TROTTING NOTES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23222, 21 June 1937, Page 13

TROTTING NOTES

By Sentinel Twos Loose . Twos Loose is being generally awarded the distinction of the champion two-year-old of the season. The excuse book has a page for the others. Speedy But Unsteady Swordsman has a lot of speed, but in races where steadiness of gait is the main consideration he has not been the ideal racehorse to date. South Island Pacers The South Island representatives at the Auckland meeting on Saturday did not get among the dividends, but it will not be surprising if they get some of the money on the second day. A Useful Team

Mr W. Johnstone, for whom Max Stewart is now trainer, has a team of four racing at the Auckland meetingKing's Play, Lady Fame, Transfer and Transworthy. A Fine Young Pacer Kenworthy, who finished second in the Cornwall Handicap, is a fine young pacer, who has made splendid progress in the last few months. Prior to being unplaced in the Coronation Cup at Claudelands, Kenworthy had not missed a place in 10 starts, and he won the Taranaki Trotting Cup for F. V. Cutts very easily. T. Tilson The death is announced from Invercargill of Mr Thomas Tilson, one of the oldest trotting trainers in the Dominion. Formerly a resident of the Ashburton district, deceased went to Southland about 30 years ago, and al one time had a large number of pacers and trotters under his care at Invercargill He was a good reinsman, and won a number of races on Southland courses. He was in his eighty-firsi year at the time of his death. Almont

Almont's three-mile pacing record of 6min 50sec has stood for 34 years, mainly because racing over the distance was long since discontinued, bin it ranks as a world record, and keeps Almont's name evergreen. Almont, a son of Rothschild and the Berlin mare Puella, was bred by the late H. Mace, Brooklyn, Canterbury, in 1896 He was a beautiful dark bay, with black points, standing over 16 hands. His many great public performances included, in 1902, a two-mile event at Christchurch in which he ran the last mile in 2min 13sec and the last halfmile in lmin 4sec —sensational figures for those days. At Epsom Victoria. in his match which he won against the well-known performer Lightfoot. he covered the two miles over a rough grass track in 4min 36 2-ssec. Although the time was fast, yet it is no measure of his marvellous speed; he was nol extended at any part of the journey, and won pulling up by nearly a furlong. At Ascot, in 1903, he covered a mile in 2min 12 l-ssec, thus gaining the Australian record held by his fullblooded relation, Fritz (2min 13 2-ssec) On the same track he lowered the Australian and New Zealand two-mile record held by the famous New Zealand horse Ribbonwood, from 4min 35 4-ssec to 4min 32 l-ssec. At Ascot he lowered the world's three-mile record, made in America nine years before by Nightingale, 6min 55isec, to 6min 50sec, thus proving himself to be one of the greatest horses ever foaled.