THE CLUBMAN.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1245, 26 February 1914, Page 10

THE CLUBMAN.

Another of the progeny of imported Downshire has come to the front. This is the two-year-old filly Angelina, from Angele, owned by Mr. J. B. Reid, which won the Dunedin Champagne Stakes, which race has been established since 1878. Angelina was sold as a yearling from a draft of the Waikanae Stud for 110 guineas and apparently is the makings of a useful mare. She comes of a good family, though there have been some rather disappointing membiers of it in recent years. Angele is a sister to Montiform (who won a few races), by Multiform from Happy Valley, sister to Ailsa, by Wallace son of Carbine, from Far Away, h|alf-sister to Hova, by Bill of Portland from Happy Land, half-sister to St. Leger. North Atlantic, by Musket —Atlantis, sister to Atlantic, winner of the 2000 Guineas and great granddam of Gladstone, Gladsome and Apologue. Mr. J. B. Reid owned Gladsome and has reason to remember the fact, as she was a very payable proposition and a bargain of the sale-ring, as he secured her for 100 guineas. Apologue was another good .purchase, and was really purchased on behalf of Fred Holmes, the Christchurch trainer, who allowed Mr. Hugo Friedlander to have him at what he cost. As is well known he afterwards won the Melbourne Cup.

We still keep getting reminders that the blood horses purchased by the New Zealand Government could get winners, and there is no doubt it would have paid breeders with good mares to have patronised several of them. Lupin’s gets keep on winning in different parts of the country and it cannot be said that the son of Peter Flower who won five out of six races as a two-year-old, some first-class races at three and at four years old, besides being placed in the Two Thousand Guineas, had chances out of the ordinary. Peter Flower was by Petriarch, winner of the Middle Park Plate, Two Thousand Guineas, St. Leger, Prince of Wales Stakes, Ascot Gold Cup, etc. Lupin s dam was by Kilwarlin, a good performer at two and three years old. Lupin’s winners this season will place him higher in the winning list than his name has been since Lupulite was at the top of his form in the! south. Gienapp’s name appears occasionally, and Marton did big service last season for Malachi;, who, after hieing buried in seclusion at the Chatham Islands, was brought back to New Zealand and stood last year in the Waikato.

The sons of Multiform that have left most winners so far have been Multifid and Boniform. Multifid has had a few good chances, and has left some very good representatives. Our King, Multiply, Multiplicity, Multikoff, Multitude, Titami, and half-a-dozen recent winners by Multifid, and there are others. They all gallop, and that horse, himself, a good one, would do better were his progeny treated as they are in some districts. To get a good start in life is what moist horses want, and a bit of money for feed is not wasted upon them. If the ultimate object is racing them it is a mistake not to give them good patronage and plenty to eat, especially over the first two or three winters while they are growing.

Imported Charlemagne 11. has earned greater distinction since he was sold and went to Australia than he did before, and will take a higher place than previously in the winning sires’ list in the Dominion, and though he cannot get many better mates in Australia than he did in New Zealand the blood of some of them may suit him well. The pity is. that we did not have him a season or two longer, as his fillies should be good producers. His stock seem to last well, though so far only a few have displayed anything approaching good staying form. The three-year-old Rinaldo finished up his tasks at two years and in the early spring so well that it was thought he would prove a first-class colt over a journey, but unfortunately, after running well in the Great Northern Derby, the result of influenza was developed and now it may be that we shall never see him right at his best. A yearling full-brother to Rinaldo is to- be sold in Victoria

by Messrs. Yuille and Co., on March 2nd, and at the same sale a colt by Bobadil from Celerity—twice winner of the Oakleigh Handicap—and a filly by Positano from Aleger, dam of Allegation, and a filly by The Welkin from Kamo, by Seaton Delaval, are amongst the lots catalogued.

The Diinedin Jockey Club’s autumn meeting was evidently a very successful one. The chief handicap—the time-honoured Dunedin Cup—established eleven years after the club’s first meeting in 1863, reached its forty-first anniversary on Wednesday, and was won by Flora McDonald, who has run some good races in Canterbury and Otago for her owner and breeder, Mr. Hugo Friedlander, who has been .a good supporter of racing for some time, and particularly of racing in the South Island .in more recent years, though he once had a stable in Auckland. It is somewhat remarkable that it is thirty-eight years since a three-year-old filly has won the race. It was then that Pungawerewere, after bolting twice round the course, went away with the lead and was not headed. Then the distance was two miles and a distance. It is noteworthy that no mare, horse or gelding of any age has won carrying so much weight as did Lurline, who (secured the first race when

ridden by R. J. Mason. Lurline was then a four-year-old and carried 9.9, and next year Templeton, a colt of the same age, carried 8.12, and the fact that no four-year-old horse has carried so much to the front is established by the records. Orloff, a three-year-old gelding, carried 11b more, however, and holds the record for those of the same age in the matter of weight-carrying. It has been left to Flora McDonald to establish the time record for the event since it was reduced to a mile and a-half, viz., 2.33 2-5. That Bon Ton, who r|an second carrying 9.5 is unlucky goes without saying. He appears to have put up a particular v attractive performance, and there is no suggestion that he did not get a clear run. The stiing of defeat would be less felt by Mr. Gerald Stead, because a daughter of Boniform effected it, as Mr. Stead owns that, sire; indeed, Specialform, who was also- placed, is by the Multiform sire. Flora McDonald’s dam, Lady Lochiel, was got by Formosan from Miss Lochiel by Lochiel, and that horse, as most racing men of long exprience know, was brilliant and fast. A week or so before the meeting Mr. Friedlander’s filly developed a splint, but fortunately it did not stop her from winning.

