TURF TOPICS

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1420, 12 July 1917, Page 8

TURF TOPICS

Comedy ...King is standing at a fee of 100 guineas.

La Penna, by King Rufus, won the Rosehill Handicap last month.

Troublesome is having an enforced spell.

Racing conditions in England have been defin.tely 'fixed, and the outlook is now distinctly good.

R. Buddicomb, who won on Mount Victoria at Hawke’s Bay, is a firstseason horseman over sticks.

Gladful was not nominated for the New Zealand Grand National Hurdle Handicap.

The Masterton R.C. will have a two days’ meeting in October and no meeting in the autumn.

El Gallo is sure to be top weight in the N.Z. Grand National Steeplechase. The maximum is 12.7.

Waimai and Luperino represent Auckland at the V.R.C. winter meeting.

Bezant, a New Zealand-bred one, started favourite for the juvenile race won by Immortelle at Rosehill.

Biplane has quite got over his accident, and is doing good work at Randwick.

Jullundur, winner of the V.R.C. Grand National, broke down last month.

Calton, a son of Marble Arch, won the chief race at Bacchus Marsh (Vic.) last, month.

The classic races of the various clubs in New Zealand have filled as well this season as ever they did.

The imported sire Absurd, who has left a dozen of his owner’s mares in foal, is being freely patronised by outside breeders.

The ancient New Zealand-bred Wasseca was placed within 71b. of Waimai in the weights for the V.R.C. Grand National.

Which was the club that sought to get behnd the decision of the Auckland District Racing Committee? A lot of owners are asking.

Amberdown, winner of the Albion Cup in Queensland, is by the imported horse Downshire, and represents topclass form.

Tim Doolan, who is reported to have done little work at Caulfield, jumped six fences in faultless style on the morning of June 24.

When Immortelle won at Rosehill for Mr. Greenwood, the colt went out at , a forlorn price, and one writer declares was totally unbacked. The machine price, though good, was less than half what the pencillers continued offering to the barrier rise.

The New Zealand Grand National meeting is to be limited this year to two days. Stakes have been increased by £530.

The general entries for the V.R.C. Grand Nat onal meeting, now in progress were seventy in excess of last year.

Achilles has had some half-dozen winning representatives in Australia this season, and their earnings amount to about £l3OO in stake money.

Tenacious accompanied Luperino and Waimai on their trip across the Tasman Sea, from a port not named to a port not named.

After winning the Brisbane Cup with Bunting, Mr. E. J. Watt gave £250 to the Red Cross Fund out of the stake.

Jackman’s dam was got by a horse called Scotch Mist, a son of Hailstorm, a Wanganui Cup winner, brother to Resolution, twice winner of that race.

A coming two-year-old by Hallowmas from Blue Ribbon (the halfsister to Paritutu), trained in the Wairarapa by Garrett, is well spoken of.

Mr. W. E. Bidwill, who recently sent away a number of horses which were sold in Australia, will not have many representatives this season.

Corisol, winner of the Rous Memorial Stakes in England, was got by Solferino, the Burnside (Oamaru) sire, before he was purchased for this country.

Dr. Ring, who was called to attend Hallowmas, the Bushy Park (Wanganui) sire, a short while back, has received word that the son of Martagon is all right and doing well.

White Star’s brother, Sunstar, has made a good start at the stud in England, and White Star’s progeny, now coming two years old, in Victoria are expected to race well.

If the Auckland Racing Club does not hold a spring meeting there will be no Welcome Stakes at Ellerslie this year, though nominations were taken for the race last month.

Mr. Wilkie, who bred Captain Glossop, has been in Auckland since the Great Northern meeting, and spent a few weeks at the Helensville Springs before leaving this week to have a look at the Wellington meeting.

Dr. Ring’s services have been accepted by the N.Z. Government, and this now well-known young vet. will leave Auckland in a fortnight to take up his duties elsewhere.

Fisher, who some Auckland writers thought would have won the Great Northern Hurdle Handicap had he not fallen at the last hurdle, was not sent to Wellington because the handicapper was much of the same opinion, and showed this by putting a bit more weight on than his owner considered justified.

