WAIKATO GOLD CUP

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28699, 24 September 1958, Page 4

WAIKATO GOLD CUP

Reduction In Distance “The Press’* Special Service AUCKLAND, September 23. In the hope that a shorter distance will cause more of the better-class horses to be attracted to the race the committee of the Waikato Racing Club has decided to reduce the course for the Waikato Gold Cup to a mile and a half. The first race over the shorter distance will be on the first day of the club’s spring meeting on November 8. The distance of the race was increased to two miles from a mile and a half in 1952. For a start several good performers were attracted but lately the fields for the race have lacked quality and last year the 21 runners which went to the post were headed by Kaha, a moderate horse, and Bandera, a winter sprinter. Each had 8-4.

The change made by the Waikato club reduces the number of two-miles open handicap races run each season in the Dominion to five. They are the Auckland Cup and the Wellington Cup in January, the New Zealand Cup in November, the Autumn Handicap (Trentham) in March and the Manawatu Cup in December. The Manawatu Cup was first run over two miles in 1956. Previously it' was decided over varying distances from a mile and three furlongs to a mile and five furlongs.