NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8345, 4 February 1913, Page 9

NOTES AND COMMENTS

(By "Tho Judge/') It is tho intention of the committee of the Otaki Maori Xiacing Club to delete two of tho hack events from the next programme aud substitute two steeplechases. Tins should bo a good move, tor there is no mistaking tho popularity of cross-country events. A . good course will be mapped out ami a big effort io to be made to provide the best jumping to be found in the province. A number of Wellington sportsmen will bo leaving to-day by tho i\ow Plymouth mail train bound for ilawora, where they will assist at the summer meeting of the Egmont Racing Club. This place on Wednesday and Thursday, and it bids fair to bo the biggest meeting ever held at Hawera. Tho club has adopted the policy of putting up the stakes whenever opportunity offered, and the result is seen in big acceptances, with some high class horses among them. With line weather a success is assured. Anna Carlovna's performance in winning tho Midsiunmcr Handicap at Xiiccartou was a* highly creditable one. as she was badly left at tho post, losing quite half a dozen lengths, Thd mare was well ridden by Wilson, who made 119 attempt to rush her up to tho field, but instead made up the lost ground gradually, until at tho finishing end sho came t with a good run and won handsomely. Sho will win again. Tho annual meeting of the Tapanui Jockey Club will take place on Wednesday and Thursday. Mr A. Boyle has just imported two well bred fillies from England. One is a three-year-old by tho Minting horse Minstead from Knight’s Ganio. Tho other is a two-year-old by Arizona from tbe- Persimmon mare Flower, Tho pair arrived on Saturday. Obligant’s name has disappeared from tho list of acceptors at the Poverty Bay meeting, but Mr Hall lias paid np lor Wijiorewa in tho Turanga Stakes. In© half-sister to Xranui can certainly go last, but whether sho can stay out ten furlongs has yet to be seen. As the company is moderate the' daughter of Glenapp will bo supported. J. Cliaafe brought Goldsize down to New Plymouth on Saturday, the eon of Gluten being subsequently railed up to Hawera. Ho is reported to -bo very fit, and should run well at the Egmont meeting. Shebeen, who won a double at the Takapuna meeting, has since changed hands and it is quite likely She Spalpeen mare will be shipped across to Sydney. It was not at all surprising to find Black Northern's name missing from the acceptances for the Wharoroa Hurdles at Hawera. It is difficult to understand how the handicapper. came to allot the gelding such a weight as 12st lib, seeing that he has not won a race in the last dozen starts. , . The relative popularity of tho Canterbury J.C. summer meeting and the Takapuna J.C. summer meeting is rather well brought out by a study of the totalisator figures. At Eiccarton, which is perhaps the finest course in the Dominion, the .figures for the meeting were .£14,700. At Takapuna, which is a harrow six furlong course, not in any way comparable with Eiccarton, the figures were <£50,001, each day of Auckland's suburban meeting nearly doubling the C.J.C. total. The chestnut filly Loloma seemingly knows how to gallop judging from her easy defeat of a rather smart sprinter in King Lupin, after tho latter had tho advantage at the start in the ■ Hobson Handicap at Takapuna. Loloma is a two-year-old filly by Monoform from tho Ben Godfrey mare Seabird. Apollon has been going to win a race for a long time, and has at last accomplished it. This was on the concluding day of the Takapuna meeting, when lie just got homo in the Suburban Handicap from Overtime and Blue Garment. He is a brown son of Monoform and the Phoebus Apollo mure Latona, As a two-year-old he gave much promise, for he gave 71b and a beating to Goldfinder after that horse had won the Criterion Handicap, also conceding 91b to that smart galloper Antoinette and running her to within a neck. Apellon has proved "a difficult horse to train, and after defeating War Song, King Soult, Goldtinder, and Antoinette in the Q.N. Champagne Stakes, his subsequent running has been rather disappointing. It is some time since Electrakoff scored a win, so that his success in. the Takapuna J.C. Handicap was fully due. In the Takapuna Cup lie had a bad passage or would have done better. He has an engagement in tho Taranaki Cup next, in which with his penalty his’ weight will be Bst Sib. The New Zealand-bred Kilmeadon (Kilchoran—Couronno) started in the Novice Handicap at the A.J.C. Anniversary mooting at Eandwiok, but had to put up With second place behind the Tartan gelding Tartanus, who cut out a fast mile in 1 in ill 40)seo, and won pulling up by six lengths. At the , (Willinmstown Anniversary meeting (Melbourne) the Maiden Plato went to the brown horse Fleurus. He ia one of Mr G. M. Currie’s breeding, and is by Soult from tho Gipsy Grand mare Grandeur. The Victoria Eacing Club's autumn mooting commences on the first of next month when tbe Newmarket Handicap will be run. The Australian Cup will bo decided on March 4th. On the opening day of tho Calcutta meeting Mr J. D. Scott's Australianbred gelding Proprietor won the Burdwan Cup, Iks. 9000 to the winner and a cup value Es. 1500; and the same horse also won tho Grand Annual of Its. 500 to tho winner. Australian horses were not prominent at the meeting, the only other lo score a win during tho three days being Black Buck. The Cooch Bohar Cup, of Es. 12,000, together with a cup value £IOO, was won by the Eng-lish-bred mare Yicto, with two other English mares, in Hilarity and Lady Spring, filling the places. The South African Derby, of 1000 eove, was run at Turffontein on December 28th, and resulted in a victory for Valraolte (St. Maurice—Pelerine), who won by a head only from two strong public fancies in Belladonna 11. and Dignity. The Transvaal Handicap, of 650 sovs, about two miles, was another event of

