SPORTING.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 126, 18 November 1911, Page 7

SPORTING.

TURF TOPICS. (By "Moturoa.") Nothing doing this week. Merry Lawn has been thrown out of work. Mr. J. Foreman won £BS in stake,? with Patriotic at Riccarton. The disappointing Tawhaki won a race at Winton iast week. Appollinaris (Phoebus Apollo—Janet) won the Novice Handicap at Cessnock, (Australia) recently. _ ' Crown Pearl is in at the minimum in the Kiwitea Welter at Feilding, and with ■ a strong horseman on top jvould keep the opposition moving. Punters ate still wondering how Culprit'came to pay such a marvellous price in the Cressy Welter. The daughter of Charlemagne 11. was twelfth favorite in a field of fourteen more or less "roughies." The hurdle horse Papahura fell for the last time on Monday morning. While schooling he jumped on top of a fence and broke his only neck! Two good-looking sons of PallasPalisade and Palette got amongst the winners at the Winton meeting. Gnome, who won the Pioneer Handicap for Mr. G. D. Greenwood, is very highly spoken of, and should repay .-.•avciiiug next '.iio".;h.

A contemporary states that i-uap-' 1 " sports lost a heap of mone;. j.'St !<iiido at Auckland. Well, if t'.'cy ii'v . got over the Uhlando fetish, it serve? 'cm right. Overtime is nqw cherry-ripe. .Uk! i* breaking the watches at Wanganu.. Ihv fgood thing" will be given a ."■x -' Feilding. Two New Zealand jockeys, J. McGregor and J. Deery,, fought their old battles over again on 'Stralia-n soil the other day, when McGregor just punched his mount, Bettewyne, home a short halfBngth in front of Elegy (ridden by Deery) at Moonee Valley.

T. O'Neill has Gladiole in fine trim at Awapuni, but the little chestnut will have to be very well to have a chance in the Feilding Flying Handicap with 9st. The recently concluded Canterbury! meeting was a benefit for the rich men' of the Turf, as the following list of winning owners will show: —Sir Geo. Clifford £4095, G. D. Greenwood £2032 10s, Stead Bros £1717 10s, Hon.: J. D. Onnond £I6OO, Mr. Highden £1290, and E. J. Watt £535. The rest are hardly worth mentioning. Sir Geo. Clifford's two-year-olds are generally ive.ry hard to beat, but the Canterbury sportsman started no less than three in the Pioneer Handicap and even they didn't gain a place. Electrakoff was one of % ;he unlucky ones at "Eiccarton, and ran a couple of really fine races. He has been wcund up for some time now, and is pvobably stale, but it takes Hector himseli tc get the best out of the bay gelding. Tuinut is showing improved form in Australia, and should not be long in picking up a good stake. Wild West wins occasionally and lets a big army of punters do.wn more often, but Merrie Zealand is going from bad to v>6r?D. That old crock. Lady Patricia, ran third in a race the other day. Needless to add, there were only thive starters!

Returned visitcs 'to the Canterbury meeting express the opinion that Equitas would have won the Stewards' Handicap if started. This is ,-lieei t'.il news for those who backed the Advance mare straight out for the oveiil. ''£i|iiiUs carried list !)lb and simply made no race of the Members' Handicap, a seven furlong race, run in lmin 27sc.c, on Saturday. It is hard to say why Equitas was not allowed to gather in the Stewards' Handicap as wll, but certain city scribes, who evidently knew something, would have nothing to do with her at the eleventh hour.

Backers of Gold Bird were lucky to get their money on Saturday. It appear* that the order to "pay the winner" was given before the stewards took it into their heads to hold an inquiry. The subsequent disqualification of the kor»e left backers of the second and third' horses very wild, but the favorite's followers went on their way rejoicing. Mulga Bill strikes many people as a queerly named quadruped, but they have a Mulga M'ek running in New 'South \\'ali:». Uiiur ,-iraiig:'ly named horses in those parts are Jostler, Btickp'hast, Prat (Jut, Maid of All Work, Not in Graft, I Odd Sock and It's Funny,