The Clubman.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1572, 10 June 1920, Page 8

The Clubman.

The time-honoured and chief of all classic races in the world, the English Derbv, was decided on Wednesday, and' with a field of nineteen facing the starter resulted in a win for Spion Kop, by Spearmint from Hanmer Kop, owned by Captain Giles Loders, V.C. Spion Kop was started six times at two years old, and was second five times and third on the other occasion. In his first essay he was favourite. This was in the Hampton Court Stakes at Hurst Park just a year ago, and was beaten a length and a-half by Pelops, evidently a pretty good colt at the time, by Polvmelus, as he had two wins, three seconds and three thirds to his credit during the season. In the Mersey Stakes in July, worth £9OO, a neck and three-quarters of a length was the verdict when he went down befoie Envoy and Marshal Neil. He was favourite again. He had earlier in the month run second to Orpheus in the Fulbourne Stakes, of £734, with nine others behind him. In the Prince of Wales Nursery' in September, run over a mile, he went down before Firework, by Prince Palatine, who had beaten a field of twenty-two just previously. In the Allington Plate, also at Newmarket, he was second to Swynburn, by Swynford. The six fui - longs was run in Imin. 12 4-ssec., and there were seven other runners, and three lengths divided him from the third; Spion Kop finished up with a half-length defeat in a Free Handicap worth £6OO, at Newmarket in October, in which he was conceding the winner, Tebricus, 61b., and had against him' a number of previous winners, including Pelops. His record, though without a win, was a creditable one, and his form looked of the staying order. The fact that Spion Kop-put up a fresh time record—2min. 34 4-ssec. —for the race is worth recording-

The Derby course is generally supposed to be a trying one, and colts carry 9.0 as against 8.10 in our Derby events. Lord Derby furnished the second colt in the ch c Archaic, by Polymelus from Keystone 11. Archaic won the 1 Prince of Wales Stakes, worth £lBOO, last season, but only started three times. His' dam, Keystone 11., was got by Persimmon, and won the Oaks in 1906, the year that Major Eustace Loder’s Spearmint, sire of Spion Kop, won the Derby. These facts are also interesting, and so is the further information that Mr. L. Neumann’s b c Spearmost, also a son- of Spearmint, was third. . Speaimint is the best son of Carbine left by that horse in England, and he has begotten a lot of good horses. Carbine was Musket’s best son in the colonies, and Petronel the best he left in England, and the fact that Carbine was bred in Auckland is the point that comes out uppermost. That a world’s champion can be bred in the Dominion is significant, and only goes to show that good material is only wanted for Nature to keep up a good average when the products are well looked after. It is further mentioned in the cable that Harchedon was fourth: that Allenby, who is by Bayardo. broke a blood-vessel, and that Tetratema. the best two-year-old last season, was favourite and was beaten, at Tattenham Corner, which is a good span from the finish. Beaten in the Greenham Stakes by' Silvern quite a sensational defeat was registered against Tetratema at Newbury races in April, but as he subsequently won the Two Thousand Guineas hopes were apparently again raised that the grey son of The Tetrarch would remove the reproach or a deep-rooted belief that his sire would not leave stayers. Excuses were offered for Tetratema in some quarters when he went under in his first race this season, but now what can be said for him?

The Tetrarch has yet to sire a Derby winner to realise the hopes of Major McCalmont, who has been more than once keenly disappointed, though the famliy name is written large in connection with English racing. The presence of the King and Queen accompanied by Princess Mary and fifty specially invited guests, added interest to 'the occasion, and they haa a great reception, as one could imagine with an estimated attendance of 250.000 people present. What a gathering! The greatest Derby m history, we are told. To be thousands t ru d£ the fifteen mi s

from London. Ten thousand got there over night and spent the night in the open on the famous Downs, having hundreds of camp fires. What wonderful sights must have been witnessed, and the catering for such a concourse must have taken some doing. Half a million bottles of beer —what have the prohibitionists to say about this? —10,0001 b. of meat, tons of hams and other food supplies were requisitioned, and all to see the Derby, the greatest race on earth with its traditions, won by a grandson of Carbine. * * * *

The Oaks, the classic race for fillies, followed the Derby, and was won by Mr. A. P. Cuncliffe’s br f Charlebelle, by Charles O’Malley from Bushy Belle. Charlebelle won three races last season worth £1378. She was followed home by Cuina, by Polymelus from Baroness La Fleche, and Cuina had already been returned a winner this season, as she was last, and won the One Thousand Guineas on April 30. Roselet, who was third in the Oaks, was only placed on two occasions last season, and she is an

own sister to Roseway, who won the One Thousand Guineas last year and proved a good stake winner, securing £4844. Both are by Stornaway from Rose of Ayrshire, who had another winner in Sonning, by Sunder, last season, a four-year-old colt.

The good luck of the Auckland Racing Club has often been commented upon, and the weather on Thursday last could not have been more inviting or more perfect for the time of year. Under such meteorological conditions it is no wonder there was a big crowd at Ellerslie, a crowd which could only have been a little below the best of some previous year for the corresponding day. From first to last the business of the day and the enjoyment of the racing was in keeping with the spirit of sport. The people were got there by train, tram, motor and horse conveyances, and a few walked short distances. After a most enjoyable outing came the return journey. The getting home will? long be remembered by many, for thereby hangs many a tale. The train accommodation was never better, and if people had only known that extra specials had beeh provided more would have availed themselves of the iron- horse. All too late some hundreds of the racegoers while wending their way to the tram stopping places as usual, learned that the service had been held up by a strike of the men. .. It .was at once put down to the sympathy of the men with the

jockeys who got into trouble for their actions at the Avondale meeting, and it transpired that a large number who had refused to do duty on race specials had been dismissed, and the other men edme out with them in consequence of their dismissal, the men, after running their cars back to the barns, thus suspending all tramway traffic —an exasperating procedure from the point of view of those not concerned with the troubles of jockeys, and very inconvenient for those' who enjoy a good afternoon’s sport and find the train service the best to meet their individual requirements. We are not going into the merits or demerits of the jockeys’ dispute. We know that they have greater claims to consideration than they have received from clubs and owners, and we are assured that they will have legitimate grievances rectified and that they will in future receive better pay, but with a meeting pending between their representatives and representatives of horse owners for the purpose of ventilating their grievances and pressing their claims they wer.e bound to ride at the Auck-

land Racing Club’s winter meeting in the interval, or run the risk of being punished for breaking riding engagements thereat, as some of their number were at Avondale. That their sympathisers, the tramway hands, should have acted on the advice of the Transport Advisory Board and refused to work the race specials to a meeting declared “black” by certain sections of labour was an extreme step, to say the least of it, under the circumstances.