SPORTING.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 September 1922, Page 8

SPORTING.

TURF CLIPPINGS. (By “Moturoa.”) The cables told us recently of the sale of Seeptre, now past breeding, to a Brazilian buyer for £5OO, and it was with surprise and indignation that sportsmen read it. A poor man m ‘ght. be forced to swallow sentiment and dispose of a worn out champion for the figure mentioned, but the seller was no less a personage than Lord Glanely, one of the wealthiest shipowners in England. Sceptre was bought as.a yearling by the ex-Australian bookmaker, Mr. “Bob” Sievier, for ten thousand guineas, and won a fortune in stakes and wagers for him. Afterwards she drifted into Lord Glanely’s stud, but proved a failure, as many another over-raced mare has done, in the matrons' paddock. Naturally the’ sporting press has had a lot of‘hard things to say of His Lordship’s unsportsmanlike action, but one of the strongest “protests" comes from The Bulletin. It is headed. “The Price of Shame,” and goes like this: Seeptre, the fleetest filly of ’er day, Whose winning’s Sutton Sievier’*s pockets filled, 7 Sold for a measly monkey! Exiled, eh? Now that she’d got too old to pay ’er way, Among the parrots and the nuts, Brazilled! A baron wot could be so graspin’ ’ard Would send dead Ormondes to a knacker's yard. A sporting friend of “Moturoa," who is at present in England, sends along a copy of the London Times of June 12. and supplements its brief accounts of racing at Manchester with some interesting gossip concerning Hector Gray. He writes:—“Tripped up to the Manchester meeting on Saturday, and saw most of “the heads” in action. Fields were small, one race (worth 1000 sovs) only attracting two runners;-another three, and the biggest of the day (of six races), nine. Steve Donoghue had four mounts, scoring one win. two seconds, and was once unplaced. Hector Gray was there, looking well, but a trifle thin. He only had one mount, riding Sir CunliffeOwen's Morning Light (Sunstar —Desmodium) in the Salford Borough Handicap, of 10 sovs. each, and 1000 sovs. added : six furlongs. Morning Light was weighted at 7.12. but Gray was 1 lb over, so that that his weight is practically the same as when he rode in New Zealand. Vindictive was favorite at about 3 to 1; Pharmacie, with Donoghue up. a trifle longer: and Morning- Light at what we used tn term ‘the limit.’ Naturally. I could not pass Grav, and risked a tenner. Morning Light got away smartly, and Gray took no risks with her, eventually winning nicely by three-parts of a length from Pharmacie, who began slowly: and the favorite, was unplaced. Wonder what those English johnnies thought when I raised a cheer for old New Zealand? Don't you believe this talk about Gray being miles below Donoghue, Carslake, Lane and Co. Ho beat them pointless in the race in question, and it is only the conservatism of the ‘haw haw’ Press that refused to recognise his ability. Gray will do me, especially when he netts me £80.”

Since the above was penned Gray has had a phenomenal run. so my friend’s patriotism should have been well rewarded.

Much has been written of the glories of Fnsnm on Derby Dav. with its wonderful horses, its Royalty, and its Lords and its Ladies, but it rpmains for the London oorre>nondent of the Sydney Sun to describe the Downs themselves—or what we popularly call “the outer.” Derby Day is a national institution for hundreds of thousands of people who don’t know a horse’s head from its tail, hut go to Epsom just- because their fathers, and their grand and greatgrandfathers d ; d .so. Few of them ever see a. horse all day. and only find out second (or fifty-second' hand what actually won the Derby. It is a system that would not suit colonials, hut Englishmen are easily satisfied op some points. The writer describes • it thus: —“Even when an Australian goes to the Cup he is not going to the cup so much as going to the races. Ninety per cejnt. of the people on Epsom Downs on Derby Day had not gone to the races at all. They had gone to the Derby. It is London’s grand annual picnic, and I do not know that there is anything in Australia that exactly corresponds to it. It may be that the fortunate folk who were in the members' stands and other privileged enclosures had gone to the race, to s«e horses compete, and to try and make money; to see who else was there, and to note what the other ‘cat’ was wearing. I was not there. I was out on The Downs, wjiere the true Derby goers gather. They are there rather to risk money than to make it, they do not see a great deal of any one race, and as to what others were wearing there were no sign=? that anyone cared, though some of the recumbencies might give fai’ greater opportunities for criticism on the sartorial tack than anything in the paddock. It was Derby Day. There was the turf to lie upon. The kindly sun was shining down, and if two or three Bass's had .had a somniferous effect—well, one slept. Why not? As to the money side, it was necessary to invest a. little on Derby Day. It was part of the ritual, and if one lost that was the offering. If a win followed, loud was the rejoicing, and general the celebration. There were, of course, the customary few who lost and won at the same time: they were the bogus bookmakers who were missing at the end of a race. Those disappearances wore marked by little sputters of resentment, and by rushes which were more full of pleasurable citementThe weight of money on The Downs is a wonderful thing. Tn company with another Australian journalist I watched the price list of a chatty gentleman whose flaring signs proclaimed him to be from somewhere in the Midlands, as though his voice was not sufficient proclamation of the whereabouts of his native county. Irish Battle was listed on his sheet at GO to 1. “Sixty to one, lady.*' he called to a potential client hovering near; “it’s a pleasure to me to oblige—and the ticket i« number three —hundred —and—sixty-one.” A swift rub and a new chaTk mark proclaimed that Irish Rattle was now forty to one. A punter who evidently believed in following, up stable commissions, now cam? into the market, and a transaction of eighty shillings to two was registered. Another glance at the price list showed Irish Battle twenty to one. Imagination boggles at th? thought of what might have ha.r-;'?ned had a millionaire come into the s>ame with 6s Gd, but for all that migh* have been in such a case, it is quite ]i l *?fy that the narrow-vision-ed racing reporters, who work ia the

narrow circle of the paddock, far from the doings of the real Derby world, would have insisted that St. Louis started the shortest-priced horse in the race. We, out on The Downs, knew better, Here was the actual cash being put up under our very eyes. Half-crowns each way, all over the place. “’Ow d’ver find it Joe?” called one peneiller to a. brother; “a bit ’ard?” “ ’Ow abart ’arf a ’undred ?” inquired the brother. Number one consulted his book. “Just four shillings over it,” he announced, and then broke into a. chant as a lastminute punter handed in his silver: “Pondoland, Pondoland, an’ blinkin’ soon he’ll be wonderland.” A large and corpulent bookie was attached to a rope ot the top end of which floated a sausage balloon bearing the words, “Jem Oldfield, the man you all know.” He did a roaring business. That balloon seemed to be at once a suggestion of financial buoyancy and a guarantee that even if Jem did a slope, he would still be found at the other end of thej rope. A gentleman who seemed to have at least eight shillings and a complex system. began to reel off a list of three shillings for a win and a place, and one shilling for a place and one shilling for a win. “Ere. ’ere.” cried Jem. “you're messin’ me abart. Somebody give ! im a bit o’ paper- Git round there, git round there, an’ stand in a line, an" let me bet with one ata -time.” But to Jem’s credit he it said, that when he was faced with a £49 ticket on Captain Cuttle, he paid without a murmur or a shiver. “Lemonade and ice. ’Ave a cooler: a cooler. Pipe off the ice. people,” clamored a vendor, and the peon!? paused to pipe off lumps of real ice floating in the big glass tanks of the mixture. Cokernut shies were neoleeted before the Derby was run but • ’■‘h that great excitement settled the d'---*‘•■actions began to -win attention nn-1 monev to | flow towards some of the side-shows.