Turf Notes

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 808, 31 October 1929, Page 12

Turf Notes

CONDUCTED BY

Te Kuiti Entries 1 Nominations for all events at theannual meeting of the Te Kuiti Racing Club on November 23 and 25 close I with the secretary at Te Kuiti at 9 p.m. tomorrow, Friday, or at 5 p.m. with Messrs. Blomfield and Companv, ; Auckland. Whangarei Acceptances The spring meeting of the Whangsrei Racing Club is to be held at . Whangarei on Thursday and Saturday uf next week. Acceptances for the tirst day are due at 5 p.m. tomorrow, Friday, with the secretary at Whangarei, or with Messrs. Blomfield and 1 Company, Auckland. Whangarei Riders The Ellerslie jockey, E. Ludlow, has e ngagements on King Emerald, Big Bertha, Good Boy (if started), and a maiden in B. Cowan’s stable at the j Whangarei meeting. L. Manson’s ’ rides include Kawainga, High Pitch, ! Gay Cockade and probably Tetrarch- | ate, while R. McTavisli will steer ! Bombarder. Nearly at Top The ex-Auckland gelding Patadawn’s recent racing lias been more with a i view to fitting him for suburban races, t and that he has improved by his out- , ings is apparent from the dash he puts I into his track work. With Magnifier, j he ran five furlongs on the tan in 1.3 jat Rand wick last Thursday, Peter Riddle has him almost at his top now, ! and as he is near the minimum, he t should win suburban handicaps, comi ments a Sydney writer, Belied His Looks ! It is not often that one comes across • a gelding sired by a trotter winning a steeplechase at an important race j meeting, but this unusual occurrence wtjjjs recorded at Cambridge on Monday. Rodger, the horse referred to, looked more like a trotter than a galloper, but that he belied his looks was obvious when he led the field home, an easy winner, in the Maiden Hunters’ Steeplechase, for amateur riders. In keeping with his looks, Rodger was the outsider of the field of seven, but his owner, Mr. J. B. McXaughton. who was in the saddle, had the. last laugh when lie collected the £lls stake and a handsome dividend. It was a good win for the Morrinsville sportsman.

Cup and Stewards I The Ellerslie light-weight horseman. IT. Wiggins, is to ride Cashier in the New Zealand Cup. and Havering in , the Stewards’ Handicap. Wiggins j rode the Taranaki sprinter when he j won at Ellerslie this month. . Second Operation i The ’chaser Glendowie was yesterday | operated on for respiratory trouble, i this being the second occasion upon i which he has been under the knife ( for this complaint. It will be good ! to learn from practical results I next winter that Mr. IT. Ilothery’s line j jumper is all the better for his atten- ; tions from the veterinarian. : iTakanini Team i J. T. Jamieson will take to Riccar- : ton In The Shade, Eaglet, Taurua, Vali ! and Sea Cob. Prince Humphrey has | a leg, and he has been sent back to | Takanini from Trentham. No official word lias been received, however, that | Prince Humphrey has been scratched for the New Zealand Cup. .. . Commendation According to a usually well-informed Southern writer, something more than a mere hint was passed to Mr. W. M. Gaisford as to the possibility of Commendation being placed on the schooling list. As a result, the Hawke’s Bay sportsman is endeavouring to arrange for Commendation to enter G. Price’s stable at Randwick. Truly our horseowners’ trials and tribulations are never-ending! Had Every Chance j Value was decidedly unlucky in both her races at Ellerslie at the recent spring meeting, but she had every chance in her latest outing, the sprint at the Waikato Hunt meeting. She was lying just behind the leading pair at the home turn, but she failed to go on , with it and failed to get in the money. I Nevertheless, she is showing all her old pace, and it is too early as yet to rule her out of future engagements, especially round the provincial circuit. Above the Hunters The winner of the Hunters’ Hurdles at the Waikato meeting last Monday, Omeo, is a cut above this class, and it is possible that the Quarantine gelding will go on and win in better company. He was always handy, and with the favourite, Democratic, often hampered by the attentions of several green jumpers, the way was paved for a real Taranaki victory, which from all accounts was very much expected, indicating that certain centres in the dairy province would feel rather disconcerted when the dividend arrived. Favourite’s Failure Apparently Pompeius is not a good weight-carrier. He failed to get near the leading division in the Waikato Hunt Cup, and although he finished i fourth —he was moved up into third ! place when Importer was rubbed out — | it was a disappointing effort to his j admirers, who had sent him out a good ■; favourite, Pompeius will probably do better next winter when tried over the big fences again. Other disappoint- | ments in the Hunt Cup were Birkbeck (who fell half a mile from home when beaten), Star of the East and Sea Comet. The latter pair were never pos- | sibilities after the first mile had been | covered. Barrier Draw There was what appeared to be a i good deal of barrier cribbing at. Cambridge on Labour Day, but it did not appear to be as bad as it looked on the surface. Valroe and Patere, drawn in third and eleventh positions at the barrier in their respective divisions of the Bardowie Handicap, both started from the inside,, and although the deputy stipendiary steward, Mr. A. Sanford, of Feilding, questioned some of the riders about it, it seemed as if the jockeys themselves did not draw the marbles and so many of them Were unaware of what position they had obtained, and went into the line where told by the starter or his assistant. In i the case of Valroe it might have been a serious affair, for he caught the jump-out and finally won easily, although he broke down two furlongs from home and was a cot case when he limped back to the enclosure. Alteration Wanted The position in regard to division races continues to be most unsatisfactory, and the sooner the racing authorities convince the temporarily domiciled political heads of Molesworth Street in Wellington the sooner will come an improvement. The latest was the Bardowie Handicap at Cambridge on Labour Day. Of the original field of 31 there were 24 starters, all the seven seratchings strangely enough being in the first division. Therefore there were only eight runners in that division. The second division was not decided until half an hour after the original starting time, and • backers were paid out on the winners of each division only. New safety limits for all the Dominion courses were listed in the official organ a few weeks back, and now it is up to the conference to convince the politicians that in such cases the clubs concerned should be permitted to treat them as separate races, with dividends paid on the first and second horses. One can imagine the opponents of the sport crying that this is the “thin edge of the wedge,” but then they are the sort that will always be up agin the government—of racing. At present the stakes for a divided race, even on good programmes, are hardly worth running for, especially with a cut first dividend and no chance of saving from the wreck when a horse runs second. Division races are anathema to the racing authorities and the public alike. Marton Cup This year’s Marton Cup will be worth 000 sovs, including a cup valued at 50 ! sovs. donated by the Rangitikei Hunt i Club. The Marton Jockey Club has | favoured the hunting folk on many j occasions, and it is pleasing to see that I th© Hunt Club appreciates its action. Laid Off £6,000 of Phar Lap In reply to an inquiry as to how he stood on the two Cups double, a prominent Sydney bookmaker replied last Thursday: “Nearly everything with a chance is running against me, but the drawer of Phar Lap in the £20.000 sweep laid me £6,000 at a satisfactory price, and that has eased matters to some extent so far as the chestnut is concerned.’’ V.R.C. Derby Phar Lap is not to have a run to the left—the opposite to all he has I ever run in his life in Sydney—prior to the Derby. This new experience j could have been gained prior to the I classic with a start in the Cox Plate i last Saturday at Moonee Valley, but * his trainer-owner probably considers ; that the smaller course might militate • against his best form at the first at- ' tempt this way, so he scratched him. Thus his first Melbourne start will be i the Derby on Saturday next. But the j old maxim is that a good horse will show his best form running in either ' direction, and probably the connections of the favourite are content to abide by the belief.