TURF NEWS AND NOTES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 July 1939, Page 9

TURF NEWS AND NOTES

CURRENT TOPICS FROM STABLE AND COURSE Large Teams Do Not Assure Greatest Returns EMPHASISED BY RESULTS IN ENGLAND AGA KHAN NOT VERY SUCCESSFUL THIS SEASON

(By

“CARBINE.”)

Large teams do not assure the greatest return, nor do theories make a certainty of anyone breeding high class horses. This season’s early results in England have emphasised those facts, and caused the London “Observer’s” sporting contributor to write as follows:—

“It is strange that three of the biggest and most successful trainers in this country, Frank Butters, Walter Nightingall, and Mathew Peacock, cannot win a race, or hardly one. I doubt ■ whether they have a dozen between them this season, nearly three months of which is over, and yet they must have some two hundred horses in their three yards. “No doubt their time will come, although it may be that they have only bad horses to train. Such things must happen even to such bold buyers as Miss Paget, such a successful breeder as the Aga Khan has been for many years, and to such a fine judge of a horse as the Master of Middleham. “It seemed at one time that the Aga Khan had found something that no one had ever discovered before: the way in which to breed nothing but high-class winners. He is still breeding on the same lines, but so far this season he has not yet shown us any high-class two-year-old. It is strange how lines suddenly go all wrong. “Stables get too much of one sort of blood, and that in the end seems to end the run of successes. Theory after theory is argued, and for a time there is success, but then it comes back once more to everyone in the game that luck has to play, and still does play, a very important part in the breeding of racehorses.” RACING CONFERENCE TO OPEN TOMORROW. Among the remits which will come up for discussion by the delegates to the New Zealand Racing Conference at Wellington tomorrow is one introduced by the executive committee, of

special interest to owners, trainers and jockeys. It reads as follows: “No change in the rider of any horse in a similar class of race during the progress of any race meeting shall be made without the owner or trainer of the horse concerned first obtaining the special permission of the chairman of the Judicial Committee and the stipendiary steward, which shall be granted only on good and substantial grounds. If any breach of this sub-clause be committed, the owner and/or the trainer of the horse concerned may be fined not more than £5 and such horse may be disqualified for the race.” The remit has aroused opposition in no uncertain terms from many of the trainers. The idea has been copied from the trotting code, in which a similar rule has been in force for a number of years. Without being at all concerned with how it works on the trotting tracks, the trainers urge that it is not required in the galloping sport, where it will cause much irritation in its operation. The Rules of Racing practically bestow unlimited power and authority on a starter when once a field corner under his control at the post. He may adopt any attitude he deems fit in connection with a fractious horse. The stewards have power under the rules to provide a mounted assistant to stand in the first position on the rails to assist the starter in lining up the horses. Some of the clubs bringing forward remits are not as conversant with the rules as should be the case. The Auckland district clubs are asking for an amendment to the rules in order to provide a man mounted on a quiet hack to stand in the first position on the rails to assist the starter in lining up the horses. Section 3of rule 280 already grants power to take action in that direction. AMONG THE CLUBS ' PROGRAMME ALTERED. Several alterations have been made in the programme of the New Zealand Metropolitan Trotting Club’s programme for the August meeting. The Dash Handicap, last year a mile saddle race for 2min 14sec class horses, has been deleted and replaced by a mile and a-quarter race, 2min 45sec class. Twelve months ago sbme interest was taken in the New Zealand Challenge Stakes, a race in which the champion trotters met the best pacers. This race has been dropped, and is replaced by the King's Handicap, for horses that can do a mile and a-half in 3min 19sec or belter. The principal event on the first day is the August Handicap, of £750, and the value of this race will be increased to £I,OOO if the time registered is faster than that recorded in any other two-mile events during the day, while on the third day the National Plate Handicap is governed by similar conditions. Thp Riverton Racing Club intends making improvements to the members’ stand. A most important improvement would be to shift the totalisator registers in order to release the packed congestion of the crowd in front of the investment windows.

The annual report of the Gore Racing Club, which was presented at the annual meeting on July 1 states: Provision has been made in the accounts for £440 17s lid depreciation and after writing off £2B 5s as bad debts, the profit and loss account shows a net gain for the year of £1,672 4s Id. This amount has been transferred to capital. making the balance of that account £18.632 15s 6d. The spring meeting, held in October, 1938, produced a profit of £1 808, and the jubilee fixture, held in February of this year, returned a profit of £165. Stakes given for the season amounted to £5,120, an increase of £B2O on tne amount given the previous year. Under the win and place system of betting. £66,715 was handled by the totalisator. divided as follows: Win, £30,030; place. £36,685. Permanent work of a very substan ■) tial and useful nature was carried out on the course at a total cost of £2,099 18s 4d during the year. It is intended to expend a sum of between £BOO and £9OO during the coming year in effecting further improvements. Provision will bo made lor the construction of a wot weather track inside the ring on ■ closure of the course proper. Local training operations have been carried out on the club's tracks to a greater extent than for some years. The jubilee celebrations held in February brought to a climax 50 years of successful racing in the Gore district.

