TROTTING NOTES

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 126, 1 June 1927, Page 7

TROTTING NOTES

■»/r acee Ptanees for the Canterbury Park Meeting "which,opens.on Friday are rather overwhelming in one or two events, • but the better class races are of more reason-' able proportions.' The clay track at Ad5,' nß*°n may be oa the greasy side, for Christehurch'has at }aat received some rain and it urnot likely to escape the continuance of the present southerly weather. The altered track conditions may upset the torm, considerably. ..v- ---■ Twojancied candidates in Peterwah and Loncuffe .have dropped out of the King George Handicap. Trenand and Downcast may be the best of those near the front of the _ handicap, while Cardinal Logan, a solid pacer on 36 yards, should have plenty o£ friends. . ■ . A far class field is engaged in the Stewards Handicap, including that good three-year-old Author Jinks. Key Logan on the ■limit ia being selected as likely to show up W™l a • Countryman is pacing well. The mile saddle event may see Lochree favourite, and if Author Jinks is reserved tor the concluding event he should do well. In his absence Final M'Kinney appeals most. In the minor races horses who appear well placed are Elusive, Nourmaha, Desert Star, and Auditress. A twomile saddle event is such' a rare thing nowadays that the Lyttelton Handicap should see backers in a quandary. Spring Chimes and Brigand may show up. . Elzear continues to please by the manner ia which she gets through her work. me trotter is reported to be in excellent torm at present. .According to reports the pacer Logan Chiet has rarely looked .brighter or better than he does at present. In a work-out last week at Addington with Fight Ever, he paced with plenty of determination and vigour. Fight Ever is carrying plenty of condition and is an improved pacer over a distance. He is a hard puller and this preyente him from always doing his best in a two mile race., ■ Theseus is still being kept in work at Addington, but there does not seem much chance of him winning a race. He must be one of the.last of the progeny of the defunct Rothschild in training. _ Holly: Boy continues to do good work on the track and the pacer may win another race before~the close of the season. • Recently: in New South Wales it was reported that the motor speedway at Maroubra was to be converted into a trotting course for night meetings. There was some strong criticism at the time from one or two of the more outspoken newspapers, who pointed out that while a nonproprietary body in the New South Wales Trotting Club had been refused permission to hold night meetings a proprietary body in the.Maroubra Speedway Co., Ltd., had been much more successful. Regarding this action by the New" South Wales Government the "Bulletin" said:—"The. Labour' party used", to- be opposed to' proprietary racing nourished by betting, as all good' socialists should be. Two or three years ago some *f its prominent members were mainly responsible for a select committee's recommendation that the Government of the day should eliminate the proprietary element from pony-racing. In the last Gaming, and Betting- Extension Bill, however, the party awarded four meetings p.a. to one syndicate battening on the betting craze, restored 16 meetings p.a. to another which had lost its legal right to them, and sneaked in a clause which permits the establishment of a third. Of what good is such a party to the '.7nrkers,whose worst folly it thus encourages?" Now in* the latest mail from Australia comes the news that another non-proprietary association had been refused permission to hold night trotting meetings, but the question was to be presented to Cabinet for consideration. And yet there are people in New Zealand who, urge political interference with racing. Two horses were well supported for the Epping Handicap at Epping last week. Auto Machine was made favourite at odds on, and Stoney was second choice. Bookmakers were offering double figures bar the two. Stoney won the race from Auto Machine, but if the favourite had had a little more of the luck in the race the positions may have been reversed. Occident led the field for two laps, with Stoney running third. The favourite could not get an opening, although he had improved his position by the time the bell for the last lap was clanged. At this point Stoney went to the' front, and it appeared as though he would have an easy task, as the favourite broke turning out of the straight. Stoney was going nicely in front along the back, and W. J. O'Shea, who 'was driving Auto Machine, set the Machine Brick ly>rse going to reduce the gap. Spectators were treated to a fine exhibition, but the effort proved too much, and in the straight Stoney had most in reserve, stalling off the challenge by a length. Occident kept going to finish third three lengths away, and was followed by Some Rock, Splash, and Careful almost in line. Since arriving at Addington from Gisborne the American trotting stallion Peterwah has met with a mishap sufficiently bad to prevent him from fulfilling his Addington engagements. It is understood that he struck himself while playing and cut

one of his front quarters rather badly. It is as a breedeV of trotting stock that Mr. Hunter, who las purchased Windbag for stud purposes, is best known on the Victorian turf. For many years his beautiful property at Seymour has been the home of the leading light harness performers of Australia. Trotting owes a. great deal to Alex. Hunter, for he has done as much as, if not more than, any other man in. the Commonwealth for the uplifting of trotting, says an exchange. He secured the best stallions and brood mares for his stud, and never stopped at a price so long as he thought he would improve the breed of the utility horses. His annual sales of young stock were attended by buyers irom all over the Commonwealth, and the trade mark of the Northwood Park Farm is in evidence now, for the horses bred there are racing m every State of Australia and New Zealand. The light harness game lost one of its greatest admirers when the owner of Northwood Park sold out; his trotting stock a few months ago. Mr. Hunter himself admits that he received little remuneration for his trouble, and was forced to sell out. After spending no end of time and worry in the breeding of the best class of light harness horses, he frequently was forced to take ridiculously low prices for his youngsters. For fourteen years Mr. Hunter has owned Northwood Park. Seventeen years ago he purchased the property, then sold it for two years while he had a trip owing to ill-health, and on his return repurchased it. Ever since his boyhood days he has been interested in. trotting, and when- his father,, the late Mr. Robert Hunter, proprietor of the Burnewang Stud Farm, Elmore, presented him with a colt and a filly, the foundations of one of the finest studs in Australia were laid. The youngsters subsequently raced as Harry Alto and Honest Kate, two of the best performers of their time. Mr. Hunter bred some good stock from them when their racing days were ended.