N.Z. TROTTING CUP

Press, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 26886, 12 November 1952, Page 8

N.Z. TROTTING CUP

Large Crowd At Addington

PARADE OF HORSES A FINE SIGHT

About 23,500 worshippers of what is known technically as the light-harness sport made their annual pilgrimage to see the race for the New Zealand Trotting Cup at Addington yesterday, while in an adjoining ground workers m a rival industry, farming, prepared for the major event in their year. If the sponsors of the A. and P. show can elicit as much public support, abd as much interest in their exhibits, as the Metropolitan Trotting Club, they will no doubt be encouraged in the oeiief that farming still has a place in the scheme of things. If all roads did not lead to Addington yesterday, it was only because the traffic department of the City Council decreed otherwise, and strict regulation of the traffic was certainly warranted. There were long streams of cars and buses, and the more rugged individuals among the motorists showed as much skill in weaving through the field as the drivers on the Addington track. No major mishaps were reported in either field of endeavour. Like most pilgrims, trotting enthusiasts are fairly patient people, and queued for their buses in Cathedral square with a commendable resignation. A good service was provided by the Transport Board, but long before the first race was to begin there was a big crowd waiting for transport to the course, and stops all along the route were thronged. The Addington course makes few concessions to the aesthetic It is grim business all the way, from the immaculate white gates, past the towering totalisator board to the stands and the track. There were some early arrivals, many of whom appeared to be in hopes of finding a signpost to the pot of gold by rtaring fixedly at the horses exercising in the saddling paddock for the first race. By early afternoon, the crowd was immense. It included quite a few children, some of them in push-chairs and prams. Although the racecourse may not be the sort of surroundings of which the Plunket Society would whole-heartedly approve, the youngsters concerned have at least been given a golden opportunity of being able to claim, in later life, to have seen more New Zealand trotting cups than anyone else. Offices Almost Deserted

Although some businesses in the city closed and others maintained only skeleton staffs, some of the younger men probably won their way to the course with the time-honoured excuse about a grandmother’s funeral, and no doubt some employers had surprise meetings with members of their staffs.

Many of those left at work listened to a broadcast description of the race, and the teachers of at least one Christchurch primary school were able, after listening to the race, to return to their classrooms and advise their pupils that the favourite for the cup, Johnny Globe, had finished last. Trotting enthusiasts are a disarmingly friendly race and are quite prepared to pass on the most valuable of inside information to complete strangers. The queues were good natured and conversational; those in them were united in hope, and the few who met in the queues after the race were as one in their jubilation. Some of the back-slapping was almost lethal.

The talk, or most of it, was about the cup, and anyone wandering among the crowds before the totalisator may well have imagined that there were 14 hot favourites in the field. There were hard-luck stories, as there always are, heard patiently while the listeners waited the chance to tell how only a most extraordinary combination of circumstances prevented them from putting a vast sum. oh horses which paid huge dividends. In some fortunately more rare instances, the talk on horses and courses seemed ground for divorces, husbands and wives falling out over betting instructions not carried out to the letter, information overlooked, or portents disregarded. The weather stewards—there surely must be some form of control—did their usual efficient job, and the cup field paraded as usual in pleasant sunshine. It was a brave sight—the vivid colours worn by the drivers, the polished leather, the shining wheels—and even a trotting crowd engrossed in involved financial computations could hardly fail to appreciate the magnificence of the horses as they paraded before the crowded stands, while the gold cup which goes with the race sparkled on a table on the birdcage lawn. Presentation of Cup In presenting the cup after the race, Mr C. E. Hoy, president of the club, said the field was the best which had ever taken part in the race, and although conditions prevented the breaking of records, Mobile Globe’s victory was fully deserved. Receiving the cup, Mr C. Smith, in an amusing speech, said he was not sure which part of the horse he owned, but it might be the front part. In partnership with Mr J. Finlay, he had won the Reefton Cup with Mobile Globe’s first start for them, and he had at that time expressed the hope of winning a New Zealand Cup. The horse had “done the decent thing” for them. He thanked the trainer and driver, N. L. Berkett, for his preparation and driving of the horse, and pointed to the dividend in remarking that the horse had not been accorded a great chance of winning the race. Mobile Globe was garlanded by Mrs Hoy, and then jogged slowly up and down before the crowd, the racing equivalent of a victory roll. This over, the crowd returned to the business of picking winners. Faces, were more furrowed than farms, and it may be that some disappointed punters, at the end of the day, wondered just why it was that they did not know quite enough. It is one of the human’s better characteristics that he wishes his family to have the opportunities he himself was denied, and perhaps before long there may be a move to have the Education Department take over the direction of what has become a most important field of learning In the early stages, pupils could be given simple exercises in completing T.A.B. forms, they could progress to problems in handicapping, and writing essays on Harold Logan and Highland Fling. Racing history would be far more interesting to some than the dates of the English kings, and totalisator turnovers have long been regarded as a key to economics. With the last brassy announcement, Addington last evening was left under a carpet of discarded totalisator tickets, paper bags and half-eaten pies; the glamour of the occasion died with the high hopes of the thousands who came with confidence, and left with light light purses. But before long, they will be back, and before long, the talk will be on the 1953 New Zealand Trotting Cup. Resilience is the keynote to character on a racecourse.