TROTTING Five Gate Starts At Addington In May

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29800, 17 April 1962, Page 5

TROTTING Five Gate Starts At Addington In May

Five races, including a non-totalisator event, will be started from a mobile starting gate at the Canterbury Park Trotting Club’s winter meeting at Addington on Saturday, May 26.

The starting gate has been constructed at the direction of the committee of the club. Preliminary trials have already been held and the gate will be available to trainers as often as it is required during the last week or two before the meeting. In addition, there will be races started from it at trials to be held by the Canterbury Trotting Owners’ and Breeders’ Association at Addington on May 17.

The announcement some weeks ago by the president (Mr L. S. Smart) that the club intended using a starting gate at its winter meeting aroused considerable interest in trotting circles. If the starting gate was adopted universally, as in the United States, many problems would have to be overcome. However. there is no doubt it would overcome the problem of horses losing their chances by breaking at the start. Visitors from overseas and also New Zealand owners, trainers and drivers, who have seen starting gates used in the United States. have agreed its use in the Dominion could do much to popularise trotting. A mobile starting gate, constructed by Mr A. Corrigan, of Haw-era. was used with varying degrees of success in New Zealand a few years ago. However, the vehicle carrying the gate did not appear to be quite powerful enough and at times had difficulty getting clear of the horses at the start.

The vehicle to be used at Addington should have no difficulty leaving the horses at the start of races.

Starting gates are in common use in Australia, particularly in Melbourne and Western Australia. The New South Wales- Trotting Club has announced it hopes to have a starting gate in use at Harold Park within the next few months.

The starting gate is claimed to have saved trotting in the United States. Before its introduction moving starts were used. False starts were common and sometimes it took 30 minutes before a field could be dispatched.

The totalisator races started by the gate will be run over nine furlongs and a half and 12 furlongs and a half. This will give the horses a straight run of more than half a furlong before the start and the same distance

before reaching the first bend.

The club has not yet decided hew many horses will start in each event, but it is expected to be 10 or 11.

The club also reserves the right to decide on the day of the races that if any unforeseen circumstances arise any or all of the races set down to be started behind the gate may revert to standing starts and the distance for which the race is assessed.

This provision would probably be invoked if heavy rain fell and made the track unsafe for the starting gate.

The first race at the meeting to be dispatched from the starting gate will be a two-year-old trotters’ trial over one mile. The club will give trophies worth £lOO to the first three place-getters, and an additional £lOO will be paid to the winner provided the time is better than Au Fait's two-year-old record of 2-min 13 l-ssec.

The Maiden Pacing Stakes will be run over nine furlongs and a half from the starting gate or 10 furlongs from a standing start. This race, which will carry a stake of £350. will be for two-year-old pacers which have not won a race at the time of starting. Top-class pacers will be accommodated in the Winter Free-for-all, which will be run over nine furlongs and a half from the starting gate or 10 furlongs from a standing start. The race will be for horses assessed at 2min 44sec or faster for 10 furlongs and the stake will be £lOOO. This will be one of the feature events at the meeting and it is expected that most of the best-per-formed pacers in commission will be kept in work for it. The L. S. Smart Trotting Free-for-all will be run over the same distance as the corresponding event for pacers It. too. will carry a stake of £lO3O. The limit for the race will be 2min 51sec for 10 furlongs. Horses such as Moon Boy, When, Dianthus Girl and other well-per-formed trotters are ex.p?cted to be on hand for this event. The Farewell Stakes, run over 12 furlongs and a half from the starting gate or 13 furlongs from a standing

start, will be the last event on the programme. It will carry a rather disappointing stake of £750 and will be for horses assessed at 3min 37sec only for 13 furlongs. Two other races for pacers and two for trotters will be run from a standing start.