TURF TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 30 March 1920, Page 7

TURF TOPICS.

(By "itoturoa.")

A.R.C. .Easter Handicap on Saturday. Canterbury and Felidlng meetings open oil I Monday. Nemaitne contracted a cold at the Haagl-1 t:kei meeting. Affectation broke down in the" Fraser Memorial Handicap at Bulls. , He;ita had a bad cold last week, anj could not j'toduce his best form. Cray's double, Sasunof—Arrgnsmlth, h a very hot order for the Riccarlon Hire.' ng. Iropuka's leg filled on Wednesday, and she could not start on the second day at Bulls. The report that Arrow-smith had been sold is a trifle premature. He is for sale after the Easter meeting at Chrlstchurch. "Light luncheon"' was the only solid refreshment obtainable at Bulls races, and hungry visitors from afar did a lot of gTumbling In declining a proffered luncheon ticket on the second day a visitor remarked: "No thanks. W© took the tip and brought poultry, trifle and ale with us. » Come over the car but the steward had fled! When Egmont Park crept up on tho fence and boat Blndle on Wednesday much credit was due to jockster R. Tucker. On the second day, Roy Reed was put on Egmont Park, but the weight stopped him. McCorenac had the mount on Ruddy and won cleverly.

Ben Deeley, who joined the ranks of (he Benedicts again recently, la not riding In New Zealand at present. He and Ills bride are honeymooning in the South Sea Islands. The owner of Paddlngton Green reckoned his horse could have won the Cup at the P.angitlkei meeting If he'd been in it I .1. Olsen, who was Injured through Pnrorangl falling with him at Masterton, could not Tide Risingham at Bulls, so A . J. McFlynn fluked a brace of very comfortable wins. Another jockster standing down was "Snowy" Morris, who was nursing it) broken collarbone as the result of a spill off Hautawa the previous week.

On the morninc of the first day's races at Bulls, Nursing Sister ran three furlong in 36secs., and was immediately rushed by double punters, but her owner elected to start in the hack event instead. She failed, for some inexplicable reason, but won com' fortably on the' second day, and her victory cost the layers a tidy sum. Nursing Sister's scratchy action puts punters off but she throws that off. when the barrier lifts. Certainly Rlslngham beat nothing of much account at Bulls, but the eaev manner In which he manipulated the steadiers of 10.4 and 113 was impressive. In letting him into the Pending Cup with MO, Mr. Henrys appears to have taken a very big risk. George Young who. prior tr> hi* suspension was at the top of the winning jockeys' list, had a royal innings a.t the Southland' meetine. On the ODontae day he piloted two winners while on Thursday he rode the winners of the whole five flat gallops on the unenu. All but one were first favorites.

