Sporting Topics.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XII, Issue 732, 17 March 1904, Page 7

Sporting Topics.

(By

“The Judge.”)

The Dannevirke Club handled £10,984 the totalisator at the meeting, last week, which beats last year’s record by no less than £3682.

The St. Andrew gelding Fleka won the Dannevirke Cup very comfortably, having been caught in a galloping humour.

The recent Woodville Meeting resulted in a profit oi £3ll. Improvements to the eourse are to be commenced forthwith.

The Monaco gelding Croupier had a very easy win in the Welter Handicap at Napier Park yesterday. His account must be well on the credit side. '

Fleka showed yesterday that his win last week was no fluke by annexing the Napier Cup in good style from Hmetaura and Freeland. The winner is an aged chestnut gelding by St. Andrew from Flatterer; and was rather leniently handicapped with 7st.Blb.

The New Zealand Cup winner Halberdier is reported to be doing steady work, but whether he will stand another wind-ing-up preparation is, I should think, problematical in the highest degree.

E. A. Woolley, the well-known Hawke’s Bay trainer and horseman, committed suicide last week, shooting himself through the head with a revolver. A verdict of suicide while in a state of temporary insanity caused through severe illness was returned by the coroner’s jury. * * * *

The weights for the Easter Handicap are due t<> see the light next. Monday. Mr Evett has forty-four candidates on which to try his skill, and the result of his labours will be awaited with interest, and will no doubt have the effect of galvanising the betting into some sort of life.

The weights for the C.J.C. Great Easter and Great Autumn Handicaps have been declared by Mr Henrys. In the former Achilles is, of course, in pride of place with the big load of lost 91b opposite his name, an impost which, I should imagine will bring about his withdrawal from the seven furlongs event. That fine sprinter Red Gaantlet; in receipt of seventeen pounds from the son of Medallion, comes next on the list. Skimming down the names, those which seem to be well treated are Convoy, Vladimir, Pampero, Starshoot, Quarryman, Grand Rapids and Buluwayo. In the Great Autumn Handicap Convoy is in pride of place with 9st 31b opposite his name. Likely ones seem to be Convoy, Canteen, Red Gauntlet, Treadmill, Starshoot, Buluwayo and De la Rey.

Mr Daly has. set Emir a stiff task in the Sydney Cup, as the brown son of Wallace and Emmie has been allotted 9st lib, or seven pounds more than he was asked to ’ carry in the Australian Cup. When it was seen ihat he is Called upon to concede the Derby winner, F. J.A. 7ft, the Caulfield Cup winner Sweet Nell and the Melbourne Cup winner Lord Cardigan Bft each it can readily be understood that Mr Clarke’s champion has no light contract, but his recent form is so brilliant that, if a three-year old is to prevail ho may be the one to do so. Of the others engaged in the two-thousand-poundor Marvel Loch, Seaport, and Green Mountain read best.

The Newmarket Handicap winner Mairp, had an adventurous career before he fell into his present owner’s hands (writes “Milroy”). He began his racing career at the small country meetings in Victoria, winning, over all distances, prizes ranging from £4 up to £2O in value. The Turf Register credits him with some 20 races, but he won' over 30, several of them at small leather-flap-ping meetings which are not recorded in the book Mairp was bred by Mr C. Williams in Victoria, and is now in his 10th year. His dam was bred by Captain Haines, and her dam produced two hardy “battlers” in Veneda and Godwin, by Escutcheon and Tostig respectively. Veneda was a very brilliant animal, for whom an Indian buyer paid 1000 guineas. Mairp’s great granddam, Bridesmaid, was imported by Mr R. J. Hunter, the Indian buyer. She eventually went into the Hobartville Stud where she 'bred to Marobyrnong a colt named Bridegroom, who won many races in the colours of “Ben Bolt” Kelly. Mairp’s sire, Priam, is a brother to The Admiral.

Pukekohe purposes, giving a race meeting this month which is intended to be made an annual fixture. The meeting will be held this year on the old course just at the back of the township, but next year, the Club intend to get a firstclass track within easy distance of the railway.

The old picket fence between the judge’s box and the stewards’ stand at Ellerslie has been removed, and workmen are now engaged putting up an iron fence similar to the one facing the grandstand. The work is well in hand and will be finished during the coming week.

The approach of the big Easter Meeting of the Auckland Racing Club may easily be told by tne increase in tne number of horses training at Ellerslie. Despite the fact that a bfel- Contingent is away for the country round yet the tracks present each morning a very lively appearance. Particulars of the training operations will be found in another Colums,.

The Waihi Meeting appears to have been a very interesting one from a sport point of view, but as far as the betting was Concerned the volume of business proved exceptionally light. The weather was brilliantly fine, and the attendance above the average. Mr Grant, the secretary, did good work to help matters along, while Mr E. B. Walker got his fields away on even terms in each event.

One hears of odd reasons for protests occasionally, but an original one comes from Temora (N.S.W.), where a winner was protested against on the grounds) that he was scratched for the race. If he was scratched it is difficult to see why he was allowed to start, and in any case one would have thought the secretary could have soon settled the matter. This was not so, however, for after a long investigation the matter was referred to the committee of the Australian Jockey Club for adjudication.

