SPORTING.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 August 1922, Page 9

SPORTING.

TURF TOPICS. (By "Moturoa.”) North Taranaki Hunt weights are now due on Thursday, August 24, the day after the Egmont-Wanganui meeting. Entries for the Marton J.C. Spring meeting close on Friday. South Island horses have won the last three Winter Cups. Zeus is one of the very few Martian horses that hg.ve earned distinction over fences. L’Amour’s last five starts have resulted in two firsts and three seconds. G. Fellding had three falls on Thursday last, and ended up with a broken collarbone. Passionless and Passenger, who won three races between them at Ricearton last week, are full sister and brother. Ther£ were a good number of very tired horses on the third day at Ricearton, their strenuous efforts earlier in the week telling a tale. Paonu! and Explorer were in the band, and both were punted on by their connections. Racing is a funny game! The writer knows of several confident owners who had their confidence dispelled by their '‘morals’ ” failures at. the Grand National meeting, while another owner who was in doubt right up to the last moment about sending down a. horse, plucked up courage, or decided to risk It, and the little fancied prad won two races! The bloodstock sales held in Christchurch on Friday were poorly attended, and only two Jots were sold. Tn Pink ‘ (Solferino— Amarilla) was bought by Mr. W. Cooper, of Southland, for 300 gns.. and Dame Straitlace (Kllbroney—Discipline! found a new owner in Mr. T. S. Barrett, at 160 gns.

The trotting at Addington on Friday was marred by questionable tactics employed by some drivers and riders, and there was a great deal of interference in the course of the racing. The judicial committee fined B. .Tarden £2O for crossing.

Nominations for the New Zealand Cup close on Friday

The reason advanced for the ■’•eternn jockey and trainer. .T. Buchanan, being refused a riding license, ♦hoiitrh given a trainer’s ticket, is that, although his reputation is high, the licensing committee consider that he is ton old to follow the more strenuous branch of his profession. Apparently young heads are preferred to old. but P-uchanan proved last season that the vonngqters had nothin? on him hr his winning efforts on Raceful (Te Aroha Chip). Bonny Doreen (Great Northern Oaks), Mumble. Emerald Hill. etc.

'■’harlie Emerson’s victory In last week’s 'Vjnter Cup was his first, and as a matter of. fact his onlv placed ride in the big mile race. Last year he was on Onslaught (coupled with the winner. Clean Sweep), and other unplaced horses he has ridden in the race under notice were:—l6ls. Moonglow: ISIS. Thaddeu.4: 1910. Battle Array: and 1920, Hetaua. Arthur OUivor w-nn the race three times, and Ben. Deeley twice.

Punters must hare had a disastrous day at Addington tro+s on Frldnv last. The first race fell to Bhcrrv. thirteenth in order of favoritism, with Dillon S., seventh, in second nlace. Nellie Scott, twentieth, and JT'ekOrv. wond nineteen. filled the place in the Lightning Handlcon. and Agathos. eighth, and Nita Bell, fifth did likewise In the National Outsiders jn Tnnhinu. sixth, and Peter King, ninth, led the others home in the Federal Handicap, but Acron, the first favorite, broke the su'd! by winning the Heathcote Handicap, though lie had to survive a nrotest. First Fashion, second, and Merry Bingen, third, filled ’ the places In the Addington Handicap, hut outsiders again had things their own way in the Islington Handicap, the dividends being noid hv Grand Denver, seventeenth. and Peter King, twelfth. Peter Pronto was backed for pounds. sh’’!in?®. andi nonce in the concluding event, and when looking nil over a winner, was passed and. narrowiv beaten by the little fancied Moneymaker (fifth). Tt was a nerfect day—T don’t, think.

