THE CLUBMAN

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1466, 30 May 1918, Page 8

THE CLUBMAN

The Wanganui Jockey Club’s winter meeting has come and gone, will be remembered as one o Jew at which the weather was .not “ the same pleasant character often experienced there in the month of May. Most of the fields were good arid tne Sg generally of character, and on the opening day the tracks must have been in very good order judging from the times recorded for 'the dilerent events. Much ram fell in the interval between the tw mg days and made the going a little heavier than it was on the riav last year after ram. Deductions to be drawn from the racing are some of the horses that have recently come into the jumping game am with further experience, likely to turn out useful, though actual results have gone to establish J t sion that the good horses of last year are the good ones of this yea . result of the Wanganui Steeplechas in which Braeburn and Strowan, the topweights, were within half a length of each other, ;i J ßrae . firmation of the form so far as Brae burn is concerned of that gelding s showing when Gluepot only beat him a neck last year in receipt of 201 b. Gluepot was probably J u »t as good this year as he was last, but the diference in weight was all against him bycomwlson as this time there was only 21b. As for Master Strowan, he finished up last season one of the acknowledged best horses, we had then, and form su o gestsi that he is still. The winner Braeburn, has won twice and been beaten a neck. This is consistency. *£ * *

The form in the Century Hurdles worked out right, Sir Fisher, who won last year, again succeeding, and he won easily last year and again this year. Neither Braeburn nor Master Strowan are engaged at Ellerslie, but Sir Fisher is to race there. Bast year he received the minimum weight for the Ellerslie event and we selected him for that race, but he was not paid up for. This year we favoured the prospects of Almo most, but he was allowed to drop out because he was considered not forward enough by his owner. Colorado did not race up to our expectations, or those of his owner, at Wanganui, but we are satisfied that he will do better later on, if not this week. Of the beginners over obstacles we may look for better things from Quite a number. Kept to the jumping game and raced a bit more some decent form should be developed. Jumping horses are not made in days or a few weeks as a rule, and racing in public helps a good deal more than schooling m private, and it is quite evident that racing over the Wanganui hurdles and brush fences will have helped a number of the performers there to do better in later essays. There has always been a doubt about the staying of Pursefiller, but over her best distance, which is probably a mile and three-quarters, she is still as good as her best friends think her.

If there had been a few more days between the Wanganui and Auckland meetings it is hardly likely that so many horses would have been sent away to Auckland as soon after racing on the first day as possible. It is to be regretted that the nominations of ten horses reached the secretary of the Auckland Racing Club late on account of interruptions on the wires and that the owners of several others actually forgot the date of final payments or acceptances, but such is the case, and that must make a good deal of difference to the meeting, though probably some of the horses will be racing on the second day. Thei owners of the horses whose acceptances were missed put them in early enough in the ordinary course, but the delay on the wires upset their plans. A few early speculators are lamenting the fact and the forgetfulness of several owners, while more wish that some owners had not left their horses in to the last moment. ’Twas ever thus, and may always continue to be the same. ♦ * * *

We were recently told that many patrons of racing have expressed the opinion since the war commenced

that the sport should be discontinued and that quite a number are not in agreement with those who hold that it should still go on. Perhaps someone will tell us of any owners and breeders who have given up the sport entirely from sentimental reasons, and of any who have interests at stake who do not share in the opinions of the head of the Racing Conference, Sir George Clifford, so regularly and logically expressed. As a matter of fact there have this year been more owners of horses racing and more horses racing and trotting to date than in any other season at the meetings under the control of the Racing and Trotting Associations of New Zealand. The attendances have shown an all-round increase, too. This has been most pronounced in the North Island. The days of racing were largely decreased yet speculation spread out over the greater number of meetings has probably been nearly, if not quite as large over the reduced number, and though racing has become more expensive to owners they have still been found carrying on the sport, and the majority of its patrons are evidently men of substance quite as well able to do

do, but there are likewise many racing men who are better winners than losers, and who would not last long if they could not make their racing pay. Evidently Mr. E. J. Watt intends being longer out of racing than some people imagined at first, as he has practically disposed of all his horses in training and the yearlings he recently purchased, and has now only his breeding stock, consisting of brood mares, this year’s foals, and the stud horses Wolawa and All Black, the last-named being now leased and in a good stud in Australia. One Australian paper states that it is not Mr. Watt’s intention to resume racing until after the war. The ex-New Zealander is one of the very few horse-owners that have had their colours unfurled in New Zealand, New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia. His late father, Mr. James Watt, raced horses in Auckland, Canterbury, and other parts of New Zealand in the early days, and was in several syndicates that sent horses to the Commonwealth from the Dominion. Since his time racing has grown

