SPORTING.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1298, 20 March 1883, Page 3

SPORTING.

At the Napier Race Meeting, no less a sum than £71675 passed through the totalisitors. This is big money. Some of our sporting men returned from the Napier races looking despondent. Dame Rumour has it that the trip was unprofitable. This, however, as a well-known hotelkeeper says, “is their trouble/’ There were several who had visited Napier returned this morning, including jockeys, owners, etc. They have ail enjoyed themselves, and although the Poverty Bay horses have not been as successful as we could have desired, still some of the money comes this way. Our local horse, bred and born in the district, Wild Dayrell, has proved that he can live in the very best of company. Canard, who is a “ coming” horse, will haue to look to his laurels shortly, and we venture to assert that at the next Steeplechase they meet, that he will have to jump and rare to beat the Gisborne horse. He must not falter or make a mistake, because, if so, he will be beaten as surely as this present prragraph is being read. A sporting correspondent has written to us a letter, which we would very much rather have not received. He says your contemporary boast* about the “ tips ” given on the late Napier Races, and the sporting writer seems to think that it is a great feather in his cap, having picked out a few winners. A child could have done the same. I wonder if the “ Tipster ” had anything to do with the following which appeared in the Herald of the 16th instant - Napier Races, Thursday. Nursery Plate of 100 Bovs. Distance, half-a-mile : Epicure, 1 ; Robina, 2; Jacob, 3. Time : Five mins 3| secs.—Sport. [We do not know, but we labor under an impresssion that we, although getting into that stage described as the “ sere and yellow leaf,” could whip that time on foot.—Ed. P.B.S.] “ Beacon,” the well-known sporting writer says:—Another totalisator yarn anent the Dunedin meeting reaches me. Just prior to the suburban Handicap a man went up to invest £3 on The Poet, who was No. 1 on the card. He held out his three notes and cried out, “ I want three.” The cash-taker said, “ What number, sir ?” “ Three, I tell yon,” exclaimed the would-be backer of No I—and three tickets on No. 3 were, of course handed to him. On emerging from the crush the investor examined his tickets, and finding that they were for No. 3 (Leos) he rushed back to the totalisrtor and kicked up a tremendous row, threatening to “ wreck the whole machine ” if his tickets were not changed for three on No. 1. The operator could not, of course, rectify his error for him, and he had to be content with his three tickets on Leos instead of on his fancy horse The Poet. S'rolling away to the lawn in a very dissatisfied mood, the disgusted investor on a horse that he utterly despised, looked on the early part of the race with a deep gloom on his countenance, but when Leos shot a head of the other horses and came in a handsome winner, he was the first at the totalisator for his dividend, w’hich amounted to £6O. That machine was not wrecked. Mr Pilbrow informs “ Beacon ” that he intends to send Welcome Jack and Clarence over to Victoria early in the spring to try conclusions with the cattle over there. Commenting on Mr Pilbrow’s proposed action, the same writer says :—“ I cannot but think this a rather rash step, for both horses are, ' on the mere sound of their performances in this colony, bound to get stiff weights clapped on them. Welcome Jack’s five victories at Auckland, for instance, have been freely commented on in the Australian papers, and the handicappers over there will scarcely be aware of the fact that the horses he beat there are far from the highest class that we have in this colony. Tim Whiffier and the \ Poet appear to be about the best of the lot t that he defeated there, and the owners of I these two horses would be the first to admit that they are not at the top of the tree. Far better keep the horses in the country, I : Bay. ” JSaeo and. Slad.o. The San Francisco correspondent of the Sydney Evening News writes ; —“Jim Mace and Maori half-caste Slade are here, and a pugilistic ‘ boom ’ has set in, worse than the pedestri&n swindle. ‘There’s millions in it,' and I greatly misjudge Jim and the astute Maori if they arc not going to make the most of it. They had a sparring exhibition in the Metropolitan Temple on Monday night: the platform in which the Rev. Isaac Kai loch, ex-mayor, ic., teaches mortality and gospel truth, being used by the pugilists for the exhibition. The temple organist played jigs and all kinds of ‘ dive ’ music to ‘the fancy.’ The attendance included judges, Lawyers, merchants, editors physician hooded parsons, and all sorts and conditions of men, plus two woman. There were nearly 4000 dollars (K 00 in the house, which is a good start, and everyone was satisfied with the promiscuous sloggers. A match will doubtless be made between Slade and Sullivan, while Sullivan and Mace will box with gloves. It will be the Hippodroming business repeated, which has ruined trotting and pedistranism in this country. Parson Kailoch announced the set-to from his pulpit platform on Sunday. The deacons protested but he told them they had no property interests in the temple.