TROTTING NOTES

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 54, 12 September 1928, Page 7

TROTTING NOTES

The American horse Travis Axworthy is booked to race at the Wellington Trotting Club's Meeting: At a recent meeting of the committee of the Auckland Trotting Club the following grants were made to deserving institutions: —The Rev. Jasper Calder's mission, £10; Parnell shelters, £10; the Rev. Scrimgeour's mission, £10; Sister Esther, £10; St. Vincent de Paul Society, £10; Labour Day Celebration Committee fund, £3 3s; Ponsonby Boys' Brass Banti fund, £1 Is. The Wellington trotter Maxegin was only engaged in the Burwood Handicap at the New Brighton Meeting. 'He went off quickly, but before fifty .yards- had been covered he broke and lost "a -ldt of ground. Once Maxegin settled down he

trotted in fine style, and finished the journey at a good speed. He had not raced against pacers previously in the Dominion. Under the heading "Incompetent Reinsman" a Sydney writer says: There are iinhoppled pacers racing on the Sydney tracks as honest as any hoppled pacer, but the difficulty is in obtaining horsemen to balance and drive them. At present there is an unhoppled pacer with speed to burn, but in race after race he is murdered by incompetent drivers. Two drivers have had a go at him recently, but it is hard to say which is the worse of the two. The first time a competent driver is put up behind him some poor bookmaker will be killed in the rush to get on. A few months'-ago three pacers, bunstorm, White Sun, and Suuiish, all t/ Sungod, came hero from Southland. Sunstorm went into G. S. Smith's charge at New Brighton; Sunfish was purchased by Mr. J. M'Millan, and K. B. Berry took charge; while White Sun went into W. J. Tomkinson's stable. Sunfish came out in the Belfast Handicap on Saturday and scored a brilliant win. Handicapped at 3mm 38sec, and with a field of twenty horses in front of him, he did the mile and a half in 3min 29 2-ssec, and had a four lengths lead at the winning post. Sunfish is from the Wildwood mare Decoy, and was bred in Southland. Sunstorm paced a good race in the mile saddle event, in which he finished second to High Jinks. White Sun has not been raced since he came north. The Logan Pointer gelding, High Jinks, was the prominent figure in something of a sensation at the New Brighton racecourse on Saturday for the start of the Dash Handicap. Nyallo whipped round and dislodged N. C. Price from High Jinks's sulky. After completing the race without a driver High Jinks continued merrily on his way, defying the efforts of hundreds of spectators to stop him. When he found his way altogether barred ho calmly turned round and went in the opposite direction. Many people have quaint ideas of the best way to stop a runaway horse, and fondly imagine that a hat or coat thrown in its face will bring it to a halt. At one time there must have been a couple of hundred people on the track trying to stop the flight of the pacer, and it is a wonder that no one was hurt. Efforts to grab the reins as he went past were unsuccessful, but eventually one individual, bolder than the rest and being more of a horseman than the majority, made a flying leap for the gelding's mane, and in almost the same movement swung himself on to its back. He soon had the horse under control, passed it over to its trainer, N. C. Price, received his congratulations, and quickly faded away into the crowd. It was a smart piece of work, and the manner of its accomplishment showed horsemanship reminiscent of the circus. The fact that the leap was made from the off-side added to the cleverness of the move. After his self-imposed exertion's High Jinks was { produced again two races later, and proved the escapade had done him little harm by winning easily.