importance, and this wont to a six-year-jld iicrse named Wavy, by Wavelet: Pride from Suzanne, who won by a neck. The cable told ns of tho death of the noted stallion Ayr Laddie, l.eierrmg c him the Sydney “Rereree says ho succumbed to an internal compiamt at the Wingarra Stud. Bylong \ alley, in the iylstoiio district. Ayr Laddie was _ omi J England in 1892, and was by Ayrshiiv £om Catherine Douglas, by Sterling .rom Lassie, by Blair Athol from Ccstm.. .... fCewm'Uster from Ayacanora, and was mported by the late Mrs James USPfi. f n 1893 He raced under rile liverv of Mr H. L. Mackellar during his three and four-year-old seasons, but, did not earn a winning bracket- At the ; icnn.rk'il of tho JCirkiiam Stud in loJo he*was purchased for Queensland, and subsequently taeuao tho property o Messrs H S. Thompson and Bros. At the'stud he sired a number of high-clus-horses, among whom are Air Motor (Lp ~ TTmdicap). Bright Laddie lprin/IMakesh’Hartlell (Epsom Handicap), Sylvander, Jolly Beggar by and Perth Cup), Apple Pie (A.J.C. December Stakes and thuH to Comedy (ting in Melbourne Cup), Black Buck ,a good winner in India and second, in die Viceroy’s Cup), Hot Air, Twa Brigs, Cider, —(A.J.C. Derby), Cool Air, Eyktone Lassi, Nancy Stair, Ayrline, Banquo, Doon Lassie, Black Eango, Lady n>r, Sperry Mollwraith, and a host pi other winners. Hp to the time of his death Ayr Laddie was at the head of the wmiing stallions list for the current season. On the subject of high-priced stallions, “Vigilant,” in tho London Sportsman, savs- "It has been rightly objected an past years that owners have reared good young horses prematurely rather than risk their reputations. Tins was ceitainly done with Blair Athol, Common, awd many others; but no such reproach could attach to Prince Palatine, who has already achieved the best possible, and whoso further racing career could not place him higher in the scroll of tame. Most of us are inclined to a Eip Van Winkle view as to the prices of blood stock and the fees of stallions, but we live in times when every sale cuts an records, and when* in South America* the price of a 30,d00gns sire is so trilling rhat it all comes back with interest over the sale of his first years stock. I his being so, it is only necessary to alter the focus of our old-fashioned views and to look at modern prices in thear true proportion to surrounding circumstances. From this readjusted point of view 1 should take Prince Palatine to be worth all 50,000gns, simply as a commercial speculation; and I am more than satisfied that a horse like Bayardo is worth that sum—altogether outside the abnormal value which obtains in South America." Nominations for tho Nelson Jockey Club’s annual meeting on March 12th and 13th close with the secretary, Mr John 'Glen, Mercer’s rooms. Nelson, on Friday, at 9 p.m.