SPORTING NOTES.

Globe, Volume III, Issue 260, 12 April 1875, Page 3

SPORTING NOTES.

(From the Press,)

The recent Dunedin meeting was perhaps the most successful one ever held there, and that in all probability the Dunedin Cup will be increased to £SOO next year is a fact that speaks for itself in favor of the increasing interest taken in racing there. Most of the Canterbury contingent found a good thing in Templeton, and all racing men, both those who went and those who stayed at home, were passing glad to see or hear of the blue and white stripes being again to the fore. Our own Autumn meeting is now drawing very near. The course is already lively of mornings, for most of those who have been on foreign service have returned, and others, as the theatrical advertisements say, will shortly appear. Notwithstanding the sale of the Ada gelding and Revoke filly, Mr Webb's team is numerically at any rate a strong one. The high priced aristocratic Gilda is doing good work, and her Champagne chances I should say look at present very rosy. She has wonderfully improved of late. In the same team are three other champagne candidates, viz : Kensington, the Malton-Prophetess colt, the colt out of Tantrums, and Castilian, who with Castaway, has lately come to the Bush Inn stables. Theyare all very promisingyoungsters, though I think the two latter will be far better in proportion with more age. Castaway is doing good work and looks hearty and well. His Dunedin performance was certainly not first-class, but he was not within miles of condition, so much so that with the limited time at his disposal it will give Mr Webb all his work to bring him out anything like pink. The chestnut colt by Malton, out of Kaspar's dam, and a brown filly by Ravensworth, out of Barbary, also occupy boxes at the Bush Inn stables. The former is a three-year-old. All the family are big and this colt

is no exception to the rule. He rather resembles his own brother Rifleman (who ran, it may be remembered, at the last Ashburton meeting), and looks like making a jumper. The Barbary filly is a two-year-old, small but showy, plenty of quality, and her breeding is good enough for anything. Royalty, who won the second event —whatever it was called—at the last steeplechase held in Christchurch, and who afterwards performed rather indifferently at several up-country meetings, is another of Mr Webb's representatives. He is a strong useful horse, and is, I understand, intended for the Cavalry race, which is, as last year, to form a feature of the autumn meeting. While on the subject, I may say that I understand the soldiers are coming out in great force this year, both as to quantity and quality. Mr Redwood's team have arrived, and are all in work. Wainni, whose name is still green in the memory of the numerous clan who clung to her so persistently for last year's Derby, has been here all the winter ; but has, I think, been too recently taken up to give her any good chance of redeeming her lost laurels at this coming meeting. It is a great pity she was not put in work sooner, for she has undoubtedly a great turn of foot, and fit and well would, no doubt, have paid her expenses at the coming meeting. The new arrivals are a very nice lot of two-year-olds. They are eight in number, seven of them being colts, and all by Towton. The son of Waimea is certainly the most taking-looking, whatever he may be to go. He shows a strong family likeness to his half-sister Wainui, having a beautiful shoulder, and racinglooking quarters. The son of Phoebe is a low, powerful chesnut colt, not perhaps showing so much quality as his half-brother Terenga ; but he looks like getting over the ground, and is anything but the worst of the lot, besides being—judging from his lookß —the most forward. The Fair Puritan colt is a powerful, nuggety little gentleman, and the Certainty colt is a useful looking brown with good back and shoulders, and a rare set of legs under him. Indeed the whole eight are about as well timbered a lot as one could wish to see. The Queen of the South colt is biglraking brown, with immense power and substance. He will, should he not turn out fast, be worth money for a coaching stallion. The Harakeke colt, whose name by the way isKorara, is small but very neat, with a short back, good neck and head, and shows plenty of power, while the Shrovetide colt is a useful looking brown. The only representative of the fair sex is a chestnut filly out of Skybird, the English mare. None of her progeny have as yet greatly distinguished themselves, though Awatea was thought good enough at one time to be more than dangerous for the Cup. This filly is small—in comparison with the rest of the team very small—but she shows a lot of quality, and for a flutter I fancy will be found to require a lot of beating. The whole lot, of whom three, viz, the Waimea, the Fair Puritan, and Phoebe colts, are engaged in the Champagne, appear rather short of work, but are certainly a grand lot of colts. They show every appearance of having been well done by, and in this respect the Wairoa youngsters have always shown an example which might be profitably followed by several Canterbury breeders. Dick Mason is in charge of the whole team, which are partly located in the old stables at Willis's and partly in Dick Richardson's snug quarters. At the latter stables aie located Ngaro and Parawhenua with George Cutts in charge. The mare, though a trifle rough in the coat, looks healthy and well, and if she be anything like so good as she has been thought, she ought to have a good chance both in the Leger and big Handicap. The lathey Parawhenua looks on the gross side of condition, but seems doing well. Spritsail and King Philip are both quartered at John Lunn's, but I have not yet seen either of them. Tamburini and Guy Faux have also arrived, and Mr Dnlamain's and Ray's teams are also hard at it. Altogether there is every prospect of the Autumn Meeting being as successful as the programme is liberal. The Champagne audi Leger appear, the former especially, at preJ sent to be very oper races, and as 1 have noli' yet heard anyone abuse the handicap, I imagine that Mr Lance has not only succeeded in that most difficult task of pleasing everyone, but I also can venture to predict a good show of acceptors. The Ashburton, Timaru, Kowai, Oxford, and Waimate follow the Autumn Meeting in rotation. The programmes are one and all an improvement on former years, but it seems a pity that the Timaru and Kowai should clash. The Kowai committee are in this instance certainly not to blame, as their programme has been out for considerable length of time. If up-country race committees were to meet and get their programmes out earlier in the season it would be more satisfactory for all parties concerned. At present they postpone their arrangements till the last minute, and then wonder that the entries don't come up to their expectations. I beg to remind owners that Wednesday next, the 14th, is the general entry day for the Autumn Meeting, and that nominations for the Handicap Hurdle Race. Ashburton Cup, Publicans' Purse, and Somerset Stakes must be sent to the hon sec at Ashburton before the 14th April. Nominations for the Kowai Hurdle Race and Malvern Stakes Handicap close at Kowai Pass on April 30th, and for the Oxford Cup and Handicap Hurdle Race are to be sent to the secretary, Oxford, on or before 26th April. Many of our readers will be glad to learn that Mr Elliott intends bringing out a fifth volume of the " Stud Book," and I am requested by that gentleman to remind breeders that lists of foals bred since 1872 must be sent into him beiore the end of the month. It is quite superfluous to dwell on the merits of the " Stud Book." The volumes Mr Elliott has hitherto given to the public have been compiled under circumstances of great difficulty, and have been in every respect a great credit to the indefatigable editor. The forthcoming volume will be supplemented by a racing calendar, which, besides a report of all the racing meetings in the colony, will give the entries for the following season s two and three-year-old races. I hope that Mr Elliott will at once receive, at any rate from Canterbury sportsmen, not only that assistance in the way of information which they have hitherto been so tardy in affording, but that his list of subscribers will be at any rate large enough to reimburse him for the pecuniary loss he has sustained on the volumes he has hitherto published. The editing of the " Stud Book" is certainly a labor of love to Mr Elliott, but a pecuniary loss on every volume of a work which yearly increases in value will probably pall on even such a good sportsman as Mr Elliott. i r SINBAD.