TURF TOPICS.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1346, 10 February 1916, Page 12

TURF TOPICS.

T. Lloyd, the Marton trainer, contradicts the report that he goes to Awapuni to train for a private owner. Cruciform had ten wins out of fourteen starts at three years’ old. So far Desert Gold has nine. The six double winners at the Egmont meeting were Bimeter, Florist, Merry Roe, Zetes, Hushmen and Astor. A. Julian has been booked up to ride the veteran Flingot in the hurdle races at Wanganui. Joe Carter, an old-time Australian jockey, celebrated his 83rd birthday last month. Number 1 at Takapuna counts fo. something if the right horses have the luck to be drawn for it. Margarita, by Achilles, is still assessed as one of the best 14.2 galloways in New South WAles.

Traquette has top weight in the Newmarket Handicap, 9.12; Three and Cherubini 7.13 each, and Maharajah 7.7. Reputation is fancied for the Australian Cup in some quarters. Fancy the N.Z.-bred Carlita having to concede him 111 b. The New Zealand-bred Carlita holds the Australasian record of 3niin. 18 3-ssec. for eleven furlongs in Australia. The classic races at the Egmont summer meeting both fell to. Mr. G. D. Greenwood’s Bimeter, with the same owner’s Emperador second in each race. It was generally expected in Canter bury that Emperador mig'.it not start for the Egmont Cup, as he has only been trained for shorter races than a mile of late. Double winners were in evidence at the Egmont meeting. Florist, Bimeter, Zetes, Merry Roe and Hushmen repeated their form of the first day. Sartolena, by Sarto from Ventalera, was a recent winner in Tasmania, where, at the Amateur Jockey Club’s meeting the chief event was secured by her.

Favourites and second favourites scored well on the oponing day of the Takapuna meeting, but backers got a bit wider of the mark on the second day.

Mullingar continues to bleed at intervals, and did so the day before he ran at Takapuna last week, when he finished last. It is a great pity that he gets so troubled. Three runners from one family have rarely proved so consistent as Croesus, Desert Gold and Egypt, for the same number of starts. The records show this.

If a section of racegoers could back one-quarter as many winners as they see alleged non-triers, what fortunes would be won on the turf, says an exchange.

Mr. W. S. Hirst, huntsman to the Woodlands Hunt, Pahiatua, has been appointed to act in the same position to the Pakuranga Hunt Club from twelve applicants. A bonus of 75sovs. has been granted to Mr. A. Selby, who has been huntsman for 21 years, and in addition a life pension of £65 a year.

Maori Mat has been gelded and is back at work again in Australia, since he ran in November last.

Sultan, who carried 9.2 to victory in the Midsummer Handicap at Riccarton in ISS9, holds the weight-carry-ing record for that event. The best time recorded for the race is 2min. 34 3-ssec., registered when Mumura won.

Carlita, the New Zealand-bred filly, has 9.8 in the Australian Cup, and Reputation 8.11, only 41b. more than the three-year-old Patrobas. Sea Pink has 8.3, and may be hard to beat. Cherubini has 8.1, Blackall 7.9, Bon Ton 7.3, and The Pole 6.7.

Warstep won the Dunedin Cup carrying 9.13, but no mare has yet won a cup race in New Zealand of any importance at all weighted at 10.4, at which weight Mr. George Morse assessed Mr. Fred. Hall’s Merry Roe for the Taranaki Cup of 1916.

The resignation of Mr. W. I. Conradi, secretary to the South Auckland Racing Club, on the eve of an important meeting of that club, has taken many people by surprise. Mr. R. J. Gwynne, a former secretary, has filled the breach, it is understood, ntil a successor is appointed.

Colonel Garratt, on behalf of the stewards of the National Hunt Committee in England, brought forward the following alterations of rules, and they were carried unanimously: — Rule 5, sec. 2: (h) To modify or to suspend in cases of emergency or expediency any rule or regulation, for such period or periods as they shall think fit, without giving previous notice. Rule 174 —Note. —This shall not prevent the stewards of the Natitonal Hunt Committee from exercising the special powers which they have under Rule 5 for the alteration or suspension of rules and regulations in cases of emergency. —“Racing Calender.”

Last year Mr. G. D. Greenwood captured the Egmont Stakes and Hawera Stakes with Emperador, and this year the same two races with Bimeter, Emperador being second each time. Bimeter had not previously won over a mile course until he won the lastnamed event, and he beat his stable mate a neck.

When E. J. Rae decided to take Merry Roe to Egmont many local racegoers shook their heads and doubted the wisdom of such a course, not realising that class was not strongly in evidence there. The Soult mare by winning the double —the brace of best handicap races on Hie programme —surprised Auckland racegoers, more probably than she did those at the scene of action. She ran seventh in the sprint race at Takapuna on the first day, and sprinting is not her forte, as she rarely gets out well now in any of her races.

The Rosebery Handicap in New South Wales was won recently by Decorate, carrying 10.2. It was run in two divisions and a final. The first he won in 1.43 by half a length, and the decider by half a head in 1.44. Decorate has won quite a number of races since he left Auckland, and is assessed high in the weights. The newly-appointed Melbourne handicappers, Mr. P. Bauld (Mentone) and Mr. A. Cox (Sandown Park and Aspendale) have undertaken not to bet at any race meeting. They will therefore have to restrict any speculative leanings to an occasional ticket in “Tatt.’s,” unless they indulge in a mining flutter, which to the average individual is even more costly than trying to beat the “books.”

At all South Australian fixtures totalisator speculation is decreasing. The turnover at the one-day Burra meeting was only £1331 155., as against £1430 10s. last year, and

£2643 ss. in 1914. The winners at the recent meeting included the Strathjoy gelding Strathdoon, who raced in Sydney a few seasons ago. and is now rising ten.

Warstep has not yet been turned out, but it is any odds that she has quitted the post for the paddock all the same.

Hushmen, who won twice at Egmont, also won a race at Stratford. He is by Husbandman, and was bred by Mr. Davidson, of Hawera.

Gasworks won the Australian Cup carrying 8.5, a record achievement for a three-year-old filly for that race. This was in 1869. Carlita, with 9.8, has been asked an even stiffer proposition this year, though she is four years old. What weight would the handicapper have given “the best ever,” the eighteen carat unalloyed Desert Gold had she been entered from Maoriland?

A lot of punters are bewailing the fact that Bimeter and Emperador did not start in the handicap races at Egmont. Hard luck for them, but then the fate of the classic races would have been sealed. In those races Bimeter and Emperador ran first and second each day, and nothing of any class came out to oppose them.

The Randwick trainer P. Nolan recently met with a nasty accident at Randwick. He was following a Fortunatus colt out of the scraping yard, when it lashed out with both hind feet. One foot caught him on the outside of the left thigh and cut him so severely that it was necessary to have the wound stitched. Fortunately the other foot of the horse slid up under Mr. Nolan’s right arm, and beyond bruising him slightly the effect was not serious. Mr. Nolan was on the track the next morning on sticks watching his horses work.