The Castalia case is not yet at an end from all accounts. The money due to Mr. Fred Hall, who has been held to be the breeder of that filly by the highest racing tribunal in this country, has not yet been paid over, though the Gisborne owner, who has been a free supporter of racing in both Islands and a good patron of the Avondale Jockey Club, instructed his

representative to receive it on his account. The ground for withholding payment of the money has not been disclosed. Whether the action of the Avondale Jockey Club will be construed into one tantamount to contempt of court or not remains to be seen. It was well known that while the case was still unsettled they paid the amount away to Mr. J. Hill, but that would not entitle them to be relieved from their responsibility in the matter, and those who are sticklers for the due observance of the Rules of Racing on the part of racing men associated with the sport, and who acknowledge that respect is due to the higher court to which disputes must go, will wonder why this business has not been settled. The Avondale Jockey Club has before to-day submitted itself to the same constituted authority to determine matters in dispute, and in each other instance decisions have gone in their favour. Now the boot is on the other leg this club is taking an unprecedented course in ignoring the decision of the Racing Conference, which, to our mind, is much to be regretted.

For a long time past it has been mentioned as one of the probabilities of the future that the Auckland Racing Club might acquire property behind their grandstand at Ellerslie to

afford more room for the convenience of the increasingly large crowds that assemble and are likely to assemble there as the years roll on. It is not so very long since thirty thousand was considered quite the full complement of racegoers that assembled at Randwick, and there there was ample room for the people, but the sport has gone ahead by leaps and bounds at Randwick, as at other racecourses in the vicinity of Sydney, and though the grandstand accommodation and seating accommodation has been increased very considerably indeed for the people, it is felt that there is none too much room now for the patrons of the club at the more important of the meetings held there. It will be the same at Ellerslie ere long, and though there is plenty of land within the walls which enclose the area of the A.R.C. grounds for other requirements, the acquisition of land between the railway line and the club’s nearest boundary immediately behind the stand will be a step in the right direction, and it is hoped that the club will secure it.

That racing is booming may easily be imagined when the totalisator return after each meeting shows a large increase upon its predecessor. This is what the clubs look for, as the totalisator is the main source of revenue. That racing is growing in favour under existing conditions may be assumed from the increased gate returns, but there are other returns that do not always show increases, and rarely are the fields as large as might be expected from the nomination lists at some country meetings. Some of these, it is asserted, are bogus, and are not paid for by the

owners, but are put in as a draw, and in like manner the names of horses appear as acceptors which owners do not dream of taking to meetings. Some owners, it is true, nominate as a compliment to clubs, just to help them along, but most owners do so with an ooject. If the publication of a long list of acceptors, that includes a lot of bogus ones, is done to draw people to meetings the practice should be stopped. We do not believe that it is extensively done, and we certainly hope not. To resort to such a procedure is not in the interests of the sport, which should not require any such questionable help.

Contrasted with some meetings held this year at which record acceptances .were announced and reduced fields were noticeable, the meeting at South Auckland last week stands in a favourable light. With some three exceptions the horses carded to appear at Claudelands did appear, and the fields were very good, as fields at country meetings go, though strictly speaking the South Auckland Racing Club’s meeting can no longer be fittingly or truthfully designated a country meeting. On the other hand, it is a meeting held in a most progressive district, and in one of the suburbs of a fast-growing and an important town, for Hamilton is the chief town in the Waikato and with a big future before it. Its situation and importance as a business centre, and as an outlet and a junction with so many other rich districts, and its geographical position makes it certain that the sport of racing has only to be properly controlled to make substantial progress there. Though the fields this year did not average so well as last year, the increased attendance and a plentiful supply of money compensated, and the racing was for the most part good. There were few accidents, and happenings over which there was anything serious to cavil at were also few. It would be strange if everything in connection with a race meeting did run perfectly smooth. That the stipendiary steward was alert and thought it necessary to administer cautions to two lads for alleged interferences, and deemed it a matter for more serious attention when one two-year-old in finishing bored on to another, there is evidence. In the last case the upshot was that the stewards exercised their prerogative, believing that the interference was such as might really have cost the other the race, and decided to reverse their positions. Over this there was naturally some soreness. Kitty Bellairs was held to be the offender, and feeling was more pronounced because she was favourite. The case is the first that has been decided since the new rule came in. The stewards, we presume, acted on what they saw themselves, but it is just a question as to whether they gave consideration to the fact when they fined J. Conquest £lO that he was riding a tired two-year-old, and they may not have been aware that the same two-year-old has run about at the finish of previous contests in which she has started with other riders up, which would be known to the stipendiary steward. We have no hesitation in saying that this fine can no more be justified than some other fines that have been imposed this season in other two-year-old and other races this season. There is such a thing as going too far. The circumstances have to be looked at fairly and squarely.

Advocates of weight-for-age and classic races are many, but they never think of extending their recommendations to fixed weight races between the flags and over hurdles, of which there were at one time a few in New ealand. There was for a long time a Maiden Steeplechase at welter weight-for-age, and a Welter Weight-for-age Steeplechase for all-comers at Wanganui, when hurdle races two stone over weight-for-age were run. Rangitikei at one time offered similar inducements, and some years ago there were races in Canterbury of this class. It is time some of the clubs reverted to old-time conditions for at least a few events. Such races would encourage owners to keep good horses in the country, instead of sending them away, and would be an inducement for owners to put more of their likely horses to the jumping game.