THE CLUBMAN

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1505, 27 February 1919, Page 8

THE CLUBMAN

The Wanganui Jockey Club’s autumn meeting commenced under conditions of the best. The absence of Desert Gold was, of course, a disappointment to some, but did not mar the meeting, though the presence of Gloaming, whose star is in the ascendant, certainly helped to make it more attractive than it would have been without him. The Wanganui Jockey Club have been lucky in having a number of cracks present in two successive years, and with increased attendances it would have been strange had there not been a corresponding increase in the totalisator receipts each year. The club have always sought to keep up to date in its totalisator arrangements, and was one of the very first to have the old parimutuel installed, 39 years ago, and is one of the clubs which will shortly instal new machinery similar to what was in use at Ellerslie at the summer meeting. Whether greater things will be accomplished than under the present regime remains to be seen. The business of to-day can perhaps be fairly well done by the aid of the machines in use, but the Wanganui Jockey Club is nothing unless it is progressive, and the executive are clearly looking ahead. Both the Taranaki and Egmont meetings, which preceded the Wanganui gathering, showed that increased totalisator figures had been reached, and the increases were put down to the presence of the two cracks, Desert Gold and Gloaming, and not to the natural order of racing affairs. Be that as it may, the Wanganui Jockey Club’s meeting, with only one of the star performers on hand to assist, did very well to be able to show a correspondingly greater increase than the Taranaki clubs. Wanganui has always led, and the more central geographical position on the coast line on the West Coast of the North Island, gives the old-established metropolitan club a great pull over many of its rivals. The stake offerings are greater, and the meetings are very attractive to racegoers, both north and south.

There were many reasons for jubilation over the recent Wanganui meeting. The Wanganui Cup was won by a Wanganui-bred gelding, whose’ parents, sire and dam, were also bred in Wanganui, and were well known performers. Both Dusky Eve and his sire (Signor) were bred by Mr. G. F. Moore, of Bushy Park, who, though a breeder of good horses, is even better known as a breeder of a high grade of Hereford cattle. Dusky Eve’s success was a tribute to his sire, who was a genuine stayer, also to his much-raced dam (Swift), who raced during seven seasons over all distances up to a*mile and a-half on the flat and with a fair measure of success, averaging in starts some ten races each season, for a total of some 15 wins. It was not until she had been at the stud about 13 years that she bred Dusky Eve, so that Mr. H. M. Campbell’s gelding, who is now well on in his seventh year, is a brilliant example of what may sometime result from the mating of an old and much-raced mare with a stout constitutioned, well performed sire. Signor holds a New Zealand record of 3min. 53 2-ssec. for two miles and a-quarter, and we have yet to hear of a four-year-old with 9.0, or any horse carrying that weight or more, successfully in Australasia in as good time. An English-bred mare, Harriet Graham, won the Australian Cup in the difference between one-fourth and one-fifth of a second faster time at five years old and carried the light impost of 6.12, and thus holds the Australasian record.

It may come as a surprise to many racing experts that such an old and much raced mare as Swift, whose pedigree cannot be traced far, was still equal to bearing an out-and-out stayer and a brilliant gelding like Dusky Eve, the Wanganui Cup winner. Old-fashioned breeders would certainly have bred freely from a stayer iike Signor, a neat substantial horse, with mares like Swift in

order to try and obtain such as Dusky Eve, but the modern breeder would not consider it good business using a sire of an outside figure number on a mare of Swift’s age and absence of longer pedigree credentials. Though hers has been a fairly good racing family, there have not been any champions of the line, none at least quite as capable it may be thought of getting a mile and three-quarters with even the same moderate impost as Dusky Eve carried. There have been some rather better horses at say a mile, to a mile and a-quarter on the flat ‘and a number were useful over hurdles. Swift was started in the jumping line a bit late in life after she had had a strenuous time on the flat. She won the Foxton Cup when it was a mile and a-half, and on the same day captured another flat race. At her best she was probably quite as good as her son up to a mile and aquarter.

