SPORTING NOTES

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9530, 30 June 1909, Page 3

SPORTING NOTES

' The once greatly advertised American horseman, "Tod" Sloan, is in England looking for a license. Judging by this "Sporting Times" paragraph, the Jockey Club stewards will have none of him :—"The ill-ad-vised advocacy of Sloan's claims to reinstatement, undertaken by some of his press sympathisers, has attracted the notice of the Jockey Club. In the last weekly official communication to clerks of courses there was embodied a separate and distinct reminder to all license-holders to the effect that the jockey was debarred from all enclosures, offices, weighing rooms, etc., coming under the auspices of the Jockey Club. Sloan's cause would be better served by his friends observing silence." Racing plates in France are now manufactured from paper, and are, it is said, used for Mr W. K. Vanderbilt's horses. It is claimed for them, apart from their lightness, that horses so plated are not liable to slip up, and also that the bad results of over-reaching are done away with. The inventor, says the Allgemeine Sport Zeitung, Vienna, is M. Curot, a well-known veterinary surgeon, who is interested in racing and breeding matters. W. McKinnon, who was seriously injured when his mount, Irish, fell in the Winter Steeplechase contest at Auckland, is making satisfactory progress towards recovery. The operation performed by Dr. Savage has proved most successful, and attong hopes are now entertained of McKinnon's complete recovery. The sad announcement comes from Australia that James Barbour, a leading horseman, has lost his lile in following his proiession. While engaged in schooling a horse named Tracker at Flsmington, the animal blundered, with the result that Barbour was so seriously injured by a fall that he died from the effects. The deceased, who could be termed a veteran of the saddle, was in the first flight of horsemen. The first important winner that he steered was in the winter of 1894, when he steered Apley to victory in the V.RC. Grand National Hurdle Race, which feat he capped in the following year when he captured both the V.R.C. and Csulfield Grand National Steeplechases with that great horse Daimio. Barbour was a rider of the dashing school, and he was recently quoted by a Melbourne writer as one of the men who ; had been responsible for the change which had taken place in recent years in connection with cross-crountry racing, and for the hustling tactics and break-neck speed at whicli steeplechases ar;e now run in Victoria. When Barbour first employed the tearaway tactics on Wild Dog, says the Critic, he won by such distances that he would soon change these breakneck practices and revert to the old style, it was they and not he that had to change. And now, after escaping for so long wijile riding in races, Barbour.has met his end in a schooling gallop. Such is fate. The race in which Wairiki's fullbrother Seddon dead heated for first place at Williarcstown on the 12th' inst. was only of minor importance, but his performance is held to have conclusively proved the fact that he | holds the Soult for gameness. "Terlinga," of the Australasian, writes ,?s follows regarding ! Seddon and the Port Cook Handicap: —"Cooper took Seddon to the front, and the son of Soult hud everything hard at it comine round the turn, but entering the straight he floundered into some soft going, and after that all was not plain sailing. Cooper seemed to take it rather easily, and he certainly came away from the- rails, and let up Kanowna, but, anyway, four horses were almost abreast as they flashed past the box, and no one knew the result until Mr Inglis declared a dead-heat between Kanowna and Seddon. I was standing near the box, and I must give Seddon one little bit uf credit. From the time Cooper put the whip on him he held his own." The accident that befel the e<Australian rider, F. Wootton, at Ascot last week would appear to be of a very serious character, as the cablegrams received state that the injured jockey has occasional lapses into unconsciousness. At the time of his accident the brilliant young horseman had established a big lead in the list of winning jockeys and he appeared to have an excellent chance of scoring the highest honours. In his remark under the heading of "High Prices," W. Allison, the special commissioner of the "Sportsman," is interestingly reminiscent about big sales, several of which he had a hand in:—"ln considering the price of this or that horse we should always bear in mind, the period at which a sale occurred. Of late years the Argentine breeders, ' in their efforts to eclipse one another by their sensational purchases, have no doubt greatly inflated the valine of high-class stallions, and spoiled the market for those not quite, in the first-class. Time was when 20,000 gudineas each for the Galtee More and Ard Patrick was a price which created some stir; but, later on, when the Argentine had been at work, giving as much as 30,000 guineas for Diamond Jubilee and other horses, the executors of Sir JatnesMiller refused 20,000 guineas for Rock Sand, and stood out for 30,000 guineas, because, as they argued, he was worth as much as Diamond Jubilee. It was pointed out to them that the son of bianfoin was certainly not so good as Ard Patrick, who had been sold for 20,000 guineas; but the Diamond Jubilee price was what they felt they ought to have. Ultimately there came along Mr Belmont's offer of 25,000 guineas for Rock Sand, and this, after vainly trying to get it increased, the executors accepted with some hesitation. Now, here was a case in which a price undreamed of not so many years ago was absolutely refused by gentlemen acting t:> the best of their judgment for the benefit of an estate. The offer of 20,000 guineas for Rock Sand was made by M. Halbrann, on behalf of French clients, and at the time when it was retused there waß no thought of Mr Belmont being a likely buyer for the horse. Buyers at such prices are, of course, very limited in number, and practically all of them appeared at that time to have secured the horses I hey wanted, but the executors would have kept Rock oand rather than ! accept 20,000 guineas for him. Mr Belmont, however, on this occasion [ acted as a Deus ex machina, and by

giving an extra 5,000 guineas actually justified the executors in their refusal ot the French offer. Thus it is that one price f • a false standard of value is established.