Turf Notes

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 74, 18 June 1927, Page 6

Turf Notes

By

“EARLY BIRD.”

1 RACING |

Next Week’s Racing The Hawke’s Bay Hunt Club races at Hastings next Wednesday will be followed on the Friday and Saturday by the Hawke’s Bay Jockey Club’s winter meeting.

Wellington Winter Fixtures Entries for the three days of the Wellington winter meeting are due on Monday night. His Long Suit

Chickwheat is doing well for H. Nurse. He will probably be seen out at some of the minor meetings prior to the National Welter racing on soft courses is the gelding’s long suit.

Stakes and Distance Reduced The distance of the Napier Steeplechase, two miles and a-half, is this year half a mile shorter than in the past. Except in 1887, when it was two miles and three-quarters, it has always been about three miles.

Team for Australia Though up to the present no announcement has been made regarding the composition of F. D. Jones’s team to race in Australia, it is certain that Limerick will be one of the number, and there is a possibility of Philanderer, Arikiwai and Ortego being included. Plain But Good The yearling by Rossendale from Medley in work at Riccarton is said not to be a colt that would attract ;iny particular attention from a horse lover passing by. He is a plain, sensible and well-grown youngster, and is a nice mover, but if he were not related to Limerick and Ballymena nobody would be very enthusiastic over him. He, however, is decidedly better at his age than were either of his famous half-brothers. He is one of the batch of yearlings from which F. D. Jones hopes to pick two or more to bring to Randwick in July. The Hawk and Co. J. M. Cameron expects to leave New Zealand for Sydney at the end of the present month with The Hawk, Egyptian Flower and the three-year-old Goshawk. The Hawk was in Australia in the spring, but was not successful. After his return to the Dominion he won a couple of races in the summer before he hurt himself. Although the Martian gelding is rising nine years of age, and has probably lost some of his former brilliance, he is not unlikely to win more money in Australia, since so many stars have suddenly dropped out of the racing firmament. Davidson’s Hundred S. Davidson has now reached a total of 52 wins for the season at meetings in the Sydney metropolitan area. At Brisbane he won three races last Saturday week, bringing his total for all meetings to 102. Two racehorses were recently impounded in the Waterloo, Sydney, municipal pound, having been found wandering in the street. They were sold for 28s and 90s respectively. It cost their trainer £5 for the first one, •-*nd £4O for the other, to buy them Lack from their new owner o

Thyroid Gland Operation Thyroid gland treatment was not an immediate success with the English three-year-old Pentire, who failed when sent out at a short price for a race at Hurst Park recently. Latest files from the Old Country state that when Pentire was younger it was feared that he would be difficult to train, and the experiment was tried of subjecting him to a thyroid gland operation. It was thought that this had effected a cure, but it is feared that a weakness remains somewhere. At home he does not gallop consistently, and he is inclined to choke. Immense Colt

Royal Feast, 16. hands high, would be dwarfed by two colts that running in England this season. Treat, by Tetratema, has previously been mentioned in this column as a 17 hands three-year-old. As :in the case of Royal Feast his size did ,not prevent him from winning as a two-year-old, as he was successful twice. Another immense colt is Vanoe by Hurry On, who stands a shad© over 17 hands, and is splendidly furnished. Early this season he was described as being “just a big baby,” but he evidently improved rapidly as cables announced that Steve Donoghue was going to ride him for Eleanor Lady Forrington in the Derby. However, after a trial with that lady’s Love Knight the Hurry On gelding was scratched. Lone Knight ran poorly in the classic race. Brisbane Cup Winner The Brisbane Cup winner, Kentle, so impressed Southern visitors that there was a keen desire to purchase him. No less than three offers of 1,500 guineas each were made for him, and one has been accepted. The name of the purchaser has not been disclosed, but the horse is to be taken south by the Sydney trainer, G. Price. Kentle is a four-year-old by Kenilworth from the Grafton mare Amicita. As a two-year-old he had only one start, and three more as a three-year-old, without securing place distinction. It was not till May 21 last that he earned prize money in Brisbane by winning a Novice Handicap narrowly. This he followed up by success in the Novice Handicap under most disadvantageous circumstances. His jockey, through losing his stirrups at the start, had to ride the horse without them for a mile and a-quarter, yet he landed Kentle an easy winner. Then ho won the two-mile Gup running away. What’s Mine is Mine After the English Derby winner, Call Boy, had as a two-year-old won the Linton Stakes, it was reported that his owner, Mr. Frank Curzon, had received a big offer for the colt, and that he contemplated accepting it. When asked if there was any foundation for the report, Mr. Curzon replied: “Absolutely none. The money isn’t coined that would buy Call Boy. I am in the racing game for the sport, and after this I shall regard a repetition of the offers I have received as an insult. I know all the risks attendant on the possession of a high-class two-year-old, and I am prepared to accept them myself.” It was ever thus; no sooner does a sportsman, breeder or purchaser, secure a good youngster than somebody covets it. Mr. Curzon’s judgment was sound, and now that Call Boy has won the Derby he must be more pleased than ever that he turned a deaf ear to the over-

tures. Many Australian owners have been in the same position, a'mong them Mr. Ben Chaffey, who was offered £12,000 for Manfred when a two-year-old. Mr. Chaffey’s reply was: ‘Not if I were offered £IOO,OOO would I sell him; I like owning good ones as well as anybody else.”