SPORTING

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 211, 15 December 1910, Page 7

SPORTING

TURF TOPICS. (By "Moturoa.") Stratford weights are due to-day. Owners should bear in mind that acceptances and general entries for the Taranaki J.C. Christmas meeting are due on Friday night. Mr. H. Eva's share of the spoil at Woodville was £135.

Jimmy Buchanan is mentioned as Paisano's likely pilot in the Auckland Cup, final payments for which are due on Friday. The hurdler Full Cry has been purchased by Mr. George Brethierton, of Waitotara, and will probably be used as a hunter.

Kapanga, by Soult—Golden Rose, an early Railway Handicap favorite, is reported to be in a bad waj r , and may never raw again. The latest in nomenclature! We have heard of a Togo and a Tsushima, but Auckland now goes one better with a hurdler named Togoshushima. Advocate is now a regular attendant at Elleirslie, and has hardened somewhat in the betting. Of tihe Railway Handicap horses nothing is going better than Salute at Kiikama, and the Auckland pair are likely, to hold theft exalted positions in the market.

Jockey Deeley is said to have ridden a fine race on Highden in the Summer Handicap at Woodville. When the tapes flew up, Mataari, Notorious, Separator and First Battery rushed ofi' at breakneck speed, and Ilighden was allowed to run along comfortably in tihe rear. Haif a mile from home the squibs had exploded, 'and than Highden commenced to run up. Not until the half-distance was he in front, but he smothered everything in a few .strides. «Mr. 11. Eva has tlie big horse very well, and over a mile course he should always take a lot of beating. Wootton'si wins have hem the subject of glowing remarks more than once, and the wonderful record achieved by the colonial horseman needs no booming by this scribe. In, 1906 he rode 16 winners; in 1907, 1(3; in 190S, 129; in 1909, 165; and in 1910, 137. At the same time the little 'Stralian has a big pull in the weights over Danny Malier, and while lie rode 1'37 winners in 628 starts, the 'Murkan rider was successful 127 times in 450 races. The latter average is a wonderful one, surely. The action o.f the Government in refusing totalisator permits for the 20th inst. 'is the outcome of hasty legislation at the fag end of the recently concluded session. In its dying hours Parliament perpetrates fearful atrocities, magnificent blunders. llow many of the home-sick M.P.'s thought, when they passed an Act Monday-i&ing all public holidays, that their action would upset Boxing Day arrangements this year? Politicians pass laws without proper consideration, and then leave the tangles to unwind themselves. Without the tote permits, of course, racing would be out of the question, and if just amounts to this—there will be no racing on the 26th. Such an outrage on public liberty .is unparalleled, and .i sportsmen don't wake lip after this and take an interest in politics they deserve what they get. A wise man and a fool were discussing tihe' Auckland weights at the Imperial corner the other night. "Hullo." exclaimed the. fool, "here's a new name, Glov. Reads like a 'sticker,' doesn't it?" and he laughed with a loud cackle at his feeble joke. "Well, yes, it does," admitted Ihe wise man, "but perhaps it will be like the smal bov who sat on beeswax." See the joke? Then it was the wise man's shout. If Gabriel's bugle doesn't call before New Year's Day we will see races without bookmakers. A Victorian, attending a "tote only" meeting in South 'Stralia for the first time, complained of the dead, dread, almost lonely feeling which hung j j like a pall over the gathering. He 1 reckoned he would have given a five-pound-note to have hoard the voice of Patrick of tihe dTaught-'board vest calling strenuously, "Four to one bar one; I'jl jlay two ponies on,.the fe-ild!" The faces pf would-be punters, endeavoring to

reckon out from the ever-changing figures what dividend their fancies would be likely to pay, reminded him most of the expression on the face of a drv man who had dropped and smashed his bottle of Sunday beer. In desperation he put a pound on an outsider, and went into lunch. He got out just in time to see his "pick" flying in. Here was luck indeed! You can't beat the tote for long prices. He. made one of goodness knows how many in the queue outside the pay-out window, and enquired of a neighbor lib? amount of the dividend. "Thirty bob,'' replied the stranger. "What!" One pound ten? Why, it was paying thirty pounds when I put my pound on,' 'he 'howled. "Yes, but there was a terrible run on it at the last moment," came the explanation. '•Dash it all," vowed the Victorian, ''['ll never bet with anything but a real live bookmaker in future, and then when I put a pound on what the odds say is a 29 to 1 diance I'll get £3O back and nothing less!"