While King Chiara was racing at Hawke’s Bay his owner, Mr. Raynes, was taking the baths at Helensville, and he allowed the son of Soult to go out unbacked on his account in the race he won there.

J. Coyle, one of the trainers who was drawn in the recent ballot, failed to pass the medical test when he volunteered early after the war started. He is a brother to the wellknown handicapper.

Form Up (8.3), Simonides (7.9) and Silver Tongue (7.0) are engaged in the Epsom Handicap, run at the A.J.C. spring meeting. Their names and we'ghts were not cabled amongst the other New Zealanders engaged.

The Wellington R.C. winter meeting is quite a representative one. Horses from all parts were nominated and sufficient were paid up for to use up all the accommodation on and handy to the Trentham course.

Though Carbine was first favourite for the Melbourne Cup which he won, carrying 10.5, from the time the weights appeared, nevertheless the largest field that ever competed lined up on that occasion. There were 39 runners.

If some owners and trainers could have their way in New Zealand some of the clubs which have intimated that they will not hold spring meetings would be compelled to have at least one day, and to carry out contracts entered into for classic events. That is the trend of their talk. The clubs take the view of what is likely to pay best.

Waimai, under favourable circumstances, may have reached Melbourne on Monday or Tuesday last, and could at best only have worked twice between leaving the Dominion and reaching his destination, where he is due to race on Saturday in the V.R.C. Steeplechase.

A lot of people who come to Auckland in the summer season are delighted with the climate, and form a fine impression of the sunny North, but for a considerable time past the weather in the Auckland province has been very displeasing to a number of visitors who have come North to winter.

Tim Doolan (11.9), Waimai (11.7) and Wasseca (11.0) are New Zealand horses engaged at the V.R.C. Grand National meeting in steeplechase events. Tim Doolan it is thought will hardly be ready, and has been scratched for the big steeplechase. Wasseca is getting on in years, but is the best-bred one of the trio, and Waimai was late getting to the scene, and the distance, under the circumstances, may likely find him out in the big race on Saturday; indeed, we shall not be surprised if he does not compete, as he and his companions must have had one of the very worst trips ever experienced across the Tasman Sea.

Recruiting officers made urgent appeals at the Albion race meeting in Queensland for volunteers, and also tried to sell war bond certificates to tote investors. Up to the last only one of £1 was sold, and then the proprietors of the course took one of £lOO at a cost of £B7 10s. « * * • *

The weights for the Grand National Hurdles in Victoria ranged from 11.13 on .Tullunder to 9.0 on the bottomweight division. In the Grand National Steeplechase, from 12.2 on Bocligal down to 9.0 on the bottom weights. In Victoria they go 71b. below the weights we adopt in New Zealand in steeplechases.

Tattersall’s Club, which is a flourishing institution in Sydney, to which bett ng members, including a good many pencillers, belong, has a few race meetings during the year at Randwick, and will be the first to use the Julius totalisator, if it is ready at their coming meet’ng. This club has given £10,500 to patriotic funds and has £lO,OOO invested in war loans.

Some of the best-known trailers in the North Island whose names appear in the list of those drawn in the ballot are J. Coyle, J. Mitchell, C. Chaafe. T. Wilson. W. Coffey and T. Higgins. These and the jockeys J. F. Brady, A. G'oddard, L. Nodder, and W. H. Bush (who recently got hurt), and a few more who, however, are not licensed men and have no claim to prominence in the profession, are all that have been called out of nearly 9000 names.

The Owners, Breeders and Trainers’ Association in Auckland have appointed J. Williamson to proceed to Wellington to represent the interests of trainers in an endeavour to get members of the Racing Conference to throw out the remit tabled by the Auckland Racing Club which would prevent trainers who are training other than their own horses from holding licenses.

“The average racegoer will neither fight nor pay,” declared the secretary of the Queensland Recruiting Committee, who tried to get financial assistance from racegoers by selling war saving certificates at the Albion (Brisbane) meeting in June. Returned wounded soldiers appealed on behalf of the committee, who completely failed to do business. They intend to try again, hoping that the racing public there will think better ■of their attitude.

