Fast time by Triton

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32873, 23 March 1972, Page 8

Fast time by Triton

(From the Australian racing correspondent of "The Press") SYDNEY. It will never be accepted, of course, but beyond all reasonable doubt Triton ran the fastest seven furlongs at Rosehill when he won the Railway Quality Handicap on Saturday. His time tor the seven furlongs was Imln 23sec. and that clipped one-tenth of a second from the record tor the race that has atood since Time and Tide recorded it at the meeting eight years ago. Time and Tide’s record was six-tenths of a second slower than the course record which Shannon put up in the spring of IMS, and Shannon was indisputably the fastest sprinter up to one mile that Australian rac* Ing had produced up to his day. He held the Australian mile record for many years until Fine and Dandy, the older brother to Time and Tide lowered it But Shannon’s Rosehill time of Imin 22.55ec was timed with an ordinary stopwatch, and the time keeper was a veteran official well over life’s alloted span. * Put another way the eye caught the jump out of the horses frees the rope barrier, signalled to the hand which pressed the watch mechanism, and then stopped the watch aa the winner reached the post.

Today’s timing is electronic and is actuated by the opening of the starting gates while the horses remain standing. The human element is eliminated, and with it the tendency to make the time faster than it really is.

In Saturday’s race Triton was ridden from behind and put up a moat impressive performance to run to the front near the furlong and Win by a length from Ricochet, reversing the verdict when the two met at their previous engagement.

Dhow’s change of trainer

Dhow, winner of four races from P. H. Jones's Riccarton •table this season, will be trained in future by her partowner and breeder. Mr J. F. Tutton

i Jones prepared Dhow to win I the Canterbury Jockey Club’s Welcome Stakes the Dunedin . Champagne Stakes, and two han- . dieap events for two-year-olds. Nana Mouskouri and His Best--1 one will attempt to improve i the Jones stable’s two-year-old ■ record in the Fernside Nursery at Rangiora next Monday.