THE PAST MEETING.

Evening Star, Issue 4088, 3 April 1876, Page 4

THE PAST MEETING.

The Dunedin annual Vace meeting of 1876 may be considered’ the most.auccessful ever held at the Forbury, buLJhe recurrence of last yearW'"boisterous'weather should force the hookey Club, to alter the .date for the future to 'month earlier, which can be dope without clashing Vith any. important meetings in • other of the Colony. . If npt made the ■ competition .for the gates and” booths wiU be far less,keen next year, for the autumnal equinoctial gales are prevalent during the latter half of the_ month 'of March,' and rough thousand people the r Thfe 'alteration would also be ‘ valued greatly by owners of racehorses, who are almost afraid to bring valuable animals hererfoy three , or four weeks fromAiWarm-climate, when the mornings at the Forburycold.- and. raw.; The only argument in favor :of - the present late date is that the 23rd of March is a general holiday, and flaw® money -Will * Consequently be taken at the gates ; but.therGlub may feel assured that i^erh’the' mbst’ paltry excuse is seized upon for’granting'i a would, be proclaimed oh the Cup day. The late meeting lost a Kttle, interest through the

break-down of iVIr .Redwood’s cracks/ Korari and Amobia; Mr Lelamam’s Templeton; and been surpassed for the‘number of close andlxf ■ .eutireabsence of walks-overi'’ ‘Splendid: was thus pro- ; vided for the pubfißfwhq J thbroiigbly appreciated wery : . racing and didr not complain thS%|aoy uaa been .swindle! except in • the c&se' 6$ Tjhe x Steeplechase; . Without offering any opinion, : We mhyAtaie the facts of the matter. • Hr" P. jCampbell’s Tommy Bqdd and.My,,.Banjo were. en-J tfflrett fwhwh'Dftu'ale 5 Ehceand’ Steeplbckftey! • and ever since the nominations appeared the former freely *m .doubles, as he is known eighteen hurdle races out of twenty without baulking or i rHbrfhVjefeJ IheP.wSs scratched for the . Hurdle Race, buti*thik*'Wa9 naturally put down to his being keptrfresh for the next race, ; Handicap, in ; which he ran. ’Hh 3i wa3 1 then backed - - jon.; the Piffle '"rape, .wars , scratched fogy putthpir money! won the Bace esreily,r and as soon, apparently, as they had stoo'd,,bleeding long enough he also Now Messrs . Campbell and Fraser -must have known bn the second,- r dhylthat tb©y would‘ not start their horses in the Steeplechase, and by not pi^^y r< they laid .tjiem-.. ablvew opeii •’•tb" -the 1 charge which we heard' freely made on the’ebtirse, that they had heenmarties a .deliberate • fraud,. If siush,- • f. tM cWj we; suppose Messrs ' Camulfelb ■the' public may ’.say,;, but' jt.iis' a great • pHy ;thar a is’Vtbe. bply . remedy the latter have,, and that the Jockey Club; have mehhs’ of putting a ’ dTOflrcl&ft wlthhis horses. On the Other side, the A. J.C., (the ’ V.R.C., and ’all the princi^vAT^^fiao.lOlubs-have both a Steeplechase -at every lawfagzam no doubt they form i vefi&attraotite items- in-aerogramme, but in Dunedin they should be. abolished—there is here nearly always a ifeelihg that something to beWituessed ab soon v £66 ; ;^ut r up. •’ : The races were got off punctually every day, , with the exception ,o£ t the Consolation Handicap being delayed" till 6,20 p.m^; but; this ■ jpiQ- to the %ish to give the boptbhbJders..a turn. The course was in capital .order, the rain on the i races merely rendering it a little duK and very good time was made in erShtb.' ' The’ best -conditioned ' hbrses bn the r ,ground were undoubtedly Wee i lobking as though madb'6ut i; of brbnze, fib rah a good flew.a^' . are hneferr meetmg; b)Di|,perhaps it would-be nearer the ■ i|ikrk to say'that if "fchey had all their money have won much. They all rolled up on settling night, but many of the publi&.did npt, and some of the lojWieir that didi .appearance merely in ar mysteriQUß -Whisper with .one orimothbr bobktoaker and retired..- Comipg wthß'racii%;" itself j‘ the Maiden Plate intro--dUced-' to. us* ■ Winner Glengarry, a speedy six-year-old son of Scud;, He tan at Oamaru

