TURF TOPICS

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1489, 7 November 1918, Page 26

TURF TOPICS

Waimai, the ’chaser, is again being trained at Ellerslie.

Good Hope won the opening race at the C.J.C. spring meeting.

Thrace has won each time he has started over hurdles at Avondale.

Hopye has again broken down. We never saw the best of that gelding.

The Waikato and Takapuna stables were much in evidence at Avondale on Saturday.

Mr. A. W. Gordon w r as the stipendiary present at the Avondale J.C. spring meeting.

Some New Zealanders will have cause to remember Finmark’s defeat in the V.R.C. Derby.

Colonel Soult still runs “champagne” gallops in private and “small beer” races in public. Mr. F. Dorset recently stated that it is his intention to start Red Ribbon in the Auckland Cup.

Gloaming is the only three-year-old that has won his first three engagements on end this season.

Woolrawa, who beat Finmark in the Rosehill Guineas, went down before Syche Lad in the Queensland Derby.

K. Bracken, who rode Desert Gold second in the Melbourne Stakes, was on the first two winners the same day.

A. J. McFlinn rode two close seconds on Saturday, and a bit of luck would have converted them both to wins.

Mrs. H. J. Hayr decorated Prince Charleroi, winner of the customary ribbon, after that gelding’s Avondale Stakes win.

The totalisator turnover at Avondale on Saturday showed a decrease of £513 as compared with the first day last year.

Mullingar, son of Marble Arch and Romola, paid the best dividend of the day on Saturday, when he won the Avondale Cup.

Rennie, the lightweight in R. Hannon’s stable, and E. Warner were riding in fine form on the opening day of the Avondale meeting. It is a bad thing to swap horses crossing a stream, and sometimes a mistake to change riders in the middle of a racing campaign.

The imported mare Highflown, by White Eagle from Meta Bourke, won the Maiden Plate at the V.R.C. spring meeting for Messrs. Tye Bros.

It is just as well for punters to remember that there were a few unlucky horses at Avondale and some that ran a lot below their true form.

Eusebius ,the V.R.C. Derby winner, is a colt by Eudorus from the Malster mare Lager, who failed when much fancied for the Epsom Handicap m 1911, but won some fair races. „ Mr. G. Carrington’s successful stallion, Gazeley, by Grey Leg — Lygia, secured additional honours at the Poverty Bay A. and P. Show at Gisborne, being adjudged the winner in the thoroughbred class and also the champion entire. Second prize in the former class was secured by Heather Mixture, by St. Serf—Sprig of Heather, who is owned by Messrs. W. L. Rutledge and E. R. Murphy, this well-bred stallion being also adjudged the reserve champion entire.

Prince Charleroi’s time in the Avondale Stakes has only been beaten twice, and three times equa led when the course was not in such good order.

Some of the scratchings at Avondale on Saturday were due to owners not being able to get riders to suit to take the places of those prostrated by the “flu.”

Wolaroi, though beaten by Magpie and Desert Go d in the Melbourne Stakes, has run very consistently this spring and has had a few hard races since he started.

Mr. J. Kemp appears to have two useful sorts by Advance in his geldings from Electra and Volee respectively, called Admiral Advance and General Advance

The V.R.C. Derby won by Eusebius on Saturday by a head from Outlook, with Finmark half a length away, was the slowest since Malster won in 1900 in 2min. 4Ssec.

The Maribyrnong Plate, the chief two-year-old race at the V.R.C. spring meeting, went to Gambler’s Gold, by Powhata from Evelyn B. There were nineteen runners.

Court Jester, who won the Hotham Handicap at the V.R.C. spring meeting, is by Comedy King from the St. Leger mare Aleger, one of the Ouida family bred in Auckland.

The influenza epidemic kept a good many horsemen, trainers, owners and sportsmen patrons of racing from being at the Avondale races on Saturday.

Rockfield, winner of the Henderson Handicap at Avondale on Saturday, is called after the property where he was foaled, not far from the Ellerslie racecourse. He was bred there by his owner, the Hon. E. W. Alison.

Lingle probably ran the best race he has done this spring when he finished third in the V.R.C. Hotham Handicap behind Court Jester and Night Watch, and did a good Melbourne Cup preparation.

Parorangi, Mr. E. Short’s two-year-old colt by Demosthenes from Pellicle, races with hard luck. He has had two seconds so far, and has been narrowly beaten each time. In another race the bridle nearly came off. Mr. Dunn, the Waihou breeder of thoroughbreds, gets the 25sovs. which goes to the breeder of the winner of the Avondale Stakes, Prince Charleroi, who cost his owner 50gns. at the annual yearling sal e at Epsom, Auckland.

The well-known trainers J. T. Jamieson and F. G. Carmont, who were to go into camp this month, have been notified that they will not be required to enter camp until January.