Though one hears very little of what is being done in the hunting fields in New Zealand nowadays, there are nevertheless nearly as many clubs amongst the actives as before the war. Fewer men are taking part at the meets, and none that are eligible for the war, from all accounts. Quite a large number of ladies take the field, and some have done the qualifying of horses for meetings that were looked for, but which are not figuring amongst the fixtures.

Thrice is being specially prepared by James Scobie for the A.J.C. and V.R.C. Derbies.

It transpires that Bunting broke down after winning the Brisbane Cup, and the son of All Black is in consequence being treated to a spell.

Gold Wave, who recently won a hurdle race at Sandown, Victoria, and followed up her success by accounting for another hurdle race at Williamstown a week later, is a Grand National candidate. She is a New Zealand-bred mare by Golden Knight (a half brother to the Melbourne Cup winner Auraria) from Ripple, the dam of Gunboat.

Though Mr. E. J. Watt is now often referred to as “the Australian owner,” and intends having his main £tud over there after the war, he is still nominating his young horses for New Zealand classic races, and we can at least expect that when he has anything good, and the dates suit, he will send them over this way to try and pick up a valuable stake.

The leading stake winners at Randwick this season, according to the compilation in the Sydney “Referee,” are; The Fortune Hunter £6115, Thrice £5821, Quinologist (imp.) £4949, Kilboy £4847, Wedding Day £3309, Mauna £2772, Creencap (imp.) £2389, Thana £2074, Panacre £2003, Carlita £1975, Sasanof £1919, Polycrates (imp.) £lBO5, Baltic Sea £1666, iQuarale £l5ll, and below come eleven others that have won over £lOOO there, thirty that have won between £5OO and £lOOO, and over thirty that have won amounts ranging below down to £193. Amongst place earners, non-winners, Cetigne £950, Modesto £B5O, Colbert £BlO and Harriet Graham £BOO take leading places. Bee won £3OO and Silent Way £l6O. Some of the fine totals of the winners were made up with large amounts in second moneys, Polycrates securing over £llOO of his total in that way.

The good-looking chestnut yearling colt by Bronzino from Golden Slipper is to race as Golden Bronze, says a Sydney writer. He is being trained by D. Allsop, and will belie his appearance if, as a racehorse, he fails to reflect credit on his sire, who is the highest-priced stallion ever brought to Australia, and we might add that his dam was the highestpriced three-year-old filly that ever left these shores.

At Warwick Farm last month a mistake in connection with the totalisator dividends on the hurdle race cost the club about £175, says the “Referee.” The amount invested on the race was £524 10s. The error is said to have occurred through not including the leger tickets issued on the two horses when calculating the dividends. One thing certain is that through profit on machine returns the club will be some time making up its loss.

A member, one of some 250 of the Auckland Racing Club, last week stated to a representative of this paper that he was surprised that that

body had decided on cutting out their spring meeting. He is one who does not go outside the Auckland meetings for his racing, and only occasionally to meetings away from Ellerslie. He became a member at a time when the clubs needed members, and said he enjoyed seeing the young horses that would be competing throughout each season. Though not racing horses himself, he stated that he would have been a strong objector, had he been an owner, to the cutting out of the spring programme, and he was sure there were a lot of those who, like himself, were merely members, but felt that they were being treated with scant consideration in not being consulted by the committee over such an important matter.

Alex. Gordon, the well-known hurdle and cross-country rider, who was born in Wanganui and spent all his life there, died last week after a short illness. He first became prominent as a rider at agricultural shows, and won many prizes as a boy, and later on as an amateur on the flat and over fences made his mark, finally joining the ranks of professionals. On more than one previous occasion he suffered from heart trouble. His father, the,

late Mr. Charles Gordon, had the old Red Lion, and afterwards the commercial stables in Wanganui, and was interested in a line of mail and passenger coaches in the Auckland province for some years, and his brother, Charles, carried on the Red Lion stables up to a comparatively recent date, and has now the Carbine stables in Wanganui, and trains a few horses. Alex, was a general favourite, and will be much missed by many friends.