view raw text
REGENT AUSTRALIAN EVENTS Tremendous Crowds Turning Out to View the Decision of the Spring Races. BY F. L. McKENNEY. SAN FRANCISCO, Cal., Nov. 16. All the high-class horses of the Australian turf are racing at the principal courses in the big spring meetings now on according to passengers arriving here from Sydney on Pacific liners. The attendance has been of record breking proportions, witli tin-crowd at Randwick. the mamouth Sydney plant, estimated at 75,000 on the day the Australian Jockey Club Derby was run. The turnover in the totalizator on Derby Day was 105,337 pounds sterling, as against 104,812 pounds, the previous mark for any one day. In addition to the heavy speculation in the machines, hundreds of bookmakers did n land-office business. The word comes that Sydney is literally "race mad." The sturdy fiber of thoroughbreds "down under" is shown by the performance of topsawyers in the older division and among the three-year-olds. In the early part of October, which corresponds to our April, a three-year-old called Salltros won the Australian Jockey Club Derby at the regulation Derby distance, a mile and a half, carrying 12.2 pounds, in 2:32, which Is record time for that race Irom tin; win of Salitros it is easy to see the Australian trainers are past masters In gettiiv horsca keyed up for important events early in th season. All of the races are run on the turf, and that doesnt help any in making fast time. Another sparkling performance on Derby Dav was that of the six-year-old Greenstcad, which rail a mile in the Australian record time of 1:37, with the burden of 132 pounds on his. hack. Poitrel and Ivennaqnhalr, the best long-distance performers in the southern hemisphere, ran a dead heat at a mile and a half Derby Day, each carrying the steadying package of 132 pounds. They covered the trying route in 2:33, a second slower than the time made by the three-year-old. Large fields started in all of the races, witli the exception of the Poitrcl-Keniiaquliair contest, in which seven went to the post. Salitros was purchased by his present owner for oOO guineas as a two-year-old, while Greeusteatl was a bargain yearling, being bought for J00 guineas. Buyers shied at Salitros as a yearling and he was passed in at. 150 guineas. Greenstead is by the Flying Fox horse The AVelkin, dam Tuning Fork, by Harmonist Attraction. The AVelkin has been a successful sire for some time, the best of his progeny being Gloaming. Greenstead did not show much as a two-year-old or three-year-old, but is now looked upon "as one of the fastest horses in Australia. His second dam Attraction, was by -Pilgrims Progress, an Isonomy horse. He has a double cross of Sterling on the side of his dam and descendants of Sterling are not noted for coming to hand early. Salitros, the Derby winner, is on the small side, being only 15.2. His sire. Limelight, by the Amphion horse Lally, dam the Ayrshire mare Um-brosa, had not been heard from often as a stallion up to the time of the Derby. Lally was a high-class racer in England and was sold to Italy for the substantial sum of 6,700 guineas. The Ayrshire blood in Salitros appeals strongly to Australians, that strain being as popular south of the equator as in the United States. Ayrshire has been well represented in Australia by Taquair. Featherstitch Ayr Laddie and other successful sires. The dam of the Derby winner Suffer is by the Wisdom horse Rightaway, dam the Amphion mare Salt Tears. She is strongly inbred to the noted Stoekwell.
