done through the machine it is done through the medium of the bookmaker. Our religious friend probably prefers the bazarr as a medium of speculation in preference to either the bookmaker or the machine. It is ever so much better for the man of God. If perchance any fraud is perpetrated by the good young woman in using her blandishments to entice some meek member of the flock to enter for her little game, it is perpetrated for a holy cause —principally for the payment of the stipend to our Chadbands. At the annual meeting of the South Canterbury Jockey Club, held on Monday night, the secretary had a’satisfactory state of affairs to bring before the meeting. The club has a credit balance of £490, and the committee contemplat d an alteration in the shape of the running track, which it was intended should be fenced all the way round. Mr J. S. Rutherford was elected president, Mr E. R. Guineas chairman of committee, and Mr G. Dowse handicipper. During the evening reference was made to the utterances of a Minister of the Crown, and the insinuation that the club was run for-financial benefit was resented. Mr Watts’s Rioter (by Foul Play—Daisy) met with an accident while schooling over the hurdles at Hastings on Tuesdav morning. He fellatone of the jumps and got badly staked in the shoulder jn consequence. It is feared that the injury will necessitate his destruction.

From Javelin’s yarn box: —Baron Rothschild has given the Grand Prix de Paris stake, amounting to about £6BOO, to the poor of Paris, and some of the newspapers have lauded the baron’s “ munificence.” In Swanston-street last week I was with a man who, out of 3s. and 6d., which was all he had in his pocket, gave Is. to a broken down racecourse tout to enable him to get a feed. Perhaps you will say that it would be unjust to institute a comparison between the two transactions. I quite agree with you ; so it would be—to the proprietor of the 3s. and 6d. Still one more :— “ Hope springs eternal in the human breast,” especially if the said breast should lie beneath the dilapidated waistcoat of a fatuous punter. A remarkable illustration of it came under my notice on the day preceding the Williamstown races. A Melbourne racing man, generally and rightly esteemed “ a good sort,” was interviewed in his city office by one who told a sad tale of domestic privation and hopeless penury. The result was a donation of 5s. —“just to get in something for the youngsters to eat.” The visitor —who some years ago used to think nothing of putting “ a pony ” on a suburban handicap —thanked his benefactor in broken tones, and, as he was taking his departure, said, “ I suppose you dont know anything good for Williamstown to-morrow ? ”

The weights for the Melbourne and Caulfield Cups were published in New Zealand on Tuesday last, and no one was surprised to find that, after his brilliant three year-old form, Carbine’s son, Amberite, was put in the pride of place in each handicap, and taking the handicaps as a whole, the two weight adjusters appear to be of very much the same mind in their estimate of the ability of many of the leading horses being very much alike. Mr Dakin starts the Melbourne Cup with Amberite at 9st 111 b, and good horse though he may be, he will have to do more than any four-year old has yet done in the Melbourne Cup to win. More than that weight has only been twice carried to victory in the Melbourne Cup, namely, by Carbine (10st 51b) in 1890, but he was a five year old then, and Archer (10st 21b) in 1862, as a six-year old. Patron’s 9st 31b, in 1894, was the biggest weight under which a four-year-old has won the big handicap. Amberite will, therefore have to be pretty nearly as good as his sire to win this cup. The Queenslander, Battalion, and the New South Wales horse, Merloolas, have been estimated at a pound worse than Amberite, and they have quite earned their weighty— The next pair, Resolute and Gaulus, need not be reckoned with, as the first-named has left for England, while last year’s Cup winner has broken down. The Grafter, although he ran second last year, has every pound he is entitled to in being allotted 9st 21b. Auraria is a Cup winner, and as it is reported that she has got back to form again, she should be particularly dangerous with 9st up. On the same mark are Le Var and Paul Pry, who have bsen doing great things in West Australia, and The Chief’s Sydney form this season entitles him to the same weight. The whole work appears to have been carefully done, but in giving Bobadil Bst 61b, the same weight as carried by Aurum last year. Mr Dakin has not met with the approval of Mr Wilson, who, probably thinking that it will be safe to entrust the fortunes of St. Albans to Majestic, ran the pen through the name of the brilliant son of Bill of Portland. There are tho e who are too impatient to await the declaration of the weights, and as many of them have selected Bobadil in their double picks they now know what it is to be left lamenting.

Entries closed on Monday night for the Wellington Racing Club’s Wellesley Stakes and the Wellington Stakes, to be run in the year 1900. For the first named event 68 nominations were received, and for the second 90. We hope to have the list of nomination ready for next issue.

