PORANGAHAU ANNUAL MEETING.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume IX, Issue 441, 5 January 1899, Page 14

PORANGAHAU ANNUAL MEETING.

[By Our Own Correspondent.] The above club held its annual fixture on Boxing Day, when the weather was all that could be desired and the attendance large. Speculation was of a brisk description, £l7lO going through the machine. Those responsible for the administration of affairs exerted themselves to the utmost to make matters pleasant for their patrons. Proceedings opened with the Hurdle Race, for which a quartette saddled up—Schnapps, Gorse, Surprise, and Aohanga. The public sized up the affair very well, for the horses finished in the order in which they were supported on the machine, Schnapps winning easily from Gorse, with Surprise a poor third. Dividend, £2 ss. Half-a-dozen got underweigh for the Maiden Plate, and Mr G. Hunter’s Nevermore, who was a contestant in the last H.B. Guineas, proved too many for his opponents, and had the verdict, practically speaking, in his keeping from flag-fall. The St. Andrew colt paid £1 12s. The leading item, from a monetary point of view, on the day’s card, the Porangahau Plate Handicap of 35 sovs, was the next item for discussion, a quintette ranging up for the fray. Hikaatahu (First Blood’s stable chum) was the elect of backers. The Henchman mare, however, succumbed to Camiola, who led from start to finish; Hikaatahu was second and Waitangi third. £2 18s was the return paid to investors. Nina (Gold Cup’s stable associate) had the softest of snaps in the Christmas Handicap, as she settled her four opponents after a furlong had been compassed, passing the chair six lengths to the good hard held. Dividend, £2 2s. Nevermore again asserted his superiority in the Welter (weight-for age), beating the three opposed to him in a hollow fashion by nearly twenty lengths. Dividend, £2 2s. The Wonderland gelding, Te Ore, secured the Ladies’ Purse by a head from Royal Ascot and Quiltress. This was the biggest dividend of the day, £2 19s Nina carried too many guns for the four that tried conclusions with her in the Flying Handicap, winning without an effort, the seventy partisans on her chance each receiving £2 9s.

Baccarat (the Kempenfeldt —Vision filly), who has only recently been acquired by T. Rollo,, triumphed in the concluding item on the day’s programme, the Farewell Stakes (weight-for-age). Tony Lord, the light-weight attached to Mr Rathbone’s stable at Waipawa, rode the mare in nice style and landed her across the line three lengths in advance of Te Ore, with Aohanga third. Katipo was the only other starter. Dividend, £2 Is.