Truf Notes

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 443, 27 August 1928, Page 10

Truf Notes

j Avondale Meeting Entries for the Avondale Jockey j Club spring fixture on September 23 | and 24, together with final payments ! for the Avondale Stakes and Avondale Guineas, close on Friday next at 5 p.m. This Week’s Racing There will be plenty of racing this week, and none of it particularly interesting. Dannevirke Racing Club on Wednesday, Dannevirke Hunt on Thursday, and Taranaki Hunt and Otago Hunt on Saturday comprises the bill of fare. Now At Te Rapa The light-weight horseman, S. Tremain, who had been attached for some ~ time to the Ellerslie stable presided over by N. Cunningham, recently joined up with W. Wood’s stable at Te Rapa. Not Eligible Owing to the fact that they have won open steeplechases both Highway and Rangi Sarto will not be eligible to start in the Rangitikei Hunt Cup Steeplechase at the Marton Jockey Club’s spring meeting. The race is only open to horses that have not won a race of £l5O or over, hack and hurdle events excepted. Brother To Thespian Thespian’s four-year-old brother Farrago, who cost 2,250 guineas as a yearling, is one of the latest backed for the A.J.C. Epsom Handicap, in which he is weighted at 7.12. So far he has not justified his big purchase price, but he is showing signs of improvement. and last month with 7.11 was a close second to Lady Beth, 8.9, in the Lawn Handicap at Flemington, the six furlongs being run in 1.122. Forward Youngsters _ As the result of recent rains the tracks at Trentham at present are oh the heavy side and matters are quiet. So far the two-year-olds intended Cor early racing have not been asked a great deal. Of those that have done a little sprinting the most promising are the filly by Grandcourt—Table Talk in D. McCauley’s stable and the Valkyrian—Whitianga colt in charge of Captain Gage Williapts. The filly’s name is Courtlike and her dam is a sister to Highland, Finmark and Esfland. She looks like proving a bargain on the llOgns. that was paid for ter at the January sales. The Valkyrian colt is named Imperial Guard and he fetched 250gns. at the sales. Both are engaged next month at Wanganui, where three other Trentham youngsters are entered, not to mention four more from H. Telford’s stable temporarily located at Wanganui.

Winning Three-Year-Olds A feature of the racing at Hastings on Saturday was the success of the three-year-olds. Lucky Light and Knightlike. Both are engaged in the Wanganui and Avondale Guineas, to be run on September 13 and 24 respectively. Returned Home

Mr. F. J. McManemin, handicapper to the Auckland Racing Club, and numerous other racing clubs, returned to Auckland by the Niagara this morning after an extended trip to Melbourne and Sydney.

Will She Emulate Razzle Dazzle? The success of Lucky Light at Hastings on Saturday (she scored comfortably in the Maiden), together with the fact that she claims engagements in the Wanganui Guineas and New Zealand Eclipse Stakes, recalls the performances of her dam, Razzle Dazzle, in these same events five years ago. Then that brilliant filly led all the way in each race, but it was only by a head that she beat Thespian—probably the best of all Absurd’s progeny. Riding at New Plymouth The Auckland horseman, E. Warner, will be riding at the Taranaki Hunt Club meeting on Saturday, and among his mounts he will be on Waitanehau. Warner, who is domiciled at Te Rapa, made a visit to Ellerslie on Saturday morning to indulge Odin in a schooling lesson over the steeplechase fences on the flat. Out of Hospital The Ellerslie trainer, W. Tozer, who has not enjoyed the best of health for some time, was admitted to the hospital in the early part of last week, but his many friends will be pleased to learn that he has been discharged, although still confined to bed. Mr. Tozer is making a good recovery, and it should not be long before he is again undertaking the training of the horses in his stable.

Better Every Day Possibly one of the most improved horses in attendance at Ellerslie is the jumper, Odin. He has been kept in steady work since racing the Te Kuiti meeting a few weeks ago, and consequently is very forward at the present time. Odin-was indulged in a schooling lesson over country at headquarters on Saturday, and the clean and easy manner in which he negotiated the obstacles was impressive. Odin will probably be seen out at the Pakuranga and Waikato Hunt fixtures. Clockwork Forward Prior to his winning effort at the Great Northern meeting in June, Clockwork had shown very little form to his credit, and his win over country, in addition to his third over hurdles at the Te Kuiti meeting, gave the impression that he would yet show more progress. Since then Clockwork has been in steady work, and this is having the desired effect, for he is now displaying more solidness than formerly, and if his present appearance is any criterion he should be capable of adding to his record at one of the hunt meetings that come up for decision in the next month or so. All going well during the interim Clockwork will make his next appearance in the Hunt Club Cup at the Pakuranga Hunt meeting. Raasay’s Form In running Reonui to a length at a difference of six pounds in the first division of the Dundas Handicap, seven furlongs, at Sydney on Saturday, Raasay put up a great performance, for he was not only having his first race since Easter, but he was up against one of the Epsom Handicap favourites, and a horse that a month ago carried 9.2 to victory over a field of good sprinters. | Backers who supported Raasay each way (win and place) would just about break even, for although the New Zealander was nearly favourite, the odds were fair. If Raasay would only do his best in all his races he would tak© a lot of beating in any company. * Rionscup, third to the heavily backed Reonui and Raasay, was at a “write your-awn-ticket price.” The winner (at double figures, too:) of the second division of the Dundas Handicap was Val,% iraiso, whose great race against Limerick in the King’s Cup at Randwick last autumn is still remembered. Flying *Hero Out

R. S. Bagby received information that it had been found necessary to dispatch the Flying King colt, the promising Flying Hero, owing to injuries received in his paddock, presumably through rearing up and falling backwards. It was a decided misfortune for both trainer and the owner, Mr. A. McDonald, for whom Flying Hero won the Juvenile Handicap at the Wairarapa summer meeting and the Juvenile Handicap at the Masterton autumn fixture last season out of eight starts. From Dunedin The folio-wing view is expressed by “Sentinel” in the “Otago Daily Times” on racing representation:—“Despite the fact that the Hon. E. W. Alison, president of the Takapuna Jockey Club, has expressed annoyance that the Auckland Racing Club has no direct representation on the newly-appointed committee of the New Zealand Racing Conference, and that the president of the Auckland Racing Club has expressed himself in similar strain, they have nothing to fear. There is not the remotest chance that the committee of the Racing Conference will do anything that is opposed to the interests of tire Auckland Racing Club. The committee is composed of men whose sole endeavour is to work in the interests of sport generally, and while that is so any individual club is not likely to suffer. . . . The Auckland Racing Club has protested against the cost of oiling the machinery of racing so far as the club itself is concerned. The A.R.C. might be challenged and asked if spending thousands a year on a garden is a legitimate charge on racing. The balance sheet shows that the club expended £2,281 11s 8d in salaries and pensions last season, and £14,050 19s Id in ‘wages.’ The latter item, it seems, is principally due to the small army of gardeners employed on the course; and at the same time the writer has Heard prominent trainers speak in anything but laudatory terajs about the state of the race track.” As coming from a centre where a certain amount of hostility (probably of a personal nature) has been directed against Auckland, the views expressed above were only what could have been expected—destructive, not constructive, criticism. The smug complacency with which the Southern critic blithely opines that “there is not the remotest chance that the committee of the Racing Conference will do anything that is opposed to the Auckland Racing Club” is almost laughable when one remembers the treatment meted out to the Avondale Jockey Club protest, supported by the Auckland District Committee, when Manawatu filched dates clashing with Avondale in April last. And other instances could be quoted.— “Early Bird.”