fit the begirding of ;the month,, and is said to off the hills in the sife' is ! standing!' Auck* land Kate had enough to get up - withhim.' The Gup pace came flbxt,- ‘laifd it’ by a fluke, as : was clearlyshown. runhing (Si the foUqtringdays.lf she had been have been broken.’ The win was; not a popular one at all, for Mr Delamaiu is- npt iioTy considered the liberal,'open-handedi sportsman he was once ior > ‘and if the colors of the {tecomkonthiM horse had instead been first . PPsV ivoflld have been “tr^mejodous. ~cheering indeed, in place of tfie went up from >the few of * the filly. Mr Coombes's • horse raft, € gaffa^trace,' but, he could not get hprses; tfll tpo, latei ‘ King Philip, also ran a grand horse, considering'that he hwt teepr suffering from; rhetunatism for four V* of MSmy*';' Jut Kory ‘ throiigh' Ins. bolting-~and -4ubsequeflt demise, left* unsettled fcr-nver the quettidh as to whether he old ‘Victorian form arfd couldfront everything he Had to mbet, «Mj? ¥eend’s cuplof misfortuue wha a tifedxly? filJedatthe Christchurch Spring' Meetffi&J“d _thiß final blow has excited general hywpathy- with :him.. Guy. Fawkes: ran a gramd horse/ bat the vaunted Fishhook was nowhere. Bob play’s four were also never in the race, while Merry Monarch, Seabird, and Sir illiam came in just where nine Out of ten people imagined they would. Gamecqck,.^as ;waa,; anticipated a week before the *%ce,.; sheer distress. /The Newmarket Stakes a gift to Wee Lad, -.opjponent, . The - fine race between ;Guy Fawkes and Ariel, but Tadmbr, SWd deal fancied, did not show •ss#. was Ifl-this raccthat Rory 0 More fed.down and had to be de- . ■'stewwdir;-Ehe-o nly-walk-over of the meeting by Reclaimed, ' form. On the u »Wijo -. and Coquet, ran first and second for the 'Hurdle , &maHKiltoe-hqMkiHg {Qr the first time fqr Jtfoee Ifrite’a£ul Club -Handicap!' Ai^l r the. .tables ibit-f wipwiug ‘ :ai. !s]fluffing n‘ J, .. the-: finflih. ..FftPgawerewere almost stood still when Guy ftfiat shooting up mysteriously ; nowra7 waVagift to infilffl J^ a fwkss l ana tfeat Haphazard Jivanose.for the Novel race,* four others WjWStfrnialgißWJjfaSf} fei iconnectioh %ith for, .the Steetde<?s

her leisure.:.. The mare . jumps, grandly but is not very fast. The bookmakers had: a streak of luck in the Fdrbuiy Handicap, the \rainer ‘turmng up in Mr Studholme’s recently-pui’chased -polt Cloth of. Gold, who? came at the finish in a wonderful manifier. He was not backed, for a shilling and a. Christchurch bookmaker just before the race? tried;hard to persuade the colt’s owner to take .100 to 10 about his winning. Ariel ran another fine race for this, but he was giving Cloth of Gold 91b, and was jammed against the rails all the way up the straight. Tadmor at last ran into a place,- but King Philip, Pungawerewpre, and Right Bower were‘again out of the hunt. The- Town Plate lay .between Guy Fawkes and Tattler only, the former winning easily. In the,Plying Handicap,. Fishhook unexpectedly cameout -of -his shell, -and won-from start-to finish—Guy Fawkes.,a ,good ...second, Wee Lad third, Parawhenua and Pupgawerewera.. acting as whippers-in behind Steamer. Glengairy won the Benevolent Race after a fine runi with rffee Lad, four, others starting. For the Consolation Handicap, Elfin King, Right Bower, Merry Monarch, Sir William, and three others stripped, and, after a , game ; struggle, the Bower had to be content with; plsice to Elfin King. .Since the racesP IVlr D; 'o*Brien has sold Haphazard’ to Mi* A. irmTe acmiair to Mr D. Orßriettfifor LOO, and Mr Thomson has parted with Merry-Monarch to Mr