AN AUSTRALIAN DERBY.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XIV, Issue 806, 17 August 1905, Page 6

AN AUSTRALIAN DERBY.

The remarks made by Mr. Septimus Miller, chairman of the Victoria Racing dub, will no doubt meet with the appro-

val of all racing men throughout the Commonwealth and in this colony as well. In moving the adoption of the report at the annual general meeting, Mr. Miller said: “ When in Sydney during the last Ausumn Meeting, some of the committee spoke to the A.J.C. committee about having only one Derby and one St. Leger in Australia, to be called the Australian Derby or Federal Derby and the Australian St. Leger or Federal St. Leger, and they seemed to quite approve of the plan. His idea was that the races should be run in one year at Randwick and in the next at Flemington, and so on, and that at least £2OOO should be added to the Derby and £IOOO to the St. Leger. He hoped the races would in time become as important as the English Derby and St. Leger, and he trusted to see the arrangements carried out for the 1907 and 1908 races.” The idea is an excellent one, and we hope to see it carried out (says the “ Town and Country Journal.”) There is only one thing against it, so far as this State is concerned, and that is the Spring Meeting of the Australian Jockey Club is held somewhat too early in the season for the three-year-olds to be really seen at anything like their best. If the idea is carried out, it may be that when it comes to Randwick’s turn, the great blue ribbon event will be a. feature of the summer meeting. That September is too

■early we have the ruling of the A.J.C. -committee as evidence, seeing that they wait off until the summer meeting to run their first two-year-old race. At the present time we have no fewer than five events run off in the Commonwealth during thg season, all known as the Derby, ■and as the betting is, or was, better at Flemington than at Rand wick, the Victorian event is looked upon as the most important of the five, and that it is run a couple of months later in the season than at Randwick also materiaHy assists it. 'With the increased revenue that the leading race clubs are now receiving from the bookmakers, they will have plenty of funds in hand to subsidise the classic events. We should like to see the Oaks once more take its place on the programme of our leading club. The main class to assist are the breeders If we have good, rich, weight-for-age stakes to be won, purchasers for yearlings can always be found. The handicap, or ■second-class, 'horses have always plenty to go for, as the proprietary race clubs cater ■for them in a very liberal manner; but it is only at the more important meetings, such ;as ;are held at Flemington and Randwidk, that the weight-for-age horse gets his turn; and it is to this class that we look to produce our stock. Very few stallions are of much use on the race track, even if they are sound, after they are six years old:; so that the owners only have an average of three seasons, at the most four, to make anything out of them as racehorses, consequently the richer we can make the stakes that the firstclass animal can win the better foi* that class of owner of which we have too few racing just now —the gentleman.