Sporting & Dramatic REVIEW AND Licensed Victuallers’ Gazette. With which is incorporated the Weekly Standard. THURSDAY, JANUARY 10, 1907. THE TAKAPUNA CUP.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XV, Issue 879, 10 January 1907, Page 5

Sporting & Dramatic REVIEW AND Licensed Victuallers’ Gazette. With which is incorporated the Weekly Standard. THURSDAY, JANUARY 10, 1907. THE TAKAPUNA CUP.

The handicaps for the Takapuna Cup have made their appearance,and it must be admitted that something of a conundrum has been set punters by Mr. Knight. With a view to giving some of the rubbish at the tail end some sort of a chance the handicapper has commnced on a high scale, Paritutu heading the list with 9.5, or 171bs more than he failed with in the Auckland Cup. He is a horse who can carry weight, but the task set him looks a bit too stiff. Master Delaval’s win in the Auckland Cup evidently impressed Mr. Knight much more than his subsequent defeats, for the son of Seaton Delaval has been allotted 8.12. He ran a fair mile and a-half in the Auckland Plate with a pound less but somehow he does not fill the eye as a weight-carrier. He is treated much better in the Wellington Cup, and may possibly be sent south for that event. Scotty reads rather well with 8.9, and on his A.R.C. Handicap form should hold Paritutu quite safe. In that race over a similar distance Scotty beat Paritutuby quite three lengths, yet here is set to meet Mr. George’s gelding on 61bs better terms. The reason is not obvious. Apologue has gone to Sydney and will not start. Akarana does not relish a heavy weight, but is well enough despite meeting with a slight accident a day or two ago. If Waipuna can get the distance he must be very dangerous, but there is that “if” to be taken into consideration, and many consider ten furlongs his limit. He will will be meeting Akarana on 81bs worse terms than in the Grandstand Handicap, in which Messrs. Duder’s horse ran second three lengths behind the son of Soult. Landlock is well treated on the score of weight, but has proved over and over again that twelve furlongs is too far for him, a remark which also applies to Leonator. Loch Erne ran a fair mile in the Christmas Handicap, and here has 61bs more to carry. If Delania can be got into her best form for the meeting, which is more than doubtful, the weight given her is by no means harsh, but one would like to know how she is getting on after her mishap. Geordie has proved before now that the Takapuna course suits him, and he seems rather dangerous. Of the light weights Nervine, Baltimore and Foremost read to have the likeliest chances. One will know more as to the owner’s intentions after the acceptances, but at present Scotty, Akarana, Waipuna, Geordie and Foremost appear the best on paper.

WANTED—A LEAGUE OF SPORTSMEN.

During the past season or two there has been a wave of what some are pleased to consider morality, but which others prefer to call by a more harsh name, sweeping over the colony. In Australia this has brought into being Acts of Parliament which, although they may have done - some good, have at the same time inflicted much harm on many sports. In this colony a Bill was introduced into Parliament, but fortunately dropped, which went in the same direction. The suggested measure was crude, ill-digested, and cumbersome, and as it stood would have done infinitely more harm than good. This is not altogether surprising, because it seems that those who would legislate against sport are invariably the most densely ignorant of their subject. Nothing could be clearer proof of this than the wording of Sir Joseph Ward’s Bill. There is, however, the

unfortunate possibility that the measure may be introduced next session, and it behoves all sportsmen to do their utmost to defeat this uncalledfor, unneccessary and harassing type of legislation. The best way to do this, as has been pointed out before, would be by the formation of a huge league of sportsmen with branches in every part of the colony. If such a league was formed it would soon become a power in the land, and would be able to compel legislators to listen to reason, instead of at present pandering to the loudly expressed views of the fanatics. Sportsmen are much too fond of letting things slide, and then growling when they are denied privileges which should be theirs, whereas if they were to combine it would be easy to insist on their rights. In a scathing article on the Victorian Bill and the method by which it was carried, the “Australasian” has the following, the truth of which cannot be gainsaid: — “Sportsmen may be consoled for the moment by the reflection that the state elections are not fax' distant. But it is at best a poor consolation, because the legislators who voted for the extreme provisions of this Bill know perfectly well that when the test of voting comes, the faddists, at any rate, will stand resolutely to their guns, while the rational sportsmen, who very naturally places the material interests of the country ahead of those things which are merely his recreations will be distracted by other considerations. The fanatic sees only one thing, and pursues it, all else is detail; but the man of wider sympathies has a wider outlook, and members of Parliament who are accustomed to consider closely how the cat jumps invariably seek to please the fanatic by pandering to his will, while humbugging the other party with side issues. It is the knowledge of that self-pro-tective principle in politics which makes us despair of seeing any wholesome reaction brought about through the medium of a general election.”