RACING NOTES

Evening Star, Issue 22460, 3 October 1936, Page 10

RACING NOTES

RACING. October s.—Tamnarunui Racing Club (at Paeroa). October 8, 10.—Dunedin Jockey Club. October 10.—Dannevirke Racing Club (at Waipukurau). October 10, 12.—Auckland Racing Club. October 16, 17.—Masterton Racing Club. October 17.—South Canterbury Jockey Club. October 17, 19.—Dargaville Racing Club (at Arondale). October 22. 24, 26.—Wellington Racing Club. October 24, 26.—Gore Racing Club. October 26.—Waverley Racing Club. October 26.—Waipawa County Racing Club (at Hastings). October 26.—North Canterbury Jockey Club. FOLLOWING THE RIDERS Because of their riders’ reputations, the mounts of prominent horsemen in England are seldom at liberal odds and often the most fashionable jockeys have been the most expensive to follow. This truth has been borne out this year in a very convincing way, showing that for the flat racing season to August 10 followers of G. Richards by a uniform investment of £1 at starting price would have lost £llß. To that date Richards had ridden 118 winning and 464 losing mounts, with a percentage of 20.27. rf .. The next most successful rider was W. Nevett, who had . ridden 62 winners and 246 losers, a winning percentage of 20.12, but his followers would have incurred a loss of £l4_on a flat wager. Indeed, of the 15 leading jockeys, only two, R. A. Jones and W. Christie, who were respectively ninth and eleventh on the list, were showing a small profit, the others shelving losses ranging from £139 to £l4. PRDBING EFFECTS DF DOPE While it is admitted that "dope” will effect improvement in faint-hearted and sluggish horses, it is improbable it can increase the pace of any horse. However, that, and everything else associated with doping, is to be tried out at the laboratory maintained by the New York Racing Commission. Horses are to be obtained by purchase, or donation, at the end of their racing careers, and will be trained and raced under conditions as nearly as possible like those of actual competition. Some will be doped, and the results studied. It is stated by ‘ The Blood Horse ’ that the commission has expressed itself as dissatisfied with the merely preventive aspects of the saliva test. It hopes to determine with more accuracy the effect of identical drugs on horses of varying ages, to determine whether doping helps a horse to_ ivin, aids in sprints, or hinders at distances. The programme is comprehensive, and the results should give a fair idea of what can actually be accomplished by doping. JOTTINGS Monday will be an important day for owners and trainers. Nominations will close that day as under:— Gore Racing Club's Spring Meeting, at 5 p.m. South Canterbury Jockey Club’s Spring Meeting, at 9 p.m. Ashburton Trotting Club’s Summer Meeting (1937), nominations for the New Zealand Champion Stakes for three-year-olds, at 5 p.m. Nominations for the New Zealand Trotting Cup close on Tuesday at 5 p.m. Nominations for the Oamarn Trotting Club’s Meeting to be held on Labour Day do not close until Monday week. Pelmet beat Sir Hugh by half a length at the end of seven furlongs at Riccarton on Thursday in Imin 30 3-ssec, the last half-mile in 62 3-ssec. The handicap for the New Zealand Cup framed by Mr J. E. Henrys this week was the forty-sixth he has made for that race. Prior to 1905 the top-weight in a handicap did not have to be at least P.st, and back in 1892 Occident headed the list of New Zealand Cup weights with 8.11. The New Zealand Cup Trial, to be run at the' Hntt Park Meeting on October 31, will be a 2.42 limit race, with a stake of £350. T. G. Pollock has Island Linnet, Night Sail, Palastyle, Ballad, Waiau Maid, and Milford in work at Gore. The latter is on the private sale list. The stallion, Tide Race, purchased by Mr T. H. Lowrv in England, has arrived in New Zealand. He is a son of England’s leading sire Fairway. There are no penalty conditions attached to the New Zealand Trotting Cup this year. It is for horsea*assesscd at 4min 26sec or better. The Oamaru trainer, T. Hobbs, left Sydney this week on his way home with Silver Streak without- waiting for the big meeting at Randwick.

[By St. Cx-aik.]

October 28. —Waikato Hunt Clnb. October 29, 31. —Poverty Bay Turf Club. October 31. —Banks Peninsula Racing Club. October 31.—Rangiiikei Racing Club. November 5, 7. —Whangarei Racing Club. November 7. —Hawke's Bay Racing Club. November 7,9, 11, 14.—Canterbury Jockey Club. TROTTING. October 10. —New Brighton T.C. October 17.—Waikato T.C. October 24. 26. —Auckland T.C. October 24, 26. —Grey mouth T.C. October 26.—Manawatu T.C. October 26.—Oamaru T.C. October 31.—Wellington T.C. November 10, 12, 13.—New Zealand Metropolitan T.C. November 26, 28.—Forbury Park T.C. Lass, a full sister to Grey Honour, has been retired from racing and is to be mated with Friday Night, a full brother to Phar Lap. Her dam, Grey Lass, is also to visit Friday Night this season. Mr G. J. Barton has left on a trip to Melbourne, where he will see his horses racing at the Caulfield Cup Meeting on October 10 and 17. He expects to be back in time to see Indianapolis and other members of his team racing at the Oamaru Trotting Club’s Meeting on October 26.

