AVONDALE JOGKEY CLUB’S SPRING MEETING.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XIV, Issue 810, 14 September 1905, Page 7

AVONDALE JOGKEY CLUB’S SPRING MEETING.

Next Saturday the Spring Meeting of the Avondale Jockey Club will be held, and this will be. continued on the following Wednesday and Saturday. It is unfortunate that the opening day will clash with the big football match between Australia and Auckland, for this must militate to a large extent against a satisfactory attendance. There is, however, ample prospect of some good sport, so that if the weather is fine no doubt a good many sportsmen will make the trip out to assij' at the fixture. To enable patrons to visit the course special trains v. i leave Auckland at 11.15 a.m., 11.35 a.m. and j 2.20 p.m., while a train will also leave at 1.20 p.m. In addition to those there will be plenty of brakes, etc., available. If no more rain falls the track should be in very fine o der, and the times should prove fast. As it s the first time the horses have been seen out since the winter recess, there is no form to guide one, and of course the two-year-olds will be making their debut. Linder the circumstances it is very difficult to attempt any forecast as to results, but the following are suggested as being likely to run well :—Maiden Plate: King Paul or Lady Clare. First Hurdle Race: Inniskillen or Ranana. Avondale Stakes: Neva or Sweet Alice. Avondale Cup : Putty or Waipuna. Plunket Handicap : Nervine or General Average. Steeplechase: Swimmer or Major. First Pony Handicap : Girton Girl or Dr. Quest. Flying Stakes: Avalanche or Gladstone.

Nominations for the Manukau Hurdles, City Handicap, and Birthday Handicap, to be decided at the opening meeting of the Auckland Racing Club, close on Friday, September 9, at 9 p.m. Nominations for the Auckland Cup, Railway Handicap, Summer Cup, A.R.C. Handicap, and Auckland Steeplechase, to be run at the summer meeting of the Auckland Racing Club, close on Friday, September 29, at 9 p.m. The Pakuranga Hunt Club sports will take place at Alexandra Park on Saturday, September 30. Six events are to be decided, these being the Farmers’ Flat Handicap, If miles; the Hunters’ Hurdles, 2 miles; the Open Handicap, 6| furlongs; the Hunters’ Steeplechase, 2’ miles; the Farmers’ Hurdles, 2 miles; and the Ladies’ Bracelet, 2J miles. This makes up an interesting little programme, and it should draw a good entry. _ Owners should bear in mind that nominations close with the hon. secretaries, Messrs. R. B. Kinloch and B. Lewis, to-morrow (Friday) evening. The executive are working hard to make the reunion one of the most successful eve.’ held.

Sarilla and Martyr King have come up from Gisborne to play their part at the Avondale meeting.

Twenty two-year-olds yet remain In the Avondale Stakes, so that it looks as if a good field will start.

On the form shown at Randwick, Mr. Stead must have a lot to say in the settlement of the New Zealand Cup and the classic races this season.

The money to be distributed in prizes this season at Ellerslie has been reduced by something over £lOOO, this retrenchment having been rendered necessary by the recent frauds by the late accountant.

The Otahuhu Racing Club will hold the annual race meeting on the Otahuhu racecourse on Wednesday, October 11. Nominations close on Fridav, September 29.

The accident to Noctuiform is very unfortunate for Mr. Stead, for it appeared a certainty that the Multiform colt would have won another race at the A.J.C. Meeting. The cabled account says , that he injured his hock, and has been scratched for all events at the meeting.

The pictures of a big steeplechase at Aintree, now being shown at His Majesty’s Theatre, are about the best ever seen in Auckland, and must prove of keen interest to racing men. The series include saddling up, going to the post, the parade, two jumps, and the finish are really most artistic.

A tremendous lot of money must have been lost in this colony when Maniopoto failed to gain a place in the Epsom Handicap, and his subsequent hollow victory in the Metropolitan Handicap makes the first day’s running out to be all wrong. I am afraid if it had occurred at Ellerslie there would have been a demonstration which would have quite put the “ Battleaxe incident” in the shade, and beyond question the owners would have been asked to explain.

The A.J.C. winner Noctuiform was got by Multiform by La Notte, by Eiridspord from La Tosca, by Robinson Crusoe from Nightmare, by Panic, so that he lacks nothing on the score of breeding. As La Notte has also thrown Nightfall, it looks as though she was going to prove a big success at the stud.

Real Blue has produced a colt to Seaton Delaval, and Sparkling Water a colt to Hotchkiss at the Wellington Park Stud.

