TROTTING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22070, 28 September 1933, Page 5

TROTTING

By Sentinel,

Nominations for the New Zealand Trotting Cup are due to-day. Yankee Land, who shaped promisingly at Geraldine, is a four-year-old gelding by Rey de Oro-r-Evolution. The, Gore Trotting Club will give £1375 in stakes this - year as compared with £1250 last season, Colene Parrish did not race up to expectations at Geraldine, but may not have been,at her best, . Grand Author, who paid a big place dividend, at .Geradline, is a five-year-old f elding by Author Dillon from Franzie ’ointer. J. Grice’s gelding, Chudic, was.liberally supported in . the. Domain Handicap at Geradline, but he broke soon after the start. Chudic is a fiveryear-olfi-pacer by Drusus from a mare by Harold Dillon, and has a big private reputation. Marie .Celeste, who won at Ashburton and Geraldine, was once sold at 300 guineas, and, after being deemed a failure,* resold at a “ tenner,” -... : Argolis, who was amongst those, fancied at. Geraldine, is a four-year-old gelding; by Nelson ■ Derby—Maud Logan,, by Logan Pointer—Precision, by St. Swithin from the thoroughbred mare Kildasa, . The presence .of Satin King at the Methyen meeting, on Saturday will ,prove a most, interesting feature of the .fixture, The. New. Zealand Cup candidate will give an exhibition mile, and, his display is likely to be very keenly observed, ■ as Satin King is already being freely-dis-cussed as the winner of the big November race if he stands up to the searching preparation, required. Among the little-known horses which will be racing at the Kur.ow meeting on Saturday are the followipg:-7rGlen Lady, a six-year-old mare by John Dillon from Gold Patch; Guy Mauritius, a thfee-year-old gelding by Guy Parrish from Vera Mauritius, the dam of Black Jester; Central' Parrish, a three-year-old gelding 1 by Guy Parrish from a Bon Homme mare; and Sylvie’s Best, a gelding by Guy Parrish from Sylvie. At Otahuhu last week Jewel Pointer was given a rousing work-out by S. M. August to determine whether it was worth while persevering with the aged pacer. Lady Coronado and Homeward were sent with Jewel Pointer at diffSrent stages of the mile and a-quarter test, and the two useful mares kept the one-time champion busy. Jewel Pointer did his work splendidly, and .finished with his usual gameness, clocking 2min 43sec, which represents a 2min lOJsec mile gait. He pulled up well after his very solid effort, - and his preparation will be continued. A correspondent of the Auckland Herald writes as follows:—In a recent issrie your trotting writer discusses. Gold Sovereign, and, after remarking that it appears as ■ if his days of, usefulness are past, concludes by saying that a k*t-up of 12 yards is farcical in the case of horses like Gold Sovereign. I presume he means that Gold Sovereign has not been let out sufficiently in his handicap to make his future look likely to be payable. On several occasions I have .noticed remarks to the same effect regarding old horses on hard marks, but cannot agree with them. ' Why should Gold Sovereign, dr any other horse ■ in his position, be let out in his handicap? As with every dog, every trotter has his day, and when that day .is over no trotter should be let up so that he might have the opportunity of robbing some younger trotter of his day. Now, I think, 14 years old, Gold Sovereign haa surely had his day, and to let him out -in his handicap is to penalise those younger and improving trotters who are having their day. I do not say that were he let out his future, which is gone, Would look any rosier, but there is always the possibility, that he might show some of the old form which placed him where he is, and so, with the aid of a substantial let-up, take from a younger horse what is rightfully the latter’s. At one time a trotter of 14 was considered to be in bis prime, but, as far as racing is concerned, the day of the old horse is past. Apart altogether from the unfairness to young horses in letting older horses out in their handicaps, the breeder of tomorrow’s trotter is not getting much inducement to carry on if to-day’s trotters are going to have their handicap marks juggled, thus making them as valuable as the younger horse. No, Gold. Sovereign and/others in the same position have earned their present marks, and until now their'keep, and now that they have apparently reached the limit of their usefulness, as far as the trotting track goes, the only farcical part about the‘business is to keep them in work. Age in man may expect respect, but age in a horse deserves no consideration on a race track.