AUCKLAND RACING CLUB.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1463, 9 May 1918, Page 10

AUCKLAND RACING CLUB.

GREAT NORTHERN MEETING. NOTES ON THE HANDICAPS. Weights for the Great Northern Hurdles, Great Northern Steeplechase and Cornwall Handicaps appeared on Saturday night. Readers will be discussing them until the first payment is made on Friday of this week and thereafter. There is no meeting on the calendar which creates more interest than “the jumping one,” as some people call it. The programme is this year shortened by a day, but the two day fixture should prove very attractive and satisfying, and if there is a reasonably good response to the appeal of the handicapper there is every reason to expect the winter meeting of the A.R.C. to go down on the records as one of the best in its history. Good horses are certainly engaged in each of the events closed, and the nominations for the other handicaps are almost certain to be correspondingly good.

Horses that raced with more or less success in hurdle races and which are also engaged in the Great Northern Steeplechase are: Sleight of Hand, Gladful, Sir Fisher, Bon Reve, Waimai and St. Elmn, and it will be noticed that each of the four first-mentioned have 11b more weight in the Steeplechase than in the Hurdle Race, while Waimai has 231 b and St. Elmn 151 b more. Whether Mr. McManemin is justified in assuming that there is or may be so much difference remains to be seen. From our experience of them there is no reason why Sleight of Hand should not be a better ’chaser than he is a hurdler and both Gladful and Sir Fisher should at least be as good at one game as another; indeed, on breeding Gladful is to be preferred to Waimai who is singled out with Crib for snecia l distinction in the matter of weight. Both Sleight of Hand and Sir Fisher have more good blood than the son of Spalpeen. Bon Reve is a brokendown dual Derby winner, a patched up one that may or may not be capable of doing big things over fences, but he is certainly getting experience and might be found more useful as a ’chaser than as a hurdler.

We consider Sleight of Hand well treated in both races, more particularly in the Steeplechase, because he is a master of weight and a bold fencer, and altogether a horse of class in appearance and form. We cannot say what the mission of any of the half dozen horses named will be. Sleight of Hand won the Grand National Hurdle Race with great ease, and gave Sir Fisher, who was third, ten lengths away, more than a stone beating then, and would be preferred, fit and well, to that smart quick jumping gelding now at their allotted weights. Gladful, who failed to concede Sir Fisher a stone at Hawke’s Bay over two miles and a quarter last June,should give him 11b all right, if he is at all forward now. Despite Pursefiller’s recent showings at Hastings we would prefer her on a left-handed course, as she still runs down her fences to tne right. If she repeats this style of work as she did when at Ellerslie last, when we counted on her winning, she may leave her friends lamenting. We should have greater confidence in recommending her but for this failing. Wishful has not been given too much for a gelding that has raced so well on the flat, but in a race on the flat could he beat some of the other beginners at the weights? Could he give Colonel Soult and Fionnuala each a stone, Dingle, Kauri King and Almo each 161 b? Colonel Soult has not been schooled,

and is not to race over hurdles just yet, so we can dismiss him. Fionnuala may not have been sufficiently schooled for a race so near at hand, and perhaps Kauri King will need more time too, while we have no knowledge of Dingle having done any work over the battens. Almo has some flat racing performances which point strongly to possibilities in his case. From what we have seen of him we should doubt the ability of any horse engaged being able to beat him at the weights on the flat over this distance. We are told he has had some jumping work recently and he is a good sort for the game, and had some jumping experience in Australia. Gluetanus has been a steadily-improving sort, but Colorado reads a long way better than most of the performers, and has been well seasoned by racing over the obstacles and on the flat this year, and on that account, as well as because his form has been distinctly good, we hold him in great respect. Harbour Light is well treated through several others he has met, and if his legs stand and he has been schoo 1 ed nicely he will be more ready to run a good race than he was five weeks ago, when he was on the big side. He was then apparently doing well. Iceberg’s schooling after the Feilding meeting was of but little service to him, the Manawatu meeting coming too soon after hard races on the flat, which appeared to have stiffened him up a bit and left something wanting in his jumping. He may do better at Ellerslie. Old Styrax should be wherever Gluetanus, Tenacious and Te Onga are, taking his most recent form at Ellerslie as a guide. Otter will be more at home under the lighter scale he ran under there last, but perhaps the distance will again find him out. Fisher is too unreliable to trust again, though he ran a good race to the last hurdle last year and then fell. He is not doing any schooling, a remark that applies to Thrace, who is treated really well and deserved a jumper’s preparation, which he has not had. Cardrona, well treated at 9.7, has been taken out, and Bluestone, another on flat form well enough weighted, need not be seriously considered.

