SPORTING.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume IV, Issue 559, 20 January 1891, Page 3

SPORTING.

MEMORIES OF THE TURF CLUB. Thb Poverty Bay Turf Clnb’s annual meeting held last weak bdngs to mind many interest* Ing associations connected with that insiituHod, The Club has aontiuuel on its career, but the changes that have taken place during its history have to be regarded with very mixed fetlmga, both melancholy and pleasurable. How many of the old faces have disappeared since the rough days of yore. When plenty may h*ve abounded but peace Could not be relied on. The Turanga Stakes is a race with a history that would afford much interest if the ample material were at hand to wo<k upon. When the prize was low down in the double fl/mea it was thought, to be a bandrome sum ; it has now reach rd $OO sovs. -—not a large sum wnen comparisons gre made with more wealthy districts, but all things k*ing oomidertd still a laige sum, with the proapeet of an increase next year. As an illlustration of what tbe Club’r* meetings were like in ihe early days R may be mentioned that in one year there bad to be a large force of mounted ponstabularv drawn up in Hoe, with swords unsheathed, to prevent a conflict between the two rat M. In tbe previous year an alarming riot h d actually occurred, and feeling running very high and turbulent natives being present in great force, the danger of things cu minuting in a very serious maimer Cun e.ai ybe imagined. When men got roused under such excitab e conditions, neither side unders m ding thr. f. eliugs of the Other, there could be no foreseeing what it might lead to. Fr< m those days the meetings Of the Club have shown the gradual progress of things, unfii even free fights between individuals have become an unknown incident of recent years, and <he costumes of the ladies j ire bo smell feature of the gatbeiiog. ▲ couple of policemen may attend the Various mtttiuga, but their office on that day Is a .iuecura. Of late year, it baa become ftlmoat a foregone oouolu.lon that eq outsider Would" carry off the big handicap, the Turanga Stake., no local horse having .uoceeded in securing the •* plum ” .Ince the meeting of 1887, when Nora had the beat of S grand race. Thia year Mr Paraone hue gadceeded In making hia name in-eparable from the history of the Club, For three ye .ra running the hoi tea trained by him have carried off tbe Tradramen’a Handicap, and with Wa£atipn he has suoceeded in having the Stake, placed to bi. credit, The horse has a peculiar biesory- having got placed in the Ji«W Zealand Gup, the Wanganui Cup, and other race.. When he went into Mr Persona’ hands bis chances were not thought much of, and the Stakes were believed to have resolved into a dual between Kapo and Pani, but the struggle between that Bair fuelled away when the Ormond representative aqel up frou) th. rear « it the favorites had been authored. The way in which he ran in the Tradesmen’s on the following -day showed the prime condition in which he had been brought out, A remarkable coincidence oc. urred in the Publicans’ Purse.. It resulted in a dead h-at between Truthful' a id the ou aider Kupenga, while in the previous year there was also a dead heat, the local horse Konawa getting level with the Outsider Huerfaqa, This seems the more remarkable when it ia added that in each case the outside horse was ridden by young Donovan, and iu both races it was the local horse that drew up level at the post.

A colt purchased at the Sylfia Park .ale, for Gisborne, was carried ou by the Tfgir/rapa, ‘/ SI 'Fbs SMotoiae Privateer, which met with |B SCiiilem at ifae Igst races, died »t ihe Park oh Sunday night. Privateer w'aa by Prill Play — Lady Gray, being half-brother to Director and Poni. Owing to iaeufficient Mcammodation on fpe as. Southern Cross, Betina,’ winner of the Plying Handicap and Stewards’ Handicap late Povefty pay Turf Club S meeting, could not be shipped yesThUiSrathw upfprtgßutb, astbe ffi&fti has accepted for her engagements at the Wellington Jt,Q. Summer Meeting, which take plane on the 22ud and 24>tb Inst. Mr Abington, tpe well-known English Spti'etrf horseman,' had a ruughaime of it While taking part In the Strafford Weber Plate s'. the Warwick and Learning on races On 17th November. Mr XKngton had the mount on Gules, and during the race Sea gong, Wbo was steered by Fred Barrett, seized tbe amateur by the leg, and hung on to it like a bull dog for about., furlong, before Barrett ennld beat and drag him off. £be toll ot Mr Abington'* leg Miy l lacerated, and though latest advices record an improvement in ths limb, it was anticipated that fas would nut be able Is get into lbs agata It seam thus