IMPORTATIONS

NZ Truth, Issue 1293, 18 September 1930, Page 13

IMPORTATIONS

Formidable Array

From Home

(From "N.Z. Truth's" South I^and

Trotting Rep.) WfHILE our gallopers have been pouring across the Tasman m search of big money, the trek has always been m the opposite direction m the case .of trotters, but m both cases results have been the same. Galloping owners m Australia and trotting owners ih New Zealand began to get uneasy as the importations plucked the plums, with the result that the N.Z. Trotting Association took the matter m hand.

Australian trotters were penalised and were asked to go faster than their best Australian times, with the result that the invasion from that country fell off considerably, and only odd importations were made.

Then F. J. Smith, a young English trainer, arrived m Auckland with a trotter, Linnett the Great. He brought Dan Direct and Antonia Direct out later, and this seems to be the start of an invasion from another quarter.

Another English trainer has arrived with a- string of nine horses, some of them with fairly good performances,' considering they were registered on half-mile tracks.

Strangely enough, although the penalty on Australian horses did not find favor with the N.Z. Trotting Conference, and so does not now apply, the flow of Australian horses to- this country does not appear to have assumed its old proportions.

In spite of this, "those owners who viewed the Australian invasion with alarm will find food for thought, m glancing over the following performances of some of the horses which have landed here during the past month-, and none of them are Australians.

Frank Dewey, American record 2.01 %, English record 2.11 2/5; Truman Direct, 2.04%; Grattan Royal 2.12%.

Colonial Boy, flying start 2.15, standing start 2.16%; Major Lind, 2.16; Our George, 2.16%; Banffshire Lad, 2.17; They Say, 2.18; Stanley T. (trotter), 2.26; Holly Bank, 2.32; Page Girl, never raced; Sandy N., never raced.