WONDERFUL TROTTERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 244, 15 October 1929, Page 15

WONDERFUL TROTTERS.

RACE TO BE REMEMBERED.

THREE-HEAT RECORDS BEATEN.

American papers to hand this week contain particulars of what is generally accepted as being one of the finest races for trotters ever decided on the Grand Circuit. The meeting was at Syracuse, on August 30, and the event was "the 2.5 Trot for a purse of £600. The incidents leading up to the. result were'that in a field of five two leading stables each had two starters.

Commenting on the race, one writer says: Hazleton (2.0}) and Dewey McKnney (2.1J)), both from the Good Time

stable, started with Hollyrood Colin (2.3) and Guy Ozark (2.2J) from Arden Homestead, entered and started in the event, wth Sam Williams (2.1|) .making the fifth member of the field; Hollyrood Colin'a mark of 2.3 being the slowest of the quintet so far as record goes. The day was delightful and the track in its best condition, so that the setting for a great contest was extremely good. Then there was tl» friendly rivalry between the friends and partisans of Hazleton and Dewey McKinney as to which one was the better trotter, and could defeat the other. This rivalry crept into the betting pavilion, with the result that no little small money was wagered. Carl Dill had been requisitioned from the half-mile tracks to drive Dewey McKinney against his boss, Walter 11. Cox, behind Hazleton, so one can see that everything was set for a grand struggle, all friendly, but in deadly earnest, nevertheless.

It was a foregone conclusion that Dewey McKinney would go to the front, and so he did, trotting extremely fast, the half in 1.2 and three-quarters in 1.32. Hazleton had been second, but subsequently Johnnie Thomas took Guy Ozark up to the place, and Sam Williams ranged along to blanket Hazleton to such an extent that when Cox started with him just before the three-quarters, he had to go around both Ozark and Sam to get at Dewey McKinney; the result being that he had to go a long quarter, so that when he got to Dewey his steam had evaporated and he hung, though it required manful driving by Dill to hold a good neck's advantage to the wire in 2.1|, a new mark for Dewey McKinney, and the best trotting mile of the season; the last half having been done in 59*. Just picture it in your memory as one of the great contests of bur times.

The question now was: Can Dewey McKinney repeat ? Can Carl Dill, the youthful Indiana reinsman, win the next heat ? The breaks of the race suited Hazleton just right in the second heat as he trailed Dewey too close for anyone to shut him off, Guy Ozark being outside second and third as the mile progressed at about the same rat© as in the previous heat. But Guy Ozark, nor any of the others, could keep up with the frightful clip the leaders were setting, so that Hazleton had clear sailing to get out and at Dewey McKinney, from the three-quarters home. They were soon fighting it out on common ground, with no apparent advantage until almost to the wire, when Hazleton, under the hardest sort of drive, the same being true of Dewey McKinney, Dewey broke, Hazleton winning by part of his chubby length in 2.2, the last half being trotted in. 59J. It now looked certain that Hazleton would master his stable-mate, there being just one card to be played, and with what effect we were soon to see. When they were tuning up for the third heat Will Dickerson had Hollyrood Colin in high for a fast getaway and such it proved to be, as he ranged Colin alongside Dewey McKinney, then took him to the lead, only to be passed by Dewey at about the three-eighths mark; then Cox took Hazleton outside to keep Hollyrood Colin from covering him up, and as Colin faltered, Hazleton 'took up his relentless chase of Dewey by trailing him around the upper turn, giving battle from the three-quarters, in. They waged a mighty strife for an eighth of a mile, and with Hazleton strung to his limit

Dewey again slopped over in his stride, Hazleton winning in 2.2J, erasing all sorts of three-heat records in a race. His three heats, with the aid of Dewey McKinney, averaged 2.2 1-12, To class it as a great trotting spectacle, one of the greatest of all time, haMly does the justice, for it was a truly trotted and wan race, that pleased a crowded crandstand more than all the others forms of entertainment offered before the grandstand during the entire week.