A San Francisco paper states that the authorities at Seattle were aiming to rule off a jockey named Root for life, because he falsified as to when he rode his first winner, and because be rode at different tracks under different initials, thus being able to hold his apprentice allowance.

Shakespeare was bought as a yearling for 210gns by Dr C. Nigel Smith. It was his first racer, and has turned out a success in Pat Nailou’s stable. Perhaps he gets his stamina from the fact that his mother, Spearthrust, is by Spearhead, sire of the Melbourne Cup winner, Spearfelt, a grandson of Carbine.

The Hawk, who is 17 years old, is still alive and well in Hawke’s Bay. During the winter his owner, J. 1'; Cameron, brings him down from his farm to his stables, and he says the old fellow behaves in quite a juvenile fashion. The Hawk, with Imin 36Jsec. still holds the mile record for Pleraington.

Under new regulations it has been laid down by the_ Transport Board that when two meeting are held on the same day. such ns the Methven Trotting and Kurow Race Meetings to-day, only one permit for the use of floats will he granted, and that for the nearer meeting. Several # Riccarton trainers intended travelling their horses to the Kurow Meeting by motor floats, but under this regulation were forced to take them by rail.

One of the several factors that affected the nominations for the local spring meeting was the threo-day fixture at Trentham to bo held on October 22, 24, 26. The minimum stake at that meeting is £250, and. under the present high tariff for the transport of race horses by rail, Riccarton »owners can send their horses to Trentham for less than it costs them to send horses to Wingatui.

Gold Rod, bought in New Zealand for 350 gs, was the bargain of horses that raced as two-year-olds in Australia last season. He wound up with £5,865. of which £3OO went to the nominator of his sire for the V.R.C. and A.J.C. Sires’ Produce Stakes His two wins for a similar number of starts this season have returned £1,250.

At New Plymouth last Saturday morning the Mitchelson Cup candidate Fersen worked the reverse way. He was sent a mile and three furlongs. Over the first part he was going at a strong half-pace, but ran home over the last half-mile in company with Eagle’s Eye. He hit out freely all the way and finished full of running. It was a sound work-out, showing that Fersen is in great order. Fersen, who is trained by Hector Gray, has 8.0 in the Mitchelson Cup, and 7.9 in the New Zealand Cup.

Vintage, who has 8.13 in the New Zealand Cup, has been restricted to very light tasks since he came back after the operation to his throat, but he has started to da a little more this week, having had his first sprint. It was only three furlongs, but he shaped all right. It is proposed to give him a race at the South Canterbury Meeting and then to visit Trentham. By that time something definite should be known, but till then he is on the_ doubtful list as a starter in the big twomile race.

The New Zealand Metropolitan Trotting Club has received advice that L. J. King, of Melbourne, will bring New Derby and another horse to New Zealand to compete at Addington in November. The Tasmanian trainer. H. F. Rudd, will bring a team of four, comprising Evicus, Icevus, Sevicue, and Emilius Way. Evicus and Sevicue are by G]ove Derby, and the other pair by Emilios, all being from the one mare, Milky Way.

America’s fastest mare is Myrtlewood. At Washington Park, Chicago, last month, she carried 8.6 in the Lakeside Handicap, and', in recording a very easy victory, did the mile in Imin 35 3-ssec. She ran the first sixfurlongs in Imin 9 4-ssec, and was then eased right up. Her time equalled the previous best for a mare in America, and. in the opinion of many of the experts, she could have done Imin 35soe. Myrtlewood has run in 17 races for ten wins, four seconds, and two thirds, only once missing a place. Her earnings total £5,962.

Among the mares at Mr H, E. Morriss’s Banstead Manor Stud, England, is Phar Lap’s sister. Te Uira, who was specially purchased for the stud last year. Te [lira is said to he in foal to Colorado Kid, who is by Colorado from Spearmint’s daughter. Baby Polly, and was a very successful racehorse a few years ago. As Mr Morriss owns the stallions Manna and Tai-Yang, Te Uira should not lack for opportunities as a brood mare.

