THE CLUBMAN

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1579, 29 July 1920, Page 8

THE CLUBMAN

The racing statistics for the season closing on the 31st inst. are both interesting and instructive, showing as they do how popular the sport is, and what a lot of money is spent in keeping it going by the public," owners, and breeders, who make it a pleasurable occupation the world over. It is a sport with some, a business and sport combined with many, and a livelihood for a fail’ percentage. There are a good many owners who can afford to keep horses in training and who would not miss a thousand or two a year in the way of expenses when fortune did not smile, but there are not many who would keep their stables on unless they got occasional wins, and something in return for their outlay in racing material, and the cost incidental thereto. Year after 'year we have noticed Quite a number of the same names of supporters figuring in the lists of winning owners. Though some have this year taken more prominent places therein than ever before, we find very few newcomers whose names figure in the 90 odd whose horses have won over £lOOO in stakes. Below that amount we come across names of veterans of the great game who have had their big years, or, at least, very much better ones than the past has been for them.

It is at all times pleasing to find sportsmen who are not afraid to launch out for anything they consider likely to be good, getting a fair return for their enterprise. One such, Mr. W. R. Kemball, for the first time since he started, racing a few years ago, has reached the top of the list with the respectable total of £10,935. Though he has spent a deal of money in horses, and has a big stable full, he has probably made his racing ventures pay to date, while each of the cast-offs from the stable ' have been winners since, which is something of a record. Mr. Fred Easton, who this year comes second in the list, owes his place largely to the successes of his three-year-old gelding, Amythas, who figures at the head of the winning horses with £7695 opposite his name, a large part of the total of £10,310 credited to his owner. Sir George Clifford, with £10,146, got well on to a third of that amount with Moorfowl, who, like the other members of the Chokebore Lodge team, is a home-bred one, and Sir George’s big total of successes during a long period of years have been gained almost exclusively with horses he has bred himself. In the dual position of breeder and owner it can be said he comes an easy first of those still following up the sport in the same way. Sir George has a good stud to draw his racing material from. * . * * * The Hon. E. W. Alison, with fewer horses than some owners above him, some bought and others he bred, has had his best season to date. Like

Sir George Clifford, the Waikato owner, Mr. R. Hannon, races horses he breeds, but he also has an occasional purchase amongst his team. He races almost exclusively in the Auckland province, and in handicaps, including jumping events, has year in and year out maintained a respectable average. This year he has topped his previous best. His team has been a fairly large one, and his colours have been very often unfurled. Mr. Hannon has bn occasions been the leading Auckland owner, but this season the Hon. E. W. Alison’s score is the best. Auckland is a very large province, and though on a population and land area basis it should be entitled to more days of racing or more racing permits, still the prize money is good all round, and leading Auckland racing stables should secure more in stakes within the province than they do. The totals of the two owners referred to were reached in handicap successes, and a very insignificant portion was secured by going outside. The three owners who won -more than the two Aucklanders did a lot more travelling, and racing in several provinces, and aimed at the higher class races. Mr. G. D. Greenwood had a comparatively small team of bought horses, and he comes sixth on the list, if his New Zealand wins only are counted. With his Australian winnings added, however, he would be found up with Mr. Kemball, who had some members of his team racing in the .Commonwealth as well.

Mr. Harold Brown had his best year — much’ the best, thanks to Arrowsmith, who more than paid for his purchase, after paying all racing and travelling expenses, and earned more money in the Dominion than English horses have ever done. Mr. Gerald Stead, whose total of £6BBO came between that of Messrs. G. D. Greenwood and H. Brown, was seventh on the list. The eight owners referred to were those whose horses won over £5OOO. One might go on writing about individual owners and their luck —good bad, or indifferent—during the season. It is ever of the fluctuating . order at best.' The names of several lady owners appear in the list of winners of over £lOOO,. Mrs. M. A. Perry, of Hawke’s Bay, with £4433; Mrs. E. A. Lindsay, of Auckland, with £2600, all secured by Uncle Ned, Auckland’s best winner; and Mrs. H. M. Campbell, of Hawke’s Bay, with £llO6. Owners of jumpers do not often win so much with them in one season as Mr. R. Acton-Adams has done with Lochella, who earned £4OlO. Of the two-year-olds, Humbug (by Absurd) only won £2O more than Moorfowl, whole total of £3lOO beats the totals of Karo and Oratress, two four-year-olds of her sex, and mares did very well indeed during the year, Taiamai, Imaribbon, and Silver Link each winning over £2500, while Bonnetter, 80-Peep, and Silver Peak each went over the £2OOO mark. Next to Taia-

mai, Queen Abbey, with £1795, was the best winner for Auckland in the mare division.

