TROTTING IN ENGLAND.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 229, 27 September 1930, Page 19

TROTTING IN ENGLAND.

A NEGLECTED SPORT. j Mr. George Beever, of Huddersfield, England, who is a well-known trotting enthusiast, recently paid a visit to America, and while there had some interesting things to sav to an interviewer. He deplored the fact that the status of, harness racing in England was not higher, and he gave it as his opinion that the reason for this was that moet 60-called "trotting" races are contested by hoppled pacers. "As long as this condition obtains," said Mr. Beever, "harness racing will never get any farther than it is to-day in England, for the upper classes have only contempt for racehorses with their legs tied together, and positively will have nothing to do with them. Nevertheless, properly managed, and with the right sort of men at the head of it, the sport would easily become one of the great ones of England. All it needs is the patronage of a few of the leading men in sporting and social circles and the elimination of the hoppled pacer and limitation of racing to pure-gaited trotters, as in the case on the Continent. Many people wonder why it is that trotting is so successful and popular in France, Germany, Austria, Italy, and even small countries like Belgium, Denmark, etc., while in England it cuts such a small figure. The answer is that in those countries the racing is limited strictly to the square-gaited trotter; such things as hoppled racehorses are unknown, while people of position and prominence are at the head of the sport. "We have had horses of all your leading families in England, and there are now stallions of the Axworthy, Peter the Great, San Francisco and Bingen families doing service there. Of course, I prefer the Bingens, as, generally speaking, they are nicer individuals, have rounder, cleaner gaits, and need less rigging—l am not speaking of trotters only. The Peters with us seem to breed rather coarse, with many Roman noses, and many of them go roughgaited. The Axworthys have quality, and are fast, but a lot of them are unsound, or get that way. The San Franciscos are pretty plain, v 4 sturdy, and are good racehorses. Th<s great drawback to harness racing in England, as an entertainment, is the same as in America—the starting. Sometimes it is terrible —I have seen horses at the post half an hour trying to get off. This exasperates the public, and it ought to be eliminated. My idea is that it would be far better if they used the starting system in vogue on the Continent— whirl and go off from a standing start. They wouldn't go so fast, hut what of it? The public would not have to stand for what happens nowadays, and that would be a big gain."