Midnight Star has possibilities for this business, and so has Golden Glade, who showed recent form. Wartime will want further experience. Paul Moore lacks class end Dancaster will need to improve a bit inore in jumping. Penniless can 'jump and go fast, but may not be ,§olid enough to see the distance out. Gold Fran and Ditto can be depended upon to give of their best, and the last-named is one of the most , finished jumpers in the race. St. *Elmn’s head defeat last year by Gladful must be remembered. Then he was mixing hurdle racing and steeplechasing. He ran at Manawatu and Hawke’s Bay, and probably no better than was expected of him. At best he is a ’ p’.odding-on sort without brilliancy. Perhaps ’chasing will be more to his liking now. The stable is represented by a trio. We would rather take Almo on trust than any of this season’s lot, and Colorado, Sleight-of-Hand and Gladful of the proved performers — Colorado for choice of the last-named trio, only because he has had a good leading up preparation, while the other pair have not raced for so long. Without going into the pros and cons, fit and well of the first five in the Great Northern Steeplechase, which are Waimai, Crib, Master Strowan, Braeburn and G‘luepot, we would prefer Crib at the weights. Their form required a good deal of working out and they have been about

rightly weighted. Master Strowan should be useful over this country. If started we would prefer Sleight-of-Hand to any of those either above him or below him, however, and Gladful next. Collector and Coalition are two that we have much consideration for. Bore is believed to be good in the south, where most is known of him, but is a thick-winded gelding. Below him —and that means the lower half of the twenty-six engaged—we pre'. er Record to any other, and perhaps with the seasoning this gelding has had and with his experience he may stay a bit better this year than he did last, when he made a creditable first appearance over country.

The Cornwall Handicap has thirtytwo engaged, and it should be noted that Fionnuala, Iceberg, Almo and Fisher, who are in the Great Northern Hurdle Race, figure in this event as well, and it is possible that their owners may elect to start them in the flat race for preference. Almo should have an excellent chance with only 51b. above the minimum. We like nothing on the same side of the handicap nearly so well. Though a little further distance might suit the Australian better, he looks useful for welter racing and is not without pace and has won races on the flat. Parisian Diamond and Gazique were fit horses a few weeks back, and would in all probability carry their weights over the distance better than Koesian. Bedford has received quite his full deserts in being placed within 21b. of a horse like Bisogne, who, if landed at the post all right, will have nothing to fear from any of those in the over 10.0 division. Depredation has been long off the scene, and has a fair weight. Cleft has recently shown good form and carries weight very well. We would prefer Housewife. under a lower scale, though she should now have a capable horseman. Mill o’ Gowrie on some of her form must be given more than an outside show, but one has to stop and think when Colonel Soult’s name is reached. Eleven months ago he carried 11.8 and ran third to Parisian Diamond (9.7) and Kauri King (9.13) in the York Welter, over a mile, and it seems extraordinary to find him set to meet Parisian Diamond on no less than 661 b. different terms over a mile and a-quarter. He meets Housewife 291 b. better than when he beat her in the York Welter, and meets Loyal Arch 231 b. better. The Colonel has been treated as a diminishing quantity since he ran second with 8,6 in the St. Andrew’s Handicap at Takapuna less than six months ago, when he had Uncle Ned (7.13) in front of him and Sir Ralph (7.9), British Arch (7.1) and Pendoon (6.10) amongst twelve others that finished behind him. He ought to beat each of the three mentioned again, as he is set to meet them on better terms. The Colonel still gallops very well on the track, but does not finish up his tasks in public like he used to do, and even though well treated a win now might come to his owners as a we’come surprise. The chances of Almo and Bisogne appeal to us most just now.