THE AUSTRALIAN RACING CAMPAIGN.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1483, 26 September 1918, Page 13

THE AUSTRALIAN RACING CAMPAIGN.

The Rosehill meeting, held on Saturday near Sydney, stands in the same relation to racing in New South Wales as did the spring meetings at one time held at -Hawkesbury, where the Guineas race was regarded as a good try-out for three-year-olds with later engagements. Some good ones of that age were annually seen out while the Hawkesbury Guineas remained on the Calendar. It sometimes acted as a pointer to the winner of the Australian J.C. Derby. The Rosehill Guineas, won on Saturday by Mr. J. Y. Black’s colt Woorawa, by the one-time New Zealand-owned imported Charlemagne 11. from the Ayr Laddie mare Gaelic Lass, may do so this year. The colt appears to have come at the right end, and beat Mr. T. H. Lowry’s colt Finmark and Mr. “J. Baron’s” filly Princess Clare, and eight others, including Almoner, who was sixth, in handy style in the good time for the distance and with the weights of Imin. 54sec. There would be one Derby candidate less through the accident suffered by Red Fox. The racing may have a beneficial effect on both Finmark and Almoner. The Derby distance may suit the lastnamed best. Finmark was thought the best of last year’s New Zealand two-year-olds, but we have never regarded any of them as of the same class as were Biplane and Hymestra of the season before. Outlook’s second in the Spring Stakes at Rosehill seems to have been almost as impressive as that of the winner of the Rosehill Guineas, though the distance was a furlong shorter. Whether after these races were concluded Gloaming would hold his ground as favourite for the Australian Derby we have yet to learn, but all things considered the performance of Woorawa looks a pretty good one. Kilmoon and Almoner are both owned by Mr. G. L. Stead, and the fact of the former having won the Rosehill Handicap, of a mile and a-quarter, from Thana and Kandos (who are in some of the A. J.C. weight-for-age events) and eighteen other runners, must not be lost sight of, seeing that the son of Kilbroney was amongst those paid up for in the A.J.C. classic race on September 8. Mr. Stead thus has a brace in Almoner and Kilmoon, Mr. T. H. Lowry a brace in Finmark and Killowen, and Mr. Greenwood Gloaming to do battle against Woorawa, Outlook, Princess Clare and other Australians that figured in the list after the first acceptance, when there were 37 all told standing their ground, one of the number being the Hallowmas — Blue Ribbon colt owned by Mr. F. Dorset, of the Wairarapa, who did not send him over. Biplane is evidently still a source of anxiety to fcis trainer. He has always been one of the high-metalled sort, and being a thick-winded colt needs plenty of galloping. Last year, just after he arrived in Sydney, he met with an accident through getting too close to a tram car. After one of his gallops with Deeley up he nearly choked. To let him run along his own way, which in the past has been a hard-pulling way, and not just what a trainer could desire, is the way to let him beat himself even when pretty fit, when a distance of ground has to be covered. We saw him when not fit run himself right out and get beaten at the end of seven furlongs by Estland in the Wanganui Guineas, and Estland js inferior in pace beyond doubt. A few days before Biplane was taken to the last Manawatu meeting he bolted with a boy at Riccarton over two miles. McLaughlin, the Australian horseman, shortly after Biplane arrived in Sydney rode him work and was reported to have said that he found no difficulty in holding him. He was not then strung up. A few weeks since the lad who rode him work one morning had him stop with him after going a short gallop, and clearly could not manage him. Bracken, who rode him in the Spring Stakes at the Rosehill meeting, found him a handful and could not do him justice, and Bracken is voted one of the very best of Australian horsemen. Biplane,, we are told in a cable, was left a long way behind when the barrier lifted, and though he made his way up on the outside of the field along the back he never had a hope of catching the pacemakers, and “finished near, the last horses, probably due to the fact that he was eased up when it was seen to be useless to chase the place-getters.”

