PACER V. TROTTER

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 59, 9 March 1940, Page 23

PACER V. TROTTER

UNEQUAL OPPORTUNITIES

According to American standards the controlling authority of light-harness racing in New Zealand should be styled the "Pacing Association," for the simple reason that more than 80 per cent, of the races held under its jurisdiction are for pacers. The quality of pacing in the Dominion is very high,, but the trotters are mediocre when compared with horses of similar gait in America. The pacer was unknown in the early days of the light-harness sport in New Zealand, and its present popularity is probably due to the fact that it is a more reliable proposition than a trotter. This is perhaps due' to the pacer receiving ten times as much encouragement as the trotter. The records suggest that old-time trotting races were poor spectacles. Years ago an endeavour was made: to solve the problem of horses breaking by inflicting harsh penalties, such as making them pull-up and turn.round before continuing in a race. Often horses had to be brought down- to a walk before they would strike the trot again. Most races were optional, saddle or harness, and sulkies with iron tyres were used; gear was primitive, few of the modern aids to speed and steadiness having been invented. ! However, the trotter has improved, and so have the methods of those who train them. Few trotters these days wear sixteen-ounce shoes and heavy toeweights to keep them at their gait. Then again American enthusiasts have definitely established the difference between the pacer and the trotter, and they would no more think of breeding a pacer to a trotter than New Zealanders would a Clydesdale to a thoroughA race confined to the best trotters appeals more than a contest among pacers, and if more inducement were extended to breeders to . raise. trotters, the Dominion would probably achieve a higher standard of the true-gaited horse, and perhaps despise the pacer as much as the Americans do.