Divided handicap races next month

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32959, 4 July 1972, Page 8

Divided handicap races next month

Divided handicap racing will be introduced to New Zealand at the New Zealand Metropolitan Trotting Club's national meeting at Addington Raceway on August 19 and 24. The possibility of limited numbers of horses being available for some races in the programme as it was originally framed influenced the club to change

conditions so that divided handicap racing could be used. The divided handicap conditions will apply to four races on each of the two nights and they will cater for pacers assessed at from 2min 17sec to 2min 12sec.

Horses from 2min 17sec to 2min 12sec will be nominated for the divided handicap races, which will be divided to enable balanced fields to be established. An indication of such fields will be published in the official calendar during the week before withdrawals. These will not necessarily -be the final fields, which will be declared after the closing of withdrawals.

The names and distances of the events run under divided handicaps and the order of races each night will be decided by the programme committee at the time of withdrawals.

The conditions governing restricted free-for-alls will apply to divided handicap events. Winners starting in an event with a limit slower than their assessed mark will be paid the winner’s stake in accordance with their correct mark.

The winning stake for a 2min 17sec class horse will be $1205. that for a 2min, 16sec horse, $1335; a 2min 15sec horse $1530: a 2min 14sec horse, $1755; 2min 13sec horse, $2065; and a 2min I2sec horse, $2340.

Horses On 2min 12sec can still be nominated for the Louisson Handicap and the National Handicap, $4250 invitation races over 13 furlongs on each night of the meeting. Divided handicap racing has been used for years in some Australian states, officials claiming that it has enabled horses to secure additional racing even though they have to start from handicap marks. However, they still race for a winning stake equivalent to that they would have received had they started from the limit. It has proved invaluable when insufficient horses have been available on some marks to provide fields of reasonable size.