New Zealand Trotting Stakes Comedy Of Errors

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 88, 14 April 1945, Page 6 (Supplement)

New Zealand Trotting Stakes Comedy Of Errors

ALTHOUGH the New Zealand Trotting Stakes at Addington at Easter was more a comedy them a contest, the officials of the New Zealand Metropolitan Trotting Club deserve credit for perservering with an ambition to foster the interests of the puregaited horse. . . It was not the fault of the club that the race was not chock full of interest.

]gY winning by fifteen lengths after making two breaks and losing 100 yards in the first two furlongs, Aerial Scott showed that he possesses more speed and stamina than most trotters of his age, but he is not that much faster than several others in the field. Had they not had stage fright, the race would have been a good one.

Aerial Scott's trial, for instance, was 3.40 for a mile and a half on the centre of the Aldington course, when he gave a steady display with not a blemish of any kind. The day

before the race none would have expected him to make a break, yet he did so twice in the race.

Dinero, a good looking filly trained by D. Teahen, was at Addington a week before the race. Teahen schooled her among a number of pacers and trotters, she gained confidence every day, and on the eve of the event was accompanied by' older horses in a test on the four furlongs track. Her exhibition classed her as a possible winner, and in any case: she was expected to trot steadily. Lack of Confidence In speed and stamina, Dinero is nearly as good as Aerial Scott; good enough, in fact, to have tested the winner all the way, and it was only lack of confidence that made her break. Our Nulgic was another filly that gave promise of playing a big part in an interesting finish, but gave an inglorious display. In her training work Our Nulgie trotted like a budding champion, her trial of 2.54 for one mile and a quarter being quite impressive. Mosquito had shown in private that she had enough speed to play an important part in the race, but she, too, took fright at the crowd and cracked up early in the race. Another three-year-old that had shown promise in private at New Brighton was Silver Volo. This gelding had had a steady preparation, and in his private work he trotted as if he would never make a mistake. He and another New Brightontrained candidate, Pacific Gold, were well clear of their opponents at the end of a furlong, but, just as they looked like having the race to themselves, they broke. Then Sure Note, which had started slowly, trotted into the lead ana, with four furlongs covered, had a lead of eight lengths from his nearest opponent. In the last round he was going well, with Aerial Scott making up his leeway in fine style. At the mile past Sure Note made a bad break, which allowed Aerial Scott to break away from the field. Clearly several of the three-year-olds had not been given sufficient opportunities to get accustomed to race conditions. Not one of the nine horses that contested this classic had started in a race at a totalisator meeting. •• In America the leading trainers take their prospective classic performers to the various race meetings and work them with other horses on the tracks. They find that the travelling and change of scenes and rape tracks give the horses confidence, and even when they are two-year-olds, the youngsters race like veter;.-is.