SPORTING NOTES.

Evening Star, Issue 3819, 21 May 1875, Page 3

SPORTING NOTES.

Bt Peoasus. r The acceptances for the race meeting to he held on Monday are out, and though' it is rather late in the season and the weather anything but pleasant a certain amount of interest has been excited by their appearance. None of the Christchurch horses are coming down, but otherwise the handicaps appear to have given extraordinary satisfaction, for every horse entered, with one exception, has accepted. |£For the Maiden Plate there are but three entries, and foi this race I 100 c upon the Ada gelding as the winner. The Hurdle Race is the next event, and for this there are eight competit rs, all but two of which are pretty well known here. Races over sticks have been won and lost recently in so incomprehensible a manner that I shall content myself with merely mentioning the recent appearances in public of those entered. Medora did not win the Steeplechase at the Marchmeeting the Hurdle Race at Christchurch (where she baulked), or at Timaru (where she refusal at three different hurdles); but she won the Waimate Grand National Steeplechase on -Tuesday, giving Tommy Dodd Gibs, and now aha meets him on 4lbs better terms. Tommy Dodd is a stranger to Otago, but had, up till the Waimate meeting won upwards of twenty consecutive .races, without one baulking j be

therefore, he a very dangerous opponent, even if not very fast. His latest victories were at Christchurch (where, receiving a stone, he beat Med«ra), Ashburton, and Timaru (where he beat Ivanhoe at level weights) ; but mate his triumphant career was cut short, and by that running he has no show against Melvanhoe, lOsh Jibs, ran second to Kildare, 9st .Mbs, in the Hurdle "Race at the Marc’ l meeting (would have probably won it, but for baulking once), and came in first in the Steeplechase, giving Mistletoe, amongst those behind him, 11 lbs. I consider that both iMedora and Dodd now hold him safe, hnt Kildare s victory was a fluke, and Ivanhoe should this time have his revenge; while he need fear Mistletoe, Schoolboy. or Mi**! Morris, if he comes to the post fit, but as I hear he is amiss I shall not give TTI 81, PPorH. Theodore I cannot say mu. hj about, except that he has a great reputation 'or being a good one. Kildare I look upon as not a likely winner, but he is so good at surprises that he must not he forgotten. Mistletoe and Schoolboy are scarcely good enough For their company, even with their light imposts, and Miss Morris’s qualifications I know noth ng of. f should place Medora, 1 ; Tommt Dodd. 2; Kild RE, 3 ; but before the st,a v t something may turn up to cause a diffeient view to be taken.

The Birthday Handicap has seven acceptors the place of honor, i’ not of profit, brim/ accorded to Atlas. This horse was dead amiss during the March meeting but has since improved _ considerably—ns ho had need do, to carry his present weight to the front. I shall say nothing about his Cup running with Right Bower, but at Tokomairiro, in April, he carried Gibs more than Mr Ceombe’s horse in the Members’ Handicap and was beaten by the latter for second place to Envy; and on the second day met him 41bs better and, after a so-called dead heat, beat him rather easily. Why Atlas should now bo called on togive the Bower lOlbs is beyond my comprehension, and I must place him behind the latter unless his condition is vastly better than when the two met last. Atlas and Rory O’More have never met, but from the bad form exhibited by th<‘ steeplechaser at Christchurch I prefer the old horses chance. King Philip has also never met Atlas, and he, although heavily weighted for a three-year-old, will prove a hard nut to crack on their first introduction. Atlas beat Kathleen at the Clutha in two races, giving her 30lha on the second occasion, so he should run away from her at 21hs and filbs less. Those that Mr White’s griding need fear are Right Bower, King Philip, and perhaps Bomerang. Rory O’More I shall dismiss with saying that, from his doings in Australia, he ought to win both events in a canter; but he seems out of racing condition altogether, and I shall therefore not give him my vote for Monday next. Right Bow»r is nearly as well in as anv, but he meets King Philip on only 41hs better terms than in the D. J. C. Handicap, in which Captain Hutchison s colt rah second to Templeton and the Bower was not placed. Bomerang’s only recent appearance was at Waikouaiti, where he walked oyer for the Cup, and, with Sst np, was not placed in the Open Handicap—finishing behind Lyndon (9st), Schoolboy (7st 51b), and Sir Ailham (Sat)- 'I bis is nothing very grand, but with his present light weight he ought to have a good outside show for one of the handicaps, as in the Forbury Handicap in March, carrying Gst 71b, he ran third-to Right Bower (7-st 7lhs) and Tadmor (7st 21h). Merry Monarch beat Bothwell in the Tokomairiro Maiden Plate after a dead heat, and that is all I know of him. This race appears to me to lie between the Bower and King Philip, and I shall place them thus -—King Philip 1, Right Bower 2, Atlas 3; with a chance of Bomerang’s displacing one of them. For the Selling Race I should give Kathleen 1, Wee Lad 2, Mat Morn 3. The Tradesmen’s Handicap is almost a second edition of the Birthday Handicap, so far as the weights are concerned ; but it is a qnarter-of-a-mile shorter, and its acceptances contain three horses which are not in the other. Tlmse are Envy, Lyndon, and Congreve; and the first two may he relied on to make the pace very hot, especially as,_ being reserved for the second handicap, they will be quite fresh. Envy beat Right Bovver at Tokomairiro in the Members’ Handicap and the Publicans’ Handicap, receiving 13lbs and 11b, and as they now com* together again on these last-named terms (Hh difference), it is evident that, according to my calculations, Mr Cotton’s mare has as good a show as anything in the race. Good form as she has been showing of late, however, I prefer the fast Lyndon to her ; but the race depends almost entirely on the running for the Birthday Handicap (for winning which there is a 71b penalty) so that I can only place three subject to being affected by the result of that. My present fancy is, not taking the penalty into consideration—King Philip 1, Ltndon 2, Envt 3. 1 here is wry little betting, and quotations a ™ '"" rdy nornina '- Atlas is most favored for the Birthday Handicap, anything over 2 tn ] bein*' taken readily. About the double event —the two handicaps—from 15 to 30 to 2 is obtainable according to the horses taken. More purchases of first-class horse stock have been made in Melbourne for New Zealand. J >reß^ 0 ’ by Panic out of Louisa, has been bought W Mr Holley, of Canterbury, for shipment to Aew Zealand. The ‘Australasian’ says: He is a horse with great size, power, and fine action, and if used with half-bred mares, should soon make a name for himself at the stud as a sire of upstanding carriage horses. He is a well-bred horse too, almost own brother to Melbourne, the latter being by Panic, out of Myth, by Kelpie, out of Miss Lucy, Presto’s granddam. As a racehorse, but for an accident, he would have been quite at the top of the tree.” Mr Hollev has bought, also, Marby Panin out of Barbelle, by Peter Wilkins, who will be shipped in company with Presto.