Queenslander (Brisbane, Qld. : 1866 - 1939), Saturday 18 August 1877, page 13


TURF NOTES.

BY VENISON.

THE river of Time, according to its usual habit, has flowed on, and floated us, till we are once more landed at the pleasant annual era of the Hawkesbury meeting; perhaps, on the whole,

the jolheet, v not the grandest, one in all Australia, and a Bort of " mean proportional" (as the mathematioiaua term it) between the magnificence of Melbourne races and the humbler wun&ge, or " turn out" of—Cooper's Plains or Thurgomindah, let us say. I fancy I should prefer the happy medium of Hawkesbury to either of the others myself ; for there is all the true sport to be fouid, and that too without that overpowering and superfluous millinery crush business on the Lawn at Flemington. Better hones one could not wish to see race than those which operate and take part in the Isthmian games at the Hawkesbury country ; where " butter and eggs," squatters, votaries of green hide and wattle bark, thrive on the bacon and fowl, maiae and paling traffic, and are a happy combination of the bucolic and the urbtn order of things; healthy Knickerbockers, in short, of the Southern Hemisphere, with a tiny Hudson and Kaatskills of their own, but with very little Indeed of the Rip Van Winkle element in their composition. I like all that part of New South Wales, right away to the Bunagorang Range, the Peak of Jellore, and the Wollondifly River, which all lie far on the other side of those profound sandstone gorges of the Grose and the Colo, whose encompassing mountains are desolate M the hills of the land of Moab, and cover a ■pace of country as big as that from "Aroer, that is by the river Arnon, even till thou comeat to Shur, and beyond Harosheth of the Gentiles." Binai is very like to embattled towers, Horebhas a beautiful sharp crest, and the sandstone mountains of New South Wales that stretch from this point to the Mudgee country are very like to those of Palestine, only the fir and the juniper have to do duty for the gum and the wattb. But —to our races, on to which, as before stated, the river of Time, a greater one than Colo, Grose, Wollondilly, or Hawkesbury either, has now floated us. The sport will be partly over when these lines meet the sight, and anything like vaticination will wear the aspect of Punch's famous tips given the week after the Derby. Yet it doth seem unto me, writing as I do before the meeting, that Amendment, coupled with Tocal, would not be a bad double for the Guineas and Handicap, supposing both horses " fit." lam not a betting man myself, so shall probably not back this parcel; but if I were one I should probably ask some bookmaker to put it down for me. The best local performer we have had in Queensland was North Australian, the property of the Hon. R. Pring, who bought him for £100, or considerably less than a fifth of his value. But North Australian was not Queensland bred, seeing he hailed from the other side of the Border on the Clarence waters. His former owner, however, has now invested in a locallyreared thoroughbred, called the Earl, who will be a three-year-old in November next, and wl ose pedigree, ' which I give, tends to show that Messrs. Bigge, of Mount Brisbane, his breeders, know how to put the ■trains together. The Earl is by the Baronet oat of Colleen Bawn, and fetched the highest figure yet given for a Queensland bred horse. Baronet was bred at Tocal, and was by the Barb from Ketchup, by (imported) Aaron from Kate, an old Camerton mare. The Barb by Sir Hercules from Young Gulnare by the Doctor. Aaron, the imported sire just named, was by Moses from Electra, from Miss Manager by Giles, from Rosabella's dam by Diomed, a grandson of Herod. There is a little " Derby winner" blood apparent in this lot. Old Camerton was by Camerton, from Waltonia by Walton, dam by Highflyer from Nutcracker by Matchem. Thus much for the sire's side, and now for the dam's : Colleen Bawn was by Su.i.,r fromNorna; Sailor by the Sea from Rebecca by Brutandorf, her dam by Whisker from Louisa, by Orville from Thomasina. Then the Sea was by Whalebone from Mermaid by Orville, dam by Sir Solomon out of Highflyer, out of Bruin by Squirrel. Sailor was the sire of Rowe's Mariner, the fastest colt of his year in New South Wales. Norna was by St. John from Matilda by Steeltrap, g.d. Vesta by the Arabian Model, g.g.d. Carabas by Old Hector, g.g.g.d. by Rockingham. Steeltrap by Scud from Prophetess, by Sorcerer from daughter of Whiskey, Scud by Beningborough by King Fergus from a daughter of Herod called Eliza, by Highflyer from Augusta by Eclipse. Norma was half sister to the famous New Sooth Wales hone Jorrocks; Colleen Bawn was sister to Columbus, winner of the Trial Btakes at Ipswich, and who won the North Australian St Leger (beating Taifs Falcon), and also won the Maiden Plate at Warwick. He won also the Maiden Plate at Brisbane, carrying, as • four-year-old in August, the weight of 9st>

