TROTTING NOTES

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 102, 4 May 1929, Page 23

TROTTING NOTES

The Remaining Fixtures. There are only six more trotting fixtures to conclude the 1928-29 season. Next week, on Thursday and Saturday, the Forbury Park Meeting will be disposed of. In this island the Hawkes Bay Meeting, on the Ist and 3rd June, and the Auckland Meeting, on 22ud and 24th June, are the remaining fixtures. The Hawkes Bay Meeting. The Hawkes Bay Trotting Cup, o£ X3OO, a 4.47 class event, will be decided ou the second day of the meeting, Monday, 3rd June. The programme as arranged should suit the owners and trainers of the types of horses for which this meeting caters, for there are only three of the fifteen events run over two miles —the Cup and the two principal events for unhoppled trotters. On the first day there are three mile and a half events, two at a mile and a, quarter, and one at a mile and five furlongs. The classes are well arranged, and the prize-money is good considering the Hawkes Bay Club has had a hard struggle to establish itself. Nominations close ou Monday, 13th May, at 8 p.m. The Derby. Although there is still another payment of G soys to be made in October for the New Zealand Derby Stakes, run at the Trotting Cup Meeting at Addiugton in November, the acceptance of 34 horses must be regarded as very satisfactory. Up to the present few of the youngsters have raced, but it is pleasing to note that Ngingo Ngingo and Purser, and also Great Parrish, a very smart Auckland-owned two-year-old, are still eligible, and the New Zealand Sapliug Stakes, to be decided next mouth at Ashburton, should show up the chances of some others engaged. Of the sires represented in the race Drusus heads the list with seven eligibles, Wvack has five, Sonoma Harvester tour, Author Dillon three, Cathedral Chimes, Man o' War, Matcblight, and Guy Parrish two each, while the following have each a single representative:—Nelson Derby, j Nelson Bingen, Silk Thread, Chnllengcr, ! Travis Axworthy, John Dillon, and Key j de Oro. !

Lee Todd. The trotter Lee Todd has been responsible for some very attractive work lately, ou the Forbury Park tracks. There is v strong opinion in the South that lie only requires to repeat his training form to win a race at the Forbury Park Trotting Club's Meeting next week. He has registered some good performances this season, for au exasperating record of places, without tbc satisfaction of landing a stake. Decidedly of Dominion Blood. A recent light harness classic winner in Western Australia is bred back to New Zealand families on both sides of his family tree. Willowcliffe, by his three classic wins at Perth, has easily proved himself the best three-year-old in Western Australia this season. Ou ",23rd February he won the first of these three-year-old events, when he aunexed the Champion Stakes at a 2.->3*; rate. On 9th March the colt scored in the Derby at a 1!,24 rate, and ou ltith March picked up the Sires' Prodiico Stakes at a 2.28 rate. All these events were decided over ten furlongs, and the son of Alfred Donald (by Kibbouwood) and Princess Willow (by Willowwood, brother to Wildwood Junior) won each with comparative case. Thero and Here. Discussing the question of handicapping, a writer in the American paper the "Trotter and Pacer," has the following:—"All things confidercd, we believe that our own arbitrary and compulsory classification system, in which not human judgment, but simple arithmetical calculation based upon money won decides a horse's class, is the bcs_t. It works injustice here and there, as any conceivable system short of one straight from heaven must do, but its application is automatic and not subject to tampering or chicanery. In addition, by preserving tho flying start, it adds greatly to the picturesque appeal of harness racing and to its sporting clement. Ju the nature of things, everyone likes to sec competitors get a relatively even start in a race, and any event in which they are scattered up and down the stretch loses much both as a picture and as a thrill. American horsemen who have witnessed handicap racing in Europe are practically unanimous in preferring our own system. Let us hope it will never be radically changed." New Zealand has had its experience of the moving-up start, and is never likely to go back to it. The Hat-footed start as provided for iv the Kules of Trotting has done much to popularise the game, and the fears once expressed that horses would never stand at a barrier have been allayed, states a southern, writer. Trainers have found little difficulty in educating their horses to the barrier, although occasionally au unruly customer happens along and upsets the Held. His presence is not desired on tho racecourse, and the Kules of Trotting provide for his treatment. The real utility horse, as the light-harness horse is designated, should be able to contest a race and go off correctly from a flatlooted stand. Much depends upon the starter, but a New Zealand public would soon become tired of the "scoring" start as practised in America, if at times there were ten and eleven false starts before the race commenced. New Zealand patrons are accustomed to having their sport provided in quick and lively fashion, and a delay of three-quarters of an hour as sometimes happens iv the States, would not be tolerated here. The standing start is popular with all, and no change can yet be considered.

Miscellaneous. The speedy pacer Desborouyh is en"a"cd at the Forbury Park Meeting next week, but according to southern reports he will not be ready to show his best form liiugen Patch is working well at Forbury Park, but he may not be at his best next week, as he has a doubtful-lookin" leg Dummy Bingen goes well under saddle, and provided lie is well handled he may be hard to beat in the Bayfield Handicap the opening event at the Forbury Park irotting Club's Meeting next week bunchild is regarded as one cif the most promising pacers in commission in Southland, and he is expected to race well at the Forbury Park Meeting Aquilin is the names bestowed on (he Uvo-year-old chestnut colt by Author D 1v ill > ■ • °^ eU 3 slabie ut Addingtou, Uiile .Messrs. Boyle ), a ve chosen Grand Canyon as the name for the Wrack-Nell I!?'F. erNicoli reCently P"rchaSe(l fr°ra Mr!