SPORTING MEMORANDA.

Waikato Times, Volume XVI, Issue 1397, 16 June 1881, Page 2

SPORTING MEMORANDA.

In the list of entries foi 1 the Melbourne Cup is Sir Modred (winner of the Duneelm Cup) and iSomnus. Mr i)aley requests me to fetate that there is no foundation for the statement to the effect that he has challenged Mr H. Hyde to run a mile for £20 a-side. When he does challenge him it will be foi £50. Thirty-one jumps had to be taken m the Grand National. The ,old county gaol, Northampton, has been turned into a circus. A baby giantess has died in America, aged six years ; weight 2lolbs. Mr H. Prince, who bought Mata for 800 soys. before the race for the Adelaide Birthday Cup made a lucky hit (that is if he bought his engagements as well). The stakes would be worth over £600, and as in all probability the owner had him backed for something, it is likely that he got his horse for nothing and a pound or two to boot. Matas victory in the Cup was a very creditable performance, as he had to carry 9st. 21b. over a heavy mile aud three-quarters course in the company of such gentry as Savanaka, Lothair, Suwarrow, and Progress ; but the latter animal was certainly the hero of the race. He carried 9st. and finished only two lengths behind the winner. Mr Griffifch, handle appor for the C.J.C. during next season, is to receive £100 salary. Country clubs will be interested in. the following extract from the Cromwell 'Argih :—" Some difference of opinion having arisen in the committee of the Cromwell Jockey Club aa to what constituted a district bred horse eligible to enter for the annual Derby, the secretary put this case to the AitDtmlanan and Town and Country :—ln: — In a Derby, entries for which can only be received from within certain prescribed limits, termed a 'district,' can a horse foaled by a district mare outside such bounds be deemed bred within such district, into which he is brought after being foaled ; and is he eligible to run for, and win such Derby Stakes? Both authorities agreed that, .strictly reading the conditions of the race, the Horde ia riot eligible to enter for the "stakes." Blub Gown.

On the last performance of the big run of Aladdin at Leeds, all the actors wore bows of black crape, in mourning for the best beloved- piece that had ever bsen known m Leeds. Pope Leo XIII. having discovered that a sacriligious traffic in spurious relics was being carried on under cover of the authority of the, Cardinal- Vicar of Rome, to whom the authentication of such articles' belongs, has called his attention tb this 1 scandal,' and ordered him to institute a strict inquiry into the matter, and X visit the simoniacal ecclesiastics with the utmost severity. The Cardinal- Vicar ,basJ9s l ue_4 ) a" circular to Roman Catholic disrnitaries throughout. the wpvld, stating that no bodies have" bepn taken out of the .Cataoombt for the last thhty y>arrf, and warning them 'against impostors. ( These ' jai&Baid to have found their moit lucrative .field ia. America. , ' >