Depredation, who Dusky Eve defeated -in the Wanganui Cup, is a genuine stayer, and though he has been under a cloud since shortly before he won the Auckland Cup in 1916, was produced in something like his best form and made good use of his reasonable impost. Menelaus, who had bad luck in the race last year and who many were waiting to back on the second day had he then appeared, ran quite up to his best form of last season. Apparently this is the race that he was especially “set” for, and it was no disgrace to be beaten by two such good stayers and nicely treated pair as Dusky Eve and Depredation. The Musket blood is present in both. There are two strains in the last-named. Client, twice winner of the race, was set his most difficult task to date, but ran a good fourth, carrying 9.0,

but the pace was all too solid for him to get up, as the race was run in the record time of 2min. 59sec. He was carrying 91b. more than he had last year, and is probably quite as good a horse. A little bit of extra weight is nothing when the class is not good or when the bearer of it is the better stayer. Menelaus and Dusky Eve ran another good race in the Wanganui Stakes, and the difference in the weights as compared with what was carried in the Cup and the distance altered matters. Client was brought through from last place into second too sharply, and the early run settled him.

That the very useful Croesus did not suffer in the slightest from his fall in the Egmont Stakes is practically certain, and it is with much satisfaction that those who are fond of good horses would receive the evidence of this, for he ran every

bit as good a race in the ’ Jackson stakes at Wanganui as he did a fortnight before in the Taranaki Stakes, and ran well each time. Gloaming, however, was meeting him on w.f.a. terms in the Wanganui event, and thus on 101 b. better terms and had a much easier race, as he was not interfered with in any way, and had no extra poundage. The effect of weight must necessarily be felt when it comes to racing over long distances, but in a lesser degree over the shorter courses. No authorities need be quoted in support of such a contention. Gloaming could easily have put up a course record at Wanganui had his rider had instructions to put him to an unnecessary test, other than winning the race. Silver Link, later in the day, put up a time performance that no other three-year-old has done over the same course

because she was put to the limit of her speed by a fast lightweighed performer. The English - bred filly, Bonny Briar, who was carrying 7.7, or 141 b. over her. original handicap impost, and 131 b. less than the Taranaki filly, who has the advantage in age. Silver Link is undoubtedly the fastest of her sex over a few furlongs that we have seen in the Dominion for some years, Desert Gold included. We do not need to bulk facts when they are so apparent. The best has not yet been seen of the daughter of Achilles, who won again on Saturday, carrying 9.3 and registering one of the best six-furlong gallops ever recorded on the Wanganui course. Achilles was one of the very best milers we ever had. Secret Link, dam of Silver Link, was a really useful mare, by Bezonian from Chainstitch, by Chainshot, from Sylph (by Javelin), from Maid of the Mountain, by Traducer from Myrtle, by Nutwith from Sharkie, ancestress of Advance. Silver Link was one of the many gifts that have been obtained at yearling sales in Auckland and at Epsom. She was one of a draft sent from the Waikanae Stud, and was purchased there by Mr. A. Alexander, her Taranaki owner, who got her for 80 guineas. She has won five races this season and three last, besides running third in her first essay as a two-year-old. Her record is a distinctly good one. She has certainly been very kindly dealt with in handicap events this season; indeed, she has been recognised as a good one on all courses where she has appeared, and has always acquitted herself well since she started racing, 14 months ago.

The restrictions placed on racing again in Australia just after the announcement that pre-war conditions would be resorted to are the result of the outbreak of influenza in the Commonwealth. They are not made general throughout the length and breadth of the island continent and have not reached to Queensland, and are apparently not likely to be of very long duration near the metropolis of New South Wales if the authorities can see their way clear to order otherwise. In Victoria the outlook is not quite so reassuring, and if some of the meetings next month are not held at their due dates there need be no surprise. It is thought that the Sydney side meetings will be the gainers, as horses intended to race at the V.R.C. and V.A.T.C. meetings will likely remain in New South Wales. It is an ill wind. etc. In New Zealand the effect of postponements was seriously felt by owners. In Australia the result of lifting restrictions there would have been an abnormal increase of meetings if clubs were all bent on trying to crowd in days that had been dropped temporarily and that appeared to be what some were aiming at. Owners are to be sympathised with, but the shareholders in proprietary clubs can live on their fat profits for a time, while the non-pro-prietary clubs are well off and will not suffer seriously. They are really managed for their patrons and the good of sport. Not only will the owners suffer, but horsemen, and in a lesser degree the trainers. It is usually a matter of six weeks or two months before the influenza runs its course, and the restrictions are not likely to be long found advisable or necessary. It is perhaps fortunate that the disease came while fine summer weather has been in evidence. A cable from Melbourne last Saturday stated that committee meetings of the Victorian Amateur Turf Club and the Victoria Racing Club considered the possible resumption of racing, and decided that should the embargo be raised in time the Caulfield autumn meeting should take place on March 3 and 4, and the Flemington meeting should start on March 8. The New Zealand horses from the Wairarapa were not released from quarantine until February 10, so would have just three weeks ahead of them if raced thereat.