RACING TESTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 84, 9 April 1925, Page 11

RACING TESTS.

AMERICA AND NEW ZEALAND.

A CALIFORNIAN PROPOSAL. MATCH AT THREE DISTANCES. CBy Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) WANGANUI, this day. A letter received in Wanganui by the last Trisco mail shows that the American racing authorities are anxious to arrange for a series of ra«es 'between a horse thoroughly representative of the Dominion and America's best. The idea originated with Mr. A. V. Leighton, a man of very high standing in racing circles in California. He is connected with the sport all along the Pacific 'Coast, and iprominently associated with the Pacific Coast Jockey Clmb at San Francisco and Westminster and the Thoroughbred Association at Vancouver and Victoria, B.C. Writing to Mr. W. L. Young, of Wanganui, Mr. Leighton states that he disagreed with the large amount of talk indulged in by many Americans, who claimed that their horses were the best in the world after the defeat of Papyrus and Epinard. Mr. Lcighton says the tesults of those races did not convince him as to the superiority of American ihor.ses, as he believes Australia and New Zealand can produce horses capable of holding their own with the best anywhere. In order to put the matter to a test, if possible, Mr. Leighton has set himself the task of arranging a series of matches in 192G between horses representative of Australia and New Zealand and America. Mr. Leighton's idea is to arrange three races at weight for age, at six furlongs, one mile, and a mile and a-half, one of the races to foe run in Kentucky, one in Maryland, and one in New York, the races to take place in either July, August or September next year.

Mr. Leighton says the American Associations can well afford to offer euflieient pecuniary inducement to make the project worthy of consideration by owners in New Zealand and Australia, and figures it out that whatever the result of such a series of matches, the New Zealand owner would not be out of pocket by making the trip to the States with his horses. Mr. Leighton has already interested some of America's leading sportsmen in the matter, and he wants Mr. Young to ascertain from leading New Zealand owners their views on the suibject. The proposal is to run the races somewihat on the lines of the Papyrus and Epinard matches, but with this important difference, that Mr. Leighton stipulates that contests are to be match races, confined in each case to one representative horse from each country, and not one foreigner against five or six Americans. Mr. Young is a personal friend of Mr. Leighton, and intends obtaining the views of prominent New Zealand owners on the proposaL