SPORT OF KINGS OVERSEAS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 August 1939, Page 9

SPORT OF KINGS OVERSEAS

PERSONAL AND OTHERWISE. About 1.300 horses are trained at Newmarket, the principal training centre in England. A charge of £4 to £5 per horse and 10 per cent of the slakes is the usual arrangement. Derbys are as numerous in America as they arc in Australia. Hollywood Park (Inglewood) had its Derby of £6,250 on July 8, and the winner was Shining One. a son of Twink and Oonagh, dam of that good horse. Pompoon. He started at a shade less than 10-1. and, in running the mile and a quarter in 2.4 4-5. equalled Sea Biscuit’s record for the track. There were 10 starters. Another rich stake decided last month was the Arlington Park (Chicago) Lassie Stakes, the most valuable stakes in America for two-year-old fillies. The total, value was £7,970 and the winner turned up in Mr A. G. Vanderbilt’s Now What, who, with 51b penalty, was conceding weight to everything else in the race. She ran the six furlongs in 1.13. but as the weather was fine, and the track fast, that was nothing out of the ordinary. even though she carried 8.10.

The Australian record for seven furlong is 1.23, jointly held by Lough Neagh and Mohican, but at Aqueduct (New York) in June. Fighting Fox did that distance in 1.22 4-5. Subsequently Fighting Fox strengthened his claims to be considered one of the best four-year-old sprinters in America by running five and three-quarter furlongs in 1.7 2-5 at Empire City (New York). He reduced the previous track record by two-fifths of a second, and, as he carried 9.0, it was a brilliant performance. The first quarter-mile was run in 22 4-5. and the half-mile in 46.

In the past 25 years, Woorak is the only sire who has been more than once successfully represented in the Caulfield Cup. Whittier won twice for him. Woorak, in his racing days, found a mile and a half a trifle far, but Accarak, one of his progeny, won an Australian Cup. The prominent English breeding authority, the late Mr W. Allison, more than once wrote that as a sire even of potential stayers—provided the breeding was satisfactory—he would sooner have a horse that had shown himself good at a mile and a quarter than one that had shone over longer distances.

It would appear that the books are “up against it” in New York, the only American State in which they are permitted to operate on racecourses. The legalisation of machine betting next year is considered so certain that the Belmont Park management recently started one of its leading officials on an inspection of racecourses in States where either the pari-mutuel ’or totalisator is in use. The increased revenue to be derived from machine betting as compared with the contribution from bookmakers, appeals to New York racing clubs and the Government. Racing, as a revenue-raiser, receives attention of all Parliaments, and a bill increasing the pari-mutuel take-out by 1 per cent at Chicago race tracks was recently passed by the Senate and House of Representatives. Presumably a portion of that extra 1 per cent goes to the State.

Mr Alex Mair, the new Premier of New South Wales, is unique among Premiers, in that he is a racehorse owner. He races Isambard in partnership with Mr E. A. Underwood, one of the candidates for the vacancy on the committcee of the Victoria Racing Club. Isambard, who is a three-year-old by Harinero, is engaged in the Melbourne Cup. He was placed in a two-year-old race at Williamstown in May. and he gives promise of developing into a useful stayer.

At one time- it would have been almost impossible for .1. O'Sullivan to win on one horse at 20 to 1, and another at 14 to 1 the same afternoon. This because of the fact that he had a strong public following. It is only a few seasons back that “What's O'Sullivan riding?" was a regular racecourse query, and there was little chance of a long price about any of his mounts. Like so many jockeys he fell on a comparatively lean time, and racegoers looked round for someone else to follow. So far this season he has had his full share of wins, and the chances are that before it is over he will again be well in the limelight.

Cravat (winner of the Brooklyn Handicap, carrying 9.0) is a four-year-old. He is regarded as the "king of the handicappers" in the United States. He is by imported Sickle (a half-brother to the Derby and Leger winner, Hyperion) out of Frilette by Man o' War out of imported Frillcry, by Broomstick out of Petticoat by Hamburg. Sickle (leading sire in America in 1936 and 1938) is a brother to Pharamond 11. He is by Phalaris (son of Polymelus, the sire of Paladin) out of Selene, by Chaucer out of Serenissima (dam of the Ascot Cup winner, Bosworth), by Minoru out of Gondolette. dam of the Derby winner, Sansovino who son, Portofino, is doing so well at the stud in Victoria. Hamburg was the sire of Lady Hamburg, dam of Chicle, a successful sire by Spea rm i n t.