TROTTING.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 121, 25 May 1927, Page 14

TROTTING.

WHEEL AND TRACK NOTES.

(By ORION.)

SEASON'S FIXTURES. June 3, 4.—Canterbury Park Trotting Club. Jane 18. 22.—Auckland Trotting Club. The pacer Nurmi, who was rather badly injured by a motor car whilst being shipped at the railway yards on his way to race at the MarlboYough meeting, is making good progress towards recovery. The Australian pacer Direct Wood is in solid work again, and it is to be hoped that when ready to race she will reproduce her track form. Direct Wood came on fast last season, but she has not raced so well this year. After Riehore won the two-year-old classic event at Ashburton last season. it was thought that he .vould turn out a brilliant three-year-old. Unfortunately, to date Richore has not raced up to what his two-year-old form indicated, but in his two races at the recent meeting of the Forbury Park Club lie showed up well, although lie was not in the prize list. Richore may do a long way better during his four-year-old career, as he is a brilliant pacer. Maggie Pron'o was not back long in Sydney before she showed winning form. •Tust before Tomkinson returned her to .Australia ehc won a race at Auckland in very easy style, and on that occasion raced unhoppled. However, at tlie Victoria Park (N.S.W.) meeting, just over a week ago, J, Eddie, wlio now has her, put the hopples on the daughter of Don Pronto, and in the Flying Mile she wont away from the limit and gave nothing a chance, winning by three lengths. i*he started favourite and won in 2.1(5. The Don Pronto (imp.) gelding Plain Don established a new record for tlie race when he won the Trotters' Handicap, one and a half miles, at Victoria Park (X.S.W.) last week. He ran the distance in 3.30}. reducing the previous figures put up by Pandora on October 6, 1925, by 4.Js. Another fen tine of the race was the failure of Lulu Chief, who was made an even-money favourite, following his win at Epping. He repeatedly broke after the start, an.! was soon hopelessly out of the race. An inquiry into his running was opened ou the course, and adjourned. C. Rokkjer had a great inninjs at the Victoria Park meeting on the 17th inst. He won the first division of the Kncourage Handicap with Apiariat, the Progressive Handicap with Bonnie Alto, aii'l the A.T.C. Handicap with Stoncy. In addition be was second with Happy Dc;in in the Flying Handicap. Rokkjer is not unknown in Auckland, as a couple of season* ago he made a trip neros 3 this way with Native Prince. Rock Allen, and another. With Rock Allen be won a double, but the best horse he brougiit over was Native Prince, who really did not show his true form here.

W. J. Tomkinson is keeping the Australian pacer Concliffe at slow, steady work. Concliffe is a very attractive pacer, and, as he has just resumed work after a spoil, he may not be at his beet till the beginning of the new season. Dealing with the President's Handicap at Oil ma ru, a Christchutrk writer says a big surprise was effected, as over the last quarter of a mile Harold Thorpe, who in the past has had poor credentials for a two-mile race, went up to the favourite, Terence Dillon, and outstayed him. winning comfortably. Harold Thorpe is evidently very well at present. He won over a short course at A*hburton, but in the |Mist he has only been regarded as a sprinter. He is by Our Tborj>e from Play Soon. »o he is bred to go a distance. The manner in which he finished his work over two miles stamps Harold Thorpe as a first-class two-miler. Terence Dillon, who has not been long in work, paced a line race on the course on which he is trained, but he pulled veryhard all the way and had little reserve at the end. It was a fine performance, nevertheless, on the part of this young pacer. Rev Logan, another reputed nonstayer, went on much further than formerly, and finished up third. It looks as though with age he will be a good two-miler. Locanda Child was always handy and finished fourth. Homer paced well for a mile and three-quarters and then stopped badly. Bold Bill was prominent with a round to go, but did not keep his position in the last round. Pluto did not show up at all well; in fact, it looked as though Terence Dillon would win easily until Harold Thorpe came on the scene. Jolly Pet led the field in the early stages, but he did not see out the distance. The two-mile journey was a long way beyond the powers of most in the race at the sped set. DAYS OF BIG PRICES. Boom days in breeding trotters were brought vividly to the mind of oldtime horsemen who read recently of the death of W. T. Woodard at Louisville. Ky., at the age of So. says a New Yorkwriter. -Bill" Woodard" dominated the auction market for light-harness horse* at Lexington in the prosperous years brtween the closing-out sale of James C. McFerran's Glenview Stud, which started the boom in 18S«. and the coming of the financial panic of 1593, which punctured the bubble. Dollars were so much scan-er and meant so much more in those days that it is difficult to realise the sensation created when the stallions I'iiiici a-t. "J.2IJ. and Nutwood, 2.ISJ. brought US.OOO dollars and 22,000 dollars respectively, at the Glenview sale, and TJeina Victoria, a brood mare, went for 702-> dollars under the hammer, with other trotting stock, young and old, at proportionate prices. The mania for breeding trotters spread with lightning-like rapidity, and stud farms were established everywhere. while beginners flocked to Kentucky for horses to stock them. Those were the great days for Woodard. His sale in ISSO was one of the most successful ever known. Sixty-seven horses changed

hands on the opening daj for 155,078d0L, an average of 2314 dollars. During the week 263 head were sold for 366,630 dollars, or an average of 1010 dollars. Bell Boy. a eon of Electioneer and Beautiful *Bclls, 2.19J (whose dam waa Minnehaha), with a three-year-old record of 2.19J, was the star of this memorable sale. Millionaire breeders, owners and trainers from all over the United States were at the ringside, and the bidding went to 51,000 dollars before the young stallion waa struck off to Judson H. Clark, of Klmir.i. X.Y. The price was so much higher than anything previously known that horsemen at first thought it was a fake sale. A watchman had to be placed at the door of Bell Boy's stall to keep the souvenir hunters from pulling hairs out of his tail. Price Soon Surpassed. Within a year the 51.000 dollars stallion was burned to death. And within a year the three-year-old colt Axtcl, 2.12, bred and developed by C. W. Williams, a telcpxaph operator in a little village in lo«a, was sold for 105,000 dollars. It was about this time, too. that "General ,, J. S. C'oxey, who afterwards led "C'oxey's Army" on Washington, paid 40,000 dollars for the young stallion Acolyte. 2.21, and then made an offer of 12.000 dollars to Robert Bonner for the privilege of breeding Acolyte to Maud £~ 2.OSJ, Coxey to own the prospective colt. High-watermark in the great boom was reached in 1891 when J. Malcolm Forbes, of Boston, paid 125,000 dollars to Governor Leland Stanford, of California, for t!ie two-year-old colt Arion shortly after he had made an incredible record of U.IOJ at that ape. Arion went to the stud at a fee of 2500 dollars. He lived to mh; the day when a bid of 2500 dollars might likvc been difficult to obtain for the hor*c himself. Woodard passed out of the harness racing picture a ;:ood many years He afterwards tried his hand" with the runner*, but never made headway in that field. He was a quiet, peaceable cituen. yet old horsemen about Lexington used to say he had ridden with Quantrell and his raiders in Missouri in Civil War days.