TURF TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 26 August 1907, Page 4

TURF TOPICS.

It inevitably happens (says an English writer) after the defeat of a favorite for the Derby that excuses are made, and that everybody who either directly or indirectly is connected with the fallen idol is blamed, but in this case there is no general ground for any blame anywhere. The conversation which the writer referred to had with Darling, Slieve Gabion's trainer, within half an hour of the bitter moment of defeat, brought to light a courage, which, under the circumstances, was little short of splendid. Any man can fly the flag of a sportsman when he is winning, but it takes a very genuine sportsman indeed to keep that flag Hying half au hour after a Slieve Gailion has been beaten fa the Derby. Darling said: "I have been beaten before; and I shall be beaten again. I have no excuse to make for Slieve Gailion. Higgs rode him exactly as I told him to do. I am quite satisfled that he has been beaten by a better horse? Higgs, the rider of the crack, expressed practically the same opinion. Nothing interfered with the horse, he said. He had a clear run all the way, and Slieve Gailion was beaten on his merits. Only those who are able to put themselves into the jockey's boots are able to, realise what the disappointment must have been to Higgs. But he, like Captain Greer, and like Darling, took it unflinchingly. A dead heat and a deciding heat in a steeplechase, such a3 the visitors to Caulfield witnessed between Springfield and Boomerang, is an extraordinary thing, remarks "Ribbleden," but, although rare, there are instances of horses having won two or more jumping races in one day. Some of the witnesses of the Caulfield incident said that the contest savored of cruelty to animals, and suggested that when two horses ran a dead heat in a steeplechase a di vision of the stakes should be compulsory, as with two-year-olds; but it is doubtful if any harm was done. At Moonee Valley in May, 1888,1 remember a horse named Cannon, belonging to "Joe" Gardner, won the Hurdle Race and the Steeplechase within an hour or so; and it is recorded that the Tasmanian horse Mormon won a like double event at Carrick two years in succession. Nicholas, at Melton Mowbray (Tasmania), in 1884, won two jumping races, and Beadsman, in 188(1, repeated the trick at the Carrick Boxing Day meeting. Caledonian is also credited with having won the Campbelltown Grand National Steeplechase, four miles, in one day; but these performances were merely a circumstance in comparison with the achievement of Denmark, who at Bothwell, in 1883, won three jumping races in one day—viz., the Hunt Club Cup Steeplechase, the Hurdle Race, and the Denniston Steeplechase. Denmark, like Caledonian, was by Horatio, andfpvas a fine jumper, as the frequenters of Caulfield, Fleniington, and Randwick will bear witness.

The V.R.C. committee, at a special meeting recently, went fully into Mr J. Wren's application that his courses, situated at Ascot, Richmond and Fitzroy, should be registered, so as to place them on the same footing as the other clubs in Melbourne. Involving as it did the whole range of the control of unregistered and pony racing, the application received lengthy consideration, but [the committee was not prepared to favorably consider it. Judging by the tenor of its resolution (says a Melbourne paper) the committee is evidently anxious to encourage Mr Wren back io its jurisdiction, but will not permit horse racing to take place on any of the courses of which he is now the general manager. The committee has for years been groping for guidance in matters pertaining to pony racing, and it is understood that Mr Wren's experience in conducting the sport would be willingly availed of by the club, which is anxious to grapple with the subject of the control of pony racing generally and especially some of its particularly interesting aspects. Sportsmen in far northern Queensland are watching with much interest the career of a Japanese boy who was recently granted a jockey's license by the N.QiLA. This youth (says an Australian writer) may be the first of his tribe to adopt race liding as a profession in Australia, but he can hardly be expected to fail when it comes to be remembered that descendants of Chinese have succeeded both as jockeys and trainers of horses.