AGAIN TWO MILES

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 69, 18 September 1936, Page 13

AGAIN TWO MILES

DOMINION HANDICAP The distance pf the Dominion Handicap. the principal event on the calendar for .unhoppled trotters, will be changed back to two miles, according to official information received from Christchurch. The class will be 4.min 38scc, for which limit there will be ample support to - ensure the best class of race, and the stake will be £.500. For many years the race was run over two miles, and the reduction of the distance to a mile and a half was not the success anticipated;, the event lost some of its glamour because it was no longer the test of stamina nor the spectacular contest it was under the old conditions. The race will be run on the third day. The only race on the November programme with the “assessed at” conditions is the New Zealand Cup. All the others have open limits, which means that a horse assessed from one to three seconds outside a limit is at liberty to compete. Any horse handicapped looser than that is unlikely to sacrifice so much of its handicap. The Ollivier Memorial Handicap, the principal event on the third day, will be the same class as the New Zealand Cup, and carry a stake of £IOOO. The Louisson Memorial, to be run on the second day, will be a 4min 27sec class with; a stake of £BOO. A special feature will be a race for three-year-old ■ maiden pacers on the first day, and this event last year proved a reliable prelude to the New Zealand Derby, for both events were won by Double Great. It is also possible that, an All-Aged Stakes, on the same lines as the highly-successful Ashburton innovation, will be included on the third day’s programme. The Free-for-All, run as usual on the third day. will be the main sprint attraction. The limits of other mile-and-a-quarter events will range .from 2min 43sec to 2min 47sec, and other twomile events from 4tain SOsec to 4min 37sec.

No race on the programme will be worth less than £3OO, the New Zealand Cup carrying £2OOO, and the total stake-money will be £11,450.

CLOSE-HITCHED SULKY

Indianapolis is going along the right way and from all accounts keeping bright and healthy and sound in the feet. He looms large as a 2min prospect and would be a sure thing in that direction if worked to a closehitched sulky, says "Sentinel." None of the American champions went to their records in long-shafters, and it is a serious handicap on a New Zealand horse to ask for a record rivalling the best in the world under conditions definitely recognised as an anchor on speed. A big-striding horse such as Indianapolis may have wide action behind and so require a lengthy shaft, but freedom to stride out could also be obtained with a close-hitched sulky of sufficient width of wheel base. Indianapolis has been tried in a shorthitched sulky, but the attempt was too brief to give the champion: a fair chance to fiet accustomed to the feel and balance of the machine. He may require one fairly wide but it should not be unobtainable, and now is the time to try him under the same conditions as those under which the champions compiled their records in America.

CLASSES CLASH, TOO Not only the Labour Day date of the Manawatu Trotting Club clashes with Auckland, but also some of the classes. Each club is running maiden events for pacers and trotters, and it is safe lo say that no Auckland provincial trainer will leave home in quest of less prize-money than that offering near at hand. The Manawatu 2min 23sec mile also caters for much the same class of pacer as the 3min 36sec mi!e-and-a-half events included in the Auckland card. TROTTING BREVITIES Jane Worthy, a half-sister to Silver de Oro, will have her first race at Ashburton tomorrow. Zincali, who is engaged at Ashburton tomorrow, showed a torrent of speed after breaking at the start of the Sapling Stakes. Bonny Azure made her third successive failure in sprint races when she was unplaced in the Wellington Handicap. Last season Royal Palm started in 16 races and scored one win and three placings. The win was scored at Wellington in September of»last season. At the Gore Trotting Club's Meeting Royal Palm was second to Golden Mist in 3min 25 l-ssec, and at Winton was second to Happy Knight in 2min 14sec. The American-imported stallion Bill B. is to have his first race at Ashburton tomorrow.

Judging by the Ashburton and Geraldine fields, plenty of light-harness horses will have no choice but to start the season in a modest way. There are numerous three-year-olds of both gaits in work in the Auckland Province at present, and the outlook for maiden arid improvers' fields is better than for some years past. Remembrandt has to be added to the trotters' races, the Eureka and Spring Handicaps, at the Waikato Trotting Club's Meeting. He is on the limit in both events. Remembrandt raced unsuccessfully in Canterbury for nearly three years. The Auckland Trotting Club has found it advisable to set fairly loose limits for the principal events at its Spring Meeting on October 24 and 26. The two-mile events are both 4min 39 sec classes, and the mile and a quarter limits are 2min 48sec. The Nelson-owned trotting gelding Count Parrish, by Nelson Parrish— Countess Eve, has arrived at Epsom to go into E. N. Kennerley's stable.- Although still in the novice class* Count Parrish, who was formerly trained by J. Pugh, has raced consistently, and last season he was only once out of a place in seven starts.. The disappointing Donalda is amongst those engaged at Ashburton tomorrow. As a two-year-old Donalda was regarded as a Sapling Stakes proposition, but failed to come up to expectations. As a three-year-old he started five times, and bis best was. a placed performance in 3miri 0 2-ssec on a heavy track. Last season he started eight times, and won in slow time at the Otago Hunt Club's Meeting, and was also placed third in heavy going at Forbury Park. Donalda is a bold pacer when settled down to work, but is doubtful at the barrier, and has been unsound.