TURF TOPICS.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1307, 13 May 1915, Page 8

TURF TOPICS.

The Marlborough meeting was a huge success.

Hunting enthusiasts are jubilant at the prospects ahead.

It is quite expected that the sprinter Tatterley will make good as a hurdler.

The troops in training at Trentham have had a particularly favourable season to get through drill.

For the time of year the Ellerslie course and grounds have never looked better than at present.

The horse owners of Auckland are to be strongly represented at the Wanganui Jockey Club’s winter meeting next week with horses.

Probably more track and Dominion records, both in racing and trotting, have been registered this season than in any other.

Simon Frisco, by San Francisco from Isolt, a first-class mare of her time by Multiform, won the Warwick Farm Handicap.

B. Deeley wants a few more wins to reach C. Jenkins’ total of 89, which stands as a New Zealand record.

J. O’Shea, the lightweight horseman, attained his majority this week. He has ridden over one hundred winners.

Soult mares have been represented this year by a fair number of winners. Roue, by Gay Spark, is one of the latest.

Magdala, who won the Ashburton Cup last week, won the Winter Cup two seasons back, and is a descendant of the Miss Flat family. Charleville, who won the Winter Stakes at Sydney Tattersails meeting, is a useful son of Charlemagne 11. and Nonette’s half sister, La Gloria.

Races were run in fast time on the Ashburton course. Very ordinary performers were doing better time than they have done elsewhere. The Ashburton course is very fast. The season for game has not been a particularly pleading one for a lot of shootists who have taken out licenses. Some have not had the satisfaction of getting a bird so far. Mr. F. Armstrong, of Dannevirke, who is at present on a business visit to Wellington, received a cablegram last week from G. Price, who is in England buying blood horses, that he has puroiiased a two-year-old filly for him.

Robert Sievier, proprietor of the “Winning Post,” has been granted a trainer’s license in England.

Mr. George Bennett, the most successful horseowner in Tasmania this year, has won in stakes a little short ©f lOOOsovs.

Charlemagne 11. has his list full for 1915 in New South Wales. There are a few vacancies for Bronzino at 100 guineas.

It is reported from Hastings that Cervulus, who scored a double victory at the recent Hawke’s Bay meeting, has been sold, and will in future race in a South Island owner’s colours.

The fact that Absurd, Mr. Currie’s recent importation, is a half brother to Black Jester, whose repeated successes in England have been such as to stamp him a high-class horse should weigh with the owners of suitable matrons.

B. Deeley was riding work at Ellerslie on Saturday morning and consequently was not long indisposed, though not fit to ride at the Marlborough meeting. He has still a chance of riding a record number of winners for the Dominion.

Bercola, after an unsuccessful trip to Australia has returned to New Zealand, says an Australian writer. Bercola was a safe jumper, but he had no pace on the flat, and that is essential at Randwick, where only brush fences are in vogue. Reputation’s winnings in New Zealand for this season amount to £4690, and might easily have been more had he not been quite so heavily taxed at New Year time. Warstep, Reputation and Desert Gold have all three broken previous records for those of their respective ages.

At a committee meeting last week the South Auckland Racing Club voted the secretary, Mr. W. I. Conradi, a bonus of £3O, and decided to go into the question of fixing the salary at the annual meeting. It was agreed to meet the representatives of the A. and P. Association and confer as to certain alterations to the course. .. . <

The committee of the South Afickland Racing Club met last week and voted the secretary, Mr. W. I. Conradi, a bonus of £3O, and decided to go into the question of fixing the salary at the annual meeting. It was agreed to meet the representatives of the A. and P. Association and confer as to certain alterations to the course.

The honour of -winning the first race of the flat racing season in England went to W. Saxby. The “Sportsman” says: “There is always keen competition on the part of the-jockeys to secure the opening event of the season, it being regarded as an augury of future success.”

The Deloraine Turf Club (Tasmania) has made its first distribution of the profits from the Easter Monday meeting, and has donated to the various patriotic funds as follows:— Belgan Relief. £150; Red Cross, £100; Blue Cross, £100; Patriotic, £100; Tobacco, £5O; Deloraine Red Cross, £5O. Total, £550.

The well-known ex-New Zealand horseman J. McGregor, who has been for so long out of the saddle on account of a badly broken leg, made his re appearance at Moonee Valley recently, when he steered Plymouth in the Hurdle Race. McGregor received a rousing cheer from the crowd on riding out of the enclosure.

He was a sturdy little French gunner, and loved his horse as an artilleryman should, but he was a little disgusted when he saw the animal turn green—“as green as an apple!” as he said when he told the story. White horses are not allowed at the front, as they are too easily seen at a distance, and this is a war in which invisibility is the great thing to achieve. Several attempts have been made since the beginning of hostilities to dye white horses a serviceable shade of brown, but so far with little success. Heavy rain has generally been the chief enemy of such experiments. The other day twenty-four horses of one battery were dyed with a new stain, and to the delight of officers and men the rain seemed to have no bad effect. But one night the horses had a specially hard bit of work to do. They sweated and lathered freely, and, to the horror of the drivers, they were a bright green when tlya mortaing light fell on them. Something in the stain —the proud inventor keeps its composition secret —had changed its colour when mixed with the perspiration of the hard worked horses.