TROTTING Programme For Cup Meeting Discussed

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28700, 25 September 1958, Page 4

TROTTING Programme For Cup Meeting Discussed

Stakes for most handicap events have been reduced slightly by the New Zealand Metropolitan Trotting Club for its cup meeting at Addington cn November 11, 14, 22 and 29. Stakes for the meeting total £35,650, a drop of £350 on the £36,000 distributed last year. The stake for the New Zealand Cup remains the same at £6750, and the limit of 4min J23sec is unchanged. There have been some slight changes in the limits for some races, while two invitation races for pacers and one for trotters have been included. Stakes for all races for trotters have been reduced. No open handicap for pacers on the first day of the meeting will carry a stake of less than £B5O, the amount allotted to the Empire Handicap, which will be run over 13 furlongs with a limit of 3min 39sec. Last year this race carried' a stake of £675, and had a limit of 3min 43sec. The stake for the Canterbury Handicap has been increased £5O to £l2OO, and will be run over 13 furlongs, with a limit of 3min 35sec, the same as last year. The Spring Handicap last year had a limit of 4min 30sec for .two miles, and carried a stake of £lO5O. The stake is back to £9OO this year, and the limit has been let out One second to 4min 31sec. The stake for the Final Handicap has been increased from £750 to £9OO, but the limit has been tightened from 2min 47sec to 2min

45sec for one mile and a quarter. The stake for the Riccarton Stakes is up by £25 to £7OO. Previously only winners of classic or semi-classic events could be penalised in this race, but now all winners will be penalised, winners of one race going to 12 yards, two races to 24 yards, qnd three or more to 36 yards. Invitation Race The Ollivier Handicap will again be the main race for pacers on the second day of the It will this year be run under the same invitation conditions which covered the National Handicap at Addington last month. The stake is down fronj £1525. last year when the limit was 3min 33sec for 13 furlongs to £ 1400, and the limit has been let cut, to 3min 34sec.

The stake for the Cashmere Handicap has been increased £75 to £B5O, while the limit remains unchanged at 3min 39sec for 13 furlongs. The Express Handicap, which last year was run over one mile and a half for slow-class horses, will this year be run over one mile and a quarter with a stake of £lOOO, the limit being 2min 44sec.

Conditions for the New Zealand Metropolitan Challenge Stakes, a race for three and four-year-olds, have been altered to the same as those which applied to the Canterbury Challenge Stakes at Addington last month. The Allan Matson Handicap, with a stake of £l2OO, will be the main distance race for pacers on the third day. This race will be run over two miles, with a limit of 4min 27sec. Last year the limit was 4min 28sec, and the stake £1250. The New Zealand Free-for-All has been transferred to the final day, its place being taken by the New Zealand Flying Stakes, which will be run over one mile and a quarter under invitation conditions. The limit has been placed at 2min 44sec, and the stake will be £lOOO.

The New Zealand Pacing Championship, which in recent years has been run under free-for-all conditions over 13 furlongs, will this year be run under invitation conditions, and the distance has been increased to two miles. The stake will be £l5OO, £25 less than last year. This will be the main race for pacers on the final day of the meeting. The limit for the New Zealand Free-for-all has been tightened from 2min 45sec to 2min 43sec, while the stake has been reduced £lOO to £llOO. Similar Limits The sixth event on this day will be the Harold Logan Handicap, which will be run over two miles with a limit of 4min 33sec. The seventh race will be the Churchill Handicap, run over one mile and a quarter with a limit of 2min 46sec, the equivalent of 4min 31sec for two miles. Horses

Boy Found Dead.—A two-year-

old boy was found dead in his bed at Kaiapoi at 6.10 a.m. yesterday. He was Murray Henry Frost, of Tram road, Clarkville. An inquest, opened before the Coroner (Mr A. T. Bell) in the afternoon, was adjourned fine die.

eligible for the front of the Churchill Handicap, would also be eligible to start from 24 yards one race earlier. This could result in a very small field in the Harold Logan Handicap. Trotters seem to have suffered most as a result of stake reductions. The stakes for the slowclass races each day have been reduced by £25 to £6OO. This may not seem much at first glance, but the limits for all four races have been tightened by the equivalent of two seconds. The stakes reduction is, therefore, much greater than £25. Stakes for the fast-class trotters have also been cut. The Worthy Queen Handicap last year carried £950 and was run over one mile and a quarter with a limit of 2min 51sec. The limit remains unchanged this year, but the stake is down to £9OO.

The Dominion Handicap, the main event on the calendar for trotters, has in the past usually been run on the second day of the meeting. This year it has been transferred to the third day and the stake has been cut from £l9OO to £1750. The limit will be 4min 35sec, against 4min 34sec last year, when horses on 4min 35sec were allowed to start.

The Greyhound Handicap has been transferred from the third day to the second day. This year it will be run under invitation conditions and it will be the first of this type of event for trotters. The limit will be 3min 43sec for 13 furlongs this year, one second looser than last year. As the assessments of most fast-class trotters have been loosened recently, the limit is actually the same atf last year. The stake for this race has been cut £l5O to £9OO.

The New Zealand Trotting Free-for-all, the only race of its kind in New Zealand each season, has had its limit let out one second to 3min 43sec for 13 furlongs. Once again the stake has been exit, this time by £l5O. to £9OO.

On Verge of Cup Class Super Royal, the September Handicap winner on the first day of the Auckland Trotting Club’s spring meeting last Saturday, requires one more win over a distanpe to qualify for the New Zealand Trotting Cup to be run at Addington in November. Super Royal is now on 4min 25sec for two miles. Success for her in the Ferguson Handicap this week would place Super Royal off the front in the Cup. Super Royal’s success in the September Handicap was gained more easily than her half a length margin suggested, as she was not driven right out at the finish. At the end of the first three furlongs, where Macklin took the lead, Super Royal was handily placed behind Superior Lawn and Single Medoro, which were trailing the pacemaker.

Positions of the first four were unaltered in the next mile, and Macklin led into the straight, but could not cope with Super Royal’s challenge inside the furlong. The September Handicap was Super Royal’s first suedess since the New Brighton Cup in February, 1957, but she has been a consistent performer, having been placed in 14 of her 23 races since until last Saturday.

An aged mare by Dillon Hall from Merton, Super Royal has done most of her racing for her Invercargill owner, Mr N. E. Pierce, but is now raced on lease by Mr M. B. Dean and her Pukekohe trainer, C. Hadfield.