OTAGO.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XVI, Issue 943, 2 April 1908, Page 7

OTAGO.

DUNEDIN, April 1. Judging by the small number of fielders who paid for the privilege of betting at the South Canterbury J.C.

meeting, and the large number who were present but declined to pay up and don the bag, the metallicians are getting tired of paying the large fees demanded by jockey clubs. S.P. betting appears to be coming back again through the same cause. The Southland mare Lady Zoin has been sold and will figure amongst the ponies at Wellington, when a 100 sOvs is to be run on Easter Monday. The hunter Albury has joined McKay's stable at the Forbury, and will probably be given a run at the Riverton meeting. The South Canterbury meeting was a great financial success, the sum of £10,517 being registered during the two days by Mr. James and his staff, but even this amount would have been exceeded if investors were not so dilatory in making up their minds as to which horse was entitled to monetary support. We all back winners mentally, but that is not the way to become rich or poor. The £10,517 invested on the totalisator at Timaru last week was a South Canterbury record. Last year the totals were:—Spring meeting, £6170; autumn meeting, £7636. The C.J.C. made a commendable appointment when they selected Mr. R. O. Duncan as judge. His verdicts are promptly delivered, and he has proved himself the right man in the right place, so much so that other clubs could employ him, and by doing so give general satisfaction to their patrons. The members of the Dunedin J.C. committee entertained Mr. J. Hazlett last week prior to that gentleman’s departure for England. The Tahuna Park Trotting Club will be in proud possession of a new track laid out on their own property by next season. A strong effort will be made to get the ground ready by next November, when a specially attractive programme will be rung up as a good send-off to the new course. The Obligado filly Octave was made a hot pot for the four-furlong race won by Lupulite last week. She was slow away, and, in addition to getting a bad passage, had to run over a lot of ground. She was sent out again in the Flying Handicap, and her luck was on a par with that experienced in her first race on the second day. McCombe was in the saddle, and getting Octave well away on the rails, he managed to squeeze her home by a narrow margin. She did not appear to act with the dash she displayed at Dunedin, even when she was returned a winner. Lupulite regained his lost laurels by his display of form at Timaru, and is evidently an improved horse to what he was when stripped at the Dunedin Cup meeting. In each of his three wins last week he finished well, but it was difficult to say how much he had in reserve at the end, as there was nothing present capable of giving him battle. He won the four and five furlongs races easily, and a break he obtained in the six

furlonis race helped him to tangle up his opponents on that occasion. Lupu'.ite. had backed put from the barrier, and just as he was walked into line the barrier shot up, with the result’ that it gave the Dunedin flyer what was practically a moving start. He made excellent use of the advantage, and raced clean away from his field, although his winning margin was only a bare length. Lapland looked better to the eye when stripped last week at Timaru than the writer has ever previously noticed the Finland gelding. He looked biggish, but clean and hard, and ran out his mission like a racehorse. Tile Multiform' colt Beneform won the ' two-year-old race on the first day of tlie South Canterbury J.C. meeting, and if more use had been made of the advantage he obtained on the second day he would just about have squeezed home again as winner. He blew a bit after his first race, and still looks susceptible to improvement, and if he underwent a sound preparation it would not be astonishing to find him one of the best three-year-olds out next season. He is a racing big colt, showing lots of quality, and has both galloping ability and courage. The farewell hop on the majority of race programmes marks the medium by which punters attempt .to get even on a bad meeting, or perchance make a gdod one even better. This was particularly noticeable at the South Canterbury meeting, where the last race on the card was easily a record for the meeting, and the amount of money invested on the totalisator marks the largest sum ever invested on a single race at Timaru. Still, it is doubtful if the total (£1070) represented a six-and-eightpenny opinion on the race of each adult on the course. The anti-gamblers would make a lot of such increase, but even after allowing the bookmakers operating to hold fairish books, the amount of spendthrift money in the air would not represent a button of the' coat of the South Canterbury public, who are charged with being the wealthiest community of the South Island.