NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8349, 8 February 1913, Page 14

NOTES AND COMMENTS

(By “The Judge.”) The autumn meeting of the Taranaki Jockey Club will be the next racing fixture to interest sportsmen. Held on the picturesquely situated racecourse at the back of New Plymouth it is always a particularly enjoyable function. As the acceptances are exceedingly good the meeting ' should prove very successful from both a sporting and financial point of view. The black mare Advantage (Advance —Lady Spec) often showed the possession of pace when miming over here in the colours of the late Mr Middleton Melrose. She won a few races in Victoria, but has not been heard of lately until yesterday’s cable stated she had won a race at Hobart. Advantage is now nine years old. The summer meeting of the N.Z. Metropolitan Trotting Club takes place to-day at Addington. Anna Carlovna’s meritorious win at Riocarton last Saturday has caused her to be inquired for already, although the weights are not due until next Friday. My Lady, who scored in the Telephone Handicap at Poverty Bay, is a bay mare by Birkenhead from the St. Leger mare Lady Reay, and is thus a full sister to Iney. Monorail, who won the Turanga Stakes, the big event of the Poverty Bay meeting, is a three-year-old chest- , colt by Muliform’s brother, Monoform, from the Musketry mare Daffodil, and was bred by Mr H. R. McKenzie. Monorail opened his career by winning the Avondale Stakes, and has at times shown that he can hit up a merry pace. Ha carried top weight on Thursday and beat a useful field. At the last committee meeting of the C.J.C. the chairman reported that he had suspended the apprentice’s riding license of W. J. Humphries for three months. At the same meeting the appeal against the decision of the stewards of the Kaikoura Club In awarding the Maiden Plato to Hinetoa was dismissed. Some of the French municipal authorities are commencing to turn towards Facing as a means of increasing their revenue. In the districts where the racecourses of L© Tremblay and St. Ouen, are situated the councils have passed a resolution putting a two per cent, tax on all pari-mutuel takings at these two racecourses,'on top of the Government tax of 10 per cent. It looks like killing the goose that lays the golden egg. There was a rather amusing incident in the Challenge Stakes run in Sydney on Anniversary Day. Owing to Malt Mary’s defeat at Warwick Farm and the dissatisfaction it caused W. Black, her rider on that occasion, was taken off and replaced by J. Pike. The latter had been engaged to ride Golden Hop, whose owner was compelled to look for another rider, and ho fixed upon Malt Mary’s discarded jockey Black. One can easily imagine Black’s exultation in defeating Malt Mary by a narrow maygin, and Pieko’s disappointment in missing the winning ride in such an important race.

THE WANGANUI CUP. There was considerable curiosity as to what weight Mr Morse would give iiobrikoffi in the Wanganui Cup, which race is run over one mile and threequarters. The Finland gelding has received the big impost of 9.13, a weight ■ which has never been carried to victory as yet in the race. Indeed, since 1875, when the event was inaugurated, only one horse (Dudu, 9.2) has ever won with more than 9st on his back. As Bobrikolf failed in the Wellington Cup under 9.9, he can in no sense be considered to be well treated with 41b more in the saddle in quite as strong, if not a stronger, field. Los Angelos, 9.6, is another who has his full share, and it will not he at all surprising to find the two top-weights missing from the acceptance list. Labour Day’s recent showing has not been good, and in placing her at even weight with La Rema (8.7) most people will prefer Mr Duder’s more consistent mare. Mira has 61b more than he won. the Atkinson Memorial Stakes at Hawera and 91b above his weight in the Wellington Cup. The grey would probably prefer a shorter journey than a mile and three-quarters. Bronze, 8.4, won very easily last year with a pound less in the saddle. Her form this year has been unmistakably bad, but at Trentham she showed a livelihood of coming back, and the bay mare would only require to be at her best to win. Masterpiece is such an utterly unreliable horse that it is doubtful how to assess his chauoe. On his Auckland and Wellington'Cup form he can have no prospect of success, while on his New Zealand Cup and Consolation Handicap funning lie would be one of the hardest horses to heat in the race. Domino, who was very harshly dealt with in the Auckland Cup, has come down a bit in weight, and, being a fine stayer, must be given a chance. Bon Ton, who, although not a really first-class colt, is more than useful, has 7.12. or 31b under w.f.a. It is a nice racing weight, and, if started, ho will he well supported. Sinapis was rather disappointing at Trentham, where she failed to stay on, but on her best form must have a look in. The distance is rather far for Dearest, although she ran second last year with 41h more than she is now asked to carry. Of the lightweight division, Quarantine, Master Laddo, Tiresome, and Almeida have been left with chances. Altogether the race looks an open one, and the acceptances will he awaited with interest.