The adjustor of weights for the Caulfield Cup has adopted almost the same lines in the allotment of his weights as Mr Dakin in the Melbourne Cup, and, if the two gentlemen have not had their heads together, the similarity in the two handicaps is something wonderful—the only difference being that the Caulfield Cup is on a slightly higher scale, as the mile and a half should be. There is absolutely no difference of importance in the two handicaps, the chief one perhaps being that Syerla is 41bs better off in the Melbourne Cup than in the Caulfield Cup. The Forbury Racecourse, which is about to be abandoned by the Dunedin Jockey Club, was first used for a race meeting on March 23 and 24, 1871, In those good old days Mr C.leb Moore was starter ; Mr J. Stephenson, judge ; Mr Joe Mills, clerk of the course; and Messrs Taggart, G. Dowse, and Arthur Smith, handicappers The Hack and Pony Club will hold a meeting on the Otahuhu Racecourse, on Saturday, July 9th, and Saturday,- July 23rd. One the first day there will be five events, namely, Hack Handicap Hurdles of £7 10s, one mile and a half; Diminutive Handicap of £5, five furlongs, for ponies 14.2 and under ; Mile flack Handicap, £lO ; Flying Hack Handicap of £5, live furfongs, and a Pony Handicap of £5, five furlongs. Entries for the first day’s racing close with the Secretary, Mr H. Massey, at the Metropolitan Hotel, tomorrow (Friday), Julv Ist The entrance fees are five per cent, on the stake money, and there are no acceptance fees. The Secretary notifies by advertisement the full details of the programme for the two days’ sport, also informing owners that nominations must be aceompa iied by entry fees, and that the stakes will be paid over to winning owners at the Criterion Hotel, Otahuhu, at eight o’clock on the evening of each race day. P&Local speculation on the New Zealand Cup has been much of a dead letter during the week, punters preferring to await the declaration of the weights to-morrow before speculating further. Th * questions of enlarging the saddling paddock and providing further loose box accommodation at the New Plymout h racecourse has been considered by the executive of the Ulub, and has now been referred to the Course Committee, who will take whatever steps that may be deemed necessary towards the improvements desired.

After The Sinner’s victory at Ellerslie, and hie third in the Great Northern Steeplechase, it was generally thought that Mr Skipwith’s bad luck had deserted him, and that in buying The Sinner he had made a good bargain. However, the performances of the horse at Hawke’s Bay have been as bad as his name, but it is said there is something wrong with him. Our Napier correspondent informs us that last week Merganser slipped her foal to Apremont. Mr Rathbone is to be condoled with on his illluck, for he was looking forward to something rather choice as the result of the union. There is no doubt that Auckland contributes materially to the meetings held at Gisborne, and the club and its secretary deserve that patronage, inasmuch as in the matter of advertising in this district they are more liberal than the kindred clubs further along the Eastern Coast. The Elingamite, which left on Tuesday, received a considerable addition to her passenger list, and also took away with her Knight of Athol, Markinch, South Pacific, and Atlantic. Knight of Athol has been performing successfully at unregistered meetings. His disqualification has only just been removed, and this will be the first fair opportunity he has received of measuring strides tn good company. Both Atlantic and South Pacific should give a good account of themselves at the meeting. When Mr James Beckett left the shores of New Zealand he was disappointed with the handicaps of Levanter in the V.R.C. Grand National Hurdles and Steeplechase, and he emphatically expressed his intention of not paying up for him, but the voyage across the water has evidently caused the popular metallician to change his mind, as we find by the list of acceptors for both events that Levanter is still left in. Whernside’s 14st load has frightened him out, and this leaves Floater, Levanter, and Hayseed at the top of the handicap with 12st 71b each. Floater is evidently in good form just now, as he recently won a steeplechase in great style at Caulfield with 12.6 up. The beautifully-bred Hayseed won last year, so that it will be seen that our own Levanter is in wonderfully good company. The top-weight for the Hurdles, Battalion, has dropped out, and it may be that his owner is not at all displeased with his handicap for the Melbourne Cup. St. Crispin has been taken out of work and sent to the Whaketane district. There, however, he will not be allowed to be completely idle, because his services will be at the disposal of a limited number of mares. On both the dam and sire’s side St. Crispin’s breeding is wonderfully good, and owners of mares in the vicinity of Waketane should not be slow in availing themselves of such a good horse as the conqueror of Gold Medallist in the Auckland Derby.

All his friends —and there are a lot of them in the Auckland province—will be glad to hear that Mr Dave Stewart, who was recently injured by a fall out of a cab at the Thames, is rapidly on the improve. Although in bad luck in one respect, the popular sport is in good luck in another. Last week’s Sporting Review contained the information that he had purchased Hermosa for 190 guineas. During the week that has intervened he has accepted an offer of 350 guineas for the little mare, and the sterling daughter of St. Leger and Lady Evelyn goes into the hands of Mr R. Murray Hobbs, of Christchurch.