SPORTING.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 15 July 1907, Page 3

SPORTING.

RACING IN AUSTRALIA.

THE GRAND NATIONAL.

Received 13th, 5.20 p.m. Sydney, July 13.

There was line weather for the Grand Nitional Steeplechase, which resulted: Divham 1, Main 2, Boomerang 3. Sixteen started. Betting: S to 1 Decoration, Cardinal, Boisdale, Boomerang, i:U to 1 Divliam. A good start w.is elicited. Cardinal lost his rider at the lirst fence. Swimmer, Decoration, Western, ■Seymour, and Tile Trick fell. The latter was leading in the early put of the race, and bis coming to grief gave Divham command, and he was never .'[gain headed, winning easily by six lengths lime, Omin, Uo%see.

: TURF TOPICS. "Goodwood" has these remarks on til'? -Melbourne Cup weights:—Tartan, who ran a good tliird in Blue Spec's Cup,

heads the list of handicaps for thi.year's Cup, with 0.0. He is a line per fnrmer. but wul next season be sever years old. and he will need to be at His very lie-a. (o have a chance at thi:-

veigiii. Dividend, il he reaches tlr lost lit. and wch, looks like being very lingerous, and it is quite likely thai ic will prove the best of the topveighls. 'there is (lib between Antoaus and l'oisedon. On their form at the

V.K-C. spring meeting tiles: relative weights are about right. AuLoniusgave Poseidon a good race in both the Derby and Melbourne Cup, and in the two-mile race he w.is allowing Poseidon ;i)lj. Solution failed last year in the Mel-

bourne Cup witli 5.4 up. She has now $.12, which is still a nice weight if she could be depended upon to stay. Two other New Zealanders, in Jtaniapoto and Mahutonga, are kept well up, but they are horses of some class, though now getting up in years, lioorau is better oil in the Caullield Cup than iu the Melbourne Cup, and so is Banzai. Collarit has a handy enough weight in the twomilc race at 8.7 if he were able to stay.

lie has not so far shown himself as possessed of much stamina. Sporran is better off at Fleniington than at Caullield, but he is no youngster. Master IMwai's last winning race in New Zealand was in the Auckland Autumn Handicap, one mile and a-half, carrying 8-13, the time being 2.35 3-u. This reads like fair form, and lie is not badly treated at 8.4. Gramaphone gave promise of turning out a good horse, l'roeeedor and Proceed are two aged horses on the S.-i mark. l'roceed miy prove

the better of the two on these terms. Norecn is a good stayer, and so is Sot Free, who split Blue Spec ami Tartan in the .Melbourne Gup ot' IUOS. .Pink 'l*n is well enough treated at 7.12, if l;e can stay. He is a horse that might on looks win any race. Melodrama lias been given a decided chance on the same mark. The Owl, at 7.10, heads the list of rising two-year-olds, having 21b move than Ma&irin. If they had been put together no one would have found faultMaltine is really reckoned the best twoye u'-old of the season by My Mcnzies, who has given her 7.5, which, seeing that mares at thv time of the year Vae | race is run are on the weight-for-age scale allowed 513>, is equal to 7.13. Dyed Garments (7.8) is a good stayer. He was-well up in last year's Cup with IMb less. Rhubarb is promising. Mountain King, Mira, lnvergordon, Spinaway, Marniont, Lady KyUtone, Scooie, Mooltun and Bun Grafton have all nice weights. Jt is significant, as showing the quality of the horses engaged, that dose on a hundred of the 175 entered are handicapped at 7.0 or under, a;ivd, forty-three of the number arc on the minimum mark. Amongst those handicapped under 7.0 it is quite likely that there is something smart concealed. Poseidon was in that division last vcar.

At Paris, in .May, William Carver, vn old-time KngH>h jockey, died as the result of an attack made upon him l\v French roughs- Carver was one of the first Knglish jockeys to ride in France, and in 1873 won the French Derhy and the Grand Prix de Paris on Boiavd. The nine-year-old stallion Australian Colors (Tne Australian Peer—Colors), who had not previously raced since competing at Chester in May, 1004. was a runner for Ihe principal race at Hosehill last month. Despite his years, Jie looked well, but finished l ist.

Since the suppression of the hookmakers in Franc.* there has been a tremendous increase in totaisator betting, and at the commencement of June, though the racing season hid hardly commenced, the Minister of Agriculture announced that the turnover since the commencement of the year was £4,010,1)00, or £010.001) more than had been put through during the whole of thy preceding year. The gate-money returns had increiscd in like proportion, being .til 14,000 for four month*, as against £102,400 for the whole of IWOG.

Horse dentistry has made forward strides of late years. A New York paper .states lint Cilpin lias been cavorting around the track daily witli a set of false teeth. The horse had lost tile use of his grinders, and was unable to masticate hia feed properly. A east of the horse's mouth was made, and a plate holding several guttapercha teeth was lirmly secured to the front teeth. The horse improved iu health and strength, and is now a good gelling plater. The Tallinn Derby winner, Hammurabi, was successful at his first appearance in England. London Sportsman says: —The conditions of the Sunnillgd ib' Park Plate at Kempton Park were so favorable for Hammurabi, the race being not for maideus but for horses that had never won a race in England, lli ir it was not surprising to lind this chosen for the Russian crack to make his English debut, lie is by no means a liandsouie horse, being leggy and .•ililty, narrow, and angular, standing elo>e upon 17 hands, and he is never likely to set the Tlvmes on lire, but 'xe beat the moderate Jot opposed to him readily enough, as well he might, seeing Ui.it the best of these proved to be Devilled Truffle, who 24 hours previously had been tailed off behind, St., Petersburg. As many statements have Ueeii made concerning the ownership of ! Hammurabi, it, may be stated that the I horse belongs to the JUissiin (Government —that is to say, the Czar, whose Crown is stamped upon his neck—but he is leased for his English racing career to eight partners. J. Parsons, ''the stable boy'' w.io

steered L.ivaetaeus when that horse j jhruught off a sensational victory in lie English j>rby of 1802. died shortly before ihe last mail to hand left England. -' : i The Addingtou gelding Apa, who was one of the most unlucky horses that contested during ihc present season, is stated to have been well backed for the I forthcoming New Zealand Cup.

The undefeated Polar Siar run bis thirteenth race when he won the Kempton Park Jubilee Handicap of >KH)l)soy;>. Polar Star carried 7s 121b, and ran tile mile and a quarter in 2.7 bOs. The suggestion i« being extensively ' put forward in Vjei.oria thiit steepi.>- | eluise fences at all tin; courses round I the. metropolis at least, if n«>i. throughout the state, should be of the unifovm

h.-ij-liL of :jft Jlliu. L(»id lias uris*oii thi- name oi JUu'tork' U» l»i> yvjiii'linj; jiHv l>y Cyi-li'iK'—(-as, wliu is a full m*ut lu t)K: ])cil»v winner t'itvro. an 4 Imlf-siVtvi to I'.-nuiiiiin. v>!io iiui-lit'd fsiTuml in th.> Two Tl«ou>iv.»-l tiuiuca*.