THE CLUBMAN

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1465, 23 May 1918, Page 8

THE CLUBMAN

. Carbine’s head is to find a place in the Auckland Museum shortly. The skin of that great horse was also sent by the Duke of Portland for the same purpose, but could not be treated so as to preserve it. The skeleton of the son of Musket and Mersey, it will be remembered, was presented to the Melbourne Museum, which is the nearest to the scene of his greatest triumph in the Melbourne Cup. He ran first at Riccarton, the only New Zealand course on which he was raced. There he won five races on end at two years old before being taken to Australia by his owner, the late Mr. Dan. O’Brien, for three-year-old engagements. There he was sold to the late Mr. Donald Wallace for 3000 guineas, and he won in stakes altogether the sum of £29,476, won 33 races, ran six seconds, three thirds and one unplaced. In February, 1895, he was sold, then being nine years and five months old by auction by Messrs. Yuille and Co. to a representative of the Duke of Portland for 13,000 guineas, and did stud duty at Welbeck Abbey up to the time of his death, which took place in June, 1914. Carbine’s Melbourne Cup performance stands as a world’s record from an all-round point of view still. No such field ever competed in a two-mile handicap. There were 39 runners. He was five years old, carried 10.5, was favourite from the time the weights appeared, at a very short price to start with, five to one being the best obtainable during the months of August, September and October, and he touched four to one on the day, despite the big field. He won by three-parts of a length, with Highborn (6.8) and Correze (7.3) in the places. Bob Ramage, who rode him on that memorable occasion, is still alive, and recently rode a grandson by Pistol in two victories. As Carbine was bred in Auckland in 1885 by the New Zealand Stud and Pedigree Stock Company, though he never raced in Auckland, it is fitting that the Auckland Museum should contain something to revive memories of such a sterling and remarkable horse. It was only when too late and the skeleton had been promised to the Melbourne Museum that people in Auckland were then able to secure his skin. His great sire, Musket, whose skeleton should certainly be in the Auckland Museum, was buried at Sylvia Park and only a portion of his skin now remains, and is privately owned. Soult’s head is in the Auckland Museum, and El Gallo’s head is another that has found a place there. The Canterbury Museum contains the skeleton of Traducer, who did such great service as a sire in New Zealand and left many sons and grandsons to keep his memory green in the Dominion and in America and elsewhere.

The first week in June is always a big one in Australia —indeed, the first Tuesday in that month is the day when the nominations go in for all the chief spring handicaps of the Australian Jockey Club, Victoria Racing Club, and Victoria Amateur Turf Club, and also for the classic races of those three important clubs. With those of the Australian Jockey Club we are immediately concerned, the large bill-of-fare advertised in another part of this issue being such as must appeal to the owners of promising young stock eligible for entry, and to those who have horses capable of winning under handicap conditions in the best handicap company from one mile to a mile and a-half. These are the respective distances of the Epsom Handicap and Sydney Metropolitan Handicap, and their value, as last year, is 1500sovs. and 4000sovs. That there will be a number of New Zealand horses entered goes without saying, owners in the Dominion having come to regard it as good policy to nominate when they have anything • equal to good handicap form. The classic races are the Breeders’ Plate, of 125050v5., five furlongs, the Gimcrack Stakes, of the same amount and run over the same distance, and the December Stakes, of 1000sovs., also run over five furlongs. Then there are the A.J.C. Sires’ Produce Stakes of 1919, of 3000sovs., seven

furlongs; Champagne Stakes of 1919, of 2000sovs., six furlongs, and the Australian Jockey Club’s Derby, of 5000sovs., for the same year, present yearlings being eligible. Then we have the A.J.C. St. Leger of 1920, of 1500sovs., the A.J.C Sires’ Produce Stakes of 1920, of 3000sovs., seven furlongs. The Australian Jockey Club, it will be seen, have still maintained the same standard as in prewar times. There was, happily, no marked falling off in revenue last year, and the club, which has been devoting all profits to the patriotic funds, is indeed very popular.

In connection with the A.J.C. Sires’ Produce Stakes event to be run for at the autumn meeting of 1919, the names of over sixty sires are mentioned, and it will be open for owners of yearlings got by any of these horses to engage them. The list appears in the advertisement on page 17, and it will be seen that the following horses that have been at the stud in New Zealand are included: — All Black, Demosthenes, Kilbroney,

King Rufus, Martian, Nassau and Wolawa. The owners of New Zealand sires are reminded that at the same time as nominations gio in for the classic and other races referred to, nominations will be taken for such sires for the A.J.C. Sires’ Produce Stakes of 1920. The secretaries of the Auckland R.C., Canterbury J.C., Wellington J.C. and Hawke’s Bay J.C. are deputed to take New Zealand entries up to 4 p.m. on June 4th for all events. This should suit the convenience of intending New Zealand nominators well. # * * * Whether any New Zealand owners have serious thoughts of visiting Caulfield and Flemington in August for the. two big jumping meetings of the V.A.T.C. and V.R.C. we have not heard, but we may be sure that the Caulfield Cup and Toorak Handicap will contain the names of some Dominion-owned horses. For the Debutant Stakes, for two-year-olds, and Caulfield Guineas, geldings will receive 31b. from the colts and will have to concede 21b. to fillies. Last year geldings and fillies were on the same mark. The winner of the A.J.C.

