WELLINGTON MEETING

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 146, 22 June 1934, Page 6

WELLINGTON MEETING

THIS YEAR'S ATTRACTIONS

The closing of nominations for the Wellington Racing Club's Winter Meeting this evening is a reminder that the jumping session this year is now passing on towards its conclusion. The Treutham Meeting, on July 10, 12, and 14, will be the last'of jumping" fixtures proper in the North Island, and there remain after it only the Grand Nationals to be decided.

. There are: of course several other meetings to be decided'before the end of the season and prior to the opening. of the spring term, but these are all more or-less of the nature of hunt .fixtures, even when they are conducted under the aegis of racing clubs, as. the Manawatu 'Meeting at the end, of the,-month. The.only meetings after- this week prior to the Trentham' Meeting are the Oamaru Jockey Club's Meeting tomorrow week and the Danheyirke Hunt Meeting on Wednesday week, but at both-of-these the only class of steeplechaser who will be racing is the Qualified hunter.; Tire 'chasing form for Irentham will therefore all have been disclosed after tomorrow's racing. . The Wellington. Club this year has reached out for all classes of steepleehasiug ■horses, by providing good short-distance semi-open events as well as the customary longer events. : Four cross-country races will be decided, two on the opening day and one on each of the other days, and the public should now have similar opportunity as the Auckland and Christchurch public of witnessing all the Dominion's, foremost jumpers in action. The Wellington and 'July ■ Steeplechases, run over ZYi miles and.3 miles respectively, cater for the best, class, and the Matai'and Mariri Steeplechases,- each 2% mlies, give the shorter runners their chance.

In previous years the Matai and Mariri Steeplechases were for hacks and hunters only, and o\ the whole,-in, recent years at least, they were not good drawing events, nor did they arouse much enthusiasm with the public. There has been a good racing class- of 'chaser never seen out at Trentham, because no suitable event was on the programme, but ii; is reasonable to expect that with tile amended conditions many of these horses will now be on the scene this year f They, are the type of Jchaser that, is -mainly prevalent in Otago and Southland atod in the'Waikato, good winners but incapable of going any further than \2%i ; ;'miles, i The Beaufort Steeples on'the 'middle .day at the Grand National Meeting has always provided for them. .. ' : '•• : . . . •

The main change about the rest of this winter's ! programme is that the average 'distance/of 'th'^s ihapji-flat events is slightly longer. .There;;is! no I hack flat,, race shorter than .srx ■ furlongs (indeed no race at all is under s&! furlongs), and each day's card concludes j with a hack mile event. easily withessed- by ;' the - public, as the horses, go -round '.the course proper, instead of down; the "straight sprint course. Ijn other years -'-the: concluding sprints have' been-next to impossible for the public to follow, the more especially as.the light is often bad at the close of the'day in winY ter, but there should be no such difficulty in discovering where the backed horses lie in mile races. f ; The. change, as last autumn, is certain to. be much appreciated by the general, public.' .-..,.; :-. "• . • The .system; of betting .at the meeting will' again b'e^JHideri win-and-place, and Trentham" is certainly the course above all 1 courses in s the, Dominion at -which this mode should pperate to fairly general satisfaction, as form, at Wellington meetings is always. mixed :and! place betting there offers the chance of quite useful dividends! • The facilities of this system at Trentham, too, are much superior to those anywhere else in the Dominion. The Wellington Meeting leads on to the C.J!.C. Grand National Meeting at Riccartbn, which- this'year will be decided on August- 14,v16.<; and.; 18. ; Most of the horses who,will be racing in the important southern events will be on hand at Trenchant, and. 'these two meetings together should assure a highly successful conclusion ;to the 1934 jumping session.