Trotting Cup Will Be Run At Addington Today

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27502, 9 November 1954, Page 3

Trotting Cup Will Be Run At Addington Today

In Auckland this afternoon, the city fathers will leave . tbeir drainage problems and turn to their radios; in Wellington, the civil servants’ tea break will begin a little earlier, so they can turn to their radios; in Dunedin. businessmen will come out of conference and turn to their neighbours’ radios—for this afternoon the New Zealand Trotting Cup for 1954 is to be decided at Addington and that means, in, brief, a series of stop-work meetings all over the country. The Cup is as much to trotting in New Zealand as the Melbourne Cup is to Australian racing, and in Christchurch there will be a steep incline in the absenteeism charts in dozens of offices —where there is someone left to bring the graphs up to date. Trotting may lack some of racing’s graces, but it has become as much a part of the Christchurch scene as the Avon and arguments on pasteurised milk. Its adherents are legion, and it could be argued that there is more interest in this four-minute race than in Saturday’s election. No doubt today’s candidates will win more sick and absentee votes than others. Trotting is big business, to many people, and it is only natural that a wise shopkeeper has a bright and attractive window. For that reason, the course at Addington—which should by now have a proper name of its own—will again be presented in wjhat could almost be described as sparkling condition.

For i weeks the course supervisor (Mr R. G. Cooper) and his staff have been preparing for the day, and the grounds are a credit to them. The grandstand destroyed by Are last year has been replaced, temporarily, by a ramp from which thousands are expected to get a good view of the race. Fences and gates are virginal white—-

painting at Addington, is rather like painting the Sydney Harbour Bridge, never completed—and the stretch of lawn, smooth and emerald green, will be appreciated by those who are able to walk it before it disappears beneath a carpet of paper and pie-crust. The ffower plots are beautiful; 24,000 annuals are there, and before the result and dividend board on the inside of the track the letters “A.T.C.” are picked out, large and bold, in goldenleafed geraniums and nemesia. On the business side, preparations are complete, although a few days ago when a matinee trial meeting was held at the course, the totalisator was still* showing the eighth race dividend from the previous meeting, a silent rebuke to the thousands who failed to reduce it.

But what of the horses? Many of those in the cup meeting were on parade at the trial, and if there was a certain amount of unscholarly galloping in the first race, the cup candidates in their trial had all the grace and poise and confidence of a couple of experts in a knock-up on the centre court at Wimbledon. They are beautifully turned out and perfectly mannered—another advantage over some of Saturday’s sort—and the least racing-minded must give grudging admiration as a bunched field swings into the straight, and sets out, manes flying, all .strength and grace and purpose, for the post. The cup field consists of trotting’s upper crust, the aristocrats of Addington, and they deserve to carry more commendation than betting slips can confer.

At the matinee meeting, the small, selective crowd applauded Johnny Globe when he appeared, and he tossed his pretty head in acknowledgement with regal graciousness. Should he win today, his success will be hard-earned, for he will have stem opposition, included in which is the guest star from Australia, Ribands To the trotting public, there will be plenty of appeals today—starting with the need to take specified traffic routes tO . tne course. The investor will be asked to buy this and that, he will be warned with bells and announcements when and how to do his investing, he will, in fact, be thorough? organised from the moment he leave' his home. One more appeal might gc unnoticed—perhaps the investor couk forget his investment temporarily, and learn to appreciate the lessons these proud animals have to offer—that courage and stout-heartedness cannot be bought, that to lose trying is to succeed. May the best horse win and—for the sake of so many—may the best horse be Johnny Globe.