Sporting Topics.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XII, Issue 728, 18 February 1904, Page 7

Sporting Topics.

(By ” The Judge.’ ) The Poverty Bay Turf Club holds a meeting to-day and to-morrow.

The Autumn Meeting of the Dunedin Jockey Club commences next Wednesday.

The amount put through the totalisator at the Canterbury J.C. Summer Meeting was £7871, a decrease of £ll3 on the corresponding meeting last year.

The Egmont Meeting will be concluded to-day, some interesting events being down for decision. The big event is the Atkinson Memorial Stakes, of 200 sovs, one mile and a-quarter.

Owners must not forget that nominations for Tuakau and Waihi close on Friday, and for Ohinemuri on Saturday. ♦ * ♦ *

Mr Stead has sold Malakoff to Mr G. P. Palmer, but the price at which the son of Stepniak and Sortie changed hands has not transpired.

L. H. Hewitt rode four winners at the C.J.C. Meeting on Thursday and Saturday, V. Cotton and H. Donovan each getting home first on three, occasions.

Two famous studs are shortly to come under the hammer in the Commonwealth. One of these is the Russley Stud, in New South Wales, and the other the Morphetville Stud, in South Australia.

The Auckland jumper Hippowai was in good form at the Gisborne Meeting, both hurdle races falling to the six-year-ols St. Hippo gelding. * # *

Murmur, who won the Flying Handicap. and Electric Handicap at Gisborne, is an aged nay gelding by Wonderland from Mystery.

The committee of the South Auckland Racing Club have decided that bookmakers are not to be allowed to ply their calling at the coming meeting. *

It was curious to see two sisters running jfirst and second in the Maiden Plate at Papakura. Seatonia and Leo Delaval were both got by Seaton DeJaval out of Leocant.

On form Gladsome looks the best of good things for the Dunedin Cup, unless the lightly-weighted Blazer can get the distance. If the old fellow proves equal to staying out the journey he will make it interesting for Mr Reid’s brilliant fill;

Old Blazer has been running for eight seasons', during which time he has started on seventy-four occasions, and has fortythree victories to his credit. It isi just possible the aged St. Clair gelding may pull off the Dunedin Cup. ♦ * * ♦

The riding of young Victor Cotton at the recent meeting at Riccarton is. said to have aroused the utmost enthusiasm. The Auckland light-weight looks like proving one of the colony’s crack horsemen.

The Summer Meeting of the Gisborne Racing Club is said to have been a very pleasant gathering, the sport proving good, while speculation was brisk. The simn of £7455 was put through the totalisator during the two days, which is only three short of a thousand pounds more than was the case last year.

Australasia met with a nasty accident the other day, and as inflammation has set in it looks like proving a ticklish filing as t ©whether the black son of The Australian can be pulled round again.

Delarey’s victory over Cannie Chiel in the Midsummer Handicap, at Christwas only achieved by the short margin of half-a-head. The finishing efforts of the two “ Sloanites,” Hewitt and Cotton, are said to have aroused great enthusiasm, the cheering breaking out afresh when in the next race Cotton got Chryseis home a short nose in front of Hewitt’s mount Malakoff.

Mr R. Hannon’s six-year-old bay gelding Hautapu proved equal to winning the Te Aroha Jockey Club Handicap yesterday from Grey Seaton. The son of Mitiroa and Lady Sarah, who was formerly known under the name of Meteor, was last seen out in Auckland at the A.R.C. Summer Meeting, when he twice chased Spalpeen home in the hurdle events. * * * *

Mr Watt has named some of his youngsters by the Melbourne Cup winner Merriwee as follows :—Filly foal out of Blue Water, Blue River ; colt foal out of Indian Queen, Indian Prince ; filly foal out of Moira, Little Mary ; colt foal out of Palaver, Merriman colt foal out of Victoria, Pluck ; colt foal out of Ismene, Tumutfilly foal out of Mosqueterie, Waddy.

