INNOVATION AT ADDINGTON

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

INNOVATION AT ADDINGTON

Mile Race With Moving Start

A mile race with a moving start, the £l5OO Rattray Handicap. will be the highlight of the first day of the New Zealand Metropolitan Trotting Club’s Easter meeting at Addington on April 6. 13 and 20. The club’s application to have a moving start was approved at a meeting of the executive of the New Zealand Trotting Conference on Friday. The limit for the race will be 2min llsec, the equivalent of 2min 45sec for one mile and a quarter. The club had to place such a loose limit on the race to cater for several New Zealand Cup horses which are on loose sprint marks. The club will select a maximum field of 10, but no decision about the actual number of starters has been made.

Horses not selected to start in the Rattray Handicap will have an opportunity in the £lOOO Bryndwr Handicap later in the day. This race will be run over one mile and a quarter with a limit of 2min 45sec.

The moving start will arouse considerable interest, and. given favourable conditions, it is possible the winner of the race will record the first two-minute mile in a race outside the United States. Johnny Globe holds the race record for one mile from a standing start in a race. He recorded 2min 1 l-ssec when he won by a wide margin at Addington in November, 1953. The majority of the horses in cup class at present have at some time or other been privately timed to record close to two minutes for one mile in races of up to two miles. With a moving start, it is predicted that a number of them would go close to even time. Stakes Reduced The club will distribute £23,275 during the three days of the meeting, a drop of £3925 on the £27,200 distributed last year. Last year the smallest stake distributed on the three’ days was £750, but this year the minimum stake is £650. The club has not altered the stakes for classic or semi-classic events. The New Zealand Welcome Stakes remains at £B5O, the New Zealand Trotting Stakes at £1250, the New Zealand Pacing Stakes at £lOOO, and the Autumn Stakes at £llOO. Races for trotters have not had such heavy stake reductions as have races for pacers. The Stewards’ Handicap on the first day will be run over one mile and a quarter, compared with one mile and five furlongs last year, and will carry a stake of £ 1000. compared with £ll5O. The stake of the Reta Peter Handicap has had a similar reduction to £lOOO and the distance remains the same at one mile and five furlongs. The New Zealand Hambletonian Handicap, run on the third day of the meeting, has had its stake reduced from £l5OO to £l3OO.

The Easter Cup, also run on the third day, has had its stake reduced from £2500 to £2OOO. The limit of this race remains the same —3min 35sec for one mile ' and five furlongs.

The club has retained the Electric Stakes, a free-for-all over one mile and a quarter on the second day of the meeting. The limit for this race has been let out one second to 2min 45sec, and the stakes reduced from £l2OO to £lOOO.

Apart from the Easter Cup. the most tightly-assessed handicap race for pacers on the programme is the Williams Handicap, which will be run on the second day. Run over two miles, this race will have a limit of 4min 29sec, a far cry from the 4min 23sec front for the last New Zealand Trotting Cup. Last year this race had a similar limit and carried a stake of £1750. This year the stake is £1450. Last year the tightest limit for pacers was the 4min 27sec in the Rattray Handicap on the first day of the meeting.

Negative Swabs The New Zealand Trotting Conference has received advice of negative tests from swabs taken from Karaka Jack and Frontier Lad at the Waikato meeting on January 11, and from Ovci drive and Cassado at the Timaru meeting on January 12. Schooling List Gay Lyric was placed on the schooling list at a meeting of the executive of the New Zealand Trotting Conference on Friday.