Up to the beginning of August the fastest mile and a-quarter recorded this year in America was 2min 2sec by the three-year-old Sun 'Teddy (son of Teddy) in the Arlington Handicap, at Arlington Park (Chicago). Sun Teddycarried 7.0, anil leading all the way, ran the first half-mile in 47 2-ssec ; «i\ furlongs in Imin 12sec. mile in Imin 37sec. ami took 27e.ec for the last two furlongs, which made his time for the full distance 2min 2se:-. First money was £1.096, second £4OO. third £2ob and fourth £IOO. There were seven starters.

Work on the new totalisator building at Ashburton was commenced immediately after the recent spring meeting, and the new house is now in hand. It will be placed a little further back than the old one, and will have a long, straight front, facing the course, where the ticket windows will be provided, with the dividend windows at the back. The manual totalisator, with dividend indicators, will be used for some time yet, but the building is being constructed with a view to the period when a portable automatic machine will be available.

Western Australia’s 82-year-old trainer, Fred. Hill, lias retired, and the West Australian Turf Club has honoured him by allowing him to retain his trainer’s badge. Hill has been connected with horse racing in some form or another since just before entering his ’teens, and has had experience not only in Australia, but also in New Zealand and India, while in the years that he took horses overseas he made a trip to America, taking Sir Modred there from Australia. Before taking up residence in Western Australia he had been training in New Zealand. That was about 1916.

Not only in New Zealand do pacers improve upon the time they are assessed to do. for in a 2min 22seo pace at the Illinois State Fair in August the heats were won in 2min 3isec, 2min, '2min Isec, and 2min sJsec, the ultimate winner being the four-year-old filly Edna Brewer, by Peter the Brewer—Dell Direct by Merry Direct. At the same meeting Guy Scotland, by Scotland (the sire of IT. Scott), won the 2min 24sec trot in 2min 6sec and 2min B}sec. On August 19 Jane Azoff. by Azoff—Jane Todd, in a 2min 13sec pace registered Imin 59Jsec, 2min, and 2min 2sec in successive mile heats.

There are prizes and blanks everywhere in yearling buying, which causes an American writer to remark relative to two-year-olds that have done well in his country this season:—“ Bargains such as Goldey F. are very apt to dim the fact that Fate was smiling as the hammer closed the deal for othpr yearlings. Every year has its quota of bargain ‘ buys,’ and we need go no further than last August to recall Scintillator, costing £l3O, with earnings of £1,230 to date; Sophia Tucker, £l4O and earnings of £1,100; Pompoon, costing £4OO and garnering £3,030; with Miss Dolphin being led away for £l4O to earn £1,371 to date.”

The best filly of the year in England is Mr J. H. Whitney’s Night Song, by Royal Minstrel from Free and Easy, by Chide from Flying Witch, by Broomstick. Night Song, who is a grey, like her sire, was bred in America, and won at her first three starts, including the Queen Mary Stakes at Ascot. In her onlv other start, the Chesterfield Stakes at Newmarket, she ran second to the French-bred Honqunn, who js by Chateau Bouscant from Mona s Legend, a sister to the French Oaks winners Fairy Legend and Mary Legend. ’ Monquau has been unplaced in his other three starts, and perhaps too much notice should not be taken ot Night Song’s defeat.

The well-known jockey, L. J. Ellis, will do a good deal of travelling during the next week or two. He will he at Kurow this aternoon, then he will go to Dunedin, for the first day only of the spring meeting next week, his engagements there including Greek Gold, Matoru. and probably the two-year-old Lazybones. On the following day he will leave by air for the North Island, and he will he riding on Saturday of next week and the following Monday at the Auckland Racing Club s Meeting. Gallio, the favourite for the Great Northern Guineas, will be one of his mounts.

Vologda, a brilliant pacer hut unreliable at the barrier, has been placed in work at Gore by N. S. Lawlor, who holds the Waverley pacer on lease. Vologda appeared to race more soberly towards the end of last season, when he beat all hut Southern Smile at the Forbury Park Winter Meeting, after conceding the smart Canterbury pacer 24yds over a mile and a-half. At the same meeting he finished third to Stirling Lady and Embark. His performance under saddle at the Wyndham Trotting Club’s meeting in recording 3niin 20sec off 72yds to finish third to Belle Grattan (36yds) and M‘Gin sky (scr) was full of merit. Gold Rod, favourite for the Melbourne Cup, may not start. His trainer, George Price, asked me today to sound that warning again to Victorian racegoers (says “ Cardigan,” in the Melbourne ‘ Herald ’ of September 23). “It depends absolutely on how Gold Rod runs in the A.J.C. Derby whether he will be trained for the two-miler,” said Price. “ If he wins, well, I presume, his owner (Mr E. J. Watt) will allow me to give the colt the necessary preparation, but if Gold Rod should just win, or show signs that a distance is too far for him, he will not run. Mr Watt is a non-bettor, and everybody knows that 1 limit my betting to one or two pounds and an occasional double, and so far not one shilling of stable money has been invested on the colt. Not that that matters. It is simply a question whether the colt is a stayer.”