There will be some arguments, no doubt, as to which are the best horses in commission at the present time for next season’s racing. Amythas has yet to meet Gloaming, and when these two geldings do breast the tape together in weight-for-age races next. November at Riccarton, or perhaps in October at Trentham. there will be some lively interest taken in the contests we may be sure. We are assuming that Gloaming, with other members of Mr. Greenwood’s team, will visit Sydney and return to the Dominion in accordance with programmes mapped out in nearly all previous years by Mason and his employer. Amythas is likely to go on improving, and Gloaming has not been an overwrought three and four-year-old, and did not start so early as Amythas. The last-named is a gelding of very even temperament and is well up to w.f.a.: so is Gloaming, and both are undoubted champions, and it is to be hoped that they will meet more than once and over different ’ distances to settle the question of supremacy. Collateral form is of little use to go on when horses of this class are under discussion. Gloaming has met the cracks. Amythas has met nothing so good as Gloaming has disposed of, but when he does he will have some friends from the Dominion.

Demosthenes, who is now in an Australian stud, it was generally expected would reach the top of the winning, sires’ list in New Zealand this season, and he has done so with the aid of forty-four winners of place money—the largest number for the season—beating Martian’s place winners by four and their winning total " by over £3300. Marble Arch had twenty-nine, and this imported sire beat Kilbroney’s total by four in number and he was only about £9OO behind in the matter of stake value. JL was Marble Arch’s best season. Bezonian, who has just been sold and goes to-Sir George Clifford’s stud, had twenty-seven winners, but defunct Hymettus and the veteran sire Advance—tire best of colonial-bred horses and a good racehorse, as many will remember, though a numberless one —each had twenty-four representatives with over £9OOO to their credit. The Australian-bred Finland had twenty-five winners and Gazeley twenty-one, but All Red, son of Stepniak, had twenty, and Elysian, son of Soult, a contemporary of Stepniak at the stud, had nineteen, and Elysian’s progeny won most money. Three of Soult’s progeny won £3625, and one of Stepniak’s £6OO. Defunct Maniapoto had eighteen representatives, defunct Multifid fifteen, and defunct Birkenhead the same number; Absurd has'seventeen. All Black (who has also representatives in Australia). Rokeby and Campfire each sixteen, though the money value of their winners differs. Autumnus has made a

good start with six winners ot £7061, a better average than any sire standing in the Dominion —that is, of flat racers. Boniform has kept up his average very well, and it was Kilbroney’s best year, and though Martian was headed by Demosthenes it was ' Martian’s best season, and Advance never did so well. His stock, like the Riddlesworth’s of old, get better with age.

The brothers Roy and Ashley Reed, with 59% and 56% wins respectively, head the list of winning jockeys, George Young with 54%, R. S. Bagby with 44, H. Gray with 43%, following; L. G. Morris with 40. A. J. McFlinn with 37%, H. McCarten with 37, J. Olsen 36%, H. Young 36, and the apprentice A. McCormac 32 heading the others.

The Racing Conference did the right thing in so providing that in future no club should have two-year-old races in which apprentices only should ride. Year after year it had been suggested to the powers that be that they should stop the practice, but nothing was done in the matter. It was left to he judgment of the framers of programmes to do as they thought fit, and some of the clubs persistently followed in the same old groove. We have seen green two-year-olds and maiden candidates ridden in their early races by lads with very little experience or ability, and have, felt pity for the young thoroughbreds and some of the lads. Many of the best horsemen we have had in this country have been noted for their fine handling of baby racehorses in their early races and at work. Some earned quite a reputation in being especially good on two-year-olds, and their records show it. There are to be races for apprentices only, and the lads will have better chances than on two-year-olds more or less green, and the more proficient will always get their share of riding in other races against the experienced jockeys. * * * * It was confidently expected that the embargo on the shipment of racehorses would be lifted by the end of last week, and that the owners of horses waiting to be taken to the New Zealand Grand National meeting across Cook Strait from Wellington to Lyttelton would find no obstacle in the way. It has been reported that meetings of watersiders have been held at Lyttelton and Wellington, and that most of those concerned, like the jockeys themselves, are anxious to see the whole business brought to an end. The owners furthest away from Lyttelton, and who contemplated sending their horses away on Tuesday from Auckland, were left in doubt on the subject, and the meeting is drawing close. By Wednesday it was expected that an official announcement would be forthcoming.