TURF TOPICS.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1418, 28 June 1917, Page 8

TURF TOPICS.

Monoform is still located at Motit Island.

Nominations for the C.J.C. Grand National meeting on Friday. * * * *

Three • stipendiary stewards were present at the Napier Park meeting.

Half a dozen horses by Multifid, the property of Mr. A. B. Williams, are to be sold in Napier this week.

Mr. W. G. Abbott did not sell any of his trotters on Friday, though there was bidding for some of them. » :I: * *

Warstep is said to be in foal to Solferino (imp.), and the result should be something good.

The Auckland R.C. have received very encouraging nominations for the whole of their classic races.

The veteran ’chaser Golden Glow is to be sent to Hawke’s Bay for the com ng meeting.

Racing at Napier Park brought us closer to the end of the season 191617.

Quite a number of the best-known owners in the Domin’on have nominated coming two-year-olds for the Avonda'e Guineas of 1918.

El Gallo continues to go on the right way at headquarters, but has had an easy t'me since the Great Northern meeting.

Mr. J. D. Kemp has a couple of colts by Advance from Electra and Volee respectively which he has engaged in the Avondale Guineas of 1918.

L. Traill and J. Roach are still leading for the hurdle and steeplechase riders’ top place for the season now coming to a close.

When the Owners, Breeders and Trainers’ Association prevailed on Mr. A. L. Raven to act as their secretary they selected a live man.

Fine weather greeted us on Sunday after some days of bad, which culminated on Saturday in one of the heaviest downpours of the month.

It is said that some of the coming two-year-olds by Demosthenes trained in Hawke’s Bay are showing sprinting ability.

Braeburn has again proved his usefulness in heavy going. He has now won the Napier Park Steeplechase two years in succession.

Want makes the second of the gets of Penury to win over hurdles, and, like Penniless, has created a favourable impression.

Waimai has been building up again since he competed in three jumping events at the Ellerslie meeting, and should be in great buckle for later engagements.

There should be a very good field for the Avondale Stakes in September if those left in after the declaration of first forfeits gives an indication of probabilities.

There is every probability of Mr. W. G. Stead sending Shrill and Sweet Corn to Australia for the spring meetings, and if George Jones can go with them there may be others.

Thurnham, the imported son of John o’ Gaunt and Lady Disdain, is to stand in the Ellerslie district this season. He is thickening out into a nice horse.

That long Maori name Raumanuwhiri does not stand in the way' of success. Wins at each of the Gisborne and Napier Park meetings have come to the son of King’s Guest, and J. O’Shea handled him well.

The recent floods in Napier made the going at the Napier Park meeting unusually heavy, and this may have accounted for the successes of a number of the winners partial to soft tracks.

Sires represented in the list of coming two-year-olds left in the Avondale Stakes are: Marble Arch with six, Demosthenes with five, Carl Rosa, .Robert the Bruce, King Rufus and Martian two each, Poseidon, The Nut, Elysian, General Latour, Rokeby, All Blabk, Captain and Master Soult one each.

Dudu, dam of the coming two-year-old by The Nut. one of Mr. E. W. Alison jun.’s lots imported from Australia, was sold recently by auction over there for 450 guineas.

On Friday nominations go in for the three days’ winter meeting of the Wellington Racing Club. As the weights appear on the following Monday, owners can send their horses a;vay to Trentham in good time.

A southern owner wants a name for a filly by Boniform from Portland Lass, dam of Portland Bill, Portland Lady, Portland Flame and Red Light. Why not Portland Light?

F. Davis is busy with a number of coming two-year-olds in Hawke’s Bay for Mr. T-. H. Lowry, and has three colts, two of them by Kilbrohey from Success and Angle respectively, and one by Finland from War Scare.

Between fifty and sixty horses this season have won in prize money in New Zealand amounts ranging from £lOOO to nearly £3OOO, and The Toff has a lead of over £l2OO more than Desert Gold.

The cost of racing horses is increasing, and though big profits are made by some of the clubs there does not appear much prospect of stakes being largely increased :n the coming season by many of the clubs.

The Toff has won more money in New Zealand than any other three-year-old this season, and no other gelding, and few others of like age, have ever topped his score of £4OBO.

R. E. Brown has started riding over obstacles, and was on Iceberg when that gelding scored at Napier Park. He has made a very good start off as a rider over the obstacles.

The Avondale Jockey Club have received forfeits for their Stakes and Guineas events, and in each there is plenty of material for good contests. The nominations for the Guineas of 1918 are very satisfactory indeed.

J. O’Shea added further to his list last week, and has ridden 69 winners this season. He can be referred to for the second year in succession as the leading horseman in New Zealand.

If only some of the best of the three-year-olds in the Avondale Guineas find their way to the post, the event should be one of very great interest, as Simonides and quite a number of good performers of last season are still in.

Rangi Thompson, one of the few Maoris riding in these days, got Bodenham home in the Petane Hack Steeplechase at Napier Park on Friday, and that gelding pa’d a fine dividend.

It has been stated that had it been known that racing was to be curtailed, that some of the clubs which gave freely of their profits, or all their profits, to patriotic purposes would have husbanded some of their resources.

W. Sharp would have taken the horses he had at Gisborne, or at least some of them, to the Hawke’s Bay meeting, but their nominations were late owing to a delay in the wires, and also their acceptances for Napier Park.

A lot of people, and particularly hunting enthusiasts, of whom there are so many in Auckland, are regretting that the Waikato Hunt will not have a race meeting this year. A good many horses had qualified for it, and more were being got ready.

The committee appointed to interview the Auckland R.C. and Avondale J.C. committees on behalf of the owners, breeders and trainers of Auckland lost no time in getting to work. It is expected that they will offer suggestions to other provincial clubs.

