TROTTING.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 162, 11 July 1928, Page 17

TROTTING.

TROTTING CONFERENCE. WELLINGTON HANDICAPPING REMIT. FINOS LITTLE FAVOUR. ;By Tf lojrniiih. — Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Tuesday. A number of remits were considered !>v the New Zealand Trotting Conference to-day. The president, Mr. H. F. Nicoll, moved that each club should appoint a birdcage steward for its meetings, and the »*emit wa< carried, but a further remit givir.g the birdcage steward powers to inflict penalties was not carried. The lengthy remit put forward by the Wellington Trotting Club on what was generally considered a new system of handicapping seemed complicated for toe majority of delegates, and the voting showed little in tis favour. The general opinion was that the handicappers should not be interfered with in their work.

The New Zealand Trotting Association, with the idea of preventing cruelty to horses, moved a remit debarring the use of certain gear, and this was carried without opposition. On the motion of the Forburv Park Club rule 24 was amended to extend time for an appeal until 14 days after the decision to be appealed against had been communicated in writing to the club or persons concerned. On the motion of the New Zealand Association, the rule was further amended to make the penalty operative immediately instead rf the penalty being stayed pending ar. appeal.

An addition to rule 48 was carried debarring from membership of the N-;w Zealand Association any person who is a paid official or is the holder of a professional license.

In place of rule S3 a new rule was approved giving wider powers for the exclusion of undesirables and persons on the unpaid forfeit list from racecourses.

A now rule, 88, was pnssed, which prohibits from acting as patrol steward any person financially interested in a race, or who is th« owner of a horse trained by a trainer with a horse owned by another person competing in the race. A number of rules were approved tightening up the system for the registration of horses.

The eledtion of officers resulted President., Mr. H. F. Nicoll; vice-president, Mr. John Rowe; executive. Messrs. B. S. Irwin, C. M. Ollivier and K. V. Sutherland; the executive was appointed the dates committee for the year; hon. treasurer, Mr. C. M. Ollivier.

The dates committee offered the following suggestions for the coming year: That the Timarn Club be recommended to choose another date than October 20. 'I'hat the Cheviot Club be granted Derembrr 8. instead of "December 15. That the New Brighton Club be asked to hold a two-day meeting on December 15 and 17, instad of one-day meeting on December 1 and April 27. That the Wellington Club be asked to race on February 16, not March 23; Wanganui to substitute April 11 and 13 for March 21 and 23, and Forbury Park Club to race on. March 2 and 4, not 9 and 11. It was also recommended to the Auckland Club that It fix its race dates for Saturday and Monday, not Saturday and Wednesday, as has been the general practice.

ABOLITION MOVEMENT FAILS,

(By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Tuesday. A motion, "That the New Zealand Trotting Association be abolished :md district committees substituted," was rejected by the conference to-day by 24 votes to 9.

TROTTING IN AMERICA.

MR. D. F. DENNEHY IN U.S.

Mr. D. P. Dennehy, president of the Canterbury Owners and Breeders' Association, is in America at the present time, and he gave his views to the Naw York "Herald," published on June 3. According to Gurney C. iCue, who interviewed Mr. Dennehy: "Harness racing in New Zealand now surpasses the orthodox turf sport in the number of tracks, meetings, and horses, and in attendance, prizes and volume of betting. This surprising information was imparted to horsemen at Goshen on Memorial Day by Mr. D. H. Dennehy, of CJjristchurch, who is president of the Breeders' and Owners' Association of this progressive Dominion. Unless we except Canada, where no less than 127 trotting tracks were in operation last season, according to 'Wallace's Year Book,' New Zealand is the only British Dominion in which the English racehorse plays second fiddle to the American trotting horse. "The far-away islands where Carbine — one of the greatest running horses ever seen—was foaled have given to the turf such important innovations as the starting pate and the totalisator, and their management of harness racing embraces some features which might be adopted here with benefit to the sport. Mr.

Dennehy said that in place of permitting | the managers of the tracks to make and Administer the rules and regulations, the organisation of which he is the executive officer, tells the managers a good many things they must do or must not do in the interest off those who produce the horses that make the racing. "One of these things is to set apart * certain substantial part of each large prize, some of which now run to 15,000 dollars —this for a single, dash of two miles—to the breeder of the winning horse. Another Is that no system of wagering shall be permitted which enables anybody to bet against a particular horse. Book betting is strictly forbidden, and the publication of odds is prohibited by law, so that bootleggers of tho pencillers' profession do not flourish, and people who wish to play the races must go to the races to do so. "Another regulation requires that official time shall bfe publicly taken by means of a giant clock placed conspicuously in the grandstand, where everybody may see it record the speed of the horses as they circle the course. Judges, too, are located in the grandstand, well back from the finishing line, where their field of vision is not like that of the binocular field glass, and where they make few if any such blunder* in placing the hordes as are frequent when judges are up in the top of a stand on the inside of the track looking down upon them as they rush past the wire ton American tracks.