The big field of twenty-three have accepted for the Avondale Maiden Plate, so that the winner should take some finding * * * * Maniopoto’s win in the Metropolitan Handicap mulcts him in a 141 b penalty for the New Zealand Cup, in which he will now be asked to carry 9st 41b. Mr. J. W. Russell’s Phoebus Apollo colt has been named Apollonaris, a rather happy effort in nomenclature on the part of mine host of the Occidental Hotel. * * * * Such a big run set in for Maniopoto for the Epsom Handicap on Saturday that the bookmakers eventually closed down on him. On Monday, when he won, only one or two local sportsmen had stuck to him. * * * « The only horse in the Metropolitan Handicap drawn in Tattersall’s sweep by Aucklanders was Loredano, but the son of Gibraltar and Venetia did not start, although the owner was offered a nice bet about him. A good word comes from Napier concerning the manner in which Mahutonga is standing up to his work, and all going well he will make a bold bid for the New Zealand Cup. A rumour is current that Golder Knight is unsound, and if there is anything in the report, his early backers will hardly feel" on good terms with themselves, for it requires a very sound horse to stand a winding-up preparation for the New Zealand Cup. * * * » A rather novel race took place at Marton a few days ago, when for a stake of £5O a-side Morris, a well-known sprint runner, beat the racehorse Merry Boy over a hundred yards; fifty yards to a pole and round this pole back to the starting-point. Morris, who had a start of ten yards allowed him, was first round the pole, and won by three yards. The horse is particularly quick at swinging round on his hind legs, and has, it is alleged. won several similar matches.

1 The Avondale J.C. Spring Meeting will commence next Saturday. * * » » Handicaps for the first day of the Wanganui Jockey Club’s Spring Meeting are due to-morrow. * « * « The Rangitikei meeting will commence next Wednesday, but local sportsmen will be chiefly taken up with the second day of the Avondale meeting. * * # ♦ The Ashburton County R.C. Meeting commences to-day. A number of New Zealand Cup horses are in the big race, which makes the fixture of more general interest than otherwise would have been the case. Beau Seaton or Calibre may win. * * * * G. Price is coming up from the South to ride at the Avondale meeting. McCluskey will also be seen in the pigskin, his sentence of disqualification having been removed by the local club. * * * * The Pakuranga Hunt Club closed the season on Saturday with the customary Point-to-Point Steeplechase, this being held at Papatoitoi. The race for heavyweights was won by Mr. C. Wallace on Pukerimu, who came in alone. A good field turned out for the light-weights, this being pulled off by Mr. F. Selby on 2Esop, with Mr. Dalton on Te Akau in second place. The weather was fine and the outing was thoroughly enjoyed by all. The arrangements were in the hands of Messrs. W. McLaughlin, H. Bullock-Webster, R. P. Kinloch, and B. Lewis.

The July issue of the German “Racing Calendar,” issued by the Union Club, contains the prohibition against public betting, and warns all those who are tempted to infringe the new law that they will be summarily expelled from the racecourse. The percentage to be paid by the public or deduction from the winnings is put down at 16 2-3 per cent, instead of the old 20 per cent., and a proportion of this will be placed at the disposal of the different German societies for the purpose of breeding material. Race societies have the right under the new law to appoint and arrange for certain agents to take money for investment at the totalisator.

In England a - little while back two jockeys were prosecuted by the police and fined for ill-using their respective mounts while returning to the paddock after running in a hurdle race at Sandown Park. Then the stewards of the National Hunt committee took a hand, and suspended one rider until December 1, and the other until the close of the year.

A Bombay writer, in dealing with the Totalisator v. Bookmakei’ question, says that although in India there is a feeling that the operations of the machine should be extended, it is improbable that the W I.T.C. or Calcutta T.C. will ever adopt it, to the exclusion of the bookmaker.

The annual report of the Tasmanian Commission of Police states that in the past season totalisators were used at 90 race meetings, the sum of £148,626 15s being passed through the machines. The Government Commission amounted to £796 7s, and the cost of supervision to £lO4 18s 2d. The total retained by the clubs was £11,135 16s 6d, made up of— Commission, £9729 8s; and broken money, £1406 8s 6d.

The spring meeting of the Poverty Bay Turf Club will take place on Thursday and Friday, October 26 and 27. The programme is made up of sixteen events, the sum of £635 being distributed in stakes. On the opening day there are the Trial Handicap, 6 furlongs; the First Hurdles, If miles; First County Stakes, 6 furlongs; Spring Handicap, If miles; First Welter, 7 furlongs; Maiden Scurry, 4 furlongs; Flying Handicap, 6 furlongs; First Hack Flat, one mile. On the second day the events are the Second Welter, one mile; the Second Hurdles, 11" miles; Second County Stakes, one mile; Makaraka Handicap, one mile; Second Hack Flat, 6 furlongs; Maiden Scurry Handicap, 5 furlongs; Waikanae Handicap, 5 furlongs; and Farewell Handicap, 7 furlongs. The meeting on the Makaraka racecourse is always an enjoyable fixture, and the programme is well worth the attention of owners. Nominations for the First and Second County Stakes, First and Second Hurdles, Spring, Flying, Makaraka, and Waikanae Handicaps close with Mr. J. Walker Bain, the secretary, on Saturday, September 30, at 9.30 p.m. For the other events entries are due on October 14.