Elimination heats for Banks Pen.

Press, 19 September 1980, Page 1 (Supplement)

Elimination heats for Banks Pen.

The . Banks Peninsula Trotting Club will attempt to overcome the problems associated with the selection of fields for maiden pacers and . trotters by running elimination heats at Motukarara on Monday. The 166 pacers will contest 15 heats, from which the first three in each event will earn a start at the club’s spring meeting on October 4.

The right of re-entry will be given to the fourth placegetters in the 12 heats won in the fastest times. There will be six-heats for the 71 trotters, the first two to finish in each earning a start, while the remainder of the field will be made up from third and fourth placegetters depending on where the handicapped horses finish. The right of re-entry will be drawn from among horses finishing third and fourth. There are some reservations by owners and trainers about the decision to run elimination heats involving so many horses which could well have hard racing at Methven tomorrow, and the costs involved.

However, there should be few valid arguments that

horses with form have not earned a right to start at a meeting which drew a record number of 518 nominations, almost 100 greater than the previous best

Some owners and trainers have suggested that perhaps horses finishing second or third at Meth ven tomorrow should have an automatic entry to the races; and others feel the heats should be run on the grass track at Motukarara, where the races will be held, rather than on the tight all-weather surface.