SPORTING NOTES.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2496, 21 March 1881, Page 2

SPORTING NOTES.

An Adelaide contemporary says : “ The exiled Mata will, in the event of receiving a fair weight, be a competitor at the Queen’s Birtnday Meeting. He has been recently purchased for the Indian market, but he will have a final flutter on the old course in May before he departs for fresh fields and pastures new.” As the Y.R.C. did not pay the Adelaide Racing Club the compliment of apprising them of Mata’s disqualification, the committee has determined to give them quid pro quo by quietly ignoring that body’s decision, and accepting Mata’s nomination. At the Y.R.C. the Leger was the fastest ever won in Australia, and it is said that Grand Flaneur’s time has only been beaten by half a second in England, and that if pushed he could have beaten the English time. Turf statistics have been examined and turned over and looked at from every point of view lately, which is natural enough, seeing that there is nos much of turf matter to write about; but I have missed—and possibly a good many readers have missed—the calculation which shows that during the last five years Lord Falmouth has won in stakes the very respectable sum of £121,709. It is impertinent to write praises of a gentleman for following the dictates of his conscience, and in fact, behaving like a gentleman ; but summed up in the vulgarest and most direct manner, it may be added that the turf, followed as Lord Falmouth follows it, must be a much more paying speculation than it is found to be by certain owners who lay themselves out for grand coups which very often indeed fail to come off.

The following from Robin Hood ” in the “ Australasian," in relation to the English Turf shows conclusively that long races neither pay the club, nor give sport to the public. Of course the spring handicap (flat race) entries show, as usual, the small support accorded the old long-distance handicaps, which have had for years past to take a back seat when called upon to compete with their short-distance rivals. The truth is, in England now-a-days you cannot get a decent entry for any race which is run for over any coarse longer than a mile and a half. The Chester Cup this year has but 47 entries, and hardly a horse of quality in the lot; whilst the Great Northamptonshire Stakes has but 42. On the other hand, the City and suburban, one mile and a quarter, has a brilliant lot of 108,embracing such names as Robert the Devil, Bend Or, Dresden China, Jenny Hewlett, &c. Taken altogether, however, the spring handicap entries may be deemed very satisfactory, and when we have got over the Waterloo Cup, and the jumping events at Sandown, Kempton, and Four Oaks Park, the betting on the early affairs will become general ; the largest books open now-a-days are those on the shortdistance Lincolnshire Handicap and City and Suburban, and those old established events, the Chester Cup and Metropolitan, will be hardly heard of till about the day before that for their decision.