NOTES AND COMMENTS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 36, 6 November 1918, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS

\ I'BY GbEXCO&I

The T.R.O. Meetiug v»ll bo continued at i'leinington to-day, when the Lmlithgow Stakes and Oaks will bo decided. iVa OaKs 'has been \Am by three Now Zea-land-bred horses in Pearshcll (by Musket;, Tiraillerie (by iNorasnfeldt), and Oarlitii (by Charlemagne, lij. Laet year i'olly Queen liuisiiect fcrst. i'olly Quaeti is a sister to Artilleryman, ana is Qy Comedy lung from the Nbw Zealand mare Oroen Battery. The LiulithL'OW Stakes will draw a "classy" held, and the etartors I will probably include Desert Gold, Magpie, Getigne t Wolaroi, listland, and the vest of uie .Australian cracks. Last year when iiiplanc-took the raco tho mile was run in liniu. 373si;c, but this year, with the Held engaged, an improvement on this time (excellent an it isj may be looked for. Tho' fifty-eighth Melbourne Oup wns run yesterday, and wae won by the bay gcluing Night Watch, who runs in-the colours of Mr. C. h. Macdonald. Jijglit, Watoh, who was let into the handicap at the minimum, is by St. Alwyne (bt. VrusqiimLady Alwyne) from the great racing maxe Wakeful (Trenton-Insomnia), and in winning yesterday's race bettered the performance of his aam, who rail second to Lord Cardisan in tho Cup of 1903. , Mr. llacdonald owns Wakeful, who.is now in her twenty-third year, and his gelding 'is trained at Flemington ,by E. Brauiield, whoso stable also shelters tho CaulfMd Oup winner. King Offa, Magpie, Coq d'Or, and.the rest of Messrs. itobinson. ana Clark's- big team. Bradfield has 'thus this year won Iho Cup double. Hoi'scb trained by that mentor in Patron and Tho 'Victory won tho ilolbourne Cup of 1894 and 1902- respectively. Tho Metropolitan Handicap winner Kenna<iuhair was second in yesterday's race, and there scorns to he some truth in W. M'Lachlan's statement that the Kenilworth horse is at present- the best stayer in Australia. The- third horEO.'Gadabout, was bred in England, and | has not done much since coining out. to Australia, though ho won a. handicap raco last month. Tho ra«e was a, disappointment to N».-w iZcaland turf followers, inasmuch aa Uieir three reprcscntatives-Dcs-«rt Gold, Einmarl;, and Arch Marclla-nll finished out of a place. Fininark did tliu best of the trio, finishing fourth, whilst Desert Gold was eighth, and Arch Marclla eleventh. For the first time the \Vt-w Zealand mare was ridden in behind the Hold, but tho "experiment" did not prove successful, and it is doubtful if she would havo been worse .placed if she had bcon allowed to play Her original role, that ■ of paceniake?. The. race was run in ;i quarter of a second better time than thu previous best (1914, when won in 3min. itac.j. Mr. E. E. D. Clarke's colt Elkin follow--! Ed up his third .in tho Gwyn. Nursery Handicap at Oaullield by annexing the November Nursery Handicap at i'loniington yesterday. Tho second horse was brat, and is also owned, by Mr. (Jlarke. Crago, who finished third, was bred by. the Messrs. Thompson Bros., and realised oiu guineaa when sold at auction, last, June. Biplane returned to tho Dominion >eatcrdayi 'by tho Manuita. Tho Toranaki .joclsey. Owen M.'Artcn, wue wounded, in recent lighting at the lront. To .win the Stewarus' Handicap, in ridiculous ease, carrying 7st. 21b., in the good time of Imin. 11 4-ssec. (the best recorded so far for tho race, and three-fifths of a second below Sweet Corn's Australasian record), has brought Michaela into prominence. Michacla was successful in tho Electric Handicap run at Wingatui a month ago. Last season Michaela, who is ono of the Eokeby tribe, won six races out of nine starts, and crcdu.u her owner with 587 sovb. in stako^ouey.

Apparently< tho Victorian owners, Messrs. A. and G. Tyo, are giving up racing, us they have given instructions to nave their racing stock sold. Tho majority of their horses are imported ones,. but two of their team'in Kill-'em and Westcndalo aro New Zealand-bred. Tho Messrs.. Tye won tho 1915 Cnulfleld Oup witli Uvendo, William the Silent being second, and Oyklon third, all of whom wero Knglish bred. Surveyor, who narrowly defeated warplano in the Welcoino Stakes at Kiccarton on Monday, is the first of tho imported Nassau's .'took to win a race. Surveyor, who is out of Pedometer, was bred by his owner, Mr. G. L. Stead., ■ An Australian critic, commenting on tho finish of the Melbourne Stakes, 6aid: "Magpie, although not all out, defeated Desert Gold by ii neck" If the English liorso wa3 not doing his best; and seeing that tho raco was run in 2niin. 43scc, ho must be o. cloclfcbreakcr extraordinary.Tho Auckland horseman, H. Itobinsou, is mentioned as likely to have the mount ou Mandrake in the Great Northern- Guineas, run next Saturday. ', 80-Peep eeems to go veil on the Eiccarton course. Last year she wou tho Welcome Stakes there, and on Monday Bhe was third in the Stewards' Handicap. . In last year's Cui\ Client, weighted at Bst. lib., started , first favourite. Tliis year, with a, stone*'more to carry, he was right out of favqur, and was only thirteenth in demand on the machine. Mr. -IV. Kichmond's Domoathenes—Mangaroa colt, Taunnha, is threatening , to live up to his reputation. He won very easily over six furlongs in his only start at Trenthani, and at lticcarton, over seven-furlongs, he led from end to end, and scored as he liked.

Lately, decreases in totalieator turnover are rare, but ou Sew Zealand Cup day there was a fall of .£SOOO as compared with Oup day, 1917. • Punka, by Codltvim—Drowsy, who won the mile Welter at Eiccarton, was made favourite on the strength of her excellent track work. Last year he started on six occasions, and won threo two-year-old events.

As' Good Day, second in the Stewards' Handicap, runs in tho name of Mr. W. G. Stead, the owner of Sasauof, that sportsman went close to winning the bis double.

There is much speculation in Quceusland as to the form legislation is likely to assume with regard to the control of racing in that. State. That the Totalisator Act will be amended is generally anticipated. The Assistant-Minister of Justice, Mr. Gillies, is reported to have said, "It had been suggested that the Government should receive iUiO.OOo in revenue from the turf, but he did not think they could look for so large au amount as that. Still, ho believed there was ample justification for diverting a greater proportion of the proceeds of racing into the revenue of the He hinted that he expected the proposed legislation in regard to racing w&uld bo paEsed into law next year."

If what appears in London files is correct, racing was eoing strongly in Aus-tria-Hungary as lato as August last. There was also about that time plenty of money lor thoroughbreds, twenty-niim yearlings from the Ifupagedl stud realising 975,000 kronen—an , average- of about £1400. Shadowland, who has been withdrawn from his Melbourne Oup and other ■ engagements, has yjoved a costly investment for Mr. W. '!'. Nowlan, who purchased him for 3500 guineas from Messrs. 'Jtobinson and Olark, says the Sydney "Telegraph." Mr. Nowlan has yet to win a race with him.