NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 467, 27 March 1909, Page 14

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

[By Glincok.]

The autumn meeting of tho Masterton Racing Club commences on Wednesday next, when'the Waipipi Cup will be decided. Weights for the first day's events at the Feilding Jockey Club's meeting will be declared on Monday. Loiret, who has not run up to expectations on the flat during the present season, is now to be schooled over hurdles. It is understood that the autumn meeting of the Dannevirko Racing Club will result in a profit of over £300. Mr. I. G. Duncan, proprietor of the Waikanae Stud, is sending half-a-dozen thoroughbred mares to the Randwick sales at Easter time. ■ W. Evans, who rode Apologue to victory in the Melbourne Cup, has been riding in India, but he has decided upon returning to Australia again, and will be present at the A.J.C. autumn meeting. Mr.'Chris. Higgins, of Christchurch, who went to Melbourne to see the Conqueror gelding, William, race, returned to the Cathedral city last week. An appeal board, sot up by the Racing Conference to deal with appeals in connection with the Avondale disqualifications, meets in Wellington to-day. The Wellington Pony and Galloway Racing Club has decided to hold a two-days' meeting in May, and a no-day meeting in June. The June fixture will take place on Prince of Wales's Birthday. North Island horses will be m strong evidence at the Nelson races, which take place on Wednesday and Friday next: Word from Invereargill states that tho four-year-old chestnut gelding Ferryman (Lakeshell— Moneybox), while doing eJ gallop at Oreti, Southland, on Tuesday last, broke a fetlock. Ferryman was bred in the Wairarapa, and towards the end of last season he was sold by his owner, Mr. R. B. Ross, to Mr. Sharp, of Southland, the price of purchase being £250. The gelding won his first race in November, on. which occasion the ring was depleted of a large amount of money. He was then treated to a spell, and on being taken up again, won a double at Lumsden last month, and gave promise of developing into a first-class racehorse. C. Jenkins will ride Whqtumarama in the Waipipi Cup next Wednesday. Jos. Prosser brought Tauira, Waimaria, and Te Kahuratigi back to Porirua last night. Taitoko, who broke down badly at New Plymouth, was derailed at Levin, and will be turned out there for a lengthy spell. C. Pritcbard brought Mon Amie back from New Plymouth by the mail train yesterday evening, and the Soult mare was taken out to Lower Hutt by a later train. Acting on the advice of a well-known horseman, Mr. W. V. Young purchased the aged gelding Burton (St. Clements—Waihi) on the night of the first day's racing at New Plymouth. Burton won a race for his new owner the following day, and then Mr. Young immediately rosold him, but the name of the buyer has not transpired. Speciosa, Kareroa, and Perolina were double winners at ,the Club's meeting, and Federal, British Peer, and Chief Lochiel won doubles at the . Timaru fixture. St. Felix, who won tho Juvenile Handicap at the South Canterbury Jockey Club's meeting yesterday, is the first of St. Ambrose's stock to get on the winning list. St. Felix was purchased, for 300 guineas as a yearling, but, as he showed exceptionally good track form after being broken in, he was sold at tho beginning ofthe ' present. season for a considerable advance. An attack of influenza prevented him from-fulfilling his engagements at the New Zealand Cup meeting, and the present fixture is the first occasion on which he has sported silk. The Wellington Pony and Galloway Racing Clnb stewards are holding a special meeting next Tuesday to further inquire into the circumstances surrounding the running of Sweet Lethe in the March Cup last Saturday week. The trainer and the rider of the horse and several bookmakers have been cited to appear at the meeting. Mr. G. P. Donnelly's steeplechaser, Gold Seal, was comfortably housed on the deck of tne Athenic, which left for England on Thursday, and the aged son of Gold Reef looked in nioe condition to weather the long voyage. Mr. Jas. Beckett, an Auckland bookmaker. ' in a letter to one of the Auckland daily papers, protests against the present attitndo of the racing clubs in granting bookmakers' licensos indiscriminately. Mr. Beckett has had a lengthy experience of the racing game both in New Zealand and Australia, and is well qualified to express an opinion on the bookmaker question, but he is only giving voice to the general opinion when he states that the clubs should require some financial guarantee from bookmakers who wish to bet on the courses. In respect of this it is interesting to note that while Sir Geo. Clifford, president of the Racing Conference, stated last year that a Tattersall's Club would not be recognised by the conference, Mr. W. H. Wanklyn, secretary of the Racing Conference, recently suggested, in an interview with a Christchurch pressman, that the bookmakers should form such a club for the purpose of guaranteeing one another. From Dhis it would appear as if the Racing Conference had altered its views during the past six months, and was now inclined to recogniso an association of bookmakers. The Masterton horses Gaelic, Thera, and Lucretius hav« been shipped to Nelson to take part in the races on Wednesday Two other Wairarapa horses, Silken Rein and Purakau, will go by the next boat. Winning jockeyß at the Taranaki Jockey Club's meeting wore:—R. Hatch, four; G. Price, two; C. Cochrane, two; N. Campbell, two; C. Jenkins, C. Jackson, J. Buchanan, D. Deoley, W. H. M'Kay, and W. Raynor, ono each. ' The principal winning payments over the Taranaki Cup meeting wore made as follow: —Mr. S. Messona, £265; Mr. L. Bremer, £180; Mr. A. Attwood, £170; Mr. Highden, £170; and Mr. T. Lloyd, £100.