TROTTING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21446, 22 September 1931, Page 5

TROTTING

By Sentinel.

Wrackler’s chance of winning at Ashburton last week can be seen from the fact that he was giving 19sec to Actor, who won in 3min 25 l-ssec. This means that Wrackler would require to step better than 3.6 to hold a winning chance. The death of Don Warren, who was for many years sncessfully associated with Mr H. Ft Nicoll’s stud and training stable, will be greatly regretted by a large number of friehds. Warren was a very successful trainer and reinsrann and developed Wrackler and other good winners. There was not much between Plain Silk and Giro when they met at the Ashburton winter meeting, and their form still remains very close. Giro as a thrce-ycar-old lias a better chance of improving than the Real Silk gelding, who is two years older than the Wrack —Pear! Child colt. The Author Dillon—Marie Tempest gelding Actor, who won at Ashburton, is getting on in years, as he appeared on the scene in 1922. Winning honours are coming a bit late in life, but such a well-bred sort may yet gain higher distinction than he inis won np-to-date. Actor was got

by Author Dillon from Marie Tempest, by Van Coronado —Marie Narelle, by VanJ. •E. Phair has trained some good horses in his time, but (says a Sydney writer) he has never had a square trotter before of the calibre of the Dixie Derby —Timber Queen horse, Phcenix Dixie. This trotter is only six years old, and is improving with every run in public. After winning a Progressive Handicap, of one mile and a-quarter, in 2min Slisec, or a 2.17 gait, he ran second in a one mile and a-halt handicap in 3min 26Jsec. He recently eclipsed both these smart performances by trotting a mile and a-half in the A.T.C. Handicap in 3min 24sec, or 2.16 to the mile. Even at this speed, he could only finish fourth to a top-notch pacer, Maher Cup (3.234), but Phmuix Dixie’s performance marks him as the best square trotter racing in the Commonwealth to-day, and the best since Grand Voyage trotted 2.13 to the mile in a Flying Handicap at Epping (now Harold Park), some years ago, A peculiarity of Phoenix Dixie is that he cannot show to advantage on a small track. With ordinary luck, this six-year-old horse will establish fresh records for a square trotter on Australian trotting tracks. Trotting at agricultural and other shows is without doubt the best means of advertising and popularising the light-harness sport with the public. People who do not go to a trotting meeting look forward to seeing the trotting events at the city and country shows, and advantage should be taken of this fact to encourage them to follow this attractive sport. It is easy to become enthusiastic about trotting, ami if carnivals or shows at which trotting was the main feature were frequently held trotting would soon rival galloping in popular favour. In New Zealand (says a writer in the Sydney Referee) the sport exceeds galloping in public esteem, although New Zealand possesses some of the finest gallopers in the southern hemisphere. In Tasmania and Western Australia the position is the same, and, as everyone knows, the premier horse sport in the U.S.A. is trotting. Several countries in Europe are devoted to trotting, and they spend large sums of money every year in America for standard-bred trotting horses. All these facts prove that where trotting has at least an equal chance with galloping of gaining popular favour, it has become the premier horse sport of the people. Trotting appeals to the ordinary observer because it is spectacular. As a spectacle it excels galloping, and has an advantage over that sport, because every horse in a race is easily followed. The average galloping race is of short duration, and, as a consequence, there is a great deal of scrambling for position, resulting in bunched fields. The time is approaching, however, when trotting will be strong enough to challenge galloping, and when this occurs it will more than hold its own with that sport.