SPORTING.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume V, Issue 623, 20 June 1891, Page 3

SPORTING.

Not a single favourite won at the late Auckland meeting, It ia stated that the clinking Marvel is to be taken to England. At the bottom of one nomination for the Trotting Club’s meeting wae the following ; —" Fast performances, four years running in a milk cart.” The New Zealand Grand National takes place on the 13th of August next. The programme shows that £lO6O will be divided among seven races. Au Auckland sporting scribe, in his reprarks on phe late Great Northern Steeplephase, wrote as follows ” Bit of Blue has po show whatever." The little horse got second ail the same. Mick O’Brien, the wellknown rider of Carbine, who has been ailing for a long time, has, by latest advices from Australia almost lest his voice. Mr W. B. Wilson has sustained a bit of bad luck in hie thoroughbred mare llelly if pose (dam of Lochiel), which he purchased gt the Sylvia Park sale, having slipped triplet colts to Nordenfeldt. It is not often » mare has three at a birth. Owing to not being able to ship Caitiff to Napier by the Wairarapa, Messrs Currie and Hogan did not accept for the Hawke’s Bay Jockey Club’s Winter Meeting, to be held on the 25th inst. This is to be regretted, as ” Mick ” has the son of Bothwell in rare nick, and as his weight wae a handy one, he should have been close at ths Apish.

At the Australian Jockey Club’s winter meeeting, the following was the result of the race for the Steeplechse:—Melton 1, Cale donian 2, Recruit 3. The race was the best ever seen on the course. Melton won by a length. Time 7min 24sec. The following entries were received for the Wellington Steeplechase Canute, Here, Rough, Dangerous Chance, Yardman, Roger, Jack, Christmas, Whitefoot, Rizzo, Blue Mountain, Otaitri, LoJinagar, Sentinel, Worth, Chester, Turaekaitai, Oceola, Ahua, Irish King, Darnley, Oeo, First String, Kaimanawa, Te Ata, Moonraker, Whalebone, General Gordon, Orient, Kangaroo, and Don. Darnley is also entered for the Hurdles, for which there are 31 entries.

“ Buff and Black ” is of opinion that Mr Evett has hidden the winner of the H. B. Steeplechase, and writes as follows :— Chemist and Uranus, the two top weights, will not start. Sentinel has four pounds less to carry than he had in Auckland, where he was hampered by the wet ground, and was uaable to negotiate the sod wall. If Turaekaitai can only negotiate the big country safely he has an excellent show with lOst 111 b up. Darnley, Caitiff, and Rough have a big show, and will beat more than will beat them, but I do not know how Caitiff will shape across country. Oeo has nothing to complain of in 9st 91b, and will be one of the few that will be near the front at the finish.

A Napier paper has the following :—The best looking horse in the Auckland Hurdle Race was Criminal, the Gisborne animal, a fine upstanding chestnut—by Foul Play.

Curious to relate, neither Parnell, Bit of Blue, nor Neck-or Nothing, the first three horses in the Auckland Steeplechase, were entered for the H.B. Steeplechase. Tirailleur is quoted at 100 to 5 for the Melbourne Cup, the weights for which will be declared on Monday next. The Hawke’s Bay Herald of the 15th inst. says :—Mr D. Hepburn’s horses Criminal and Duadine arrived by the Wairarapa, and landed here, it having been found impossible to land at Gisborne, their destination, on Friday night. It was not Mr Hepburn’s intention to start his horses at the winter meetings, but as they have been brought here against his wish, it will not be surprising to see the acceptance money paid for Duadine in the steeplechase. The Hawke’s Bay Jockey Club’s lady’s bracelet, to be run for on the 25th instant, ia the best of its kind ever offered by the Club. The front of the bangle has a cluster of eight diamonds and a pearl, the stones being set diagonally, the brilliants being exceedingly fine. Mr Allan M‘Lean, of Napier, who is always on the alert to obtain anything good in the way of a thoroughbred horse, has secured for that district the aristocraticallybred sire Crawford Priory. Owing to an accident when a yearling the horse was never trained, and has never had a chance of distinguishing himself up to the present, as he has been kept for stud purposes on the station of Messrs Elder and Co., Melbourne, where he has only served station hacks. His sire is Gang Forward (imp) from Peradventure (imp), and he is one of the most fashionably bred sires south of the line.