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| I . I j j , j ; | i . . i | GLOAMING AGAIN SUPREME ♦ Great Australian Horse Reverses Record Defeat by Thespian. -— ♦ Lowers Auckland Track Record — Stake Values Increase — Native Black Men Race Illegally. SYDNEY, N. S. W., Australia, March 10.— The great gelding Gloaming was never racing better than at present. He has already reached the 25,000 winning mark and may displace both Eurythmic and Carbine during the coming brilliant racing which is inevitable. If absolute reliance could be attached to the time test it would seem as if Gloaming is better now at a mile and a half than at any previous time in his career. And it is also probable that on the concluding day of the Auckland Cup meeting lie was a little better than when Thespian beat him in the Islington Plate. The decisive fashion in which the latter downed him. in conjunction with the record time, disposed of any suggestion of a fluke in that race, but Gloamings inability to respond when tackled by the three-year-old pointed to his preparation scarcely being strong enough for the stiff test to which he was, perhaps, somewhat unexpectedly subjected. In the race for the Auckland Plate, Gloaming performed brilliantly. He followed Thespians pace and ran away from him at will in the stretch, cutting the mile and a half track record to 2:32"3. Stout old Sasanof was over three lengths away in second place, each carrying 120 pounds. In New Zealand, in standard weight for age races, geldings do not receive any allowance. Of course, it is only a matter of conjecture how much Gloaming could have knocked off that 2:32".-, if it had been necessary, but his previous best at a mile and a half was his 2 :2dVs in the Australian Jockey Club Derby. Last week for the second year in succession Gloaming won the Egmont Stakes, three-quarters mile, and the Hawera Stakes, one mile, at the Egmont meeting. Thespian was second to him in each race. HOW RACING VALUES RISE. The Australian Jockey Clubs autumn program for the Randwick course should be entirely to the liking of owners, the added money for twenty-four races totaling 00.-000, and in addition the Sydney Cup carries a trophy of ,000. The time is getting close when there will be no race with less than ,000 added at an Australian Jockey Club spring or autumn meeting. At this years autumn meeting each flat race on the opening day carries ,000 or more, and for the twenty flat races there are only six in which the stake is less than ,000. Each of the four jumping races has ,750 attached, and that is the smallest sum given for any event. The lowest prize money for any weight-for-age race is 0,000, whereas at the Sydney Cup meeting twenty years ago— and that does not seem so far back — the richest was the Australian Jockey Club Plate of ,000. The All-aged Stakes, now 5,000, had ,250 attached to it. and the total added money for the meeting was 9,000. The sweepstakes then were also much heavier, being not less than 5 even for a ,000 race. Now in the minor flat races the sweepstakes is only 0 for ,000, and 0 for ,750 jumping races against 5 for those of ,250 in 1902. BLACK AlEXS ILLEGAL RACING. The native and black Maoris love racing and evidently do not mind taking a little risk in indulging their sporting proclivities.. A recent surprise visit was paid by the police of the Tauranga district to Matakana Island during the New Year, as a result of information received. On arrival they found a race meeting in progress, conducted by some of the leading natives of the district, and in contravention of the Racing Act. The meeting was patronized by over a thousand natives and Europeans from adjacent districts. The police nipped the meeting in the bud at the close of the second event on the program. The names of the officials, practically all natives, were noted by the police with a view to taking proceedings against them under the law. Alt present at such gatherings are liable to prosecution for participating in an unregistered race meeting. The horses and owners taking part at the meeting are liable to disqualification for life from any registered race meeting. The races were being conducted on the lines of a registered meeting and the grounds were decorated with the usual race course bunting. It is alleged that an improvised totalizator had also been on the ground, but it had been spirited away before the police could discover it.
