THE CHRISTCHURCH SPRING MEETING.

Evening Star, Issue 3030, 5 November 1872, Page 4

THE CHRISTCHURCH SPRING MEETING.

“Druid,” the sporting correspondent of the Lyttelton Times, makes the following observations in reference to the principal events of the approaching Christchurch meeting : The Canterbury Cup, the next on the list, has not been thinned down so much from the first nomination as many expected,, each owner having sent one representative to do battle for his stable. (Jut of the five acceptors, I shall take as my choice of the lot, Peeress, who looks and goes as if she had never done a day’s work, and must score the Cup this \oar, bar all accidents, to her owner’s credit, with much greater ease than she has ever done before, Yatterina, to my mind, docs not come up quite to the mark, good, as she has a reputation of being, though we have never seen it on the Christchurch course, to contest a Cup with such mares as Peen ss. detractor is another horse that comes out with a very great number of friends and staunch admire s. It has always been a puzzle to me what has given rise to it, as he never has done anything to mark him even as an ordinary horse. He did win a race here on the Queen’s Birthday, 1871, against ordinary company, and ran a moderate second in the I ‘erby last season, but at the same meeting he was nowhere in the Metropolitan Handicap, with fist. IQlbs., so that I fail to see that he has any pretension to be classed with the company he is in. If he does run well up, I shall be agreeably surprised, his owner being asportsman of therigbt sort. From Tambourini’s double performances last 24th Way, many great things were predicted for this race, he winning first of all the Hurdle Race in great style against Medora and others, and then coming out and beating Slander for the Victoria Handicap, a mile and a-half, receiving, it must be confessed, 3st from her, so that I cannot help thinking I must in common with many others have overated him ; still he will make a first-class horse over the sticks if he should prove not quite up to the Cup company. The last on the list—Lurline, own sister to Malice—is considered the plum of the ‘lam stud, and eight, from her breeding and the confidence of her stable, to prove the hottest competitor the “ old mare ”is likely to have, .'-he has only to carry 7*t 11b against the Peeress’s 9st 81bs, which must make a great difference if she is any good at all, and such is my confidence in her that I expect to see the race lie between Peeress and Lurline. The Derby at present looks to be the great race of the year, as far as young ones are concerned, being done out of our Maiden to a great extent, by the smallness of the entry so I shall not, on this occasion, say much about it reserving further remarks on this and the other races for an early day. Before I close my remarks on the Derby, I must say that at the present, I am strongly in favour of Duntroon, the Revoke colt as the winner of the Blue Riband.