WELLINGTON.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume X, Issue 479, 28 September 1899, Page 12

WELLINGTON.

Sou’- Wester’s consorts—The Pahiatua Racing Club —The Wellington Racing Club—lhe Lower Valley Jockey Club—The Marton Jockey Club and the late Mr Coyle — Mr T. Butler —Redwood sold for £6 — The late Mr Mcßae.

Wellington, September 20

A number of brood mares from this district are booked to visit Sou’-Wester at Wanganui this season. Mr Campbell’s Violence has already been put to the son of Goldsborough, and five others will be taken along shortly. The annual race meeting of the Pahiatua Racing Club will be held on the Ist of February next. The committee has drawn up a programme, the value of the stakes being £5OO. This will include a members’ race,(worth £25 for horses which have been the bonnjide property of the member for three months previous to the meeting. The horse must be used by the member nominating it as a hack, and the membership must be proved at the time of entry by statutory declaration. A disagreement that arose recently between the Wellington Racing Club and their architect, Mr Chatfield, has resulted in the latter ceasing to act in that capacity. It appears that the stewards proposed to reduce the size of the timbers used in the building at the back of the grandstand, and also reserved to themselves the right of purchasing all materials in connection with the works where they pleased, they or their overseer to be the sole judges as to its suitableness and quality. Correspondence followed, and the result was that the stewards declared their intention of placing the erection of the buildings and all other works at the racecourse under the supervision of an overseer. The Lower Valley Jockey Club’s committee has drawn up the following programme for the club’s meeting on December 26 and 27 : —First day : Maiden Hack, 30 sovs, 6 furlongs; Boxing Day Handicap (open), 50 sovs, 6 furlongs ; Hack Handicap, 60 sovs, 1 mile ; Hack Hurdles, 40 sovs, 1| miles ; Hack Flying, 35 sovs, 6 furlongs ; L.V.J.C. Handicap (open), 100 sovs, 1 mile and 1 furlong; Hack Welter, 40 sovs, 1 mile. Second day : Hack Hurdles, 40 sovs, miles ; Trial Hack, 30 sovs, 7 furlongs; Martin Memorial (open), 60 sovs, 7 furlongs ; Second Hack Handicap, 40 sovs, 7 furlongs ; Telegraph Handicap (open), 45 sovs, 5 furlongs ; Hack Scurry, 30 sovs, £ mile; Saddle Race, 10 sovs, 6 furlongs. The Marton Jockey Club has sent a letter of condolence to the widow of the late John Coyle, and enclosed a cheque for £lO. A Maeterton syndic te of three drew Nevermore in the A.J.C. Metropolitan Handicap. They were successful in May last in securing a cash prize. A profit of about £3OO was made by the Marton club over its late meeting. The sum of £7O goes to the Fangitikei Hunt Club as its share. T hear that Tommy Butler promises to do well up the coast. He has started training, and has already three gallopers in his stable, and expects more. Butler is a most painstaking man, and deserves success.

Fancy Redwood being sold for £6 at Hawera the other day ! He must be impotent ! 1 remember seeing him start twice in the spring at the Hawke’s Bay Jockey Club’s Meeting long years agone. On the first day he had no chance, but in his second venture be walked all over his opponents. Redwood was named after the “ Father of the Turf,” and is by Natator out of Rosalind.

It seems only the other day that 1 was chatting with Nelson Mcßae on the Hutt racecourse. Now he is dead. Ink impressions or a news print cannot adequately express the high regard with which the present writer and others of sporting and non-sporting propensities regarded the deceased. He was a friend and a gentleman, in the true sense of that term, and was most popular in the circles in which he moved. At the last Wellington Racing Club’s meeting he rode Full Charge, an outsider, to victory in the Ladies’ Bracelet, Mrs Maher’s nomination paying £5 10s dividend. In the Hack and Hunters’ Hurdles he rode his own nomination (Irish Twist), but Twist jumped badly. The horse improved later on at Christchurch, when Mr Mcßae rode him to victory. In the Ladies’ Necklace at the Hutt Mcßae had the mount on Mr Green’s Tui, but Greygown, the Petroleum mare, came with such a rattle at the finish that the leader went down by a head, and Grey gown paid £l7 odd. This season Mcßae had already scored heavily. Five wins and one third at the N.Z. Grand National Meeting, two wins and two seconds at the Christchurch Hunt Club’s Meeting, two wins and three seconds at Amberley, are performances to be proud of. At the National meeting this year he won in three consecutive mounts —a hurdle race, a steeplechase, and a flat race. He was a young man of about twenty-five j ears of age, and followed the profession of a surgeon dentist, having succeeded a few months ago to the business of the late Mr Tripe, of Palmerston North. A brother of the deceased’s, Mr Flynn Mcßae, is a farmer some miles out of Palmerston North. The parents of deceased reside in the Taranaki district, where they are

highly respected. His father, Mr R. E. Mcßae, has for a long time figured as a prominent owner of hurdle and cross-country horses.