NOTES.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XVI, Issue 932, 16 January 1908, Page 6

NOTES.

(By

The Judge.)

The Tahuna Park Trotting Club, Dunedin, have purchased a new racecourse near Tahuna Park. * s? *

The Otamiatea R.C. meeting takes place to-morrow. * * * «

Miss Winnie has been asked to give Black and Gold 141 b over five and a-half furlongs at the Shore meeting. If only the big fellow was at his best !

The Onewhero meeting takes place to-day.

The hurdler Cruesot, is now an inmate of H. Howe’s stable. * * * *

The Ohaupo R.C. Meeting will take place on February 2b. :|s * * *

Ths race for premier position on the list of winning sires in the Old Country was very close. Gal imule (by Isonomy) just beat St. Frusquin (by St. Simon) by to

Mrs Coombe’s Soult —Dreamland yearling co't, and her Soult —M.ss Annie filly have gone into Dennis Morrighan’s stable to receive their education.

Sweet Alice was in a kinder mood than usual at Whangarei, and pul’.ed off a double, the Cup and Tradesmen’s Plate.

Elevation has been entered for the Newmarket and Doncaster Handicaps.

Mr J. F. Hartland, the secretary to the A.R.C., has gone to Wellington to assist at the meeting and to attend the conference.

Among the entries for the Sydney Cup appear the names of the New Zealanders Seddon, Cress Battery, Apologue, Putty, and Maranui. The list is longer still in the Newmarket Handicap, as it ini'. udes Munjcet, Captain Shannon, E’evation, Pink ’Un, Equiform, Dusky Morn, Mararui, Grenadier and Seddon. Master Delaval’s name appears in the list for the Australian Cup and Champion Stakes.

Entr’es lor all races to be run at the Wanganui Jockey Club’s Autumn Meeting close with Mr W. Hall on Friday week, January 24th.

L. Hewitt had 165 rides for 15 wins in England last year. The Victorian, F. Bullock, won 30 of the 215 races in which he rode, and F. Wootton 39 out of the 282 in which he figured. The lastmentioned lad finished thirteenth in the winning list.

In England during the season recently c’osed, R. Wootton won thirteen races of a total value of

Although the Sydney owner, Mr Crick, was offered 2500 guineas for Collarit, some few months ago, nothing near that figure was forthcoming on January 2, when he was offered by Messrs W. Inglis and Son, and he retired from the ring when bidding had ceased at 1350 guineas, which was offered by the well-known Victorian bookmaker, Mr Sol. Green, but it was afterwards, given out that it would take 1700 guineas to secure the brilliant son of Haut Brion and Collaretta. Another of Mr Crick’s horses, the 2-year-old, Borodino, elicited a bid of 1300 guineas, which was refused.

Two jockeys were killed in the hurdle race at the W.A.T.C. (Perth) meeting, and strangely enough, the mishap which brought about their respective deaths occurred at the same hurdle on A fferent days. The jockeys were W. Skelton and J. Kent.

During the eight months in which he rode in England last year, W. Higgs had 732 mounts, winning 146 races, but in the matter of percentage, he was badly beaten by D. Maher, with 114 wins for 424 rides.

The New ealand horse Vo’ume was among the final entries for the Viceroy’s Cup, which closed on the 2nd of last month. If he started he failed to run anywhere.

Early backers, got a shock by the withdrawal of Boniform from the Wellington Cup. Evidently the handsome little son of Multiform is not to be overworked.

Elevation’s handsome half brother, Gravitation, figures among the entries for the Wellington Stakes.

The Calcutta Turf Club has decided to have the to.alisator installed at ail future meetings.

ArtiHerie, who raced at Ellerslie at the Christmas meeting, has gone into J. Lowe’s stable at Trentham.

It is reported that Elevation is to be sent to Australia to measure strides with Mountain King. A meeting between the pair should be worth going a long way to see.

The success of the Whangarei meeting was somewhat marred by the paucity of the fields, otherwise the fixture proved enjoyable, the weather being beautifully fine and the attendance large. * ’* * *

Fourteen horses are left in the WelI’ngton Cup, Zimmerman heading the list with qst 31b, a weight he won under at Ellerslie.

Mr. C. F. Mark, secretary to the Auckland Trotting Club, is now making one of his periodical pilgrimages to Christchurch.

Sir George Clifford, president of the Racing Conference, came up to Auckland on Tuesday.