IS Ibtt So that if breeding be a criterion the Earl should prove a grand performer,' aa the dam's and the aire'a aide each present a oombination of talent which renders it difficult to award the palm of preference to either. The Wild Dayrell blood continues to make its mark all over Australia. Its former doings in Adelaide, Sydney, and Melbourne have now been supplemented in the principal handicaps of Deniliquin, Maryborough, and Rockhampton ; and light weights, or heavy weights, seem to be much the same to its grand capabilities. The Epsom Derby had seventeen starters. The second horse, Glen Arthur, was at 50 ft> 1 at the post; the winner at 100 to 9 ; the third horse, Bob Roy, was top favorite at S to 1, Chamant coming next at 4 to 1, after having rung the change* between 6 to 4 and 20 to 1 in little more than half an hour. This top favorite, Rob Roy, was coming like a white squall at the finish, but too late ; he was a length and a quarter from the winner, and the second hone only half a length ; a good finish, and a somewhat slow raw in 2 mins. 50 sees. My recent remarks about the vast difference between winning a race of a mile and three quarters and a two mile event, instanced in the case of Sultan, are borne out by the fact that efforts are being made to get the Tasmania Racing Club to out down their cup course of two miles by a couple of furlongs, and make it one mile and three quarters, and so let in a number of other horses, and not confine the race to the select few who tire able to see the end of sixteen furlongs. There is a touch of turf humiliation in all this ; but it is better to see eight horses in a finish than three of them ; and so it is best to swallow the, pill of pride and go in for the fun, pure and simple. , Tradmer, the Bire of Lurline and Calumny, and who therefore needs no further letter of introduction to us, is installed at the head of the "Middle Park" stud lately formed at Christchurch, New Zealand. He was third for the " Two Thousand" in his day ; and combining the Pantaloon and Touchstone blood, he is likely to be heard of still further At the stud. These second and third horses generally succeed more at the stud than the great winners do ; and the extra quarter mile at the finish, and the awful process of being put through the mill for a great handicap, often troubles their descendants less than it does the progeny of the high-priced, " fashionable," lucky winners of great juvenile weight-forage event*. Another great horse, who was the hero of 1865 in winning the Ascot, Goodwood, and Brighton Cups, has died, and Mr. Cartwright's Ely, one of the most grandly-made and performing horses ever foaled, has passed away without leaving anything in the shape of a son or daughter worthy of him. In other words, he has not been a success at the stud, having been, like Gladiateur, " a fluke." But another horse, Scottish Chief, has some worthy descendants, for he was taken care of in hi* youth, and he earns four thousand a year now at the stud, and is likely to do it for many a year to come. He however, with all the rest of the famous Dewhurst stud, will face the auctioneer's hammer; the list including Citadel, a hone who has won £340 in show prises. He : i a compound of Stockwell, Melbourne, Touchstone, and Pantaloon. Old Vedette, • good sire, is another of the string, fresh aa paint, and with no signs on him of the wear and tear of having won the Two Thousand, the Great Yorkshire Stakes, and the Donoaster Cup time running. Mr. Gee, the proprietor of Dewhurst, was notorious for sailing ahead over all obstacles, and without a balk in the bidding when good stock was under the hammer, and his trio of Mandragora, Formosa, and Agility made a great big hole in £10,000 when he bought them. The four leading favorities for last Derby were bred at this shop; and it is to be hoped that when the inevitable sale takes place, that England will have pluck enough to prevent France and Germany from walking off with the best of the plums. "Cantab," writing from Toowootnba, supplements the information supplied by " Sportsman" in issue of 4th instant, by stating that in the Epsom Derby of 1866 not only were all the three placed horses by Stockwell, but the fourth hone, Knight of the Garter, who ran Rustic hard for the third place, was also by the same sure ; that clever jockey, Custance, piloted the winner to victory with his right arm in a sling, having been disabled by an accident a few days before the races. The grand entry for the Melbourne Cup does not exhibit any material signs of diminution by the non-acceptances so far ; but 1 think it must be some yean yet before Flemington will see forty -five starters for this great handicap, as Goodwood did in 1861, when Crough Patrick won the Steward's Cup there. And speaking of the Melbourne Cup, there seems to be no reason why backen should not work . out a rule of three sum ; and say, if Briseis, by Tim Whiffler, from Muiridora, could, as a three year old, win the Melbourne Cup of 1876 with 6 at. 4 lbs. up, why should not Gat, by Tim Whiffler from Gasworks (a good Fisherman mare, and the winner of the St Leger and Australian Cup of 1869), a four-year-old, and with the same weight of 6 at. 4 lbs. up, do the trick! There is the extra year just given in, and the breeding is almost, if not quite, as good, and the field this year certainly not as much superior to last year's ditto as to cover the extra year of age at the same weight; that is supposing the maaes to be anything like on a par, as before stated. I can see something very like a rule-of-three sum here on paper, and well worth working out by those who live upon the fluctuations in the odds. And it may so happen that, like Julius Cesar did in the City and Suburban, Gas may lay back her ears, and kick playfully in the saddling paddock before the start, and come in at the finish amid a forest of uplifted whips, the only pendant and unused bit of whalebone, the only cool collected customer in the crowd, and doing the " romping " business, as turf scribes call it. For Gas, like A. T., has only figured well in Nursery handicaps, where she has been placed in company with cattle like Sibyl, Robinson* Crusoe, and Electricity, and really she is just as much and more favored in this same Melbourne Cup as a four-year-old, by comparison with her former competitors, whom the public are freely backing, as she was in those Nursery handicaps ; and the sapient public, who saw A. T. viewed tritk reaped to Kvtgibanmgk all so plainly o/fcr the Sydney

