Turf Topics

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1459, 11 April 1918, Page 10

Turf Topics

The Wairarapa R.C. will invest £lOOO in War Bonds. ♦ ♦ * * Bisogne was the gentleman of the Avondale Handicap field. ♦ * * * Miss Deval was sore both before and after she ran for the Feilding Cup. # # * * An average of over fourteen horses per race ran at the Avondale meeting. Miss Ellice can go fast, but staying is not her forte. She wants a long time off the scene. * ♦ * * There were 115 starters in the eight races at Avondale on Saturday, and the dividends totalled over £9l. ♦ ♦ ♦ * Good dividends were the order of the day at the Avondale meeting. Three were of the double-figure order. * * * * The going was very heavy at the Waipukurau meeting, and the times must have been the slowest on record. * * # * Toatere broke down in the Feilding Cup three furlongs from home, and may prove difficult to train in future. * * * * Snow King, who was nominated for races at Ellerslie won again recently in New South Wales at a country meeting. :•? sfc * Plymouth made good as a ’chaser nt Pandwick on Saturday. Mr. W. G. Stead apparently made him for someone else V H 1 The cab’e informed us on Saturday that Kilboyne (evidently meant for Kilboy) and Good Day have returned to New Zealand. * * * * Sporting writers before saying a word by way of approval or apology for certain horses should submit their copy to the censor. ♦ ♦ * * Prince Bardolph has run some good races this season, and his form on Saturday over a mile and ahalf in the Dangar Handicap was good. sjs sje Total investments for the two days of the Auck’and Racing Club’s autumn meeting amounted to £121,540, or £17,454 in excess of last year. ❖ # * * Mr Raven is to be sympathised with over losing his Spalpeen mare Glendalough through the accident met with in the steeplechase at Avondale. & * ’ * * Total investments for the two days o' the Canterbury Jockey Club’s Easter meeting amounted to £82,620, or £15.469 in excess of last year. * * * * Total investments for the two days at the Feilding meeting came to £78,844, or £15,644 in excess of the two corresponding days of last year. * * * * F. Tutchen has only had a few rides since he came back from camp life, and won the double' at Avondale on Thrace and Golden G'low respectively. * * * * Hymeona did the double layers a good turn on Saturday, but his Ellerslie friends had deserted him and there were no hundreds away this time. ♦ a.-.- * * Linacre colts fetched 1450 and 1250 guineas respectively at the recent Sydney yearling sales. Acre and Sanacre are two of that sire’s gets in New Zealand. * * * * Amongst the purchasers at the recent yearling sales in New South Wales was Mr. R Carter, who took Agnestes and Dood from Auckland to race there. * * * * A lot of people are hoping that the grey Iceberg will be found competing in hurdle events during the next few months. Coronet left a useful customer in that gelding. * * * * Breeders in the Poverty Bay district will be p’eased to learn that the imported five-year-old English horse Polydamon, a No 5 horse, is to be located there, having been purchased on behalf of the well-known studmaster, Mr. Gaine Carrington. Mr. Hislop has reserved the right to use the horse for a few mares.

Bronzetti, who is second best to Prince Viridis amongst Australian three-year-olds, won the Rouse Handicap on Saturday over a mile and three furlongs. * * * * The Morris brothers, B. and L., were in evidence at Avondale, the one on the resurrected good dividend payer Persian Prince and the other on Hymeona. * * * * Whitehall, by Marble Arch from Zinnia, who ran fourth in the Maiden at Avondale, was one of the longestpriced ones of the starters, and may get a race in the spring. * * * The ancient Golden Glow, a’ter a lapse of three years, put up another time record for the Chevalier Steeplechase at Avondale. He will be fourteen years old next foaling. * * * # Some sports, including one or two from the Auckland province, backed every horse on one day of the Canterbury Jockey Club’s autumn meeting, and lost something over £6. ■ * * * * The sum of £40,404 was handled at the totalisators at Avondale on Saturday. This exceeded the amount put through on the first day of the last autumn meeting by £12,079. Mr. G. W. Fuller, State Secretary, N S.W., has promised a deputation the revision of the Totalisator Act to provide a higher percentage for country clubs. Why not all clubs?

Bedford, who may be forward enough to do himself justice in June, was one of the neatest geldings that stripped on Saturday. Bunyan would get them right if he got the mates. £1 invested on each of the starters in the handicap races on the second day of the Feilding meeting would have left a profit of £55. There were 73 starters and the dividends amounted to over £l2B. « * Mr. T. H. Lowry cabled Mr. J. M. Johnston, secretary of the Manawatu R C., that Desert Gold would be on hand to assist at the Manawatu meeting, all going well with her on the trip over from Sydney. * * * Mangamahoe was a well-backed disappointment in the Mt. Roskill Handicap at Avondale on Saturday, the son of Charlemagne 11. petering out in the straight,- where he was expected to come on and finish. ❖ * ❖ Gazeley, who has been for seven or eight seasons in the Gisborne, district and has taken eight first and special prizes, will stand higher up the sire’s list this season than heretofore. His gets are racing with age. H- Hi *«• 'I 4 Gazique had to be taken on trust for the extra quarter-mile in the Avondale Handicap, but Gazeley’s son played his part well and deserved his first success over that distance. Rebel and he were first and second favourites.