The Mexican Government, in order to encourage the importation and development of thoroughbred stock, has devoted a sum of £40,000 for a number of annual races for two and three-year-olds, among them a Mexican Derby, to be run for ten years, beginning in 1910. English stallions are gre'atly improving the quality of speedy horses in Mexico.

King Edward’s horses only won £2944 in stakes last season in England.

Three of Canteen’s stock were recently sold under tne hammer at the dispersal sale of Sir Rupert Clarke’s stud. Two by the grey record-holder were chestnuts, and the colour of the other was not stated.

Australian horses continue to more than hold their own in India, despite the importations from England. Realm failed to win the Viceroy’s Cup, but Fitz-Grafton emulated the performance of Great Scot by winning his second Viceroy’s Cup. He was bred in Queensland by Mr. James McGill, and is by Grafton from Olive Branch, by Buckthorpe (son of Doncaster) from Oliveri a, by Laureate from Olive, by Orest. Mallard, who finished second to Fitz-Grafton, a position he filled the previous year, was bred by Mr. James Wilson, jun., at Bonnyvale, and is by Malvolio from Britomarte, by Neckersgat from Ada, by Lucifer; and Steinhagen who is an English horse, is by Count Schomberg, from Benedictine, by The Abbot from Black Corrie, by Sterling.

Blacklock, to whom the great excellence of the Galopi'n tribe is generally’ and probably erroneously ascribed, was an immense bay horse with a fiddle head of enormous size, which earned for him the sobriquet of the “Bishop Burton Monstrosity.” He was foaled in 1814. His breeder purchased Blacklock’s dam in 1810 for £3. He was a great racehorse, and a successful sire, but though he left Brutandorf, Buzzard, Laurel, Malek, Tranby, Warlaby, Velocipede, Young Blacklock, and Voltaire behind, all with the exception of Voltaire are dead in the direct line. * * « *

It is chronicled that in the reign of Edward the Great, A.D. 631, The English first began to saddle horsesi” The earliest mention of “ running horses” refers to those sent to England in the ninth century by Hugh, the founder of the Royal House of Capet in France, as a present to King Athelstan, whose .sister, Ethel switha, he was desirous of marrying. In the reign of William the Conqueror, Roger de Bellesme, Earl of Shrewsbury imported several stallions from Spain, and Fitz-Stephen a monk of Canterbury, and secretary to the celebrated Archbishop A Beckett, in the reign of Henry IL, refers to some rough-and-ready races at >■ Smo.othfie d (Smithfield), in which “the jockies, inspired with thoughts of applause, and in the hope of victory, clap spurs So willing horses, brandish' their whips, and cheer -them with their cries.”

The Takapuna Jockey Club’s Summer Meeting opens on Saturday week. # * * ♦

Entries for the Te Aroha Mee ing are due with Mr A. S. Mackay on the 24th inst.

Matters are very quiet in racing circles in Auckland, but the Takapuna meeting should liven things up. <4 ijs * * #

There is money, good substantial money (says an authority) not that in small quantity, in breeding horses well, w’.th a fixed end in view. Breed good mares to good horses .and you need have no fear of the result- It is blood that tells in horse breeding. The very nature of the conditions and surroundings requis.te to the production of first-class carriage horses will long stand in the way of an over supply. Is there any way in which you can grow £5O worth of farm products with less labour, less capital and better profit than by raising a good horse? From the age of two and onehalf years a we 1-bred colt, properly fed and handled, should be able to do enough work about the farm to pay for his keep. * * * *

An interesting breeding experiment has been entered upon by the lowa State College and the United Sta'es Government, with a view to establishing a new breed of grey draught horses. The obj?ct of the experiment is to combine and improve the qualities of the highest excellence of the Shire and Clydesdale, as far as possible, and to eliminate some cf the characteristics that are objectionable from the American standpoint. It is the intention to combine the feet, quality, pasterns, and action of the Clydesdale with the more massive proportions of the Shire, and, while doing so, to establish the grey colour and other essential characteristics, wh ch will eventually lead to the development of an American breed of draught horses, better adapted to American conditions than any of the foreign breeds. It is the opinion of the best informed horsemen that the crossing of these breeds will not be attended with the usual uncertain results of cross-breeding experiments, as they ; have practically the same origin, and have been bred along quite similar lines for many generations. In America, grey is the popular draught horse colour, and, other things being equal, a grey gelding commands mere money on the market than one of any other colour. Although the Shire and Clydesda'e will form the foundation of the expor’ment, it is possible that some Percheron b'ood may be introduced later on.