TROTTING Optimism Shown In Spring Programme

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30808, 21 July 1965, Page 5

TROTTING Optimism Shown In Spring Programme

In spite of a substantial loss on operations in the season just ended the New Brighton Trotting Club’s committee took an optimistic view when framing the programme for the club’s spring meeting to be held at Addington on September 4.

On a nine-race programme at the spring meeting 12 months ago the club distributed £6050 in stakes. This year the total will be £3OO more for the same number of races. Just at present any substantial increase in stakes would have been out of the question. As it is the committee has taken the gamble that the meeting, which will be held on the night of the third Rugby test at Christchurch, will be a financial success. f

i Except for a few minor changes the programme is much the same as that presented last year. The principal race for pacers Will be the Johns Handicap. This £l2OO event has a limit of 2min 12sec. The stake and class is the same as it was 12 months ago, but this time it will be run over a mile and five furlongs instead of two miles. The faster class trotters will be competing for a £lOOO stake in the Spring Handicap. Last year this race was worth £9OO and had a 2min 15sec limit.. This time the limit has been tightened by one second and the distance has been reduced from one mile and five furlongs to one mile and a quarter. The Introductory and Oxford Handicaps have been dropped from this year’s programme. They have been replaced by the Springboks Handicap and the AH Blacks Stakes. \ The .Springboks Handicap caters for trotters assessed at 2min 17sec and not faster

than 2min 15sec. The stake for this race will be £6OO, The corresponding event last year was the Oxford Handicap which had a 2min 18sec limit and was worth £5OO. The distance, one mile and five furlongs, Is the same. The AH Blacks Stakes is for 2min 17sec class pacers only. The stake for this mile and five furlong event is £550, the same as this class of horse competed for last year over two miles in the Avon Handicap. Mobile Starts The All Blacks Stakes will be one of two races on the programme for which the mobile barrier will be used. The other will be the Travis Handicap which will be run over the same distance and eaters for 2min 15sec class pacers only. The stake for this race will be £BOO com-

pared with £7OO last year when the limit was 2min 16sec and the distance one mile and a quarter. In the New Brighton Stakes, one of the feature races on the programme, the special conditions and stakes are the same but the distance had been changed. This £5OO three-year-old event will be run over a mile and a quarter this year instead of a mile and a half. Pacers assessed at 2min 14sec and not faster than 2min 13sec will compete over one mile and five furlongs for a £9OO stake in the H. E. Goggin Handicap, the same as last year. The slower class pacers are catered for in Cambridge and Avon Handicaps. The former event is for: horses assessed at 2min 19sec only. They will compete over One mile and a quarter for a £350 stake. The Introductory Handicap. of the same value and distance, catered for horses in this class last year. The Avon Handicap is a two-mile event for horses with a 2min 18sec assessment. This race carries a £450 stake, the same as this class of horse competed for over one mile and five furlongs in the Cambridge Handicap last year.