THE STARTER. Who is the most important official on a racecourse? All do their share, but the one man whose good or bad work can make or mar tbe sport completely is the starter. Of what use is it for the owner to spend thousands upon bis stable, or the handicapper to make the nicest adjustment of weights if the starter is incompetent? Very few of the followers of racing appreciate the work of the competent man. Often through no fault of the starter there is a bad dispatch. The public invariably remembers it against tbe official and gives him but little credit for a dozen good starts. Easy as the job may seem to tbe uninitiated, there are only a few really good starters. There must be first the natural aptitude and then the necessary experience under properlycontrolled conditions before the perfect starter is evolved. No matter now competent the starter is he must be backed up by the officials and the bulk of owners and with '‘influence” particularly—if he is to do his best. The natural qualifications for a starter are just those which are necessary in other trying positions—nerve, coolness, firmness, tact, and the art of command without being tyrannical. And, of course, all these are useless without the strictest honesty. The starter must have no “friends.” Before the advent of tbe starting gat© starting was a fearful thing, half an hour’s delay being not uncommon, and tho tempers of horses, jockeys, trainers, an dpublic were sorely tried, while it often reduced the contest to a pure gamble. Now a competent starter may do his work in just 60sec, and do it as near to perfection as possible. To give every horse an equal chance is, of course, not possible. But the untiling or biased onlooker often blames the starter for what is the fault of the horse, jockey, size of the field or construction of tbe course. On this subject the “Saturday Referee” (Sydney) has obtained the opinion of one of the best known of Australian starters. “I take no notice of the mob or what criticisms they indulge in,” he said, “I am content to be judged by those who know the game,_ and if I make a mistake do not complain of criticism. But a competent starter, backed up in tbe right quarters, and under fair conditions, will make few mistakes. Sometimes what may appear a bad start is not so at all. The horses will get off well together, but some quicker on their feet will dash for the front, and •before they go many yards a portion of the field may be cut off, and got into bad positions. The starter cannot help that. “The great secret of good starting is that the starter, while being strict in every detail, must have the confiidence of the boys. If he plays fast and loose with them he is done. Once let them see that he is fair, and will not 'take anyone at a disadvantage, and the rest is easy. They will obey him implicitly, knowing that he is going to do his best for them and the sport. Indays gone by it was no uncommon thing for starters, some incompetent, others dishonest, to order a jockey back, and when his mount was turned the wrong way to dispatch the field, leaving him (as much out of the race as if he had in the paddock. Starters have 'teen credited, too, with having a set on certain jockeys. While that method obtaidnedit was not s apprising that jockeys were an unruly lot, doing their best to beat tho starter, and tnatjshaos reigned.” Unfortunately in some parts of the State things are still bad enough. “Then there are the trainers and their horses. It must bo understood that the starter cannot get the horses away evenly if some of them are improperly tutored, or in the hands of incompetent boys. And, of course, the early two-year-olds who have not had ihucji , experience, are at times tcouoleaome. But if the horses won’t !go up to the barrier, what is the use of 'condemning the starter for not making an oven start? 1 remember a case in point. One day, in a field of about twenty youngsters - one absolutely refused to come withifa yards of the post. I waited a reasonable time and then sent the others off without him. When I returned to the paddock tho trainer accosted me and in an injured tone said ‘You left my horse out of tho race- - " ‘Yes’ I replied. ‘Do you think I was going to keep a big field of _ ‘green,’ but well-behaved, horses waiting for a quarter of an hour for the sake of one with bad manners?’ I always make that a rule. I won’t penalise the good majority for the bad minority. “As for the boys, while I try to he just, I always like to give them the benefit of tbe doubt. If I am not sure that a jockey deliberately lets his horse through tho .barrier I put it down to the horse’s fault, but in every case of apparently deliberate rule-breaking by the jockey I inflict the prescribed penalty.” Tho moral of all this is that the perfect starter when secured, or the one nearly perfect, should bo highly prized and appreciated.