Anglo-Australian Sporting Notes.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume IX, Issue 664, 27 November 1902, Page 14

Anglo-Australian Sporting Notes.

(By

“Vespasian.”

With the Cesarewitch over and the Cambridgeshire close at hand, a word or two on these famous old events may not be out of place. Strange to say, in these advanced times of high-priced blood, figure systems, and what not, we have not had a more uninteresting market and race .for the Cesarewitch during the sixty odd years in which the time-honoured event has been in existence. Perhaps St. Bris* year may be considered a worse one,- for the horse in question and Chit Chat, who hunted him home, were, as later events proved, but sorry nags, and at relative weights, would perhaps have been outclassed in this year’s field. The time 3min 52sec for the stiff two and a quarter miles, was certainly very fast. Coming as it did within 3-asec of Clarehaveh’si; record, but a strong favourable wind and * the very best of “going”, were in evidence this year, and Jhe combination helped to make the pace warm. Mr “Whisky” « Buchanan’s horse Black Sand had a very easy j ob, and he certainly would have been a strong public fancy, but for his bad show in the Prix du Conseil Municipal, in which La Camargo, the French mare conceded him 231bs and “lost” him, and First Principal also emphasised the bad running of Black Sand, by finishing second. This form put' La Camargo ana First Principal in the Cesarewitch with impossible burdens, and the general public held off or hedged, leaving a select few who argued that the distance of .the French race, viz., one and a half miles, , was not far enough for the horse, to get well on at longish odds. Elba, the Prisoner —Simoom filly, who had beaten Sceptre so decidedly in the Park Hill Stakes, after the latter’s meritorious St. Leger win, was deemed a certainty on that running, it being over-* looleed that Sceptre’s gallant effort in the Sellinger had taken much of the “steel" out -of her. Elba ran just fairly, and the pace at the start evidently found a weak spot in her stamina, for she was running in a very lifeless manner at the finish. Sceptre, by the way, is going up for sale • next week, with the nice reserve* of . 24,000 guineas and may change hands. On some of her form, she is a -real gem, “vide” the Two Thousand Guineas and St Leger, but some of her Ascot, Goodwood, i. and Doncaster running makes her out to be exceedingly variable, not to mention. “ jady.” Her-defeat. by a moderate horse like Royal Lancer, wants a lot of explaining away, and on this and other running. she forms the topic of much debate in sporting circles over here. Her breeding, of course, coupled with her looks 'and form, should make her worth from ten to fifteen thousand pounds for stud purposes, and she will make a “comely” matron indeed. t ‘

Congratulation, the curiously , mdrked little “ circus mare” was running on gamely after Black Sand, and was a respectable second, while the surprise of the race was Rightful, a three-year-old ex-plater hailing from the Arundel stable, who brought his field along at a rattling pace for fourteen furlongs, and was hailed as the winner more than once in running. Carabine ran passably, but 8.7 was a lot of weight for the little Carbine horse to carry, for he is built on a small scale, and gets along better through mud than on the ''top of the ground.” Elba’s trainer, Blackwell, was much surprised at her failure to finish first or second; and the luck of racing is again strongly exemplified by the fact that Black Sand was bred by a patron of this worthy trainer, viz., Sir James Miller, and when the Cesarewitch winner came up with a batch of other yearlings to Newmarket Sir James was disgusted with the frail and “weedy” appearance of the colt, and gave him to Blackwell. The latter entered him in a selling event and got rid of him, and'the animal then won a minor event or two for Stevens, the 1 Isley trainer, before being purchased by his present owner for a small sum. Seahorse .11., who had been a street-corner tip .for, the Cesarewitch, was struck out some days previous to the event having gone slightly amiss, but- he

