SPORTING.

Shannon News, 30 January 1923, Page 2

SPORTING.

The Otaki-trained Probate, after-rac-ing successfully on the West Coast and at Foxton, is on the nomination list for the Gisborue meeting.'

A brother to Cupidon, who fetched four figures at the Waikanae stud sale, is to be trained at Riccarton, says a Wellington exchange. The success at both Foxton and Wellington of the Foxton mare, Helen Ruius, gave a lot of satisfaction to Levin sports, among whom her ownertrainer. F.- Carmont ,is held in popular esteem. Incidentally, some Helen

tulus money came to Levin as a remit of her win at Wellington on Wed-

nesday.

Formerly owned and trained in Levin by the late A. McCofmon, that good sprinter, Paphian, ran a first and second at the Wellington meeting. The son of Bezonian is now trained at Greymouth by Mr A. R. McConnon, brother of-the deceased trainer.

Atapo did not take to the going at Foxton, and although lie ran well, could not get among the money. ~ March On, on his Foxton running, should be due for a win shortly.

Maniana, a warm favourite for the Hurdles on the second day at Foxton, gave a poor exhibition of jumping. Unfortunately the rider, F. Copestake, was injured when his mount fell, and will be unable to fulfil his Takap.una

engagements. Bad Luck seems to be on J. Kaan's trail. Kept out of the saddle for some time by injuries received when Sir Wai fell at the Wellington Spring

Meeting, he made his reappearance at Foxton. He was winning the Hurdle Race on Springtide, when his mount came to grief at the last lence v

The fact that the brilliant filly

Uazzle Dazzle and another filly in Gold Light—both winners at TrenUiain—come from.' Mr'W. T. Hazlett's Southland stable, -is a sign that Southern breeders are coming to the

front in the literal sense. That good ma.re, Silver Peak, is also Southlandowned, as is the imported mare Glenirum. The former won the Consolation Handicap for Mr W. Stone on Wednesday, and the latter ran second in the Waterloo Stakes the same day. The win of Razzle Dazzle in tne Waterloo Stakes at Wellington on Wednesday is regarded as one of the best two-year-old performances seen for some time.

' ft is stated that the. Hawk was stopped at the bottom of the straight in the Waterloo Cup. He was going very last at that stage of the journey, and there can be little doubt that be would have stayed on, says a Wellington

scribe. American Beauty, who has been out oi the picture lor. a long time, is nominated at the Egmont meeting. The Otaki-trained Petunia appears among the nominated horses lor the 'President's Handicap at the forthcoming Dunedin races. A Wellington paper had this paragraph yesterday: On Wednesday Helen Uuius did a preliminary that would put anyone off backing her, but when it came to racing she just walked in. The-horsemanship at the Wellington meeting was bad... Had it been even reasonably good the results of a substantial percentage of the races. I wou-ld have been altered. There is no doubt that a big number of the older horsemen are riding disgracefully, and, alter all, these seems to be some sense in owners engaging apprentices and securing allowances.—N.Z. Times. Fair acceptances have been received - for the Woodville meeting, which opens next Wednesday. The field for the Cup is: Sunart 9.9, Admiral Cod--rington 8.12, Dissertation 7.9, Hallowroz 7.5, Comical 7.8, The Speaker 6.13, Five-Eighths 6.9, Crown Star 6.7. The

hack events are better filled, and the meeting should go off well.

J Under the heading-, "The Routing of the Ring," "Iroquois," writing in Smith's Weekly, remarks: Bookmakers operating at registered meetings have ' experienced a _bad time lately. The racing of the last two months has probably cost the ring something in the neighbourhood of a quarter of a million of money. And the. biggest, contributing factor to this loss, strangely enough, has been the superabundance ot racing. The more racing there is on a Saturday programme, the more expensive to the bookmakers. Divisions are.the cause of the trouble. When a race is divided, the horses with winning possibilities are also divided. Supposing in a field of 50, such as there was at. Moorefield recently, there are 12 with strong winning chances, .while the opposition is made up of many who are being tried out, and others so useless that 'if they were let loose they could not win. We can quite understand how difficult it would be to pick such an event run in one or even two races. But divide it into four (as was done with the Kogarah Stakes at Moorefield), and the 12 possibilities are equally distributed among the tour races, and it becomes a matter cf picking the winner of each race in three, or perhaps only two. And when punters can pick races in this way, the books must lose.