Nominations for the various edents to be run at the Autumn Meeting of the Themes Jockey Club will close with Mr Wm. Potts, the secretary, on Friday, Match 4, at 8 p.m.

Acceptances for Rotorua J.C. Meeting close with Mr W. T. Carr, the secretary, at Rotorua, or with Mr H. H. Hayr, Auckland, to-morrow, February 19, at 10 p.m.

Acceptances for all races to be run at the South Auckland Racing Club’si Annual Meeting must be declared to Mr R. J. Gwynne, the secretary, at Hamilton, or to Mr H. B. Massey, Auckland, before 9 p.m. on February 26.

Handicaps for the Wanganui Cup and first day’s events of the Wanganui J .0. Autumn Meeting are due to appear on Friday, February 19.

Nominations for the Autumn Meeting of the Northern Wairoa Racing Club are due with the secretary, Mr H. E. Stehr, on Friday, February 26, at 9 p.m.

Nominations for the various events to be run at the annual meeting of th! Ohinemuri Jockey Club close with Mr H. Poland, the secretary, on Saturday, February 20, at 9 p.m.

General entries for the Auckland Racing Club’s Autumn Meeting are due with Mr Percival on Friday, March 25, at 9 p.m., at which time acceptances for the Easter Handicap and Brighton Hurdles are also due.

Nominations for all events to be run at the Annual Meeting of the Waihi Jockey Club, must be made to the secretart, Mr Thomas C. Grant, on or before Friday, February 19, at io p.m

The well-known horseman McNamara celebrated the termination of his disqualification sentence by riding four winners at the Hawke’s Bay Wairoa Meeting.

“The Morphetville stud is the next to go. And still the tote faddists are not satisfied (says a Melbourne exchange). ‘lt assists the breeder,’ so they say, yet the fact remains that wherever the machine is in existence, to the exclusion of the betting ring, the breeder goes to the wall.” Rubbish !

Yolette was freely whispered about as a good thing for the Te Aroha J.C. Handicap yesterday, but the Fabulist mare failed to materialise.

Nominations for the A.R.C. Easter Handicap are due to-morrow week.

At Ellerslie, on Saturday, a trial took place between Cannongate and Lkigard, 2 miles, over eight flights of hurdles. The big black horse ran the first nine furlongs in 2min Bsec, and was finishing up strongly, but took off too far away coming down on J. McGregor. Cannongate kept kicking for several minutes, with the result that the rider was bad. bruised, but not seriously hurt.

Likely winners at the Poverty Bay Meeting to-day are Oudenarde in the Flying Handicap, Hippowai in the Hurdle Race, and Ballyneety or A.B.N. in the Tauranga Handicap.

Handicaps for the South Auckland Meeting are due to appear next Monday. Acceptances closing on the following Friday.

With a good-nrumber of horses away at the various meetings, work at Ellerslie has been of a very uninteresting character of late, and it wll not brighten up until Easter draws nearer, when the candidates for the A.R.C. Meeting will require to be sent along.

As was very generally anticipated, Convoy accounted for the Egmont Cup yesterday in good style. The son of Vanguard is in rare form just now, and after his win in the Taranaki Cup, a further victory at Hawera looked almost a certainty. The good thing duly came off.

Mr F. Moore, of Bushy Park, Kai Iwi, will send up his yearlings for sale at Wanganui on March 4. There are seven lots to be submitted, these including a brown filly by Chasseur from Nor’west’s dam Betty ; a chestnut filly by Chasseur from the Sou’-wester mare Mab ; a chestnut colt by Musketry from Puss ; a black colt by Sou’-wester from Derewera ; a black colt by Chasseur from a Sou’-wester mare ; a bay colt by Chasseur from Loo ; and a bay colt by Chasseur. Six of the yearlings are nominated in the Egmont Hack Sires Produce Stakes, of 1906. Full particulars will be found in our advertising columns.

