TROTTING Cup Trials At Addington Today

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31206, 2 November 1966, Page 5

TROTTING Cup Trials At Addington Today

Interest in the New Zealand Cup, to be run at Addington Raceway next Tuesday, will increase sharply after the cup trials at Addington this afternoon and evening.

Only six runners will contest the A. L. Matson Handicap, restricted to cup candidates, but their performances will create great interest.

The Matson Handicap will be run over 13 furlongs at 7 p.m., the starters being Doctor Barry, Full Sovereign, Lochgair, Disband, Waitaki Hanover and Robin Dundee. Nine races are carded at the trials, to be run by the Christchurch Trotting Club in conjunction with the Canterbury Trotting Owners and Breeders’ Association. This will be their first twilight equalisator meeting and it should be a great success. The first race will be run at 4 p.m. and the last two races at 7.30 p.m. and 8 p.m. will be under lights. Two doubles will be run, the first on the L. M. Denton and H. W. Drewery Handicaps, and the second on the Second G. R. Hunter and J. W. Trist Handicaps. The fields include most of the Canterbury and Mid-Can-terbury horses engaged at the cup meeting. Particular interest will centre on the two races for three-year-olds. Included in those fields are Cardinal King, Stewart Hanover, Semloh, Thurboprop, Pro Consil and Light Thaw.

The F. E. Sutton Handicap, for trotters, will be another highlight of the evening. When, Harbour Light and Flaming Way are the backmarkers on 30 yards in this race, to be run over 13 furlongs. Mighty Chief and Asia Minor will start from the front, and Forward March and Marshella are frontmarkers expected to do well at the meeting. Marshella, one of the most extensively-raced horses of last season, has not started this term. She usually thrives on strenuous racing and her effort in this race will be closely watched. Sunday Training Horses engaged at the cup meeting will do their final training at Addington on Sunday between 9 and 11 a.m. In previous years many hundreds of persons watched training and last November the club infused further interest into the session by securing the services of the coarse commentator (Mr D. B. Clarkson). Most trainers wore their colours and more than 150 horses were worked.

Last year’s training was organised by the Canterbury Trotting Owners and Breeders’ Association and the New Zealand Horsemen’s Association. It attracted a crowd estimated at 5000.

The interest created by this training session was reflected in totalisator turnover on cup day, which reached £230,015, a record for a trotting meeting in New Zealand.

The club expects to have little difficulty handling more through the totalisator next Tuesday. No extra windows for selling or paying out will be available. However, the doubles and late pay-out windows, previously available at the tea kiosk totalisator at the western end of the grounds, have been moved to the western end of the ground floor of the main public grandstand. This will give patrons using this stand complete undercover betting facilities. The club expects a record number of visitors to the meeting. Advice has been received of five chartered aircraft which will bring 175 persons to the meeting, returning home after the last race.

Three aircraft will carry 106 persons from Invercargill, there will be one aircraft with 41 persons travelling from Wanganui, and another from Masterton with 28 persons. In addition, many others will travel on normal service flights. Much' of this outside interest can be attributed to the even field of 11 down to contest the New Zealand Cup, and the number of horses trained outside Canterbury with engagements at the meeting.