SPORTING.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5662, 23 May 1879, Page 4

SPORTING.

(PER PRESS AGENCr.) Christchurch, Thursday.

“ Sinbad,” in the Weekly Press , writes concerning the Grand National meeting :— Eight apparently will go to the post £or the Maiden Steeplechase, and this event I fancy will lie between Silverstream and Loch Lomond. The latter, judging from his Northern ■ performances, must be credited with having the foot of his opponents, and it seems only a question of his standing up. Silverstreain is a good steady old jumper, and failing the Northern representative, I think the grey will win. The Grand National Steeplechase will naturally resolve itself into a question of condition. Neilson’s Lone Hand is, X am sorry to say, an absentee, and this all the more confirms me in sticking to my first selection, The Agent, who, I anticipate, will find his most formidable opponents in Eversley, Lone Hand, and Grey Moraus. Weight for age The Agent looks certainly the best thing on paper for the Hunt Club, and though he will have had a good deal taken out of him in the big event of the day, nearly all his opponents will be in pretty much the same position. His most dangerous antagonists are likely to be Ivanhoe and Lone Hand. What sort of condition the latter may be in I am unable to state, but if he be the same horse he was at Timaru two years ago he will be worth watching, the more bo as I understand that he will have, Fred. Hedge as his pilot. Neilson informs me that he has sent over Fishhook’s nomination for the Ifawkesbury and Metropolitan Handicaps and Melbourne Cup. Should the old horse go over X hope he will start fit and well enough to sustain the honor of Maoridoiu. Ray has, I hear, also Templeton and another for the same events.