Derby, if engaged in the Caulfield Cup, by the conditions of the lastmentioned race will not carry less than 7.7 if a colt or gelding, or 7.2 if a filly. Formerly, for some years geldings were not allowed to run in the A.J.C. Derby. Probably the Caulfield Twenty-second and Twenty-third Futurity Stakes will receive some attention from owners of a few of the top-notchers. It goes without saying that there will be a few entrants for the Melbourne Cup of New Zealand horses. s]: * * * When the Auckland Racing Club adopted the sensible plan of deferring the taking of nominations for their classic races until the month of June there was some opposition amongst a small section of owners —-some of them breeding horses for sale —because. it gave buyers at the autumn sales in Australia an opportunity of nominating which they would not otherwise have had. Now the racing man can buy if he so desires in the Commonwealth, if he prefers that market to the New Zealand markets,

and so far as the Auckland Racing Club is concerned, and a few others that have come into line, their classic races have filled no worse for the extra few months’ delay in taking entries. It is much the more preferable way to allow the owners to do the nominating for themselves, and not the breeders, and save endless trouble over the transferring of ownerships and liabilities, and we still hope to find all New Zealand clubs adopting the same course, which we have so strenuously and persistently advocated. The Auckland Racing Club take entries for no less than nine classic races on June 14, and the special attention of owners is directed to the fact. The value of these races is an important consideration for breeders who race on their own account, as well as for those who have purchased with a view to racing, and no club is doing more to encourage! the breeders and the purchasers of bloodstock by continuing to maintain these special races for the best of their ages when they are run. It is for the possessors of yearlings to recognise the efforts of the clubs that are catering for them in an efficient manner. The Mana-

watu Racing Club is another with a special announcement with regard to the classics which have been running for a considerable time, and with much success since their inauguration.

Another big race was last week decided and thus removed from the spring or summer calendar of the present racing season in England. This was the Newmarket Stakes, run over a mile and a-quarter, the value lOOOsovs. with a sweepstake of 30sovs. each added. Somme Kiss, the winner, by Sunstar from Stolen Kiss, started first ten months ago at the July meeting at Newmarket in the Tuesday Two-year-old Plate, twentysix being engaged, of which a dozen, including Somme Kiss, through their riders disregarding the advance flag and going the whole course were given permission, under rule 36 (ii.), not to go to the post a second time. The race was won by Pandion, by Polymelus, his only start during the season, and he was the favourite. The starter declared the first run no start. In his next essay Somme Kiss ran third to the Polymelus colt Benevente —who won each of his three-year-old engagements last season —in the New Coventry Stakes, the second in that event being the then unnamed Tredennis —Clare colt, winner of two out of five races and now named Treadare, owned by Sir W. J. Tatem, which ran third in the race last week. Somme Kiss was fourth in the Ramsay Plate behind Violinist, Scatwell and Gainsborough (also by Sunstar), the last-named the winner of the Two Thousand Guineas early in the present month, and in which Somme Kiss was second. Mr. Charles T. Garland, owner of Somme Kiss, and his wife both race, and the win would be a popular one. Thermogene, who ran second to Somme Kiss in the Newmarket Stakes under notice, only ran once last year, when he was third to Blink in the Gamlingay Two-year-old Plate, who also only started once but this year was third in the Two Thousand Guineas. Mr. James Buchanan sold his horses in training before the season started, receiving 2000gns. for Scatwell (by Marcovil) from Sir W. Tatem, who won one of his engagements with that colt. Thermogene, who is by Polymelus, was knocked down for a similar sum to Alex. Taylor, trainer of Gainsborough and Gay Crusader, and ran in the nomination of Mr. J. B. Thornycroft. The form of the two-year-olds of last season in England, so far as can be judged by the results up to now, of the Two Thousand Guineas, One Thousand Guineas and other events, seems to have been fairly consistent, though it does not appear that anything stands out very conspicuously.

Mr. Robert Duder, whose photo, appears on this page, is one of the popular twin-brother sportsmen with their homes at the marine suburb, Devonport. Until a few years ago the brothers of the family, either singly or in conjunction, had been represented on Auckland racecourses chiefly for over thirty-five years, and both Robert and Richard have been prominent either as stewards or committeemen of the three leading Auckland Racing Clubs, Robert as steward and committeeman of the Takapuna and Avondale Jockey Clubs since they were started, and Richard as a committeeman of the Auckland Racing Club continuously for over twentyfive years. They owned many good racehorses, the best being Cuirassier and Brigadier, and they bred quite a number of excellent performers on the flat, over' hurdles and country, and have always commanded the respect due to good sportsmen and useful citizens. Identified with the social and commercial life of the popular marine suburb of Devonport, they have been conspicuous figures there during the best part of their lives, and they ware born there 67 years ago.