Claude Brown, who was to have ridden Secret Link in the Flying Handicap, had to go to bed with influenza, and so the filly, who was favourite in doubles, was not started.

J. Roach was fined £2 for taking up a wrong position at the starting barrier on Uncle Ned in the Henderson Handicap, and the starter, Mr. Harley, was informed that he must conform to the rules compelling riders to keep the positions they draw.

Rekanui, winner of the Flying Handicap at Avondale, was the only actual first favourite to score, but Prince Charleroi and Parorangi (first and second in the Stakes), Thrace and Crown Pearl (first and second in the Hurdles), and Gazique (narrowly beaten in the Cup), were the most strongly supported.

The wife of a Masterton solicitor was one of the lucky ones to draw the big dividend —the best part of a century—paid by Inah at the recent meeting at Opaki. Inah’s number in the race book was 13. The lady in question backed Inah just because her own name was Inah, and she was the thirteenth member of her family.

Te Miro, winner of the Maiden Plate at Avondale, is the first three-year-old by Spalpeen that has won for a considerable time. Bell Crispen, his dam, was got by St. Crispen, son of St. Leger and a Great Northern Derby winner, from Lady Bell, by Pinfire, dam of Ingomar, from The Orphan, by Th e Pointer from Miss Mettle.

Prince Charleroi is the first of the gets of the Soult horse General Latour to win the Avondale Stakes. He was to have been ridden by Goldfinch, who was laid up with the “flu,” and so R. Manson got the ride. Goldfinch was to have ridden Mullingar in the Cup but E. Warner had to be substituted, and the substitutes did their mounts justice.

Gloaming’s victory in the Champion Plate at Trentham gave Mr. G. D. Greenwood his third win in that event, Danube and Byron being successful in the important mile and a-quarter race in previous years. Mr. T. H. Lowry won the Champion Plate three years in succession with Desert Gold, while other winners of the race were Elysian, Equitas, Merry Roe and Reputation.

Michaela, winner of the Stewards’ Handicap at Riccarton, won nearly all her engagements last season.

The new totalisator will be working at Ellerslie on Saturday, and a number of women clerks will be employed on the staff.

Mr. H. Wilson, the well-known contractor and horse-owner, is one of the sufferers from influenza. He was taken bad last week and got up rather soon and had a relapse on Monday. Bitholia, who ran fourth in the Wellesley Stakes on the opening day of the Wellington meeting, is a full brother to Elocution, and is owned by Mr. E. Short. On the second day the son of Demosthenes — Rangiao was installed favourite for the Juvenile Handicap, but failed to run into a place.

Though it was expected that the Riccarton course would be slower than usual in consequence of rain on th e previous day, the times recorded for the different events on Monday show that it was in good order, the straight course especially being fast. The Stewards’ Handicap, won by the Rokeby—Jessie Lewars four-year-old mare Michaela, was as a matter of fact run in the record time for the course of Imin. 11 4-ssec. The Welcome Stakes has only once been run faster than Surveyor, the first of the gets of Nassau, won in, and only thrice in the same time. The other races beyond six furlongs are run on the main course, the first two furlongs of the Cup race being over part of the straight.

The death of Mr. Charles Dines Ha 7 stead, veterinary surgeon, took place on Monday morning at his home in Ponsonby. About two years ago deceased was very nearly at death’s door, but was successfully treated and after a long illness resumed his business. Though never the same again he carried on until a few weeks back, when he was again obliged to take to his bed, and finally passed away. Charlie Halstead was a prominent figure in the business in which he was engaged and in which his father, the late Mr. E. Halstead, was a leading man in Auckland, for many yeai;s looking after the various studs. It was with his father that the deceased graduated, and he was decidedly popular in sporting circles. A young man —he had attained only to the age of forty-five years—he will be missed from business and for- his comradeship. He was the last of the family following the veterinary business, which had been established in Auckland over fifty years.

The success of Sasanof in the New Zealand Cup gives the gelding son of Martian a distinction that no other equine enjoys. For a gelding, horse or mare to win a Melbourne Cup and follow it up two years later by winning a New Zealand Cup is to become a well-advertised performer. Martian, his sire, was well represented in the race, and Sasanof is the result of mating with Martian a Stepniak mare in Ukraine, a full-sister to All Red. The runner-up, Rose Pink, is a five-year-old mare by imported Kilbroney from the Gosoon mare Madder, dam of Ukraine and All Red, and of the dams, by Stepniak, of Indigo,, who dead-heated with the Stepniak mare Warstep, Sea Pink, who won many good races, and others of note. Menelaus, who ran third, is by Martian, and will be remembered as the winner last year, when his stablemate, Johnny Walker, also by Martian, ran second. Martian has sired three successive winners of the race in Ardenvhor, Menelaus and Sasanof, also the dead-heater Warstep, so has a splendid record. Mascot, who was fourth this year, is another by the Martagon horse.