TROTTING NOTES

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23843, 12 January 1943, Page 7

TROTTING NOTES

Greymouth T.C. Acceptances for the Greymouth Trotting Club’s meeting close at 9 p.m. to-day —« A Loss to Breeders Calumet Axworth. who died last week is the second American-bred stallion that C. S. Donald has lost in the last 12 I months, the other being Lusty Volo. Calumet Axworth was one of the best bred horses imported to New Zealand, and he was by a leading American sire in Peter the Brewer from Keta Dillon. Like Lusty Volo, Calumet Axworth had been at the stud in America, and had left several trotters with records of 2min ssec or better. In New Zealand Calumet Axworth did not receive the patronage he should have received and few of his stock have raced. The most promising seen in public was Calumella, a three-year-old trotter bred from First Wrack. At the Ashburton meeting on Boxing Day she ran a good race, although it was plain that she lacked experience. Calumet Ax- I worth appeared to be the type to leave straight-out trotters and for this reason alone his death is a loss to the sport. i

Chance for Maidens The curtailment of racing has penalised maiden pacers and trotters more than any other class, for clubs like Cheviot and Kaikoura and a number of racing clubs, which usually catered for this class, do not now hold meetings, and the Metropolitan, Canterbury Park, and New Brighton Clubs do not find it a good policy to introduce maidens on a six furlongs track. To give owners a chance to graduate their young pacers from the novice class, the Metropolitan Club has introduced a new idea for its matinee meeting (non-totalisator) on January 23. Instead of making an eight-race programme it has introduced the Maiden Handicap of £450, probablv the richest stake for maidens ever offered in New Zealand. This event, however, will be run in three divisions, named after three great sires in Logan Pointer. Harold Dil-, lon. and Jack Potts. The idea is an ex-' cellent one and will mean that at least three pacers will later be eligible for the higher classes.