A WINNING WAY

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 13, 15 July 1936, Page 15

A WINNING WAY

MR. G. J. BARTON'S RECORD

Mr. G. J. Barton, whose light-harness horses have won £6691 this season, and placed him for the seventh time at the head of the winning owners' list, has also been in the news lately through the prowess of his galloper Jack Horner, a regular . -winner in Australia who is being hailed as a Melbourne Cup possibility. ' Mr. Barton was born at MarysviUe, Victoria, and came to New Zealand in 1904. During the past thirty-one years he has been a keen supporter of racing, and has earned a reputation as a courageous buyer. He prefers to pay the price for pacers or trotters' that have proved themselves on the race track, rather than breed them. It can be said that his present team is the strongest he has ever possessed, and he seems destined to 'enjoy another successful season. ... Mr. Barton is a member of the Dunedin Jockey Club, Otago Hunt Club,- and the Forbury Park Trotting Club. He first became interested in horses through the agency of a grand old mare he used to. drive in a butcher's cart. This mare beat everything she met.on the road. This gave Mr. Barton a taste for racing, and in 1921 he purchased the pacing geldmg Adair, who was trained by O. E. Hooper. About a year later Mr. Barton developed a firm friendship with the late Mr. W. J. Tomkinson, and gave him Adair to train. From then on his team gradually increased until he is now the_ leading owner in the Dominion. During the past fifteen years his horses have won two New Zealand Trotting Cups, two Dunedin Cups, two Otahuhu Cups, the Waikato Cup, Ashburton Cup, and Cheviot Cup.