SIRES PRODUCE STAKES LIST OF ENTRIES. The following stallions have been entered for the thirty-third Manawatu Sires' Produce Stakes, 1941: — Mr G. P. Donnelly’s Theio. Mr T. A. Duncan's Laughing Prince. Mr A. F. Lawrie’s Colossus. Mr A. E. Lawrie's The Greek. .Mr A. E. Prestons, June’s Defoe. Mr G. M. Currie's Ringmaster. Mr G. M. Currie’s Posterity. Grange Stud's Phaleron Bay. Mr A. Louisson's Nightmarch. Trustees estate late Sir Charles Clifford, Winning Hit. Trustees estate late Sir Charles Clifford's Jericho. Trustees estate late Sir Charles Clifford, Cricket Bat.

Mr H. E. Edmund's Inflation. Mr D. Grant's Pink Coat. Mr T. H. Lowry's Tiderace. Mr T. R. George's Croupier. Mr J. Mulvaney's Foxlight. Mr G. A. Kain's Man's Pal. Mr G. Gaine Carrington's Baffles. Mr F. Ormond's Bulandshar. Mr F. Ormond's Arausio. Mr J. J. M’Grath’s Plato. Miss Edwards's Vaals. Mr F. Armstrong's Friday Night. Mr W. T. Bailey's Lackham. Mr W. T. Bailey's Alchemic. SPORT OF KINGS OVERSEAS PERSONAL AND OTHERWISE. Exasperating hick has been experienced by Mr Edward Esmond in the English classics this season. He owns Fox Cub. which was second in the Derby to Blue Peter. He had the disappointment of seeing his filly. White Fox, narrowly defeated in the Oaks by the One Thousand Guineas winner, Galatea 11. Apparently White Fox was desperately unlucky to lose, as she was seriously checked when Curtain Call, which was racing in front of her, fell rounding Tottenham Corner. White Fox lost considerable ground, but finished strongly. She got to within a head of Galatea II and was in front a stride past the post. Mr Esmond deserves to win good races, as he has invested much money in breeding and racing. When the horses belonging to the late Sir Edward Hulton were sold Mr Esmond was one of the biggest buyers, among his purchases being Straitlace, an Oaks winner, for which he paid 17.000 guineas. Another expensive purchase made by him was the Italian colt Donatello 11, for which he paid £45,000 after the colt had finished second in the Grand Prix de Paris two years ago. Both Fox Cub and White Fox were bred by Mr Esmond at his stud in France, where Fox • hunter is standing. Foxhunter was raced by Mr Esmond, for whom he won the Ascot Gold Cup and Doncaster Cup a few years ago. He is a three -quarterbrother to Trimdon, being by Foxlaw, son of Son-in-Law. from Trimestral, by William the Third.

In Western Australia, a broadcast by the National Station is allowed from racecourses after the third race. No prices, however, are permitted to be sent over the air until after the last race. Perth race clubs are not satisfied with this idea, and it is not unlikely that shortly no broadcast will be permitted from at least one course. There was a ban for one day some time back; a commercial station tried to send a broadcast from outside the course, but it was not a success. Perth police continue to rope in operators in startingprice establishments, and the magistrates have not relaxed in the matter of heavy fines. Each week brings more and more revenue to the State Government, which recently, on the one clay, gathered in £BlO in fines paid by 23 men. Nowadays, all assistants are arrested. Not long since, one shop had to pay £250 in fines for one day. Racing clubs are tightening up on all possible avenues through which information is received from racecourses about prices and dividends.

The world's race record for a mile and a half is not held by either Fin? Art_pr Colonel Grattan, but Little Pat, who' did 3min 12sec, at Syracuse, in 1937, when he won the Pacing Derby from 60 yards behind. The records against time are held by Greyhound (trotter) 3min 2Asec. Van Derby 3min 9 2-ssec, and Peter Manning (trotter) 3min 9ijsec. Others for whom records have been claimed include Barney Doolan. Fine Art. and Colonel Grattan, 3min 12 l-ssec, Rosalind (trotter) 3min 12Jscc. and Icevus, 3min ■ 12 3-ssec.

The former Auckland jockey, Neville. Vaughan, had his first mount in England at Yarmouth, on May 31. Hd rode Summer Sheen, who ran fourth, and who was saddled by Miss Audrey Bell, daughter of John Bell, the Newmarket trainer. The event was the Borough Two-year-old Selling Plate, in which there were 26 runners. Vaughan for some time has been working at Newmarket for the Hon G. Lambton, who has a liking for riders from the Dominions, and the experience they gain at his headquarters is very valuable.

Norman Godby, aged 51, formerly one of the best jockeys in Australia, died on June 19 in a private hospital in East Melbourne. He was a brother of the Caulfield trainers, Cecil and Frank Godby. His best win as a jockey was when he beat Wakeful on Lord Cardigan in the 1903 Melbourne Cup. He also won a Futurity Stakes on Gladsome, and many weight-for-age events. He became a trainer after in creasing weight ended his career as a jockey, but ill health compelled him to retire within a few years. RACING FIXTURES July 4, 6. B—'Wellington. July 15 —Waimate District Hunt. July 15 —Hawke’s Bay Hunt. July 22 —Rangitikei Hunt. July 22—South Canterbury Hunt. July 29—Christchurch Hunt. July 29 —Manawatu Hunt. August 8, 10, 12.—Grand National meeting.