Trainer’s Views On Mobile Starts

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32072, 21 August 1969, Page 4

Trainer’s Views On Mobile Starts

(N.Z. Press Association) AUCKLAND. R. Purdon, the North Island’s leading trotting trainer, and president of the North Island Horsemen’s Assoation, is not in favour of mobile starting of races in New Zealand. Asked yesterday to comment on mobile starting, the subject of a controversy, Pardon said: •'I am definitely not in favour of the mobile barrier, the way it is used here. We are trying to be like America about 20 years too soon. “There they have a populatkw of 200 million; in New Zealand we have a population of 2.5 million. “They race 50 nights or more in the one state, and have a different crowd practically every night. And all the horses are stabled in virtually one bam. “A trainer or an owner has not got to travel hundreds of miles as we have to here at considerable expense tn our owners. “In Australia they use the gate for feature races and start six in front and four behind. We are plagued here in the North Island by restricted free-for-alls mainly 2m in 15sec and 2min I6sec class, and nine times out of 10 the 2min 15sec class horse will always beat the 2min

ISsec bone, especially if the 2min l&sec horse gets a bad draw. “If it is a handicap race, every horse should then get an equal chance,” he said. “How would you like to own a 2min ISsec or 2min l&sec trotter and not get a race for nearly five months, because clubs wanted to have mobile starts for every race? “The most they line up in America are eight-horse fields, and if you happen to draw the outside, the driver of that horse automatically pulls back, and, if he is not good enough, saves him until the next night, hoping for a better draw. “In New Zealand we can’t afford to do that as the next week we could be balloted out or eliminated, with the result that eer horses have hard races every time they line up. W« race over all distances, not ju-st mile races like America. “The size of the fields is far too big here, especially at Claudelands Raceway, Hamilton,” said Purdon. “You can’t tell me the public are going to back a tot of maiden trotters that have never seen the gate before. In New Zealand we have to stand to qualify a horse before he can go to the races. In America, they have to qualify behind the gate before they can go to the races.”