Cup wu over, would do wall perhaps to weigh Gas'a chance, this time, before the Melbourne Cup becomes merged in the past

The enterprising turfites of Cooktown include in their racing programme a Chinese race, hones and owners both to be Celestial. At the annual meeting of the North Australian Jockey Club, held on Tuesday, on Aug. 10, at Ipswich, the following gentlemen were elected the committee for the ensuing year :—Messrs. J. M'Grath, W. F. Digby, H. H. Elliott, W. Kellett, J. Haygarth, T. W. Brady, D. T. Keogh, F. C. Parr, P. O'Sullivan, J. Henderson, A. W. Darrall, and W. Townley, being the same as last year, with the substitution of the names of Messrs. Brady, Haygarth, and Townley for W. A. Cross, M'Donald, and M'GUL Mr. Chubb having signified his inability to continue to act as secretary in consequence of the numerous other duties he had to perform, Mr. D. T. Keogh was appointed his successor, and the thanks of the club were voted to the late secretary. The treasurer's balance-sheet showed a balance in hand at present of £60 Bs. 7d. The club, however, have a liability to the bank of £140, thus leaving a debtor balance against the dub of £89 11s. 6d., which it was hoped would be covered by the next meeting. There was about £88 due from honeowners for second money in entrances for hones not scratched last meeting, which if paid would reduce the debt to £56 lls. sd. It was resolved that these moneys be collected, or the owners posted as defaulters. A discussion took place in which it was maintained that the qualification fee of £8 Bs. to honeowners, and the 6 per centage deducted from the winnings, operated disadvantageously to the club; and, on a motion to that effect, the same were abolished by the unanimous vote of the committee. The meeting adjourned for a fortnight, a programme for the Christmas meeting to be prepared in the meantime, also a Sires' Produce Stakes for 1880. —Abridged from the Observer. A Cooktown correspondent writes, on Aug. 4 : —The near approach of our annual race meeting is commencing to cause a little stir in town. The s.s. Victoria, which arrived yesterday, brought up three intending competitors in Drummer, Warrior, and Oscar ; the former some of your readers will probably remember succeeded in pulling off the two principal handicaps at Townsville, and there appears to be every likelihood that he will succeed in repeating that performance here on the 15th and 16th. It is satisfactory, however, to know that the handicaps issued here have given general satisfaction, and there is •very probability that our raoes will prove a suocesa.