SPORTING

Taranaki Daily News, 14 June 1919, Page 9

SPORTING

TURfITOMCa 1 (By "Moturoa"? - j The totalisator ia steadily advancing infavor in Australia. Notwithstanding that influenza has played- such havoc with racing during the past three months, the New South Wales Government has received £110,511 as its percentage of totalisator receipts for ten montb9 ot the current financial year. This is £48,823 more than for the corresponding term last year. A correspondent writes to the Referee as follows, relative to nomenclature: — "Australian owners when bestowing Maori names on their cquines do not appear to trouble about the correct spelling thereof. Take, for instance, the Victorian jumper Tenaroui. Is this a wild attempt to spell Tenakoe (greetings)? On this side I call to mind one or two others. Whyariki should be Wairiki, and Kapai (very good) instead of Kaipai (pretty good) is probably intended. By the way how would Korero (speechifying) suit the Martiau—Flowery Speech colt!"

About the oldest horse in training in England is Wild Aster (Victor Wild— Asteria), whose age is 18 years. In England, France, Germany, and Belgium he has won over £IO,OOO in jumping races, and during the recent war was used as a charger. Despite all that, h<j was second favorite with 11.4 in a field of nine for a selling hurdle race, two miles, at Wolverhampton (Eng.) on March 4, and dead-heated with Nuit Blanche, 10.3.

Most of the trotting studs in Russia have been confiscated by tha' Bolsheviks, aad the many noted American stallions in them sold for the prices and purposes of the common utility horses, according to the London Live Stock Journal. General H. 2.4J and Willy 2.5, two stallions that won memorable races at the Empire track on the same day during the Grand Circuit meeting, there in 1910 are leported to be among those who shared this fate. Willy, then owned by Louis W. Winans, of Brighton, England, and valued at 25,000 dollars, was sold by ,the Bolsheviks for 7 dollars, the English paper says, while General H., equally valuable, went for about the same price. It" is not generally known that if the first revolution in Russia had held together a little longer Guv Axworthy, ,2.8i,..and possibly his greatest son, Lea Axworthy, 1.58, might Jiavj been among the victims of the terrorists Just before they overthrew the Kerentky Government, in the spring of 1917,35. J.(,Tranter, president of tiie Ji'asig-Tipton 'Company, received a cab a.pfomifleut Pctrograd fiorsc'iiianrthen' in Kiev, asking him to get options Lee 'Axworthy, Guy Axworthy, General Watts (2.8.5), Mahomet Watts (2.10), Peter McCormiel; (2.0J), Peter Billiktn (2 and Peter W. (2.8J), and saying, "i want three sons, of Axworthy or Peter the Great."

Trainers will endorsr the following f views expressed by an English writer "The trainer's position has always, to my way of thinking, been a curious'one. He has the care of a hovsc and the responsibility for- its' well-being for months' and all attendant anxiety, yet the big presents go to the jockey who wins a big race on a horse after being in t!ie saddle from the times he leaves for the starting-post until he returns to weighin. If a trainer bets and is lucky iu 'i;s speculations'he can make money, and many of the profession have done so, but I have always held the view that of ail who earn thfcir living by racing, the trainer is the worst paid, having regard to his responsibilities." It is the same in Australasia, and many a trainer has seen his work of months go for nothing, 1 consequent on the rider not being nearly as fit as the hprse. I can recall an occasion attßandwiek some years ago when a horse that should have won an "important race only finished third. It was handle.l wretchedly, which was not surprising when it subsequently transpired that the jockey had not gone to bed the same morning until an hour approaching that at which racing stable employees generally commence the days duties.

LIVERPOOL GRAND NATIONAL. The last English mail to hand brought details of the Liverpool Grand National Steeplechase, run at Aintree on March 2a. A Record Crowd, ' There was brilliant sunshine, interspersed with a few flakes of snow to welcome \fliat W as probably the largest concourse of people that ever witnessed the Grand National. As earlv as 9 in the morning the crowds poured down to Aintree by rail and road, and by noon the railway accommodation was quite unequal to the traffic. In the early betting Poethlyn was a firm favorite. He was the biggest and looked the mo3t likely horse. Snow Delays the StartJust as the horses came out to parade snow began to fall, and as they were lining up to start a terrific snowstorm and cyclone swept over the ground. In less than a minute it was impossible to see across the ground, and the horses Were ordered back to the paddock, where the jockeys dismounted and took shelter. The storm abated as quickly as it came, and ten minutes later the sun was shining again, though the ground was white. A good start was made, and the 23 runners were sent off. Pollen, Fargue, and Poethlyn led over the first fence, where they were joined by Loch Allen. No horse fell till the fifth fence, Beecher's Brook, where Charlbury came down, and it may bo said here that there were few falls; and not for many years have so many horses competed the course. Rubenstein, who was pulled up at tho last open ditch, died shortly afterwards. W. Payne, who rode the horse, believes his mount hurt himself- at .Valentine Brook.

'A Popular Victory, Poethlyn was never out of the first four or five horses, and, though Ballybpggan was once leading for a few lengths, it was only on sufferance. It may be said without a trace of exaggeration that Poethlyn led the whole way and won as he pleased by eight lengths. He was by no means, distressed at the finish, and looked as if he could go round again. It was a most popular victory, and the shouts of delight began when "the horse was two fences from home, and continued all down the straight. Three cheers were given at the weighing enclosure for Piggott, vwio rode a cool, masterly race, and three cheers more were given for Poethlyn, a worthy exemplar of Jerry M. Had Poethlyn not won it is quite likely that Pollen would have done so. "', u l " le Bev ®n guinea horse won Grand ' ~