All the visiting contingent have returned from the Taranaki Meeting.

Quite a feature of the Papakura Meeting was J. Sceat’s riding, viz., four firsts and two seconds in six races. M. Ryan and B. Deeley each had a winning mount.

Scotty, Mars, Waipuna, Escape and Tradewind returned to Auckland on Saturday. The others, I hear, have gone on to assist at the Egmont Meeting.

Only one first favourite (Bonomiana) got home at Papakura, although nearly all the rest were second favourites, with the exception of Crecy, who started at the remunerative price of 8 to i.

Mr G. G. Stead has no less than four youngsters engaged in the A.J.C. Derby, and it is within the bounds of possibility that he will pay Australia another visit.

Jft * * * Psalm, an English-bred mare by St. Simon, is on her way to Australia for stud purposes. She is only a pony (says an exchange), but she downed all the “big ’uns” she met in the Pavilion Plate at the Calcutta meeting.

St. Olga could only get second in the last race at Papakura. This useful old slave could no doubt do with a spell to freshen her up, as she has now been keyed up for a long time.

The smart two-year-old Soult filly, Eureka, will be offered for sale at the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile yards to-morrow. The handsome little bay should see a better day.

The fielders are said to have had all the worst of the battle. About thirt bookmakers were licensed to do business at £5 ss. per day, which would mean £soo to the Taranaki Club.

According to a Melbourne paper, the imported St. Ambrose is an unlikely starter for the Australian Cup. Had the English horse kept well in his preparation, he would have had a strong following.

Defender’s victory in the Papakura Handicap was a very popular one, the Cuirassier gelding being one of the locally-trained contingent. Mr Walters wore a very pleased smile when the numbers went up.

The Papakura Annual Meeting took place on Saturday last. There was a good crowd on board the special train, besides a large number who made the trip in breaks and private carriages by road. There must have been quite 1000 people on Air W. Walters pretty country course.

The value of stakes won during 1903 in the United Kingdom, calculated according to Rule 117 of the Rules of Racing (not including prizes: to second and third horses), amounted to :—England, (£354,913 10S ; Ireland, £22,273 16s 9d ; Scotland, £12,128.

One of the disapp ointments of the local horses at Taranaki was Waipuna, from whom great things were expected, but he seems to have something of the same wayward dispositions as his mother “Folly,” who was nearly always unsettled on a racecourse. Waipuna bolted and gave young Rae a nasty fall and got quite unmanageable.

Among the principal handicaps to be disposed of in America this year are the Brighton Beach Handicap, of £sooo ■„ the Suburban, of £4OOO ; and the Brooklyn, of a similar amount. Some two or three of the Coney Island Jockey Club events attain to £sooo in! value, and the Futurity, for two-year-olds, which closed last year, has an estimated value of over £lO,OOO, of which the C.I.J.C. furnish £2OOO. In 1905 the value of the Futurity is estimated at £15,000.

Im spite of the unfortunate accident to James Scobie, the Ballarat trainer’s stable will be strongly represented at the V.R.C. Meeting (says the “Town and Country Journal”). Emir, Sweet Nell, Paul Pry, and F.J.A. are engaged in several events, particularly the AllAged Stakes and Loch Plate, to be run on the third day, and it is quite on the cards that some of the successes of the Miners’ Rest stable will be repeated even in the absence of the head to conduct operations.

According to the statistics, compiled to January 31 for the first half of the current racing season, Grafton heads the list of winn,ng sires in Australia for the first half of the season, his progeny having won during that term fifty races, of the total value of £8257. Positano (sire of the Melbourne Cup winner) came second with thirteen wins, valued at £7562; then followed Haut Brion, 18 wins, totalling £6608 ; Bill of Portland, 31 wins, totalling £5275 ; and Wallace, 15 wins, totalling £3919.

