THE TWO EASTER HANDICAPS.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XVI, Issue 943, 2 April 1908, Page 5

THE TWO EASTER HANDICAPS.

The weights for the Easter Handicap to be run at the approaching A.R.C. Meeting, and for the Great Easter Handicap to be decided at the C.J.C. on the same date have duly been declared, and it is somewhat interesting to compare the work of Mr. Morse and Mr. Henrys. Of course the race at Riccarton is run over a furlong shorter distance than the one at Ellerslie, but this should affect the handicap but little. Mr. Morse commences his list with Marguerite, 9.4, who is asked to concede 1 lb. to Zimmerman and 4 lbs. to Gold Crest. Mr. Henrys reverses this and makes Gold Crest concede 2 lbs. to Zimmerman and 3 lbs. to Marguerite. Here is a considerable difference of opinion. Bearing in mind the easy way in which the colt defeated the mare in the Wellington Summer Handicap at even weights, one is disposed to think Mr. Henrys the more correct. The Auckland weight adjuster considers that Marguerite should give King Billy 121b5., but his Southern confrere estimates the difference between them as only 61bs., and this, although the shorter distance should suit the son of Merriwee. Here Mr. Henrys goes astray, or it looks like it. In the Auckland race Gold Crest has to concede Sir Tristram 10 lbs., but at Riccarton the latter receives 17 lbs. from the son of Gold Reef. On the whole the differences in the handicaps are not very great. Multifid has 3 lbs. more at Riccarton than here, Cambrian 2 lbs. less, Soultline 1 lb. less, Helen Portland 3 lbs. more, and Downfall 1 lb. less. It will thus be seen that there is no very glaring disparity in the two handicaps. If fault is to be found with Mr. Morse’s adjustments it is rather in the handicapping of the local brigade, but of course this is almost inevitable with the weight adjuster living so far from Auckland. Of the Southern contingent in the Auckland race, through which names the scrathching pen has been put, the most prominent are Zimmerman, ’Frisco, Multifid, Sir Tristram, Arc Light, Downfall anad Ballarat.