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J I i ■ I 1 I i I I i ANTIPODEAN RACE HORSES IN ENGLAND. 1 Crack Racers from New Zealand Fail and Australians Do Well. . 1 People in Kngland know so little of the difference between Australia and New Zealand that Australian horses tire apt to get a bad name because, for some mysterious reason. New Zealand-bred ones have done badly here. Australians, on the whole, have done well, ami in not a few cases shown better In in Kngland than in their own country, says "Special Commissioner" in London Sporting Fife. 1 need only mention Paris III., Merman. Malurna. Newhaven II.. The Grafter. Georgic, Australian Star. Chesuey. Moils Meg. and if Stoe-eado did not win it was only because he succumbed I to exigencies of trainiug. as also did Aurum, which Kobinsou tested sufficiently to enable him to declare ; that this was the best horse he ever trained. Mer- i man neve. wou a weight forage race in Australia i and was weighted at about 1st 71b in the handicaps 1 there when he came to Kngland. and we know I how ho won the Cesarewitch. Goodwood Cup. Jockey I Club Cup. Ascot Cup, etc.. and could have kept i on winning had he not been somewhat unfortunately i taken out of training when he was still as sound i as a bt 11 ami had just run the race of his life. . But. on the other hand, the New Zealand horses have had an almost unbroken sequence of disasters. F. V. Day trained a good one some tea years ago whose name I forget, hut he went wrong i in his wind. Then came Filiform, which proved very susoopiibh to fever, and though ho did win a Lowes Handicap was really a disappointment. His brother, the great Multiform, followed him. and this w.-.s a really grand horse of the highest class, but In- turned a bad roarer before he had been six weeks in Kngland. and Mr. G. G. Stead, who kuew I his value for stud purposes in New Zealand, sent the vi ry useful Siriiiaapatam in exchange for him. It was not for a moment protended that Seringapa-tain wi.s of the same class as Multiform, but on the whole he turned out the most satisfactory of all the New Zealand importations, for he wou several races lor Sir Edgar Vincent, including a £1000 one at Ktend. Meanwhile, the brilliant Gold Medallist had arrived here. He was unbeaten as a two-year-old, and never unplaced as a three-year-old. but in Kngland no vestige of form could be got out of him, though he is a grand horse and wins Kings Premiums every time he is shown. One began to think that New Zealand form must be getting below Australian, just as the Irish racing form is accounted below the Kuglish. but at the same time it was well known that Carbine and Trenton were bred in New- Zealand, where Musket st. mxI during his wonderful stud career. And yet, as we get good horses from Ireland to race here, but do not set much store by the Irish form, it was thought for a while that these New Zealand failures were due to the low standard of form in that country. But then there conies along Noe-tuiform, much like Orby in this country, for he not only was unbeaten as a three-year-old in New Zealand, but he also went to Sydney and beat the lnst three-year-old in Australia by about twehe lengths, and that in two or three seconds less than record, for the A. J. C. Derby. Sungod, his stable companion and pacemaker, was second and him, and was good enough to win two other races at the same meeting, while Nightfall, sister to Noctuiform, also won a long-distance race very easily. Yet octuifi rm and Nightfall come to Kngland and neither gives a glimpse of that form, except on the one occasiou when Nightfall ran such a great race with Bridge of Canny at Koinptoii, and Hewitt was supposed to have been outridden by Maher. The climate of New Zealand much more closely resembles ours than does that of Australia, and yet the fact remains that for some reason or other the New Zealand-bred horse does not acclimatize in Kngland as does the Australian. Mr. Spencer Jolla.-i. I know, has boon badly disappointed with many which he knew to lie- right good ones, but completely lost their action after the voyage, while a comparatively despised few have done far better. It is dangerous always to reason from particular instances to general conclusions, hut the instances on this question are fairly numerous in my own experience, and I should be very glad if any of our Australian and New Zealand friends would favor me with any explanation in the matter. I do not gather that even in India or South Africa New Zealand horses have been a success, and as distinguished front Australians, and, for trfat matter. South Americans, they ap[ ear to be peculiarly liable to go wrong in the wind. but. nevertheless, there can be no doubt about their intrinsic quality when seen at home and at their best. The New Zealand-bred Carbine has already s#ed a Derby winner of the very highest class, and though Trenton was not equally lucky here his merits as a stallion have never been disputed by those with any pretensions to pass a reasoned judgment on the subject. Then. too. there was the great stallion. Lochiel. He was foaled in New Zealand to Kuglish Time, and I believe no horso over sired so many .winners as he did in Australia. The subject is a very interesting, it obscure, one. and I should much like to see some light thrown upon it.
