SPORTING

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 158, 29 July 1909, Page 3

SPORTING

TURF TOPICS. (By "Moturoa.") ill'. J. 'Blacker returned from Wellington on Tuesday evening, bringing witu liim the horses Hydraulic and Tiniothv. With tile conclusion of tile Wellington winter meeting the curtain was run" down 0.1 the IHOB-0!) racing season. How many can count a itrolit on the year's transactions? Hie A'Ueklaniiers, Lc Beau, Capitol, Ben Jonson and Mcotty have already put in an appearance at Riccarton, and -Ju> quartette are in line condition' to fulfil tneir National meeting engagements. As was some months ago ticked oil' as a " moral," jockey li. Hatch easily topped the poll when tile list of whI'ing jockeys on the Hal came to lie lotted up for th e just concluding sea son. Hatch has a line record of 83 wins mostly scored at big niceties, and Jus total has only once been beaten. «hen Urns. Jenkins piloted 88 whinrs a lew seasons ago.

lhe most victory of all was that of Charley Cochrane over -stu-ks. "Cocky" >a< 13 wins to Ins credit when tile »elhngton mouti:ig rolled nlon« an 1 was running a neck ami nock race with . ounji. he latter jockster scored t lice wins on St. Bill at Trentha.ni, hut could not notch a win over tip V 1 u "' last gasp Cochrane 6( 0 ed oil \\ au.ne in the Corunna Hurdles iind landed the championship. On Hatur.ij evening both Hatch and Cochrane were the recipients of gold-mounted rid- «><• gi"s of .Mr. Herb. Price, of fle lington. X( , ed | css tQ v j laranaki horseman's success ,„ ust popular and he came in for a welldeserved round of congratulation. .Many nice tilings wer e said by Mr. T. Wilford, JU., at the presentation, and Charlie's bpiecli at tile conclusion is stated to have been a really brilliant effort. May rllie man y "i°re winners next seai eon. •

r„™ aihul S T, as wcll fMei, -'<l for the Corunna Hurdles, but although he fenced safely his effort was lacking in dish ana h e W as never dangerous. The laranaki trained horse will nave to improve a lot before a National Hurdle Race will come his way Timothy was right "up against har.l uck good and strong i„ the Kia Ora Handicap on Saturday. Mr. Pitt's hor 3 3 ranked level favorite with Misca~t when the horses lined up to the barrier. Timothy got away wen, and was nicely placed for a couple of furlongs, when he lost his place and fell back. Miscast and ie Ru were first into the straight and the former soon singled himself out from the others. Timothy came very fast from the head of the straight and, sprinting brilliantly up the middle of the course, all but caught Miscast on the post, a bare head victory goinc down to the Birkenhead colt. A stride past the post Timothy was in front, but of course, that only aggravates the 'calamity for the party behind the New Plymouth horse. Timothy lias been particularly unlucky this season, aim uu--e seconds at Egniont, Napier Park, an J Trentham have been his best efforts j during the last three months. '

North-East was shipped to Riecarton the beginning of the week, and is said to be going great guns. They sa/ that " Mick" King doesn't know ho x pood the b'g fellow is yet. The Winter Cup may settle the question. Belario and Merri e Zealand, by their victories on Saturday, have each earn M 101b penalties for the National Hurdle Race and Winter Cup respectively. Belario's weight in the former race is now lOst. iHbs. Ben Deeley will ride Grenadier in his Rimirton engagements, and the Auckland horse is certain to carry a heap of northern capital in the Winter Cup. With four consecutive victories over country to his credit Te Ami must be accorded :i deal of support in the Grand National Steeplechase. iPt is quite (on the birds that H. Cairns will shortly go over to Sydney. Cairns will probably have the mounts on Tunmt and Osiris in their Randwick engagements.

'When Mr. R. W. Patterson paid £IOO for Miscast, it was generally considered that he had made a rare bargain, anl the opinion was turned into a cfrtainty when the Birkenhead colt led the field home in the Kia Ora Handicap on Saturday, the first time he had his new owner's colors up. The race was worth ±'7o to the winner, and with even a modest wager on his new purchase Mr. Patterson should be well on the right side of it.

Srainan failed to see his races out at Trcnthnm, anil evidently Ms wind trouble is more serious than at first anticipated. The Century Hurdles winner Delano went out at a false price in the Fhal Hurdles at Trentliam, and .putting in a better jump than the hot favorite Rcndrock at the last fence., just managed to gather in the spoil by a long neck. The price he paid bronglr ,'oy to Wanganui, which badlv needs -ousetliing to cheer its .broken heart afl.?r Webb's downfall. Mentioned amongst the stake winners at Trentham were Messrs. 11. T. llciinctt £llO and S. Pitt £3O.

Kelso shaped nicely in cadi of his races over the sticks nt the Wellington meeting, and should soon score a win in the fast-approaching 19011-10 season. Sir George Clifford, at last week's conference, stated that ninety-nine per cent, of owners raced for the limwr of winning, but, unfortunately, there was thf one per cent, who raced crooked. Anyone who follows the game at all close!;will smile at the statement, and an ill probability ninety-nine per cent., ar.nlavin» the gam c "not fairly but for nil'they know." What do you think?