TROTTING.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 303, 20 November 1935, Page 11

TROTTING.

INDIANAPOLIS’S EARNINGS. AN EXCELLENT RECORD. By winning the New Zealand Trotting Cup, Clarkson Memorial Handicap and Free-For-All at the New Zealand Metropolitan Trotting Club’s Spring Meeting Indianapolis brought his stake earnings to £8137. Ho has contested 46 races for 24 wins and 11 placings, a fine record for a six-year-old. 'lt can safely be .asserted that never before has New Zealand had two four-year-old pacers in one season of the class of Gamble and Graham Direct. At the moment, Gamble is the champion of his age, but there is so little between them that either is likely to finish in front when they meet, though Gamble looks the more likely of the pair to improve. Roi I’Or and Indianapolis have lioth won mile handicaps at Addington this season ; ofl 2.6, a performance that two years ago was regarded as impossible. Indianapolis’s victory on Thursday pegged him back to 2.5 alongside Roi'l’Or, but he is still receiving 12 yards from Harold Logan. The Trotting Cup meeting definitely established Indianapolis as the _ champion pacer of the Dominion, the big six-year-old gaining most impressive wins in each of his three race 6. At last age in required to bow to youth, and this will bo emphasised shortly with War Buoy, Gamble, and Graham Direct forcing themselves into prominence. Harold Logan is. still the most popular pacer. The ovation he was given when leading the way in the Frec-for-All was evidence of thin, but hods obviously over the hill, and, while Roi l’Or was not lucky at the meeting, ho, too, must now resign the crown in favour of the new king. While Harold Logan was decisively beaten in the Free-for-AIl at Addington by several horses, it is doubtful whether Tempest or Roi l’Or would have beaten him had Indianapolis not been in the race. The last-named was superior at all stages and over the last half-mile he kept the gelding up to his work. Harold Logan did not get the breather ho is accustomed to in his races and the attempt to sprint Indianapolis the full length of the straight left him with nothing in teserve to deal with the challenges of Tempest and Roi l’Or in the concluding stages. Although Harold Logan has met his master in Indianapolis there is no suggestion that he will be retired from the track. He has proved a goldmine to his owner, and is at an age when most horses might be expected to be on the down grade; but it should be remembered that Harold Logan did not start racing until he was five years old, and in his tiaining he has not been subjected to the continual daily grind that is thought to be necessary for most pacers and trotters. The little pacer will still have to be reckoned with when the claves suit.