TROTTING IN SOUTHLAND

Evening Star, Issue 17637, 16 April 1921, Page 10

TROTTING IN SOUTHLAND

THE SEASON REVIEWED. (From Our Invercargill Correspondent.) During the season, closed in Southland with the Southland Racing Club’s Autumn Meeting last month, the two trotting clubs with totalisator licenses and the nine racing clubs which include trotting cveqts on their programmes provided lifty-onc trotting races worth £7,935, an average of £l4O a race, and there was invested on these races £110,955, an average per race of £2,176 10s. Ten years ago tho total offered in stakes was £2,350 for thirty-six races, an average of slightly over £65 per race, while the total investments on both racing and trotting events in Southland amounted to only £91,476. Tho Gore Trotting Club, with £1,700, gave the most money in stakes; but the Southland Racing Club at its Summer Meeting, with an average of £238 15s per race, has the highest average stake to its qredit, and its average investment per race at the same meeting, £4,536 10s, is also at tho top of the list. During the season under review tho sport has been well conducted, and only one off cnee has had to be Severely -deal* with—a case of- interference at the Winton Jockey Club’s annual meeting. The figures in the table of meetings show how much followers of the light harness sport are at the mercy of those racing clubs which include trotting events on their programmes, for of the total they provide thirty-five races and £4,935 of the stake money. Should tho executives of theso clubs ever accede to the demands of the racing mom to exclude trotting and cater more liberally for hacks on their programmes, owners of trotting horses will he badly left in this part of the Dominion unless provision is made by tho Government for fresh permits for trotting, and this fact should bo borne in mind by the Racing Commission now touring the country.

The stake money was divided amongst seventy-eight owners this season, and thirty-one of these secured £IOO or over. Ton years ago there were fifty-four owners in the list, only five of them winning over £IOO, and Mr J. Hamilton, jun., headed the list with £167. This year the Ashburton■ owner, Mr H. F. Nicoll, who has always been a .good patron of our leading meetings, bends tho list with £785: but it has not been a good season for visiting owners, the next on the list being Mr J. Henderson, of Oamaru, who is credited with £155, and is tenth on the list. Of the Southland owners Messrs W. J. Dooley £550, T. M. Stewart £405, IV. D. M'Leod £343, W. L. Milne £320, D. Calder £250, Chas. Tulloch £245, Jas. MTvcwen £2lO, and Grose Bros £2lO have done well.

Ninety-two horses shared the prize money, and fifty-seven of them won £IOO or more. Ten years ago fifty-nine got into this list, and four of them won £IOO or more, with Bellflower (£167) on the top of the list. This year Seaward Spot, who has £550 to her credit, tops the list, with War Scot £325 and Coldwatcr £320 next. Then comes a visitor in Indra, with £2BO, and other visitors who are well up arc Promenade £lB5, Oxenwood £155, St. Anthony and Bonnctto each £l4O. Country Queen £260, Oaknnt £245, and Norma Dillon £215 were other Southerners who did well.

Ten seasons ago only thirty-one sires were represented by stake winners, Bellman beading tbe list with £663, and was the only stallion whose progeny won more than £2OO. This season there are fortyeight in all, with the defunct Sir Hector at tho head with £1,175, the largest amount ever credited to. a trotting sire in Southland. Harold Rothschild £630. Four Chimes £SOO, Coldstream Bells £445, Wallace L, £4OO, and Harold Dillon £570 have each been well represented, and twentv-four won over £IOO.

The season has been a particularly successful one for tho Invercargill trainer Alex. M'Lellan, and he rode or drove six winners, was second five, times, and third thrice. J. Welsh with 4j wins, E. J. Dwyer and T. Wallis 4 each, and G. S. Smith 3 are next on this list, then come three visiting horsemen in D. Warren, J. M'Lcnnan, and A. Pringle with 3 each. W. Jones, tho well-known Gore horseman, who is generally round about tho top of the list, got only one winner this season, and is fifteenth on the list.