QUALIFYING STANDARDS

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28182, 22 January 1957, Page 6

QUALIFYING STANDARDS

Tighter Tests Suggested A suggestion that the New Zealand Trotting Conference consider tightening the conditions governing qualifying tests was made by the Minister of Internal Affairs (Mr S. W. Smith) in a letter received at a meeting of the conference executive in Christchurch on Friday.

Mr Smith was replying to a letter from the conference asking that clubs be allowed to run nine-race programmes. This suggestion was made to the conference last year by owners’ and breeders’ organisations, which claimed that this would be one way of overcoming the number of races lost to trotting through the deletion of trotting events from galloping programmes. Mr Smith was not in favour of nine-race programmes and made his suggestion as' an alternative.

Mr Smith claimed that by tightening qualifying conditions the conference would stop mediocre horses going to the races. He also suggested that horses be allowed only one start a day and this would enable many more horses to have starts. These suggestions would be further discussed at the next meeting of the executive, said the conference secretary (Mr W. H. Larcombe) yesterday. '

Two Doubles An application by the Franklin Trotting Club to run two doubles each day instead of one as allowed at present was declined bv the executive of the New Zealand Trottting Conference at a meeting in Christchurch. Annual Meeting 4 The annual meeting of the New Zealand Trotting Conference will be held in Christchurch on Wednesday, July 10. This was decided at a meeting of the conference executive in Christchurch.