THE TURF

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 189, 30 April 1918, Page 7

THE TURF

NOTES AND COMMENTS PY GLBNCOE-t Satisfactory entries have been received for the Marlborough Meeting, wJiicli takes place on .May 14 aud 15; Nominations liavo been received from New. Plymouth, Hastings, and lticcarton. Weights for the first day's handicaps aro due on Friday. The steeplechaser Glucpot, winner of the H'angauui Steeplechase laat year, has again been entered for the same event. At the Easter meeting at Ellerslie Gluepot' scored jn the Autumn Steeplechase, and ho was reported to be very forward for the winter season. Sleight-of-lland aud Master Strowan, the respective winners of this New Zealand Grand National Hurdle lia.ee and Nov Zoaland Grand National Steeplechase, fissuro amongst the entrants lor the* Great Northerns. Colonel Sotiit, winner of several big handicaps in the Auckland district, is this year to be tried at hurdle racing, and' ho has been nominated for the Great Northern Hurdles. '' Somo timo back it was reported thnt Blueßtono was to be retired from the race tracks, but apparently his owner has decided to try him once again, as Ihe urcy geldinj has been nominated for the Great Northern Hurdles. He is such ft splendid mud performer, and this, combined with hiß ability to carry big weights well, should malto him a very' danererous candidate in any big jumping event. A new-comer to the ranks of the hurdle brigade is the Boniform gelding Wishful, winner of the Taranaki Cup. Wishful has been racim? badly on the flat in his last few essays, but if he becomes proficient at the jmnpiug gamp he should be a very useful lforse for a National. His owner, J[r. G. L. Stead, has a great likinß for a jumper. In 1914 he won the Grand Notional Steeplechase with Tim Doolan, whom ho trained himself. The imported horse Almo has been entered for the principal flat and hurdle races at hofli the Wanganui and Auckland Winter Meetings. Mahzoltov, who used to carrv Mr. E. Short's colours, is noyr trained by J. Williamson at Ellerslie. The well-known Auckland horseman A. J. M'Flinn is amongst those called in the last ballot. The Otaki trainer P. Higgott is also in the last, as is Mr. C. Haldanc, a prominent Hastings owner. The death is reported from Palmerston North of Mr. J. Telford, father of the well-known Trentham trainer. Deceased, who was over 80 years of age, was a prominent trainer in tho Otago district in tho 'eighties. A couplo of Sir George Clifford's two-yenrs-olds, Sir Fanciful (Eokeby—Lady Wayward) and Wild Night (Antagonist— Wiudwhistlc) havo been gelded, while another of tho same age, Hcathercote (Boni-forni-Hcathorbrac) is to be similarly treated. M. Hobbs, who has been in Australia for somo mouths, returned tO' Riccarton. laßt week. The Now Zealand-bred Tararn Jack was amongst the' competitors in the Hurdle Handicap at City Tattersall's Meeting ou April 13, but never looked to have winning prospects. Another of the unplaced division was Jack Bice, who had the steadier of 13st. 111b. in the saddle. P. E. Jones, for-many years head horseman to the Chokebore stables, lias now set up as a public trainer at Tirnaru.