The only two-year-old of prominence in England this season to come through so far with an unbeaten record is Early School, who has won at his only two starts. He is a bay colt,, bred and owned by Lord Astor, by the Derby winner Felstead from Quick Rise, by Hurrv On from Pompadour, by Bayardo from Popinjay, by St. Frusqnin. This is the line which gave the same owner his winners Pav Up and Rhodes Scholar. Early School won the Hurst Park Sorrel Plate and the Ascot Coventry Stakes. In the latter race he had the good performers Hesperus, Sollo", Goya IL, and Full Sail behind him. He is undoubtedly the best of the progeny of Felstead to race so far, and will probably be winter favourite for the Derby if be goes through the rest ot the season without’ defeat.

When the crack German filly, Noreide, won the Brown Band von beiitsch land, of approximately £5,000, at Munich last month, beating the French mare, Corrida, it was her tenth successive victory, and her last appearance, as she goes to the stud next year. She has won more money in Germany than any other filly or mare. It is stated by the ‘ Horse and Hound ’ that Nereide’s owner was not awarded the Brown Ribbon itself, as he had received it in 1935. when his Athanasius captured the same race, so the coveted trophy- was given to Nereide’s trainer, and Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza got a consolation prize in the shape of a valuable gold medal, a reduced replica of which was presented to the successful jockey. The triumph of the German colour was enthusiastically cheered by the spectators, numbering well on 60,000, and 6,000 carrier pigeons were sent into all parts of Germany to spread the news of Nereide’.s exploit.

Establishing a new race record for trotters, Greyhound won the free-for-all trot at the Illinois State Fair here today, stepping the second heat in Imiin 57isec, says the ‘ Horseman and Fair World ’ of August. 21. Not only was the mile the fastest ever trotted in a race, but the best mile since 1922, whe,n Peter Manning set the trotting record of Imin 56Jsec in an effort again;*# the

watch at Lexington. Angel Child was the only other starter in the free-for-all trot, Greyhound winning the first heat from her rather easily in 2min 2sec, last half in 58sec, final quarter in 28sec. The pace was much faster in the record mile with the halfway station reached in 59sec and the three-quarters in Imin 28Jsec, and the grey whirlwind in high speed all the way. Each of the first three-quarters was trotted in 29fsec, and with the steam turned on in the last two furlongs, Greyhound came home in 28Jsec. In addition to establishing a race record, the performance placed the Guy Abbey gelding second among the fast-record trotters. Taking the view that Mr Henrys has actually attempted to com pa re Silver Ring with the champions of the past, one finds that he is ranked very highly (says *‘ Rnngatira,” in the Wellington ‘Post’). There are only five horses which Mr Henrys has weighted higher than he has set Silver Ring since lie first handicapped for the C.J.C. In 1920 he gave Sasanof, then a seven-year-old and the same ago as Silver Ring is now, 10.3, the minimum then being 6.7 ; and the same year he placed the four-year-old Amythus on 9.13. In 1898 Waiuku (aged) was given 10.0, and in 1904 Achilles (six years) received the some impost. To Advance, whom he has often declared is the greatest handicapper that ever raced in New Zealand, he gave 9.13 as a five-year-old and 9.9 the previous year, the only two times he had the black horse to weight for the cup. None of these past champions contested the cup under the weight, so that if Silver Ring came back to take his place in the field he would not only he essaying to win under record weight, but would be carrying a greater weight than any horse had ever previously done in the race since Mr Henrys first framed the assessments.

A feature of flic aute-post betting in Melbourne fast week was a plunge on Conandale for both cups. The commission was said to be unlimited, which indicated unusual stable confidence in view of the fact that no horse has won the cups since Poseidon as a three-year-old brought oft the double in 1906. Conandale has 6.12 in the Caulfield Cup and 7.0 in the Melbourne Cup. Success at Caulfift'eld would give the V.R.C. handicapper the opportunity of increasing his weight to 7.10, which is the weight allotted Gold Rod. Sasanof, as a three-year-old, ran third in the Caulfield Cup with 6.11, and won the Melbourne Cup with 6.12. Poseidon won the Caulfield Cup with 7.7 and the Melbourne Cup with 7.6. He was originally weighted at 6.7 for the former and 6.8 for the latter, but his A.J.C. Derby win sent him up to weight-for-age in each. Whittier won the Caulfield Cup with 6.13, but, though he also accounted for the Derby, ho finished a long way hack with 7.10 in the Melbourne Cup, for which he started second favourite. Though a first-class horse up to a mile and a-half, as shown by his. second Caulfield Cup win with 9.0, that was as far as he liked. As a three-year-old Peter Pan tackled the two cups, but, though he could run only fourth in file Caulfield Cup with V. 7., he won the Melbourne Cup.