The “Telegraph” says: “The racing produced several surprises. The defeat of Finmark was bad enough, but worse was to follow—the defeat of Biplane. He was badly left through swinging out sideways when the bar-

rier lifted, and was last to get away. He ran out wide making the turn, but made up sufficient ground at the entrance to the straight to give him a chance. Once in the straight, however, he could make no impression on the leaders, and continued to drop back.”

It is quite right to surmise, as the critics present did, that Biplane was not beaten on his merits. It is not. however, suggested by that that Bracken did not do his best to win. Deeley is acknowledged to be one of the most capable horsemen we have. Had he been on Biplane he might not have done any better than the younger horseman did, though he knows the peculiar characteristics of the colt and won each of his races in Australia on him. People who have had no experience of riding themselves are the most severe critics when horses they expect to win fail. They blame the riders and do not seem to realise that some good horses are very hard to handle. We would imagine that Deeley, whose handling of Biplane when that colt was defeated in his first engagement in Australia last season formed the subject of an enquiry, would be pleased that he was not in Bracken’s position on Saturday. The incident, together with others referred to, goes to show that Biplane is not an easy horse to handle or train. It is quite evident that his owner and trainer were full of confidence in his ability to win the Spring Stakes at Rosehill on Saturday, with ordinary luck in running. This the colt did not meet with, and against such brilliant opposition in his first race for over five months, the placed horses having raced during the previous fortnight, he would have needed to be a phenomenon to have won in Imin. 40sec. after getting left, and Bracken evidently did the right thing in easing him when he found that his chance was gone. Finmark’s defeat in the Rosehill Guineas is considered due to lack of condition, according to the cable, which says “he was formed to the point to make his own running and weakened in the last furlong.” Still he beat nine others. The assumption that he was not quite ready is probably correct, but the time is short to the Randwick meeting and with three furlongs further to go it will take Davis all his time to have him right, though it is just possible that he was beaten really by a horse with more pace and better staying qualifications in Woorawa.

Estland’s running should have the effect of doing him good for future events. Some of the best of the horses engaged in the w.fa. races will probably be at an advantage for having got in a few races in public before the meeting, but from latest accounts Desert Gold is well. The following are New Zealand-bred horses engaged in other races at the A.J.C. spring meeting after which their names appear: — First Hurdles: St. Elmn, British Arch, Merrimax. Trial Stakes: Gloaming, Kilhope, First Rain, New Zealand. Epsom Handicap: Killowen, Kilhope. Spring Stakes: Biplane, Arch Marella, Desert Gold, Bunting. Kensington Handicap: Impediment, Immortel, Briseis, New Zealand, Silent Way. The Shorts: Lingerie, Kilhope, Killowen, Briseis. Clibbon Stakes: Gloaming, Kilhope, Killowen, Finmark, New Zealand. Metropolitan: Estland, Bee, Bunting, Arch Marella. Killowen, Kilhope Decorate. First Steeplechase: St. Elmn, Tararu Jack, John Bunny. Squatter Handicap: Immortel, New Zealand, Silent Way. Second Hurdles: St. Elmn, British Arch, Merrimax. Craven Plate: Biplane, Estland, Finmark, Desert Gold, Bunting. Suburban Handicap: Impediment, Immortel, Killowen, Kilhope, Silent Way. Members’ Handicap: Gloaming, Molyneaux, Hesitation, Kilhope, Killowen, New Zealand, First Rain. Gimcrack: Kilbreeze, Demades. Sydney Handicap: Arch Marella, Immortel, Silent Way, Bunting. High Weight Handicap: Lingerie, Briseis. Waverley Handicap: Arch Marella, Bunting. Dowling Steeplechase: St. Elmn. Tararu Jack, John Bunny. Grantham Stakes: Gloaming, Molyneaux, Hesitation, Kilhope, Killowen, Finmark. New Zealand. First Rain. Randwick Plate: Biplane, Arch Marella, Estland, Desert Gold, Bunting. First Handicap: Immortel. Killowen, New Zealand. Silent Way, Bee.