Sasanof, Kilboy and Bunting, New Zealand horses that raced in Australia as well as in the Dominion, are the leading New Zea’and stake winners for the season if all their wins are counted in, and no two three-year-olds ever won so much in the two colonies before in one season.

Record, by Renown —Famous, by Natator —Fame, by The Painter from Maid of the Mist, was well named. His dam was a full-sister to Captain Webb, named a r ter the great swimmer who put up a record by being the first man to swim the English Channel.

Waimai was allotted 11.7 in the V.R.C. Grand National, a fa r impost, only 11b. less than Tim Doolan, who, however, at his best was a. decidedly useful customer. Why Tenacious received so much above the minimum weight in the V.R.C. Grand National Hurdle Race is what would puzzle most people who have seen h’m race. He is on the small side, and not by any means first-class.

The Vasco —Fabia mare Tabriquette was sold at auction on Friday, on account of Mr. Harvey Patterson, for

105 guineas to Mr. Raymond Sheath, who is leaving the mare in Frank Macmanemin’s care at Ellerslie. Sylvasco, by Vasco —Silverine, was purchased for a client by Mr. J. Cockerton for 75 guineas.

Owners and trainers held a meeting on Saturday at Ellerslie to discuss matters to bring before the delegates of the Owners, Breeders and Trainers’ Association, who had arranged to meet the committees of the Auckland R.C. and Avondale J.C. early in the week to make suggestions that might be helpful to them in arranging programmes for the year.

St. Elmn should have .done better at Napier Park than he did, but he is a stayer and a long journey suits him, also he was meeting horses he beat at Ellerslie on much different terms, and was probably not tuned up to concert pitch. He cost his supporters some money all the same, and they must have fancied him well to send him out favourite.

There were 78 entries for the Australian Steeplechase run at Caulfield, again 38 entered for the longer-estab-lished V.R.C. Steeplechase. Explanation: The Caulfield country is easier, though the distance is seven furlongs further. All the same, it is thought that bigger fields will compete at Flemington and more horses survive the longer journey. This may be sound reasoning, but there is so much good or bad luck in ’chasing that it is not safe to speculate in that way.

George Jones has five two-year-olds, the property of Mr. W. G. Stead, in hand, and had them at Napier Park during the progress of the races there last week. Two are fillies by All Black from Lilywhite and Class respectively, two geldings by Demosthenes from La Vegas and Drought, and a filly by the same sire from Kautuku. None of this lot are in the Avondale Stakes, but Mr. Stead has a colt by All Black from Noctorum still left in that race, and has entered him and all the others named for the Avondale Guineas of 1918.

Braeburn has the right, on actual public form this season, to be considered the second best steeplechaser in New Zealand. He was lucky to w n the Napier Park Steeplechase through the falling of Record, but he beat the others decisively, with the exception of Marton, who interfered with him to some extent in the struggle home. Braeburn is a genuine stayer, and his injured knee does not trouble him now. A well-bred one, he plays his part well.

On Thursday last the hurdle and steeplechase gelding Record, while winning the Napier Park Steeplechase, came down at the last fence. This was his third race over country in public. For a first season performer over hurdles and steeplechase obstacles he may be said to have done remarkably well. He won five out of eight hurdle races up to Easter, and until he fell on Thursday had not put a foot wrong either in schooling or in any races in which he had taken part.

Colonel Soult, with,. £2250 to his credit, has won more than any other horse in Auckland, and Gluepot comes next with £1990. Lady Penury comes third with £1770, and Bedford (£1460) and King Lupin (£1345) are the only others that hav.e got past the thousand mark. Five out of about fifty-five is not a good average when we come to remember what a lot of money has been won by visiting horses that have picked up a lot of their winnings at Ellerslie.

Trainers do not like the idea of being barred from owning horses themselves, and the rule proposed by the Auckland Racing Club for the consideration of the Racing Conference is causing a deal of uneasiness in some quarters, particularly in Auckland, where some owners are amongst conspicuous trainers. This is one of the matters that the association of owners, breeders and trainers want to have a say in. Professional jockeys are not permitted to own horses, and some people argue that public trainers should not either.

Czaronus is an unlucky gelding for a good jumper. He wants time at his fences apparently, and perhaps if there had been no change of horsemen after he got beaten in the Maiden Steeplechase at .Ellerslie he would have done better. He has had good winning chances each time he has run, and was almost certain to have won the A.R.C. Winter Steeplechase but for falling on top of the hill. He fell again at Napier Park on the first day. His owner might give him a meeting off, but is not likely to be deterred from persevering with so useful a horse.

“Terlinga,” in the “Australasian,” says that eight races a day are as common in New Zealand as six in Australia. That is so, and just when some of us were hoping that ihe reduction of the train service might bring with it a reduction to at least seven races per day all round, cr at some of the meetings most difficult to get to and from, came the curtailment of days of racing, and this will mean that most clubs will continue to run off eight, and, when thought necessary, start earlier and make more than half days of their allotted dates.

At the Sandown Park meeting in Victoria on June 9th, an aged br. or blk. mare called Golden Wave, by Golden Knight, by Wallace from Aura, ancestress of Desert Gold, from Ripple by Perkin Warbeck 11. from Aparima, by Apremont from Backy Sharp, won the hurdle race, two miles, beating a big field, in 3min. 51sec., and started favourite. Golden Wave was bred by Mr. J. C. N. Grigg, of Canterbury, and won races for that owner in 1912, but has been racing in Australia since that season. Like some other members of the family, she is wearing well apparently. (For further Turf Topics see Page 12.)