It is very satisfactory news to learn that Gladsome had a very favourable passage across to Sydney, and that the chestnut mare was landed in good con-' dition. Her presence at Randwick will certainly have the effect of arousing interest in the big meeting of the. A.J.C. One of her supposed strongest rivals, in Scottish King has been rendered hors de combat by the giving way of a suspensory ligament, and it now looks as though the toughest opposition will come from Emir, who some writers are hailing aS a second Carbine.

The two days’ fixture of the Ohinemuri Jockey Club’s Meeting commences today at Paeroa. Quite a number of sportsmen have gone up from Auckland and aS the acceptances for the various events are numerous sport should prove interesting. Looking through the list of those engaged the following appear to possess winning prospects Shorts, Anchorite or Neteorini ; Hurdles, Hippowai : Karangahape Handicap, Lady Bobs ; Pony Handicap, Sentinel ; Cup, IdaSa ; Komata Handicap, St. Harp ; Steeplechase, Dingo ; St. Patrick’s, Ladv Bobs.

l ast Thursday the Mauku Annual Meeting took place, when about three hundred people were present. The racing calls for no special Comment. The fields were small and the finishes Somewhat straggling. The hurdles resulted in a protest. aS no one seemed to know if the horses jumped the last hurdle or went round the wing. After a meeting of the stewards that body gave the race to the winner, Billy the Boy, which decision seemed to please everyone but the bookmakers. Billy the Boy started an odds on favourite. The old hurdler, battler round unregistered meetings, Marawai. won the Cup with a narrow margin, as the second horse, Grizette, came with a somewhat late run and just missed the race.

The disqualification of the Blairgowrie gelding Corporal, at Waihi last' Saturday, seems a little difficult to explain. In the Flying Handicap Corporal, with Bst 101 b. ran second under the whip to that Speedy filly Lady Bobs, to whom he was conceding 7tb. Tn the McCurdy Memorial Stakes with but 7st 41t> on his back it. was not Surprising to find Corporal first home from a weak field, but it was 'certainly remarkable to find lip had but two supporters on the machine, and that the dividend would have been £23 Bs. Probably the stewards had some definite information to go upon when dealing with the case, otherwise it looks as though the verdict was a somewhat harsh one

Auckland, Feilding, and Christchurch will be the chief meetings during Eastertide.

The Feilding Jockey Club hold a meeting on Easter Monday and Tuesday. Handicaps for the first day’s events are due to appear on Monday next.

It is stated that the owner of Abundance has received a cable from India asking him to put a price on that horse.

The ex-New Zealand pony Sea Spray, by Lebel —Leona, who went to South Africa some time ago, won the Pony Purse, five furlongs, at the O.R.C. Turf Club’s Meeting. Another ex-New Zealander in Ukase was second. Sea Spray carried 9st 51b, and paid a dividend of £l3 10s.

It is stated that neither Lady Lillian or Welbeck will be in any sort of condition to play their parts satisfactorily at the Easter Meeting in Christchurch.

The acceptances for the approaching Meeting at the Thames will be received up till Saturday next. Judged from the class of horses entered, the meeting next Thurrdby bids fair to prove, exceedingly successful.

A Southern paper states that it is probable that Red Gauntlet and the rest of Ellis’s team will take part in the Feilding Jockey Club’s Easter Meeting.

“Javelin,” of the Melbourne “Leader,” remarks : What a cosmopolitan young lady is Mr Foy’s mare Playaway ! She was bred in England by an Australian ; her sire was bred in New Zealand, and sold by his Victorian owner to an English breeder ; she was purchased by another Australian, and after being, reared in Ireland she is being raced in Australia.

The American owner, J. B. Haggin, nominated no less than eighty youngsters for the National Stakes, of £4OOO, to be run at Morris Park in the spring of next year. J. E. Madden nominated fortyfive, and the total entries were three hundred and ten, the produce of forty-nine stallions.

The English cricketers finished up their Australian tour most triumphantly at Adelaide. Although more than a hundred behind on the first innings, they very soon sent the South Australians to the right about, and then Warner, Foster, and Tydesley soon rattled up the 183 runs required to win, thus securing a victory of nine wickets. The team has won nine, lost two, and drawn eight matches, a great performance indeed.

There is never a big race but somebody or other is reported to have dreamt thae they saw the winner. The latest legend of the kind comes from Carcoar (N.S.W.), where a storekeeper named Darlington dreamt that a telegram was handed him, showing the result of the Newmarket Handicap, as follows : —Maiip 1, Pendant 2, Playaway 3. On the following Monday morning he was so taken up with his dream that he communicated the result to Mr A. Dawson, in the presence of the “Daily Telegraph” correspondent. Mr Dawson and Mr Darrington decided to test the dream, and wired £1 to Sydney, and Succeeded in obtaining 25 to lon Mairp. This is the second time on which Mr Darrington has Successfully dreamt the winner of big events, the last occasion being when Gaulus won the Melbourne Cup in 1897. Personally, although I have Come across hundreds oi people who have Said that they dream': about the winner after the race was over, I have never yet come across any one who had been able to forecast the judge’s verdict in this manner.

