WANGANUI.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XIV, Issue 843, 3 May 1906, Page 7

WANGANUI.

May i. There is very little of interest doing on the local tracks at present, but things should liven up a bit after the Egmont Meeting. Apa was backed for a lot of money locally for the Thompson Handicap, both straight-out and in doubles with Glenowlet and Gawain. One young lady stood to win if Mystification’s win had been followed with a win for Gawain. St. Lyra and Cassiopea were both taken to Wellington for the hurdle events, but were unsuccessful. The former jumped badly, and thus spoilt any chance she may have had. Cassiopea has probably never been in better condition than at present, but this notwithstanding she failed to do any good. Valkyrie is doing very good work just now, and may secure a win before long. It is quitt up to the Forester —Polly gelding to do so. I am told that providing he goes on all right, Valkyrie will be given a chance shortly to distinguish himself over country. He jumps the big fences in fine style, and may prove more successful at that game than over the small sticks.

Weights for the Wanganui J.C. Winter Meeting are due on May 12. It is said that Cassiopea again changed hands recently, but I have heard nothing definite on the subject. Mr. Alf. Walker, of Feilding, sold the stallion The Officer just prior to the Auckland Meeting at an advance of on the price he paid for the horse. After Mobility captured the Auckland, Easter Handicap several inquiries were made for her sire by would-be purchasers, and Mr. Walker could have then obtained a coni siderably_ higher price for the stallion, which will probably find his way back to Australia before long.

At a general meeting of the Egmont Racing Club, held last Thursday, the president stated that the club would have lost at their last meeting if they had had the telegraph office on the course. An office is to be open at the racecourse gates for this week’s gathering. The Wanganui Jockey Club received remarkably good nominations for its 'Winter Meeting. In the big event —the Wanganui Steeplechase —no fewer than 29 horses are engaged, while 28 have been entered for the Century Hurdles. The class of horses is also exceptionally good, and all parts of the colony are represented. There is evidently nothing like the dearth of jumpers 'that some appear to believe, but these pessimists drag out the same old cry season aft&j" season. Of course it is hard to predict how some of those engaged in the .steeplechase events will shape, but it is pretty safe to say that there is all the material there to provide some capital sport, and I shall be surprised if a few of them do not turn out tiptoppers. As for the hurdles, well, it is a long time since there were so many good ones likely to meet, and these contests should be tremendously exciting. The club have also been fortunate in regard to the nominations received for the flat races, both so far as quantity and quality go, and altogether the forthcoming gathering gives every indication of proving one of. the most successful from every point of view of the many winter meetings held here. Mr. G. Smith’s bay gelding Select is acquitting himself very creditably in his schooling lessons on the local track, and will be a starter at the Wanganui J.C. Steeplechase Meeting. The half-brother to Ranana will be ridden in his engagements by J. Stanley. Paranui, a stable mate of the above, is developing into a nice mare, and should be heard of in the spring.