NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1619, 10 December 1912, Page 7

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

' [BT GLE.N'coe.] 7 Providing that the wehther is fins, there •will no doubt be a big crowd present at the Bulls meeting on Wednesday and Thursday, when the old-time club will make a new beginning. Tho acceptances received are good, and the meeting promises to be a success -in every way. Khamsin has changed hands recently, and will no longer know the racecourse. It will be remembered that, whilst racing at Otaki. in June last, the Quarryman niare was put on the fence and seriously injured in the stifle. She was unfitted for racing bythe accident, aud, last week, the Waikanae stud acquired her. fl. Cutts, who is in ' charge of the Chokebore team for Auckland, will go north, by the evening express on Thursday next. He will be followed on Sunday by M. Hobbs, with Mr. J. B. Eeid's horses, and, on the following Wednesday R. O'Donnell will take Los Angelos, Culprit, Bon Ton, and Bon Revo* to the northern city. .. Advices l'rdjii Hastings state that the. New Zealand Cup winner, Midnight Sun, has not. been going as well lately as his admirers could wish, but there is nothing Beriously wrong with him, and, so far, there is nothing to indicate that ho will not see tho post. . The handicapping of Lady Georgia by the Melbourne weight-adjusters has not pleased T. Wilson, and it is reported that he is returning to New Zealand with her and Powder Fox. Colour is lent to this statement by tho fact that both animals arc nominated iu the minor events at the Ellerslio meeting at Christmas. . As a sample of ingratitude (says an Australian paper) the following would be difficult to beat. At a picnic meeting in North Queensland last month a half-caste Todo for a station-owner. This gentleman had reared the half-caste from a baby, when he was ruthlessly left to die by a young gin. For twenty years he had fed, clothed, and generally fathered him.

Than came the race episode. The native rode a horse for his patron, and knowing, what a fine animal it was at the distance, and with the weight, the owner put on two hundred to support his own.. Iho horso was hopelessly beaten, and being suspicious, the owner carpeted the jockey, who unblushingly admitted that h« had pulled his mount for the consideration of a new pipe and half a pouud of tobacco. Plucky "Bob" Sievier got. hold of a cheap animal when lie bought Warlingham out of a selling race at . Newbury for 310gns. But (says a writer in nn English exchange) what the fat boy ill "Pickwick" would have termed a "cheaperer" was The Widow, an aged mare by. Abbas Mirza—lsabel, who, carrying 7st., and starting at 30 to 1, won the Cambridgeshire by two lengths from 36 others in' 1819, having been previously . purchased out of a hansom cab by a sporting colonel •in the Guards, who, struck by the .pace she. went in harness, and her racing appearance generally, succeeded in obtaining: possession of -The AVido.w, at -the end of the journey, for the modest sum of .£5. The amount ,of silver coins which were handled at Doncaster in connection with the four days' racing—the silver takings of ■ the corporation—turnecl. the scale at . 1 ton 12cwt. 101b. . The wnole of these wins had to bo : handled and carefully counted. There wero less than a dozsn bad coins. The receipts of the Doncaster Corporation Tramways for the four race days, although not a record, were in excess of last year. Altogether 104,666. passengers were carried to and from the course. 1 • A humorous story is told of a, hard-head-ed sporting newspaper proprietor, who, not being satisfied with the work, done by Ilia tout, gave him notice to quit. The tout came up to see the proprietor, and made the most unfortunate defence he possibly could. He said: "To show the esteem in which I am held, Sir, only last week as I was leaving the Downs, the trainers met me and presented liio with a gold watch and chain." Replied that proprietor: "The man I want is one that the trainers will be on the look-out for with a shot-gun." The Carbine horse Greatorex leads Hie. list of winning sires in South Africa for tlie second time, 17 of his progeny haying i won 33 races for Fourth, on the list comes the Australian-bred Chesney (by Maiua).. . ..' 'Prince Palatine,' who- headed the list of winning horses in. England, for last season, was beaten in a rather sensational manner on October 31,' in the Jockey Club Cup at Newmarket, in which his only op- . ponent was the three-year-old Aleppoj to whom Prince Palatino was conceding 141b. over 2J miles.' Aleppo, who was not considered in the betting, went to the front early, and, without over being headed, won easily by-half a dozen lengths. Adam .Bkle, winner of the Cambridgeshire, was both bred and foaled 'in America, but his pedigree belongs to thft English "Stud Book." His sire, Adam, was bred in France, by imported Flying Fox out of the famous brood mare Amie (dam also of Ajax), and his dam, Grace Gumberts, who was sent to the States as a . yearling, was bred by Sir ; John A. Miller, and was got by Sainfoin out of Maid of Mentmore, a mare of Lordßosebery's breeding, by Cameliard out; of the Ccsarewitch heroine Corisande. ■ Her daughter, Grace Gumberts, was sold un- • named as- a .yearling for SOOgris.,.Eugene Leigh, the American trainer, bsing . the : purchaser.. Adam, who likewise was sent to U.S.A., Grace Gumberts, and their son Adam Bedo are all three back in Europe. Referring' to. My Gavonni's victory in the Summer Cup: at Brisbane on November 30, with lOst. 91b. in the saddle, a Queensland writer, says that those who backed him to win the . Sumiher Cup must have trusted to the length- of the 'journey and the poor quality of the oppositioifto give him another vin. And it , ■ was just these conditions that stpod to him. He had only a pound'more than when'he won the. Metropolitan Handicap more than three months ago, whereas everything else had gone up a lot, the fair performers getting to just.within 2st. of him. That is how ; racing stands in Queensland at present. : The one good horse we have-has to give. away. . 2st. to more than-4st. in a'long-distance handi- . cap, and is-t'stilL, able R'to.oscpre.. ..'Tire ; southern speciallyengaged to ride My Gavonni in the Cup, and lie handled him very skilfully, keeping a, good position until the moment arrived to make his run, and then jhe got him up in time to beat Black Prince by a .short neck in the fair time of 3min. 3Jsec. ' ' '