TRACK & STABLE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20131, 28 December 1939, Page 4

TRACK & STABLE

ABSOLVE UNLUCKY TONGUE OVER BIT GAY SETON’S PRICE PLENTEOUS’TINE EFFORT By “Trenton” Absolve, who finished third in the Himatangi Handicap on Tuesday at Manawatu, got his tongue over the bit and stopped quickly in the straight. But for this mishap Absolve would undoubtedly have been second and may have troubled the winner. Quarter of a Century Gay Seton paid over a quarter of a century when he scored narrowly in the Flying Handicap at Taranaki. Baran Checked Baran received a bad check five furlongs from home in the Christmas Handicap at Ellerslie, and was not dangerous from then on. Splendid Performance The locally-owned and trained Plenteous put up a splendid performance to finish second behind Endorsement in the Braeburn Handicap at Hastings. Although Plenteous had a pull of 211 b. in the weights, the winner won the open sprint later in the day, carrying 7.6. Cup and Railway

During the 24 years since it was first permitted by law to publish the order of favouritism for races in the Dominion, only four actual favourites have been successful in the Auckland Cup and five in the Railway Handicap, and on not a single occasion have the favourites won each “leg” of the big Boxing Day double in the same year.

The following table gives the order of favouritism for the two races since 1915: —

The best order of favouritism for the two races appears to be the third, which has found the winners of six Auckland Cups and six Railway Handicaps during the period. On two occasions each “leg” has been the third favourite.

The biggest outsiders to win the Auckland Cup since 1915 have been Depredation, Malaga and Motere, wlnT were eleventh favourites. In the Railwav Handicap Master Doon was fifteenth favourite when he narrowly beat Hipo in 1924, and Royal Blood, who beat the favourite Glentruin in 1922, and Adalene, who beat the second favourite Oratory three years ago, were each twelfth favourite.

In tile Railway Handicap last year the placed horses (Disdain, Smoke Screen, and Galilee) were respectively first, fifth, and fifteenth favourites, and the previous year the placed horses (Stretto, Ben Braggie, and Marie's Acre) were Respectively first, second, and seventeenth favourites. A

truer-to-forecast result, however, was that returned in 1917, when the first and second favoui’ites, Hymestra and King Lupin, ran a dead'heat for first, with Nanna, who was bracketed with Hymestra, third. In the Auckland Cup the last two years the favourites have failed badly, three outsiders (ninth, eighth, and fourteenth selections respectively) filling the places twelve months ago and the tenth favourite The Buzzer being followed home by the fourth and third favourites two years ago.

Complimentary Tickets

The rights of owners and trainers to demand complimentary tickets were recently tested at a country meeting in Victoria. To assert his right to a complimentary ticket as an owner, Mr. R. Wilson, having been refused one, scratched his horse from the hurdle race. Under the Victorian rules of racing a reason for scratching horses within a certain time of the running of a race has to be given, and when the stewards held an inquiry into the scratching of this horse-they were evidently not satisfied with the reason given and inflicted a fine of £lO. Nelson’s Three Cups

An old-time racegoer who has an argument that Nelson won two of his three Auckland Cups in the one year will be a bit unlucky if he is compelled to lose a bet. His memory, is right so far as recalling that an Auckland Cup about that time was run in January, but unfortunately for him it was the last Cup won by Nelson, the two Cups in the same year being won by Nelson and Lochiel respectively, the one on January 2, 1888, and the other on December 26, 1888. Nelson’s first two wins were on December 26, 1885, and December 27, 1886, there actually being no Cup run in the calendar year 1887. On the first day of the 1887-88 meeting the handicap' event was the A.R.C. Handicap, and the G.N. Derby was also decided that day, so that Disowned and Sextant were Derby winners in the same year, though, of course, not in the same season. *

Auckland Cup. Railway. 1915 3 3 1916 11 2 1917 10 1 1 & 2* 1918 3 3 1919 3 6 1920 6 3 1921 11 2 1922 3 12 1923 5 & 7* 8 1924 3 15 1925 3 4 & 6’t 1926 9 6 1927 2 1 1928 5 3 1929 7 10 1930 11 4 1931 ...... 1 8 1932 1 5 1933 7-5 1-1 1934 4 3 1935 1 3 1936 1 12 1937 10 1 1938 9 1 1939 6-7 5-5 'Dead heat. fRun in divisions.