TROTTING BREVITIES

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 28, 3 February 1937, Page 17

TROTTING BREVITIES

The Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage) will present the Cup to the owner of the winner of the principal event at Hutt Park tomorrow. >. Bonny Azure was going a bit better than Glenrossie at the end of a solid mile and a half outside the trestles at Hutt Park yesterday morning. Winaway and Kia Kaha, two northern candidates for the Wellington Trotting Club's Meeting, will be driven byE. N. Kennerley. Superior Rank's absence from the scene at Dunedin is said to have given i ante-post bettors a pain in the pocket. When the machine closes tin the Hutt Handicap tomorrow one of the bestbacked, in spite of recent disappointments, may be the three-year-old Frisco Boy. Toorak was very stiff after his fall on the first day at Forbury Park, and was a doubtful starter. Start he did, however, and failed as a hot favourite. Grand Mogul is reported to have received nasty head injuries and a very bad shaking when he fell in the Dunedin Cup. J; Fraser, jun., escaped with skin abrasions. ' Sewana.whois in the maiden events at the Wellington Meeting, is a three-year-old brother to Roi I'Or, by Rey de Oro—Gold Queen. Sewana is trained'by L. O. Thomas. Another well-related maiden pacer is Golden Moness, a three-year-old chestnut filly by Jack Potts from Wild Moness, the dam of the National Handir cap winner Wild Guy. The public at Forbury Park last week gave an indirect vote on the win-arid-place system by keeping the latter windows much busier than the former. Southern writers are agreed that Gamble fell from grace at Forbury Park, and one of them does not wax eloquent about the chestnut's Gold Cup prospects. ■ Tommy Boy; -who has had little experience as 'an unhoppled trotter, has won a race or two on the West Coast of the South Island as a pacer. Tommy Boy is a six-year-old gelding by Real Guy from Chancet, and both his sire and dam were trotters.

. . There was a good deal of discussion about the Forbury Park system of bettintf. It works out all right in big fields, but leaves much to be desired when the starters, number eight or fewer.

Donald Dhu, a candidate for the irhDrovers' classes at Wellington, opened his winning account nt Oamuru in October when he downed Toorak and Dark Hazard in the Trial Handicap, of 14 miles. Ho next finished fourth In the New Zonlnnd Derby, after which he was unplaced In a couple of races. A threo-yeai>old Keldlns by Man o* Wai"—Traeey Maid. Donald Dhu Is trained by L, A, Maidens.

His U-aliw, M, B. Edwsrds, once told a representative of. tho "Tress" that ho could make Gamble a chnmplon In six months, but he would probably brenk his heart in doln« It. Otamble j s no t yet the finished w'Ufile, but admirers, ot the Croat, pneer can at 111 respose (heiy oonfldenee In M, B. Rdwai'dg. wha will drive Gamble himself si Hutt Pavk; Sage Kins would lmve wade history as a mvidend'tJayer had he finishes first instead el third Jn ths Mussel-

burgh Handicap at Dunedin. As it was, he returned a double-figure price for a place. He began well and was never further back than third, but Credit Funds and Gold Salute were too good for him over the last hundred yards. He won on the second day.

Precious Metal, who was a winner at Hutt Park last season, is a five-year-old chestnut gelding by Rey de Oro from Lady Dillon. Subsequent to his Wellington success, he won again over a mile and a half at Forbury. He is in M. C. McTigue.'s Methven stable.

Winnie Parrish, one of the-proved I lwo:milers in the Progressive Handicap, was too good for Swordsman over this distance at the Auckland Summer Meeting. She had 36 yards start from him, but was always going the better, and won by a safe margin on slow going. Swordsman now meets her on 36 yards better terms. i

Among the strangers in the maiden pacing events at the Hutt Park Meeting are De la Paix,' a four-year-old brown filly by -Jack Potts—Leija DenIver, trained by ,C. S. Donald; Stepson, a three-year-old bay gelding by David McElwyn—Mihad, trained by F. Cotton; Wynan, a three-year-old bay gelding by Grattan Loyal—Olwyn, trained by M. Holmes; and Spey Royal, a gelding by Author Dillon—Nyallo, trained by W. R. Butt.'.

•When Roi TOr won the President's Handicap at Forbury Park on Saturday he was handicapped on 4min 21sec and he equalled the records of Great Bingen in 1927- and Harold Logan in 1932 by winning from this mark. Roi I'Or will now be assessed at 4min 20sec for two miles, the same as Indianapolis, and the fastest mark that has been allotted to any horse in New Zealand.

The, first New.. Zealand Trotting Gold Cup was run in 1916, when Mr. E. X. Le Lievre's American-bred stallion Great Audubon, driven by R. McMillan, won in 4min 55 2-ssec> That great little trotter Whispering Willie won the following year, and other high-class stayers who were successful in the Wellington race were* Taraire, Locanda Mac, Peter Bingen, Wrackler, Harold Logan,' Royal Silk, and Roi I'Or.

The Wayville track, where the InterDominion Championships are being decided, is two furlongs and a half in circumference. It was on a similarsized track that an owner was giving a ■ prospective buyer a trial with a horse. "Can he go fast?" queried the possible purchaser. "Can he what," said the''owner.: '"Why, he can go so fast round this track that the owner can see his own back."

Gerfalcon's 3min 28sec in winning for the second time at the Nelson Trotting.Club's Meeting on Monday was an exceptional performance, bettered by only two other three-year-old trotters' in New Zealand and Australia—Todd Lonzia, 3min 26 3-ssec, and White Satin, 3min 27 2-ssec, both of whom made their records at Addington. The Nelson track was . "lightning" fast, but the Wrack—Nantwich gelding is apparently one a good deal above the ordinary.

Chancellor ran two bad races at Forbury, Park last Thursday, and was not accepted for the second day. He broke a long way from home in the Electric Handicap, and when close up with two furlongs to travel in the King George Handicap he suddenly disappeared. His form must be very disappointing to his owner, Mr. G. J. Barton, and he is about the only horse in, the team that is not racing prominently at the; present time. •

[■• Big Author looks a bit carty with his tufted fetlocks, and perhaps some of his remote ancestors imparted the touch of the plebian to his appearance, says "Sentinel.1!, Big Author was got by Author Dillon from Dot Robbins, by Frank Robbins from a George M. Patchen mare. George M. Patchen was got by Rothschild from Linton, by Bundoora, an Australian horse raced by the late R. J. Mason. Occasionally a thoroughbred sports hairy fetlocks, and perhaps the cart-horse infusion in Big Author exists only in the imagination. . ■