•eems to be coming on nicely now, although I do not imagine he is a real good horse. The Cambridgeshire is certainly open,, if nothing else, for now only three or four days before the event 100 to 9 is offered against the field, the post of honour being now occupied by Preen, who has no pretensions on public form to win the event. His stable companion Robert le Diable was backed heavily in some quarters, but has succumbed to the exigencies of training. Preen is trained in the successful stable which shelters' Mauvezin and The Solicitor, so that no mistake should be made in gauging his abilities Huggins’ stable which scored with Watershed last year, has Ballantral and Game Chick, both of these fillies having been well supported. At the moment, I am inclined to think that the latter, who was a top-sawyer as a juvenile, will be the stable sheet-anchor,' and if she has been coaxed back into her juvenile form, will win outright. We have three French animals over for the event, viz., Alencon, Nabot, and Reine des Fleurs, and this year our Gallic neighbours have a more than usually rosy chance of capturing this race. Pistol and Rightful are the best of the remainder. Our Duke of York Stakes field were an Unusually bad lot this year, and the wiry Carbine colt Dundonald easily accounted for a collection of indifferent nags Santoi and Volodyooski both hate racing now, and have also sadly deteriorated, and the weakness of the form was amply demonstrated when O’Donovan Ross a, who does not; get seven furlongs at a true pace, was third over this Kempton mile and a quarter. Slam Darling, with Ercildoune., Revenue, and Dundonald; has certainly shown an extreme liking for the event, and bids fair to equal Watson’s string of successes in the Brocklesbv Stakes.

Mormon, an own brother to our once invincible Eager, won the Prince Edward Handicap, and if he were half as good as his brother, the form might do, but as it was, he had nothing to beat. Voli put in a fair performance when getting second, with 9.1, but Australian Star, who figured behind, is seeming ly of no use in the autumn. Sir E. Vincent bring tired of seeing Seringapat am over-weighted, in sprints started him here, but although the horse ran well for a mile. he. had shot his bolt at this distance, and loves to bring off a six to seven furlong handicap at a, long price. A certain section of the betting public have lost heavily on this animal, he being thought likely to score frequently this season, but handicappers have been very .hard on him. Rising Glass won the last of the ten-thousand-pounders, i.e.. the Jockey Club Stakes, in tjrand style from Templemore, Ard ' Patrick, Tee Maiden, Cheers, etc., and Sceptre must have been a grand mare on Feger dav to beat him as she did. Much sensation was caused when Johnny Reiff and Wilton Henry, the two foremost American jockeys, now riding in France, were “ warned off ” for improper practices across the water, although as the French Jockey Club failed to promptly advise our

authorities, Johnny had the mount on Dpux Pays 11. in our Cesarewitch after he had been “ warned off.” It is a thousand pities that this boy is not looked after as he might be, for since his brother Lester returned to the States his associates have not been of the same high order as hitherto. He is one of the best jockeys living, and had been offered a princely sum by Mr E. Blanc for his services next year. At the same time I heartily sympathise with the French authorities in their attempt to rid their Turf of a gang of American crooks who follow the Trans-Atlantic horsemen, and unhappily in some cases get into their clutches over cards and dice gambling, etc., and “ arrange ” afterwards whether they shall win or lose certain races.

F. W. Day, the ex-Australian trainer, has at last drawn official attention to himself over the running of Sir E. Cassel’s colt Sermon, and although the decision is not public yet, I imagine that the result will be disastrous to Day, whose animals, together with those trained for Sir E. Vincent by his son, have, 1o say the least, run very strangely at times. F. W. Day and his son, I may add, take undisguised delight in hoodwinking the public, and consequently people are not so sympathetic as they might be now. A motion, brought forward by Lord Stanley, to prevent the 51b apprentice allowance from being claimed in big races, was lost on the vote of the Jockey Club, but it is probable that it will be slightly modified later in order to give jockeys who have lost their allowance < few more chances of getting up in public. The worst feature of an otherwise praiseworthy system is that directly the boys lose their allowance there is no demand for them and they are shunted, except in one or two instances, for new hoys who take the 51b. The system has done more than anything else to check the “ American craze ” and foster our own riding talent.