so, and some of them certainly better positioned to race, than they were in pre-war times. Battlers are fewer in proportion in these days than formerly, but still there are many that must have occasional wins in order to pursue their favourite pastime. An odd big owner or two have discontinued to race, but not because they feel that others should do the same. We shall always find the small ones falling out through force of circumstances. At one time the retirement of owners, either in a big or a small way, was received with dismay by the clubs they patronised and-by the public, but nowadays we find when some are retiring others come along and take their places. Still it is always a matter for regret when good patrons of the sport, those who have played the game straightforwardly, drop by the wayside, weary and perhaps financially worse off for their connection with it. There are many racing who love the sport and can afford to indulge in it and are prepared to go on so long as the cost is not too great, but repeated disappointments or reverses and a bit of expense are what some racing men cannot stand up against, though their wealth is sufficient to keep them going. There are no end of good losers who continue to come up smiling though they rarely see their colours in front, as they deserve to

enormously and conditions are very much different, and the son has raced on a very much larger scale and probably made his racing operations pay, for he raced with a good deal of luck for quite a long while and has certainly had some very useful horses carrying his colours from time to time. He never had two such mares during his nineteen years’ connection with ownership as Lurline and Calumny, two daughters of Traducer, which raced first in his father’s name on Australian soil after gaining distinction in New Zealand. It is a long time since George Cutts first trained for the squire of Longlands at Kohimarama, Auckland, and the co-partnership with the’ late Mr. Henry Redwood in Lurline, Calumny and Papapa was arranged—fortythree years ago or thereabout, to come near the date. It is questionable whether a better mare than Lurline has raced since her time. sjs Mention of the name of Lurline reminds us that the breeder of that great mare, Mr. S. Nosworthy (father of Mr. Nosworthy, M.P.), who died recently in Canterbury at ?. ripe old age, was one of the biggest breeders of his time in the province named, and did some racing, too, on a fairly extensive scale. At the disnersal of his stud of mares and racing stock big prices—or what were considered

big prices at the time —were paid for quite a number of the lots. Mermaid, after breeding Waterwitch and Malice for the late Mr. J. W. Mallock, was purchased by the late Mr. Nosworthy and bred Lurline, Castaway, Le Loup and about eight others of more or less note. Waterwitch, as the dam of Natator, Watersprite, Nautilus, Cascade, Water Colour and Hanlan while in Mr. Nosworthy’s ownership, and of Jet D’Eau, Remorse and others when owned by thei late Mr. D. O’Brien, was the chief of the stud. No Name produced Nonsense, Oudeis, Disowned and Lady Gertrude; Tell Tale left amongst others Gabble and Whisper; Gitana bred Calumny, Slanderer, Remnant and Tres Deuce (dam of Manton) ; Flat Iron bred Mangle and Mufti. Deception bred Traitor, Fallacy, Fiction, Fable, Falcon, and Fallacy in turn bred First Lord, Everton Lad and Deceit while owned by Mr. Nosworthy. The mention of these names brings up the family connections with many horses racing to-day. What good producers were some of the mares in these earlier day studs; not only were some of them very prolific, but they bred good ones time after time. The

late Mr. Nosworthy later on for a time managed the old Middle Park Stud in Canterbury for a company. He was one of the pioneers of the province who must always be remembered for the part he played as a racing man and breeder. * * * ♦ The old-time yeomen and sportsmen are gradually disappearing. During the month another who was associated with racing and breeding, though on a smaller scale, crossed the Great Divide. This was Mr. Tom Redwood, of Blenheim, brother to the late Charles and Henry, the last named well remembered by most racing men as “Father of the New Zealand Turf,” also brother to Archbishop Frank Redwood, the younger of the family, which settled in Nelson in the very early days, having come from Staffordshire with their father, an English agriculturalist, Joseph, a veterinary surgeon, remaining in England. Mr. Henry went the more extensively into racing and breeding thoroughbreds, but the name of Redwood will ever be closely identified With the history' of the New Zealand Turf. Though the youngei* generation are not participants either in racing or breeding, their forbears did very much indeed for the sport and future of racing.