SPORTING NOTES.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIX, Issue 3193, 10 December 1892, Page 6 (Supplement)

SPORTING NOTES.

[BY LK Nord.] The South Auckland Racing Club have received splendid entries for their .Summer Meeting, which takes place on Friday and Saturday next, December Ifith and 17t.1i. The course is in good condition for going, and a large number of horses lire at present in training. With fine weather, everything points to the Summer Meeting of the above Club being the most successful yet held. Strathmore lias been relegated to stud duties at St. Albans. Tirailleur is reported to be on the improve, though not yet removed from the Flemington course. J. Muirn with the Napier pony, The Rat, won the Mite Handicap at the Liverpool (N.S. W.) meeting 011 November 1 .jtli. Pygmalion has been very sore since he fell in the Spring Handicap at the Y.R.C. Meeting, and is still under veterinary treatment. Several backers for a long time past have been doing fairly well by following New Zealund-bred horses at the different race meetings (says the Sporting Standard), but they went down very heavily over the late V.R.C. Meeting, for not a single Maorilander scored.

An English paper records at the expense of a well-known Newmarket trainer the way he " read " the Great Eastern Handicap in which he had a mare engaged :—" I'm beat—no, I'm not—come on, beauty—come on, love —come on, lovie —come on, darling —" and as Red Enamel was seen to be winning tlio trainer screatced, " Come on, you d old slut! "

Titan overjoyed his trainer, Walter Hickenbotham, by winning the Spring Handicap at the Y.R.C. Meeting. According to the Sporting Standard, sonic very powerful medicine, administered a few weeks before the Flemington gathering, contributed greatly to his victory, which was not altogether unexpected, inasmuch as he ran well forward in the. Melbourne Stakes and for a good distance in the Melbourne Cup. This liigh-piiced gelding had not previously scored since he was a two-year-old.

The pacing record as well as that for trotting now stands at 2.4. a gelding named Mascot reducing the time stated on September 29th at Terre Haute. Mascot is seven years old by Deceive, and stands 15.1. It is worthy of remark that the holder of the trotting record. 2min 4sec. and the holder of the pacing record, 2inin 4sec. are from the loins of sons of Hainbletonian. The pneumatic tyre on a carefully prepared track like the one at Terre Haute seems (says the Turf, Field, and Farm), to be invincible.

A correspondent of the Australian Star, writes : " An old man named Connelly, working 011 the roads, came into Forbes the other day, carrying a big swag, and after drinking a pint of ale at Michael Fogarty's, asked the latter if he knew what horse won the Melbourne Cup. When told the natnes of the first three horses he pulled a ticket out of his pocket and found he had Penance's number, by which he gets £4500. You may bet the old man made things hum that evening."

By the s.s. Alameda one of the best all-round horsemeu in Australia leaves us under engagement for Am riea, according to " Free Lance "in the Melbourne Sportsman. Joe Gardiner has at last fixed up arrangements with the Dwyer Bros., and perhaps I shall not be found guilty of a serious breach of confidence if I mention the details of the contract, which, by the way, isn't at all bad, i.e., a retainer ef £300 (not dollars) per annum,£2 for every losing mount, and ten per cent of the stakes for winning mounts, and there are, I may further remark, some very big stakes to be won in America.

Orville, a three-year-old son of- the two Derby winners, Ormonde and Shotover, has been sold out of the Kingsclere stable to go to America. A good many backers who at one time or another have befriended the horse wish that he had been exported before he ran in public.

A remarkably high jump by a horse, carrying a heary weight and under other disadvantageous circumstances, is recorded in the Live Stock Journal. AMr John Noble wagered that his Irish horse Pygmalion—otherwise called Piggy—should clear a Oft hurdle in the riding school of Mr Blackman's father. An order was given to a maker of hurdles to prepare one of the specified height. On measurement it turned out to be Gin higher than it should bo. It was an ordinary plain, unwattled hurdle. The o.vner of Piggy, who was to be the rider, would not ask for a reduction in height, but pluckily accepted the hurdle as it was. At the first attempt the horse's feet touched the top of the hurdle, but on the second time of asking he cleared it in splendid style. Mr Noble's weight is said to have been about 14st71b—"ormaybemore." Considering this fact, and that the jump was performed in a quiet riding school, instead of in the excitement of the hunting field, the feat is worthy of record.

In an article in the Breeder and Sportsman, of a recent date, reference is "made to numerous imported stud horses. The following is of interest to New Zealanders :—" Sir Modred, Darebin and Cheviot are already famous as producers of high-class racers, and they came here almost unheralded, and with little flourish of trumpets. Mariner is doing nicely, and the foals of The Hook, Suwarrow, Plenty and Chesterfield are promising in the extreme. Of Maxim, one of the latest Australian importations, it is our firm belief that his fame as a sire will be undying if he lives to a reasonable age, and of Merriwa and Idaliuin it can be said that they are good-looking horses from famous racing families, and anything but cast-offs. The former is a young horse; the latter's name appears opposite a number of winners at all distances in Kangarooland. A glance over the winnings of the get of Aus-tralian-bred horses old enough to race in America is enough to convince any thinking man of their great worth. Americans have not been robbed in broad daylight when they purchased Australian horses, but we believe this was the case in most instances duriug the past three years when English stallions were sold at sky-high prices.