Higher Stakes At January Meeting

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31866, 19 December 1968, Page 4

Higher Stakes At January Meeting

The stakes have been increased by $2lOO to $13,800 for the Canterbury Park Trotting Club’s summer meeting at Addington Raceway on Saturday, January 25. A restricted free-for-all over one mile for horses assessed on 2:13 and 2:12 will be the main race for pacers, while the trotters will have a free-for-all over 10 furlongs with a limit of 2:13 as their main race. Both races will carry stakes of $2500, an increase of $5OO over the previous year. The club will this year run

only two races for trotters instead of the usual three. The stake for the Harewood Handicap will be $l5OO and it will be run over 13 furlongs for horses assessed at 2:16 and not faster than 2:14. Last year the stake was $l3OO and the race was restricted to horses on 2:16 and 2:15. The club has decided to run the Christchurch Stakes as two separate races, each carrying a stake of $lOOO. The limit for the events will be 2:18. Last year the same class raced for $BOO. Stakes for most of the other races have been increased by $l5O or $2OO, making the pro. gramme a most attractive one. The only race to remain unchanged from last year is the Pioneer Stakes, for three-year-olds which have not had more than one win. The stake remains at $BOO.

Hammerhead Wins

Hammerhead (Light Brigade— Romarin) won the $BOOO Australasian Trotters' Championship final over 15 furlongs and 134 yards in Melbourne recently. Hammerhead, which had been off the scene for many months before the start of the season, trotted the distance at a record mile rate of 2min 10 l-ssec.

Hammerhead has returned to Sydney, but he‘will be back in Melbourne for the $4OOO V. L. Dullard Cup on January 4, to be followed by the Inter-Dominion carnival in Adelaide in February.