THE CLUBMAN

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1453, 28 February 1918, Page 8

THE CLUBMAN

The that Desert Gold was wearing hock boots when she . galloped four furlongs at Flemington on Wednesday of last week, putting up a track record for that distance for this season, does not necessarily mean that she has taken to cutting her hocks while going fast. She had a tendency to do so when working at Woodville about eighteen months ago, and boots were then used on her. The daughter of All Black has been electrifying the track watchers by her deeds on the training grounds where she has appeared, but she has been shod very lightly—indeed, the Sydney “Referee” stated that while at Randwick she wore the very lightest of shoes, mere rims. This would be quite sufficient to account for some of the brilliant track displays of a brilliant mare. A number of New Zealand trainers have long adopted the plan of R. J. Mason in preparing their horses for important events by seeing that they are asked to carry as little weight as is necessary on their fee:

The followers of Desert Gold for the Futurity Stakes at Caulfield on Saturday would hardly be laying their money out at such a short price as were the backers of Biplane, who is often talked of as her superior, on the same day, when that colt contested the Wanganui Guineas. She may, of course, have established herself as big a favourite amongst Australian racegoers as she is amongst New Zealanders, but she had a fair field numerically to meet and was penalised 151 b., while some of those opposed to her were also penalised;, others had no penalties and some claimed allowances. As a lot of New Zealand money was on her when she won the St. George’s Stakes —and in that race her starting price was under events, though a small syndicate of backers claim to have got a better price—it can be supposed that she would carry a deal of support from the same quarter, and that what was won on her first essay would be lost again, and possibly more. The Futurity Stakes was the most valuable of her engagements, and in that race there would probably be more betting. We have heard of investors putting on their fifties and hundreds, and of one punter having had as much as a cool thousand on the mare when she won the St. George’s Stakes. This may not be anything new in Australia —indeed, we know that it is not, though there are not so many big betting men amongst the owners and punters as there were in the early days, when there was so much less racing in Victoria. If the New Zealand punters who have been following the mare had only invested their money freely all over New Zealand

on Saturday on Estland with the starting- price merchants, they might have made a big dent in the lines of those accommodating men, but of course they only discovered that Estland was in superior form when' it was too late. This was after the race had been run. Many shrewd people were wiser then, if not better off.

Croesus was produced very fit at Wanganui, and it wou’d have taken the best in the Dominion to have beaten him over half a mile or five furlongs, but beyond that he cannot get properly, and the same can be said of Lingerie. Both can win at six furlongs and beat their class, but when it comes to a meeting of the cracks on w.f.a. terms over a fairer racing distance neither are just top class. The fact that Croesus beat Desert Gold over four furlongs on w.f.a. terms caused the punters to make him favourite on Thursday for the Flying Handicap at Wanganui. He ran a good race, but was fairly and squarely settled nearly a furlong from home, and at the difference in weights was no match a f ter that for Koesian, who is staying a bit better of late, and just failed to head him the second day, when Croesus had a 131 b. pull in the weights. Biplane stood out head and shoulders over the sprinters, and would be equal to beating anything that saddled up at the meeting on Thursday, from one furlong to as far as such races are

run. He .is in a class of his own so far as they are concerned, beyond all doubt. The way he settled Hymestra and Finmark on weight-for-age terms in the Jackson Stakes is conclusive evidence of this. Finmark was probably never so well, and those who have proclaimed him a good colt can have no excuse to offer for him. Hymestra’s interrupted preparation may have taken just a little of his early dash from him, but the trio got away well together, the juvenile, Finmark, being just a little the smartest off the mark in the race referred to. Biplane won with something to spare by over two and a-half lengths from Hymestra, who headed Finmark before they turned into the straight and tried to get to Biplane, but easing a little when pressure was found useless, this allowed Finmark to get within half a length of him. As Biplane Won in Imin. 13 l-ssec. —which is a record for the race for three-year-olds—and as the other pair were timed to break lmin. 14sec., it can be judged that there was no loitering at any stage of the event.