On the strength of his two previous victories at the meeting the Australian horse Realm was sent out favorite for the National Cup. but the backmnrkers were knocked all over •he field, and the best Realm con’d do was to finish fifth. The winner. Acn+hos. x was in front all the wav. and escaped interference. So far the New Zealand owner-trainer. .T. M. Cameron has hart no success with his team : n Australia, though T'grinla and Molvneaux hnre been backed mor“ than once. Poet, who also figures in Cameron’s team, is a four-vear-old bay gelding by Feramorz —Marie* Agnes. Poet started on seven oceasionq last season, winning the Bowen Handican at Ellerslie, and Tunning into third place in the Hot S'w'ngs Handicap at Rotorua. Fiscom. who has won two Grand Nationals and many other races both on the < ’ n t and over fences is engaged in the Melbourne Cun with the feather weight of 6.11. If the Comeclv Kin? "elrtirg can be kent in h's present trim until next November he would have more than a rough chance, particularly if the going was heavy. Charlie Chaplin, the English-bred horse nurcJinsed by Mr. J. B. Reid for 1200 gns.. is a. Lnarticularly fine looking three-year-o’rt. from all rennrts. and ns a yearling brought 9400 •ms. H- is bv Tracerv from Pcit Sunlight, hv Sunrtr’dge— n f Bath. «n own s’ster to rhaucer and p half-sister to Synford. Charlie Chanlln win bo an acquisition to the stud in New Zealand. Royal Fnncv (Bernard—Royal Match), who was recently taken tn Sydney T>y A. Asprey. surprised her oonneo’io»is hv running second in a race at Warwick Fanm recently. WflHnc,on July 2. H. Gray states that he had ridden nineteen winners to that date, seven being for Sir Cunliffe Qwen including ♦wo CIQOO handicaps. One of the races won bv the ex-New Zealand was a two-venr-old event, which attracted the enormnu« field of flftv-four runners, says the Auckland Star. The plates worn by Captain Cuttle tn the Berbv bnvp he«*n given bv Lord Woolnvingtnn to the organisers nf the Theatrical Garden Party to be he’d in aid of the Actors’ Orphannee. Mr. Leslie Henson, the ppnulnr come- • Ran. will auction the plates nt “The Lucky Horse Shoe Stall.” and run a little race meeting of his own .on Hensonian lines. He is to be starter, judge, steward, and hnokmaW---everything, indeed, save tipster. Spion hop’s nlates fetched 50 gns. at the Lucky Horse Shoe Stall two years ago.

NEW ZEALAND JOCKEY. EXPERIENCES IN ENGLAND; London. .Tune 9. On the third day of the Epsom meeting Hector Grav was riding Mr. R. Bell’s Polymagnus In the Ridrllesdown Selling Plate (seven furlongs). He .brought the horse in second to Bart Snowball. Polymagnus drew No. 1 position, and when he came about 200 vards from home he went round on the inside nf the field. When he was about two lengths in front the horse swerved, and ran. into the rail. The course ilself is downhill and slopes in toward the rail. Polymagnus is a big. heavy horse, and before Gray could draw him no he got the former position on the rails nt No. 1. When this happened he was two lengths clear of the field. Polymagnus always sweT'-es under pressure, and this has nre- • viouslv occurred when other horsemen have I been riding him. However, after the race the New Zealand iockev was called to the stewards’ mom and onntinn»d. Mr. Bell, the owner, saw Lord Tzonsdale the following day. and gave tb« history of the horse previous to Gray’s riding him. The explanation was accepted, and Lord Lonsdale allowed Mr. Bell to make a puh’ic statement in Ac English newspapers. “Trumpeter.” in the Sydney Herald, said: "T tlioucht that the Epsorn stewards dealt somewhat harshly with the New Zealand jockey.

Hector Gray, for not keeping .n straight course on Polymagnus. The horse is a big. .awkward fellow, much given to lurching about in his races. If he was at. fault here he certainly did not interfere with anything else in the race. Polymagnus is a useful plater, nevertheless. especially over six furlongs.” Since then, at other meetings. Hector Gray has had considerable success. At Hurst Park ihe brought Lady Cuni ffe Owen’s Isle nf Wight I home first In the Middlesex Three-year-old 'Handicap, winning by a length and a-half. i Of this event, the Daily Telegraph remarks: I “The starting price of Isle of Wight. 4 to • i, was surely, absurd, bearing in mind his 'credentials by comparison "-’th those of .the ! others. He had a fair wm?-' 1 :. hut even so it was astonishing to find .Mlime preferred to him in th* TnaykaL He beat his half-dozen op-

ponents in an canter by a length and a-half. It might have been six lengths had his jockey cared. This Is a good horse with the conditions as they are now, and in point of looks he is quite handsome, and will probably do even better before the season ends.”

At the first day of the Yarmouth meeting this week Gray won the Groat Yarmouth Maiden T.Y.O. Plate, with Mr. R. Cootmbe’s Morb; also he came first in the Hastings Maiden Handicap, riding Sir H. Cunliffe Owen’s White Satin. Yesterday he led the same owner’s Polybius to victory In the Sandringham Maiden Plate. Hector Gray goes tn Paris this week-end in connection with the Grand Prix meeting.

Mr. T. H. Lowry ran Paradise Duck in the Whitsuntide Sprint at Hurst Park, the jockey being M. Beary, but he was not placed.