NOTES

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XI, Issue 518, 22 November 1900, Page 16

NOTES

The programme for the Summer Meeting of the Auckland Trotting Club has been passed by the New Zealand Trotting Association. The nominations for the Spring Meeting of the Otahuhu Trotting Club appear in this issue of the Review. Taken all round, the entries are very satisfactory. Ponies entered for the Otahuhu Trotting Club’s Spring Meeting will be measured at Potter’s Paddock on Wednesday next, November 28. The official measurer was at Potter’s yesterday passing some of the liliputians. Thos. W. Lawson, the owner of the great four-year-old Roraima, is one of the very wealthy men who know how to get real enjoyment out of their money. Before the Massachusettes IO.OOOdoI. stake was trotted at Readville, Mr Lawson, ascertaining that his colt was lame, requested that he be barred in the betting as though Boralma was to start, he did not wish the public to lose any money on him if he failed through lameness. Boralma won, however, and his share of the stake was 4000 dollars over and above the entrance money. Mr Lawson donated this to a local charitable institution. Conspicuous as has been tiie Wilkes family on the trotting turf for some years, still more dis- j tinctively superlative has the family shown itself , as a whole this season. Numerous as are the | other families very close to an actual majority of the money winners of the season carry the blood j

of George Wilkes on one Side or the other —many of them on both. The Wilkes family is not only great within itself, but Wilkes blood is great in combination with other strains —greater than any other blood. That is, Wilkes blood does not depend on, and is not restricted to, any other particular line of blood, or bunching of any other particular group of individual characteristics tor compatibility. Wilkes blood has the virtue of assimilating and appropriating additional greatness from whatever source is the thoroughbred family, the pacing family or other trotting families. That this particular virtue of assimilation and appropriation has not only contributed largely to the strength of the Wilkes structure, but is continually adding thereto, is self-evident. — Western Horseman.

A party of Germans, consisting of Major von Kleist, Lieutenant von Boercke, Messrs Lobenstein and von Leon of the Hamburg-American Steamship Company, and army veterinaires Hussfeldt and Bergmann, have been travelling over Kern and Tulare counties during the past mouth looking for stock for the German army in China. They visited the Kern County Land Company’s ranch, and are now inspecting the horses and mules there, says the “ Breeder and Sportsman. The stock wanted is both horses and mules already broken. The saddle animals, mostly for use of officers, must be from to 15J- hands high and weigh between 956 and 11501bs; the draft stock not less than 14f hands high and weighing from 1100 to 13001bs. A price has already been agreed upon in case a sale is made. It is 125 dollars per head delivered in San Francisco. Between 400 and 500 head answering the requirements are available. The programme for the Summer Meeting of the Auckland Trotting Club, which appears in this issue, is a capital one. The stake money for the gathering, fixed for Saturday, Thursday, and Saturday, December 22, 27, and 29, amounts to £1250. On the first day £475 will be raced for, on the second day the stake money amounts to £4OO, and bn the concluding day the value of the races is £375. The Auckland Trotting Cup of 200 sovs is, of course, the principal attraction. This race will take place on the first day. The distance is two miles, and saddle and harness horses can compete. All the entrants will be handicapped to trot the two miles in smin 35sec or better. On the second day the Summer Trotting Cup, two miles, in saddle or harness, is worth 115 sovs, and the President’s Handicap of two miles on the third day has the same amount of stake money. In both the last-named races the limit is fixed at 2min 50sec for the mile. Trotting races of 40, 50. and 60 sovs are on the programme for each day, so the promises of excellent fields and some high class trotting are excellent. In the galloping events the ponies are well catered for. The Pony Cup, one mile, j run on the first day, is worth 65 soys, the Steeplechase has a stake of 40 sovs, and the I various shorter flat races have stakes of 30 sovs or over. The Second Steeplechase is worth 35 sovs, while there are two hurdle events, the first

worth 3U sovs, ana ins uv/ier *5 sovs. All through the programme is an excellent o; e, and it is to be, hoped that Mr C. F. Mark, the Secretary of the Club, will recaive very good nomina-, tions on the day of entry, Friday, December 7.