THE WORLD OF SPORT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 293, 5 December 1908, Page 3

THE WORLD OF SPORT.

RACING FIXTURES. December 9 and 10—Woodville J.C. December 10 and 17.—Dannevirke J.C". December 23, 26, 28—Manawatu Radii,: Club. s December 28 and 30, January 1 and 2 Auckland Racing Club. ] December 26, 28—Taranaki J.C. Xmas. December 26, 30, January 1 2—Auckland Racing Club.

DATES OF'COMING EVENTS.

December 23.—Manawatu Cup. December 2ft.—Auckland Cup.. December 30-A.K.C. Summer Cup. TURF TOPICS. (By "Jfoturoa"). StTitfoni nominations are due on Monday, December 7th, at 9 p.m.

Races at Woodville on Wednesday aud Thursday next. » _ Ikon was hot stuff both starts at Keilding, and the good thing materialised on each occasion. JJallnrat was hardly ready at Feilding but should score soon. Hot stuff! There is a tidy named Curry entered for two-year-old events at tlie forthcoming A..J.C. midsummer meet.

The Hon. Jimmy Carroll races Tarina as straight as most owners, and the two win* which came Ids way at Takapuna on Wednesday were well received. The idea that Musketry could not go beyond six furlongs expioded violently when the daughter of Merriwee won the Manchester Handicap, l'/ 4 miles, from "go'' to "pull up." Horseflesh is down to the price of cats' meat these days. Sweet Hill, Jolly Roger, aad Glentui changed hands at £l9, £2l, and £29 respectively at the Marlborough meeting. Golden Slipper baa been put into work again at Bandwick, and her owner is bent on getting back her purchase money, if possible. He is bent now, but will probably be "broke" before the final aet.

Punters talked nothing but Manapouri for the final Welter Handicap at Takapuna, but Bully came to light and treated much joy in the Ikeys' camp. The hot-stuff was unplaced in a field of five. Thus do good tips, like good henfruit, turn bad, until the aroma surrounding Rotorua could claim kinship with either.

Ruatamata (Mahakd-Annoureux) won -the 14 3 Handicap at Ascot on the 18th nit One almost develops the tired feeling recording the monotonous successes of this pony. The lilliputian's owner just seems to take the prad out and win the race every time the rent falls due or he wants a drink or something! Stayboy, who was rather big at Waverley, showed what a versatile old boy he was by running off with a hurdle and race at Feilding. A horse that ran win over sticks, "cop" tear-away nutters, drag his owner to and from the course and take the kids to school every Horning should be in everybody's house. On paper the Spring Handicap at Takapuna looked a moral for Royal Soult, but when the wires ticked " Advocate" as a certainty -< the heads" rushed off.to back the tip. When the result came through, several punters took themselves up to the Rec. to kick themselves, but found the ground already occupied by a crowd who were doing likewise, and the wail of sorrow which filled the atmosphere remanded »ne of the afternoon when the news filtered through that Sir Artegal wa3 neither first, second, nor third in the Flying at Fielding. The £IO,OOO trotting event (called the American Trotting Derby) took place at Readville, Massachusetts, on August 25, and was witnessed by an attendance of 45,000. There were 39 starters. The race was run initwo heats, eight only in each heat qualifying for the final. Allen Winter, a green horse, was the winner. The time for the l'/4 miles was 2.40. the winner's time working out at 2.7% to the mile.

The dearth of good starters in Xew Zealand has led to several men trying their hands at the barrier. The latest report from a Palmerston paper states that Jockey Sid. Keid contemplates retiring from the saddle and taking up the manipulation of the tapes. In these hard times the public do not take kindly to bad starts, and would-be starters should he required—for their own safety—to sign a declaration that they can sprint a mile in 4.30 or thereabouts. Otherwise there will be a few tomli6tones required shortly. We often liear ithe- squeal of the owner of the beaten horse On our racecourses, hut one at the recent show is worth recording. A diminutive amateur jockster had vainly attempted to rush a roguish pony at the obstacles, and after a sorry exhibition returned to the starting point. An angry owner stepped out and accosted the youth ia savage tones. " I thought you could lilanky well ride, sonny I" "Gam," replied,the jock, "I thought you said your ulanky 'orse could jump!" and, rapidly .dismounting, he faded away in the crowd and was next seen annoying the man with the pegs and the golden ball.

Starting res'tire horses is not the -simple game it looks, by any means, as Mr. E. Aldwortli found out at Feilding. Wretched starting robbed several races of all interest on the first day, and Mr. Aldworth met with a hostile reception at the hands of the crowd who saw their coin flung to the four winds at the rise of the barrier, Mr. Aldwortli took the bull by its frontal spikes and very ungracefully resigned, Mr. Tom Cameron taking up his duties. Mr. Aidworth subsequently showed how tired lie was of the game by resigning his new appointment as starter to the Kangitikei Club.. Mr. Aldwortli is booked to slip the neddies at the Taranaki Jockey Club's Christmas meeting, and up to the time of writing he still clings to the position. He recognised his inability to start at Feilding and Rangitikei." Surely he doe* not consider himself " good enough " for the T.J.C. Criticising the remarks of the Victori-

an cleric who said that " those who back a horse they know will win are rogues, and those who back horses they are not sure will win are fools," "(laltee More" gays: "Well, if this is so, there are more fools than rogues ia Tasmania, which is a sort of grim consolation. But Jet me right here remark that I think the clergy should stick to theology, and leave " turfology "—if I might coin a word—to the sporting scribes, otherwise the latter may want to swop places with the former. " Where there are two or tnore competitors for a race, no one should know what is going to win. When the Pharisee and the publican had a spurt in the long ago, the lanter was, by some, considered the rank outsider of the pair. But for all that the 'outsider' won through putting in some

jrood work while the Pharisee was running wide with his head too high in the air. Kid the Victorian cleric confined his remarks on racing to saying ' For the dead ve weep /-even days, for a fool all the days of h'n lit,..' the horsey men in his congregation would have seen the .point of the ' dead.'" In a chatty letter to Mr. T. Payten. with whom he was so long associated, .writes "Pilot" in the Referee, IF. Coffey «avs he has done fairly well since hit arV'val at Kobe (Japan), having won three of the seven raees in which he had riddeD «P to tl,(1 ti,np " f nrltl ""- He mentions: the remuneration lie reeeivrd. and, considering the smallness of the prize-monev for which the horses competed, was well satisfied with the liberality of his employers. lie is the only-

foreign jockey riding at Kobe, all the others being Japanese hoys, who, m mile and » half race,, get their whips out immediately a start U effected, and are Ivird at their mounts from start to finish. Coffey states that the Japanese have a poor knowledge of training. «wl morning after morning a horse will i* brought out and sent along at his top for a mile and a half or two miles Their

ideas of feeding, too. are decidedly peculiar 'rom an Australian .taudpobt. Thev mix up half a dozen eggs and a tin of condensed milk with Unseed, barley, crushed oats, and stalks of nee, the latter being cut up into chaff, and hod the whole Tot for half an hour. Al» Ji« rf tbh mbturo. and l,«lf n lK.A*t orUter three times a.J-J'; >-««»« out to ««li horse Coffey, ~, a I Won in ridine turn »x »orscs in his dial-.', ,°„d Tn he treated them to . ry W his own staWe-boy, were ...clino, to question his sanity. Iho ■•'^'''„'; are eonducte.l in a l»x fashion, and . s there are no stewards, the jockeys d> pretty well as they please.