There are not many non-triers in the autumn, and particularly when there is nothing or so little to wait for, yet people declare that a recent winner was brought to light unexpectedly. =s * * * Some commissions were placed in Australia by New Zealanders for yearlings to be disposed of during the week at Randwick, but the total of their purchases, if any, will not be known until later? » When Hymeona showed a clean pair of heels to the opposition in the Railway Handicap on Saturday, that three-year-old had Cadrona, Mossman, Fabriquette and Lightning, four consistent performers, amongst his followers —none more consistent than himself. Arch Lassie has raced consistently, but to the fact that apprentices were in evidence in the Juvenile Handicap at Avondale may be ascribed Ruatara’s position of second. Mr. Ring’s Elysian gelding paid the second best dividend of the meeting. H : ❖ Hi Impediment has beaten Bonnie Maid more than once this season up to a mile and a-half; Bonnie Maid has beaten Estland a mile and threequarters, Estland has beaten Biplane a mile, Biplane has beaten most of the best horses in Australia, just as Desert Gold has done, over varying distances up to a mile and a-half. Now where are we?

Amongst the best dividend payers of the autumn meetings were Royal Chef, Lord Ainslie, Marqueteur, Jean Laddo and Fore at Feilding; Hymeona and Ruatara (second) at Avondale. The V.R.C. handicapper has never left any doubt as to how he regarded the Llangibby horse Lanius. By placing him on top in handicap events he evidently regarded him as better than anything racing in the States over a distance, and recent form confirms that view, though he only just beat Wallace Isinglass over the threemile course at Randwick. ♦ * * * The writer has met two punters who each had over half a hundred of the best on Estland and have not yet got over the surprise at his defeat in the G.N. St. Leger. By the way, where did the big Hawke’s Bay punter have his money? ♦ * * * The high-priced English horse Redfern gave a glimpse of his form in the Final Handicap at the A.J.C. meeting, when he got second to King’s Bounty. He was reckoned one of the best performers in England that ever left there for the colonies. * He * ♦ The Avondale Handicap has only twice been run faster than Gazique (8.7) won in. This was by Phosphorus (7.5) and Mullingar (7.6). Bleriot carried 8.9 when she won in the same time as Gazique. The first winner, Firefly (by Artillery), and Gazique, the last, are the only two bred out of the province to succeed.

Rebel has made steady improvement since the middle of the season and may yet win a good race. He begins too slow to do much good in big 'fields on small courses. The chances are that he might have done better had he been emasculated earlier than he was. # * * * Happy Valley, by Bunyan from a Natator mare, proved about as fast a maiden candidate as has been raced at Avondale for some time. He is a six-year-old gelding, and was pur. chased cheaply by Mr. Frank Loomb, his owner-trainer, whose friends were pleased to see him get a win. :|s * * * Madam Ristori must be put down as one of the big disappointments of the Avondale meeting, but she was only one of the lot completely carried off their legs by the Hymettus gelding Hymeona, whose win must have been as big a surprise to immediate connections, who are good bettors, as was Madam Ristori’s poor showing to some of those who were following Gray’s mount. * * * * New York never did race at his best right-handed. After jumping the fence at the 'five-furlong post at Randwick he landed into the course proper and his rider jumped him ovei' the white railing to get back on to the steeplechase track, after which he raced into third place, but broke down, straining the tendons in both forelegs, and may not race again. Bad luck this, as he was a good little ’chaser.

Gazique beat Housewife in the A.R.C. Easter Handicap two lengths and a-half when they finished second and third respectively in that race at a difference of 151 b. in weight, and it looked odds on that he would beat her in the Avondale Handicap when meeting her on 131 b. better terms. Her win in the interval at Ellerslie was not too highly assessed, as she again had the consistent Waiuta just behind her in the Avondale Handicap as at Ellerslie. The result has shown G'azique’s second to Parisian Diamond and his win over a shorter course at Ellerslie were underestimated. Some solid backers went for Rebel in preference, however, at the death-knock. * * * S: Some New Zealanders who visited Australia and were following the fortunes of Desert Gold have expressed their opinions that Wedge should not have beaten her in the Futurity Stakes and that Wallace Isinglass had a bit of luck to beat her over two miles. According to some accounts Wedge came from behind and was really unlucky in the race he won. Wallace Isinglass, according to cable, was at one stage twenty lengths behind the New Zealand mare in the two mile race, so she must have run herself out. We have seen no account of how the different stages of the race were run, but in her case the pace was evidently not well regulated, being too fast to last.