SOUTHLAND.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1415, 7 June 1917, Page 12

SOUTHLAND.

Golden King’s Cup Victory Creates Surprise Locally—Southland Horses Show Good Form at Oamaru——Floods Cause Much Inconvenience to Racing and Trotting Enthusiasts —Rorke’s Drift Recovering From Injured Leg. INVERCARGILL, June 1. To those who stayed at home the success of Golden King in the Oamaru Cup last week brought a sharp surprise. The son of Golden Knight was sore and sour when he left here, and thus he was hardly expected to trouble the judge. However, the morning prior to the North Otago Jockey Club’s fixture Hogan’s charge put up a good gallop and the rest was easy to those who knew, and this expla ns how he came to be made favourite. Well ridden by Robinson, Mr. Graham’s gelding got to the front a furlong from home, and, ridden out, defeated Marsa by a neck. It is generally agreed that Marsa made her run too late, but Golden King is one of the gamest of the game, and he might have scored in any case. The southern winner was again sore upon arriving at Wingatui for the Dunedin Jockey Club’s winter fixture, but the state of the track- should not stop him there. The second leg of the Oamaru double also fell to a Southlander, as

Mr. J. Beck’s four-year-old gelding Redshire, by Downshire —Red Peony, turned up trumps. The southern horse only won by a head, but ran a fine race to dispose of King Star and Malvolia. Redshire is trained by the ex-steeplechase horseman H. G. Coker, who has a useful team about him now near the Southland R.C.’s tracks. Earlier in the afternoon another of Coker’s horses, the improving Kauwhero, by All Red—Replete, and therefore a half brother to Clynelish, finished second in the Trial Plate to Charley. In a very large field Kauwhero was only beaten a neck.

At the time of writing, the south is almost cut off from Dunedin by flood waters, and people who have made it a practice for years past to attend at Wingatui in June are wondering if they will get there this season. As it happens, nearly all the southern horses reached the scene of operations before the water troubles arose. The Dunedin Jockey Club received exceptionally fine acceptances for the first day of this favourite meeting, in fact set up a record for any one day at headquarters. While followers of the galloping and cross-country sport were puzzling their brains to devise ways and means of getting to Dunedin, trotting folk who had been attending the Forbury Park Trotting Club’s winter gathering were on the other side of the flood trying to get home. As the railroad was out of action for several days for the carriage of horses, quite a number of equines of the light harness breed were ridden south by their owners or trainers through the country inundated. P. T. Hogan’s favourite, Rorke’s Drift, cut himself when running about in his paddock, but the local mentor reports that the Calibre gelding is making a good recovery with his injured limb.