SPORTING NOTES.

Grey River Argus, Volume XV, Issue 1959, 16 November 1874, Page 2

SPORTING NOTES.

With regard to the Australian engagements of the New Zealand horses, the sporting correspondent of the Nslaon " Colonist" says : — ; I After the Victorian meeting, the two mares, Lurline and Calumny, are engaged at Wagga Wagga, the capital of the Murrumbidgee district, in New South Wales, which lies nearly midway between Sydney and Melbourne — 330 miles from the former, aad 400 from the latter city. To reach this the mares will have, we fancy, to be shipped to Sydney, and thence sent forward by railway, for a part, at least, of the distance. These races take place on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th of December./ In the Cup, Dagworth has the top weight of 9st, Lurline has Bat 61b, which, taking the difference of age and sex into account is getting a concession from the horse of only 1, while in the Melbourne Cup Lurliue gets from Dagworth 81b. As she gives weight to every animal in the handicap it is clear she is held in no mean esteem. At Albury, on the Murray, 200 miles nearer Melbourne, both mares are engaged in the Cup, on the 19th January. Here Lurline has the top weight of 9st, but she has no Dagworth to meet. Speaking of this handicap, the sporting writer in the "Leader" of the 24th ult. says :— " It requires no amount of reckoning or calculation to decide how the top weight stands with those immediately beneath her, for landed safe and sound at Albury, Lurline commences by holding the first thirteen horses as safe as if they were boiled-.^ The fourteenth horse is Break o'Day, 7st 81b, who in town, with health and fitness on the day, equally holds at his disposal all those below him. 1 should only require this pair to be fit on the day to take them against all the others, unless subsequent penalties should assist to equalise chances." We see no notice of any en gagementfor Papapa after Flemington, and presume, if successful, he will be sold, and bring a long price, while Mr Redwood may wish to keep the mares for his stud. .-.: - We ("Colonist") are afraid the prospect of a meeting in Nelson this season is very faint. The disappearance last April of the Treasurer, immediately after the meeting, without paying the stakes, or the money deposited with him l for lotteries, will act as a damper on the efforts of any persons who otherwise might have been disposed to move in the affair. Until the stakes of last year are paid, it will be of little use thinking of races in Nelson. The winners have offered to assist the stewards by making, a liberal concession, and if the public would come forward and share in the loss, the Jockey Club would be able, without incurring a serious individual loss, to settle the business. It is a pity some one does iiot take the matter in hand, and save to the Province one of .the oldest and most popular of its institutions. Formerly Nelson took the lead in racing in New Zealand. Do not let it be said, because we have been robbed, that we are moneyless and spirit? less, and have abandoned the only genuine Bporfc we had,