Rather a hewhiskered loke was dug up again at Bulls, and it capie off. A bunch of sports were discussing the praser Memorial Handicap, for which there were six runners, when one of tho bunch remarked, "We!!, I've made investments, and Tm seme to bet I've backed first and second " The wntrer was snapped up for "drinks." and the joker said, "Well, we'll "have them now;" producing six tickets, "for I've a pound on each of them!" The same "sport" did Tather better than hold his own on what he called his "system" nt. the meeting He backs all runners in fields of four, five or six funbracketed), and after doubling his monev In the fun ho showed small profits in the Praser Memor.'M and Greatford Handicaps, though the two, welters on • the second dnv reduced-his win-! nines a trifle. His argument Is that rs » rule he gets one-half of his investment back if-thfi favorite wins, while the rest of the is practically showing h'm a fair profit Sounds like "cold blooded" punting, doesn't it? There Is no room for doubt that Mr. Lak McKenzle's Paonui actually finished second to Nursing Sister in the Bangitoto Hack Handicap on Thursday, and tho judge's error (It i? alleged) robbed Mr. MeKenzio of about £3OO The disgusted owner thereupon scratched Hvttus for tho Praser Memorial Handicap, which seemed like cutting off his nose to spite his face, for Hyttus would have just about won had he> been sent to ( the post. Hector Oray's followers had a mthor bnd time of it 'nt the Rangitlkel meeting. Or the first day he appeared to lose the Scott Memorial Handicap on Blndle through overconfidence, while on Thursday his mounts were heavily backed ones like Qu'nlro. SeK Alliance. Catalini. and Tirana, and each of the*' ran close thirds. Qulnlro's defeat was the death-knock! Nevertheless- Taranaki horses had their chare of firsts. Rlsinehnm won twice, aw* Ttomont Park, Empyrean. Simon and Flyln? Master each once The last four named also gained placemonev. as did N<raknn»il. Catalini. Signorella, Self Alliance, Tirana, and Qulniro. ' - Mr .Tatines Bull, junr, was too U1 to attend the races on the first dnv. but on Thursday he was motored to the course and viewed several Tares from tho ear Buddy scored a first and n second, and All Over n fiTst fr»r the Hun*erHMe sportsman. Endure is a notoriously bad doer, and ,*-hen away from home last week refused to eat a bite He won the Ohakea Hurdles in the easiest, possible, fashion, and his fencing was flawless. The Sandon Hurdles on Hie second day would' have been very slmnle for Mm. but Fred TiHey did not care to run him twice on an empty stomach. Slgnorella fenced erratically, but on the: second day was doing splendidly until How- 1 den took him to the front at the six furlongs post. Without a leader lie made a bad iob of the next fence, almost, stopninfr dead, but he ran on well to tho finish and made up ground well enough to pa'p third place. Ham" Bnvner tells me that Signorella jumps big fences well, so therp may , he a chance for lilim in hack steeplechases 1 thi« winter. I Plying Master, who gave us a. taste of | his quality here a short timp back, van two ■telling races at. Bulls He begins like a j flash, and sot. the pace each day. S.mtorinl and YHfey Hope proved just n trifle ! too good for him on J Wednesday, but. on the ; last dav he struggled on Joiy* enough. ,tl> .Give the fridge some'thW to deride on. iiariv people wore of opipiop that Tluddv either won or dead-heatod with Flvfnfr Master, but fn these close finishes, "particular'* when horses are Taclnc wide npnrt. the odds are on the farthest from the jwUro gaining Ibe verd'el Tn this case Plying Master was farthest from th« judte Mr .7 Bull. Junr started both Bu-'dv and /II Over in the Seo't Memorial Handicap the first day. and though nothing on the "correct. card" indicated that they were Vacated, people were supposed to know it. Both Blndle and 4itlncrae were preferred to the bracketed

lair, and justified tiio confidence of the public. All Over finished a fair fourth, while Ruddy was a long way Met. The gallop evidently did Ruddy good, for on the second day under a higher scale of weights, he ran Ave turiougs in i.2. Meeting a weaker class on Thursday, All Over ran in an easy winner over his favorite distance, seven furlongs. Considering the attendance, slae of the fields, and Hie fact that the totallsator was lcept open until every penny was dragged out of tl'e seemingly reluctant punters the totallsator turnover was very poor. Possibly the Rangltlkel Club views an increase of nearly £BOOO in two days as satisfactory, hut the respective day's figures, £28,031 and £29,432, compare anything hut favorably with Waverley !C35,ti05) and Opunake ( No fault, could be found with the totali; arrangements. There were ample, stand pay-out windows; the staff was the Ujs* on the coast; and, as stated above, the totallsator waited for the crowd to get "set.*' In addition, the slowi.ess In getting the races off enabled bookmakers to send back large sums of money, particularly on Santorlnl and Qulniro in the last event each day. As regards the lengthy delays at the post the JockeysAssociation mirprobably have something very severe to say. Elndle undoubtedly should have won the Scott Ikjomprlal Handicap, and his party liad backed him for a fair amount In the A.R.C. Easter Handicap. Blndte was railed North on Friday afternoon, but apparently somebody overlooked the final payment. Quite the most amusing cove at the Bulls races was "Truthful Jim," whose vociferous shouts kept the crowd quite merry. "Truthful" posted himself in the vicinity of the judge's box, and Immediately the horses passed the post opened Are. His talk ran something like this: "Hooray I Hooray I Jim Bull again I Well done McFlynn I Weil done All Overt The best sport on the coast; the best jockey In the world; and a great horse I A great hone let me tell you!" This was punctuated with violent handelapping. Then the others came In fur minor praise; "Bad luck Rallatid! Bad )lu>- Oliver, you did your best, son 1 Bad luck Tirana I Bad lu<-k Hector! You'll win the Great Easttr on Arrowsmllh, niy boy I Cheer tip, cheer up, etc." Then a good humored policeman would tap "Truthful" on the shoulder, and -the phonograph would eloso down, only to burst fourth with renewed vigor a little later.