Emir greatly impressed those Sydney racing men who saw him at Flemington, and “another Carbinle” is the verdict of many (writes “Pilot” in the “Referee”). They are of opinion that he was not at his best at the V.R.C. Meeting, and that he will be a much-improved colt, by the time the A.J.C. Meeting commences. Under the circumstances, it is not surprising that he is nomianl favourite for the Sydney Cup, in which he has 9 s t lift, or a pound more than Carbine carried when, as a three-year-old, he won in 1889. Emir’s sire, Wallace, won in 1896 with Bst 12ft, and another 3ft would not have stopped the chestnut on that occasion, notwithstanding that he was meeting a really good field. One thing in Emir’s, favour is that he is quite up to the weight, and another is that he is a very tractable horse in a race, going kindly when the pace is slow, and being all! there with the necessary dash when it is fast.

Moifaa and Kiora are not over weighted in the Liverpool Grand National Steeplechase, which is run on the '2sth of this month. The former has lost 7ft, and the latter lost 31b. Drumcree, with 12st 7ft, heads the list, and is Conceding a pound to Ambush 11.

Orme is among the English horses whose stud fee for this season has been reduced. It is now 200gns.

The Sydney sprinter, Pendant, was passed in at 700gns. when offered at auction in Melbourne recently. The reserve was lOOOgns.

The Burns Handicap of £2OOO, one of the big events run by the New California Jockey Club at the Ingleside (San Francisco) track, took place an the 6th of last month. Owing to the, rain the track was a sea of mud, and the winner, a four-year-old named Modicum, who Carried 7st 2ft, got to the front immediately after the start, and was never headed. He started at 8 to 1 in a field of sixteen, and has proved a profitable purchase for his owner,- who gave only £l5O for him last year. Modicum is by the English horse St. Gatien, >.

The one-time Sydney sportsman, Mr R. E. de B. Lopez, sent Magnet to Australia, and has doubtless wished many times he had retained the St. Blaise horse, who would be able to command a big service fee, if he were b’ack in the Golden State. I understand (writes the American correspondent to the “Referee”), Prince Ponratowski, former owner of Magnet, made overtures looking to the return of the splendid son of St. Blaise to this country, but business called him to France, and forced his retirement from the breeders’ rank for a few years at least, so that Magnet will probably end his days in the Antipodes.

Now, it is understood that Lopez, intends shipping to the Colonies another horse with even a greater racing Reputation than Magnet, viz., Bright Phoebus, winner of the great American three-year-old classic, The Realisation. Efight Phoebus won this greatest of all three-year-old stakes, and several others besides, his winnings footing up . about 4i,000d01. He is already the sire of a good winner in Ed. Lilburn, and with any sort of a chance at the stud will surely distinguish himself.

Falsetto, sire of this horse, won the Clark Stakes at Louisville, the Travers Stakes, and Kenner Stakes at Saratoga, and riiet with but one defeat during his turf career, viz., when he ran second to Lord Murphy for the Kentucky Derby.

This year’s Newmarket may best be described as a two-horse race (says the Melbourne “Sportsman”) Racing to you, as they do, it is always difficult—often impossible—to judge positions up the straight, until they come to side on, but at a comparatively early stage on Saturday it could be seen chat-nothing had any chance with the two leaders, Mairp and Pendant. Half way, or further on, Independence loomed rather important in the centre, and both Playaway and Sea Kale were always fairly handy, but the actual battle rested with Mairp and Pendant. People along the line of route say that there was never more than half a length between the pair. For the time they came fairly into view, it was stride' for stride, as pretty a finish as one could hope to see. They were, as said, left at it without any outside interference. Playaway, or “Flyaway,” as people were calling her before the race, could not get on terms, though her attempt was not without resolution. A furlong from home the top weight and her persistent mate got right to work, and neither flinching, it was a hand to hand fight up to the judge. The end saw Pendant beaten, but what a battle she put up ! On a perfectly dry “pitch” (cricket phrases will obtrude themselves, you see) she might have got there outright, for the ground was not in quite the trim for weight carrying. In saying this, one does not in the least wish to detract from, the merit of Mairp’s performance. He, too, carried a fair burden, and E. Kelly may be heartily complimented on his victory. He did it “off his own bat,” for does he not train, as well as own, the winner ?

The summer has been a very dry one for Auckland, hut it is fairly certain that the Clerk of the Weather will make up the deficit during the Autumn and Winter. With the prospect of plenty of rain ahead, the man who wishes to keep rheumatism and its attendant ills at bay, would do well to purchase a reliable raincoat. About the best in the market appears to be the N. and C. coat, for which Mr B. J. M. Kemp, of Queen Street, is the agent. This is guaranteed proof against the most soaking rain, but at the same time is well ventilated, and is altogether just the thing for our changeable climate.