Mr J. C Bain, the popular music-hall artist, won £5OO over Proceedor in the Hobart Cup, and presented Burn with £5O.

The biggest weight ever carried to victory in the Newmarket Handicap was 9st 31b, when Bungebah won, in 1891, but the top weights have frequently run into places. Perhaps the most unfortunate of these was Fulminate, who ran second to Wakeful, three years ago, with 9st iolb in the saddle, just beating Advance, who carried a pound more. On that occasion, the Trenton mare—who, as all followers of the turf know, turned out a champion—carried but 7st 61b. This year there are no Wakefuls in with such ridiculously light weights, and as it is questionable whether Fulminate was any speedier in her day than Pendant, Silenus, and Bonnie Chiel, there is no reason why one of these should not win, despite their very flattering imposts.

Among the horses recently put into work at Randwick by W. Duggan (says the “Referee”), is the imported five-year-old horse Condor, who is a brother to the St. Leger winner, Wildfowler (Gallinule —Tragedy). As a yearling Condor was sold to Mr J. R. Keene for 2500g5., and at his only appearance as a two-year-old he won the Hook Plate at Sandown Park, beating a fairly large field. He made such a good impression on that occasion that he was subsequently mentioned in connect, on with the Derby. However, he did not start in in that race, and as a three-year-old failed to show any form on the four occasions he ran. Last year he was brought up after a spell and submitted »to auction, being purchased by Mr R. Allen for next to nothing. If Condor stands a preparation he may win a race or two here, and even if he fails to do so his owner is unlikely to lose much by him. Last year Condor’s brother Wildfowler was represented by a couple of winners, and his stud fee is 35gs.

According to an exchange an ingenious idea, dealing with (horses that give trouble at the starting post, has been used with great success! by the well-known French starter, M. Figes. It consists of a light blind, that covers the horse’s face from; a few inches above to, a few inches below its eyes, and fastened under its jaws by a flexible indiarubber cross piece on one side slipped through a ring on the other. Although the attachment is quite strong enough to keep the blind in its place, by a slight pull on a line that, is connected with it, and held by an attendant, the whole thing immediately comes away as the india rubber cross piece doubles' up and slips through the ring. M. Figes has found that the most unruly animals will stand quietly at the barrier when the blind is used on them. The moment the gate lifts the attendant gives a slight jerk, and so pulls the covering from the horse’s eyes, and M. Figes’ experience is that he will at once jump away with the rest. The arrangement is well worth trying, and one of our trainers might experiment with it when horses are being practised at the barrier. A bad starter not only delays the start through his own unruliness, but he usually causes other animals to refuse to stand quietly, and anything that will induce a horse to remain in his place until the tapes fly up will come as a blessing to all concerned.

I should think that it is about the first time on record that a horse entered in the English Derby started for and was beaten in the Kogarah Stakes at Moorefield (write? “ Martindale ”). Such, however, happened on Saturday. The animal in question was Mr H. V. Foy’s Wee M‘Gregor, by Lochiel from Countess, of Aberdeen. Air Foy nominated a brace for the next English Derby, the other being from Champs Elysees, by Lochiel.

It is a wonder some genius cannot perfect a judging machine. Such a contrivance is no more unreasonable than the starting-gate was considered a few years ago ; and, of the two, the former would certainly not be the least useful. If it only p. evented these ever-recurring disputes' and wrangles, it would have accomplished something, not forgetting that the chance of diverting huge sums of money from their proper channel would be dispensed with entirely . There could be no mistake with an apparatus that would register the respective positions of the leaders directly the winning line was reached ; and I should say there is a small fortune awaiting the man who can provide the turf with such a contrivance. It must come in time, of course, but whether in this decade or the next remains to be seen. Some enterprising Yankee was experimenting in this direction last season, and perhaps, after all, it is to this go-ahead people we will have to look for the judging machine, notwithstanding that the starting-gate was! wholly Australian.