TURF TOPICS.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1374, 24 August 1916, Page 22

TURF TOPICS.

Castashore, a one-time Aucklander who has been dead some time, had another winning representative .n Rolling Tide at Riccarton last week Some ot his gets could trot as well as jump, and some of the mares got by him have produced winners of trotting and other races.

Art was one of the double winners last week, for in addition to winning the Grand National Hurdle Race he also won the Jumpers’ Flat Race on the opening day. The term m both these races worked out well, Art pre vailing on each occasion, only getting up S the last few strides to Master Regel In the Jumpers’ Flat Race he got through on the rails, and in the Fong distance hurdle race came on the outside of the Aucklander, who made the running each time.

The successes of horses on the second and third days of the N.Z. Grand National meeting that had fallen earlier in races in which they were engaged has to be recorded. Queens Post fell ill the Grand National Steeplechase and won _the Beanfort Steeplechase. Captain Macky fell in the big race also and won the Lincoln Steeplechase, the next bes country event on the card. Critic tell in theEn field Steeplechase and won the Aylesbury Steeplechase.*

Y more useful type of horse was not seed out racing over hurdles at the Grand National meeting than i I F Armstrong’s Sleigh t-of-Hand, y Mystification from a Wonderland mare. He was the only horse at the meeting to win two jumping events, and will win more. His owner oent Mm tor the V.R.C. Maiden and Grand National hurdle races, but in consequence of his trainer s death and the death of Ms stable mate Morning, who accompanied him, he was brought back to New Zealand. & * *

It was sheer bad luck for McFlynn, the rider of Kooya, to get left with JbM mare in the Grand Natrona Hurdle Race. There were several false starts, in which Pursefiller took a hand. Kooya, who has frequently been a source of trouble, was round when the flag was dropped and lost about 100 yards. The best she could do was to run through and join her field and jump one of the on terms with Marconi, who had three or four only behind him, however, and then she died away or was eased up, otherwise she must have run a good race on the form she had displayed on the opening day.

.. * * * When Caraid Dileas was leading and going easily in front in the Woolston Plate on Thursday at Riccarton it looked any odds on, and it certain y appeared to many that the son of Stepniak had actually won without much assistance from his rider, but Pyjama, whose colours were much the same, got in a surprise run, and it was a close thing, his number being hoisted on the board. There was a slight demonstration outside but whether the crowd there thought the judge or the rider, or both, had made a mistake could ’not be interpreted exactly', but each in turn were given some attention. Pyjama, by the way, is a son of Bloomer.

For several years there was hardly a steeplechase meeting in the Dominion that some racehorse did not end its career through injuries received in running or training therefor. There were a number of fatal accidents last season, and the Grand National meeting resulted in cue well-known performer breaking its neck. This was Queen’s Post, who was a good fencer, but since being relegated to steeplechasing had met with bad luck on occasions through the interference of other horses. While her loss to Messrs. Hunt Bros., her owners, is to be regretted, it is pleasing that she was successful in winning the Beaufort Steeplechase, of 35050v5., last week, as some compensation for her owners for putting her to that particular line of business.

— Mr Alex. Cameron, an- old Wanga-nui-Rangitikei settler, who was largely identified with racing in the sixties / and seventies at the periodical meetings held on the west coast of the North Island, died at Feildmg recently, and his demise brings up memories of what early day racing was like. The late Mr. Cameron vas T first-class horseman of his day over fences, and he also trained a number of horses in his time. Lord Byon and Dick Turpin, respectively chaser an hurdle horse, were two of the first note that he rode at meetings m the Wanganui and Rangitikei districts,

and he trained a good Taranaki-bred horse or two many years afterwards, St. Clair, by Dead Shot from Minnie (by Traducer), being one while the one-eyed Despised, who won races cn the west coast of the North Island and afterwards at Ellerslie and Auckland courses, was also an out-and-out good one. Alex, Tom and John Cameron, all good horsemen, are sons.

After Waimai beat eight of the nine horses that finished in the Grand National, as well as Naupata, who jumped the country, missing the last fence only when a long way last, a. Southern sportsman asked the writer what sort of horse El Gallo was, to be capable of beating Waimai as he did in the Great Northern Steeplechase. The Waimai at Riccarton and the Waimai at Ellerslie were different horses in point of fitness. El Gallo would have had a different contract on account of his very pronounced win over the Waikato gelding, and would have required to do some schooling over the big ones to fit him. The difference in the courses would count, but there is every reason to believe that a horse like El Gallo would adapt himself to the situation. Were the sons of Spalpeen to again meet at Ellerslie under the weights they carried before, the result would no doubt be the same if El Gallo were to do a special preparation.

At the Wellington meeting a gelding called Manaia Park competed in one of the minor steeplechases, -and though he jumped every fence safely and finished the course he was hundreds of yards last, and when he finished there was a deal of derision foi horse and rider. His owner, Mr C. F. Vallance, a good sportsman, felt a little bit pricked at the demonstration and remarked to the writer that when the son of Sylvia Park had had a bit more experience racegoers might have to change their tone. Manaia Park gave evidence of a bit of improvement in the month interval, and jumped fast and cleverly over the hurdles at Riccarton in the Spreydon Hurdle Race, gaining third place behind Sleight-of-Hand and Banian, and, somewhat unexpectedly perhaps, just beat his stable companion Amber and White, with whom he was coupled on the machine, and though the class behind him was not good he is the right sort to persevere with. * * * *