SPORTING NOTES.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 4171, 3 December 1884, Page 4

SPORTING NOTES.

(By "Callbe Ou.") The other day I came across two interesting little items which I cut out some mouths ago from; the Federal Australian and the Australasian. "These scraps were the sumrniiigs up of two sporting writers after the weights for the last Melbourne Cup appeared, and gobacktoJuiy. In the'former journal, the writer selected thirteen hor.ses to furnish the winner. A month before the race only two or three of the thirteen were left in, and out of the baker's dozen not a single horse saw the post. "Augur" in the Australasian, selected thirty horses lib being well in, of that number seven started, but out of the first seven in the race, only one .was mentioned, in the thirty-—Plausible, due probably to his lutvii'g won the race at Melton at the back end of the season. Now when experienced sporting , writers like those I have named, men who seldom bet, can do no better af-ter the weights appear, is it not madness on the part of backers thus early backing tho double ? Already some infatuated individuals have rushed on to Newstead at 1000 to 2u for tho double, while others have been, taking , 1000 to ID about Manchester, Monto Ohristo, and some others. The public will never understand apparently that the dead money keeps the bookmakers on velvet. It is a peculiar thing that no early backed horse for the Derby or the doublehasovar been a good investment, and the first early favorite has n ever got home first iv either race, yet year after year the public rush on as if the road was bound to have v turn.

Some time ago, when discussing tho the chances of tho last V.R (J. Derby, I reviewed where tho G, to 4 hor:«os for that race had finished, and now I purpose looking at what was accomplished by the early two-year-old wondors. As lam writingfrom memory I will go back to 1875, and I find, but.of the twenty-seven placcdhorses for the Plate, nearly ten never won a race after that event. My enquiry is practically Wiling two birds with one stone; it shows

early two-year-old racing a mistake, and

that early backing on the strength of two-year-old-form is worse than infatuation. The first audsecond in the first year I have taken were Newminster and Aldinga. Well, then backers had no cause to bless either.' Before the weights appeared the formertouched 100 to 5 for the double, but

receded when the weights were announced

and" hedging, wa3 never once possible. Vulcan never -, won again nor, if memory eerve3 me right, did Habena, aud Secjenhoo was ditto, though a 6 to i r chance for tho Derby, and 100' to 2 for the double before the wdghts appeared. Of the whole number of placed horses in the plate, the only good ones were and Guesswork, who made a dead heat for second place, and ' that consistent little fellow David. So my advice to backers is, keep your money in your pockets, and ff you will back early at least wait till the weigtitsappear. 'Thecomplaint this year was that there was not a firstclass three-year-old among the crowd,-and so far that seems to be true, but I thluk wo ■will find' qiiite a different state of affairs jiext year.

■In the Referee Sir Launcelot, a couple of \yeeks ago, had a fling at the Press Association reporting of our' N.Z. races, and I think every spettsmah. will bear him out in the matter, for with two or three exceptions such as Auckland and Dunedin.'.-iit times, it is'true'.' From Wellington the other day wo read that n horse could''-not pass Derrett, as if the crack jockoy wore another horse. Then we get the time and totaUsiitor dividends for some hack race, but tho raco of the meeting very often forgets all about those, important matters. Reuter is equally bad. Either tho Melbourne reporters or Router did not see the same races for the descriptions do not at all tally, while the timo .when it was telegraphed to us waa misleading altogether; The plain fact is skeleton telegrams are extended by men knowing nothing of racing except by hearsay. These men may be capable enough of "filling in" by aid of books aud mape a war telegram, but a horserace is a bird of -a slightly different color.'*'

Some time ago I wrote strongly against the early tworyear old racing. " Augur " ■who defended ' the system some time ago in the lust Australasian, says, "°li is a. fact worthy of notice that the horses bred, in Now South Wales were very moderately .represented in the weight for age races, and this I think may be fairly attributed to , the forcing , process now so freely adopted in the sister colony. Years ago, when there were no two-year old races to dangle before the eyes of breeders, they produced such horses as Archer, Talleyrand, Tarragon, Volunteer, Yattendon, Tim Whiffler; The .Barb, Gleucog, "Warrior aild Dag worth ; but nowadays they have nothing over two years old to compare to Commotion, Malua, tiiv Modrcd, and Le Grand." I thiuk in the abovo wo have all the admission that can he expected from one who is liot an opponent of two-year old early racing. Commotion it may be mentioned never ran as a two-year old and was not in much of a hurry in his three-year old career, hut since then out of 26 starts he Las won .nine times, has four ' L seconds, and seven thirds. Hi" F. F. iJ'tkin, a gentleman/trainer at the V.B.C. meeting hud three firsts, four .seconds, and a third.—Archer in October had won 200 races.—Tristan, the champion of England, has won nearly £23,000 in Stakes.—Johnson tns put all trotting re--cord 9 in the shade by doing the mile in 2mins. Gjsecs.—Commotion was only bought by Mr Pearson after he had won the V.R.C. St. Le"ev; before that he belonged to his breeder Mr Phillips.— Siif Bedevere has

been sold to a Northern sport.— c. Augur" doubts if 100,000 people ever saw a Melbourne, Cup run for.—Mr Fennelly's gold watch presented to him by New Zealanders has been returned by the thief.—A tricyclisfc on a suburban London road has ridden 100 miles in 7 hours 25 minutes. —English on a bicycle has ridden 20, miles .560 yards in an hour ; with the exception of the first mile every succeeding mile is the record ; a marvellous performance.—Tigredia is generally looked upon as well in in the Auckland Cup.—-A Sydney paper says Sir Modred returns to New Zealand.—ln the_ English batting averages Steel heads the list, while Rhaw heads the bowling.—At 30 yards Mr Bayer, of the Melbourne Gun Club, recently killed all his 21 birds; the second man killed all his too, but one fell over the boundary fence. Unequalled shooting.— Age does not affect Legers in India. Caspian ran second in October in a St. Leger, and vet in 1880 he won the V.R.C. Leger.