CONDENSED ITEMS.

Observer, Volume 5, Issue 116, 2 December 1882, Page 190

CONDENSED ITEMS.

— Acceptances for the Auckland Cup and Steeplechase are due this (Friday) evening at 8 o'clock.

— Tauranga annual races take place on 29fch and-30tb. January, 1883. — Navigator and Commotion are about equal favourites for the Champion Kace. — Mr J. Poole arrived from Sydney on Tuesday. He looks in blooming health. — At Ohristcliurch, old Maritana. has foaled a bay colfc to Hornby, and visits him again. ■ — Venture hag been struck out of the Auckland Cup* and Lady Emma out of the Wellington Cup. — There was a bit of a growl among backers at Harkaway being scratched for the Takapuna Hurdle Race. — I am informed Libeller will go to the Thames on Boxing Day. He has been scratched for the Auckland Cup. — A bird " whistles " me from Orakei that some good trials have been done by Vortex down that way. — The Southern bookmakers, Snider and Gardiner, were the heaviest losers over the Christchurch Meeting 1 . — Kingask has been purchased by Mr Montague Smith, of Gisborne, and the colt will run in his name at the Summer Meeting. — An Adelaide paper says that the ring laid Assyrian's owner £6000 to nothing to start him for the Melbourne Cup. — £150 was the price Mr J". H. Pollock, of Wanganui, paid for the hurdle and steeplechase horse, Now Year, lately purchased by him. — Yeomans, the celebrated Australian jockey, did not score a win at the late V.R.C. Meeting. Hales rode four winners. — Dutch Oven during his racing career has won for Lord Falmouth the sum of £14,114 in stakes. The value of the St. Leger was £iSOO. — " Augur," writing of visitors at the Melbourne Cup, mentions Mr Joseph H. Eedwood, a son of Mr Henry Eedwood, " father of the New Zealand turf." — Through no fault of my own, I stated last week that Tuba Bill and Amazon were scratched for the Auckland Cup, and Te Whetu for the Steeplechase. It was incorrect. — For gambling with dice and a numbered board at the late Christchurch races, a "sharper" was fined £5 and costs. The Magistrate ordered the apparatus to be destroyed. — In the Ashburton Cup, 1£ miles, won easily by Welcome Jack, he had Bst 121 bup ; Turquoise, who was second, Bst 51b. The latter was favourite at the post. Time, 2min. 48sec. — Vanguard's good form at the late Christchurch Meeting so impressed one of the spectators that he backed the colt for £2000 at 10 to 1 to win the Dunedin Cup. — Henderson's Mill annual races have been fixed for St. Patrick's Day, 17th March, 1883. At the annual meeting held on Saturday, the balance-sheet showed a balance of £30 to the credit of the Club. — In relation to "dead heats," or more precisely, " close finishes," at races, an American photographer suggest that the instantaneous photos, should be taken at the winning-post. He maintains that, in reality, there is no such thing as a perfect " dead heat." — The Christchurch JPress says the yearling colt Albany— No Name, that fetched 675 guineas at the Russley sale, and was knocked down in Mr Stead's name, was purchased by that gentleman and Mr " Horsford" between them. — Mr Gr. Gr. Stead has given a silver cup valued at 100 guineas to the Great Autumn Handicap, to be run for at Christchurch in April ; and Mr P. Cunningham, one of the stewards of the club, has signified his intention of doing the same at the following Autumn meeting. — For the Hawke's Bay Jockey Club Races, run on Boxing Day, there are seven nominations for the Hurdles, nine for the Christmas Handicap, and twelve for the big event, Hastings Handicap. The names of Louie and Mischief figure in the latter race, Mischief J also being entered for the Christmas Handicap. — Says "Mazeppa" : — " Christchurch sporting folk will naturally be disgusted with the paltry number J of entries received for the New Year's L»ay Cup. The ] absence of the North Island horses is hardly not to be wondered at, considering that the date of the new j Canterbury Meeting clashes directly with the oldestablished. Auckland fixture." — There was some talk of a protest being lodged against The Assyrian receiving the stakes for j the Melbourne Cup on the ground that he had not been I entered as The Assyrian (late Rothschild). The objection would not have been of the slightest avail, and, moreover, had Mr Savill made the mistake, the bets would not have been affected. So writes " Augur." — A few weeks ago (says " Beacon ") an astute backer offered to take 2 to 1 that he named the breeding of the horse that would win the Canterbury Cup. An unwary sport who was present, thinking only of the then favourite, Cheviot, laid the odds ; but the taker had all the best of it, for he named Traducer— ldalia, and therefore had the three brothers Cheviot, Sir Modred, and Betrayer on his side, and won on Sir Modred. — Says the Sydney Bulletin : — We have the best authority for saying that a certain big Melbourne sweep was this year nothing more or less than a shameless swindle. The man who bosses it "drew" the second and third horses through a confederate, and the drawing was conducted in a way which we hope to be able to fully explain shortly — in a style calculated to make the hair of ihe absent and confiding ticket-holder stand at an angle of ninety. — Perhaps the greatest " smack in the face " the "knowing ones " got at the C.J.C. Spring Meeting was over the Bundoora fizzle. It was kept very quiet, but those who were "in the know " considered the C.J.C. Handicap such a moral for him that they took all the money they could get about the horse, even telegraphing to Auckland metallicians. The stable dried the Christchurch bookmakers up and then popped it on in lumps in the totalisator, and they had plenty of followers with the result everybody knows. — The stakes won and paid over at the recent Victoria R.C. Spring Meeting amounted to £12,534. Of this amount, New South Wales took £5369 ; South | Australia, £2556 ; Tasmania, £420 ; and Victoria, £4189. Mr De Mestre headed the list with £1879, the principal ! item of which was £1205 for his Derby win. Mr E. K. Cox for the Maribyrnong Plate took £1795; and Mr Savill for the Melbourne Cup, £1710. Of the 24 races ran during the meeting 13 were won by Victorian horses ; seven by New South Wales horses ; three by South Australian horses ; and one by a Tasnianian. — The Canterbury Times says had Cheviot carried his owner's money, in the Canterbury Cup, instead of Vanguard, he would have gives Sir Modred, the winner, a lot of trouble, and thinks had the owners of Sir Modred' s opponents laid their heads together before the start, and summed up the pros and cons of the matter, they could not have run the race at a pace and in a manner better suited to the heavy weight, whose performance was a great one considering the quality and previous deeds of those opposed to him, and though the time was not fast, it should be remembered that the course was heavy.