The Wanganui Guineas was this year run in the autumn for the first time. This . was in consequence of the spring meeting having been abandoned to meet with the racing restrictions imposed by the National Government. The course is usually faster in the autumn than in the early spring, and five months in the ages of three-year-olds makes a difference. Reputation, who was ten weeks short of three years old when he won in 1914, covered the mile and some eighteen feet in lmin. 42sec., which stood as a record, and Danube’s time previousy was lmin. 42 l-ssec. Since Reputation won —indeed, since Bjorneborg won in 1916 —the course, on which widening and grading improvements were begun along the back stretch for several furlongs, has been attended to all over, and is now in excellent condition. It would not surprise those who think over such matters to learn that Estland, now a well-seasoned colt, covered the distance in lmin. 41 2-ssec. on Saturday last, thus establishing a fresh time record for the race. For this Biplane was responsible. He had put up a three-year-old record over the six furlongs, of lmin. 13 l-ssec., against the two-year-old record of Ermengarde of lmin. 13sec., and did it in apparently comfortable style, on the Thursday, and was quite capable of repeating the performance on Saturday—indeed, must have run the first six furlongs

of the mile quite as fast, or even faster. He actually covered the first half-mile in 47 3-ssec., and with a good clear lead looked an unbeatable proposition two furlongs from home, with Acre dropping back and Estland being knicked along, several lengths behind. Just about the distance, however, the Comedy King colt commenced to choke up and roll. Compounding suddenly, he had run himself right out. to the dismay of his supporters, just as Hymestra did in the Jackson Stakes the previous autumn, when Bimeter gathered him up in the straight. Estland was merely running on under pressure, and when he reached Biplane there was not the semblance of a fight for even a stride in the southern colt, who was distinctly used up and- beaten decisively by a fitter but not quite so brilliant a colt as himself, but a good one all the same.

Estland is an easy-going customer that bids fair to keep on winning over middle-distance courses up to two miles. Biplane needs a lot of

work. Before he ran on Thursday, Mason told some of his intimates that it would take him some time to get the colt back to form. Neither he nor Mr. Greenwood were at all sanguine about him beating Estland on Saturday, though the intrepid punters —and there are some on the west coast of the North Island —thought it was picking up money after the dash he had shown in the Jackson Stakes, to follow him. up. They planked their money down solidly, though the pool on this three-horse event only reached to about half the amount that found its way into the totalisator-house on hack and other events during the afternoon. Racing is full of surprises for the average racegoer, and provides many shocks for the astute as well as for the over-confident investors. Saturday’s race furnished such a case.

Estland is by Bobrikoff’s sire, Finland, from Warscare, by Martian from Gossip (dam of Bobrikoff), by Wallace from Caroline, by Carlyon from Tuberose, by Grand Flaneur, from Rosedale by Tynedale, and is a really good, level sort. Finland was a good horse himself, and Martian, Wallace, Carlyon and Grand Flaneur are names of performers of note whose deeds in Australia we can recall. They were all good stayers, while Tyne-

dale, whose name appears in the sixth remove, was a good performer over long distances and got some good horses in England, including one who raced with great distinction, in Border Minstrel, who won ten races, two at two years and eight in succession at three years old. Estland, while not quite so fast in beginning, perhaps, as a few of the three-year-olds we have, has really not been trained for short courses this season, and, like Biplane, has raced over middle distances. He will come north for the N.Z. St. Leger at Easter time, and Biplane will figure at the C.J.C. autumn meeting, and we may have ’ to wait for the Awapuni Cup to find the pair measuring strides again. Should they do so, and should Desert Gold be back on the scene, there will be something doing.

In the turf gossip of an English correspondent of a contemporary appeared the statement that “in the last fifteen years only three-year-olds have won the Cosarewich.” The omis-

sion of the word “three” before three-year-olds caused a wrong construction to be placed on the paragraph altogether. As a matter of history threeryear-olds have been winning this long-distance event less frequently in more recent years than was their wont, and the race has been established over 78 years. Though a good many more were winners at three years during the first 38 years than have won since, the best weightcarrying achievements have been those put up by Robert the Devil, who won with 8.6 in 1880, and by St. Gatien in 1884, with 8.10, two remarkable performances for three-year-olds, superior in merit to that of the great Sheen, who at five years old won with 9.2, while that of Willonyx in 1911, at four years old, carrying 9.5, is more remarkable still. The Cesarewitch is regarded as one of the hardest races in England to win, and stands there as one of the leading back-end events of the season. As in the Australian Cup of the same distance, the form of the bulk of the runners is invariably exposed earlier in the season, and horses are weighted accordingly. Some of the crack three-year-olds that have competed in the Australian Cup have been great performers.