TROTTING NOTES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23515, 1 June 1938, Page 15

TROTTING NOTES

By Sentinel Toorak Toorak was hopelessly pocketed in his race at Addington and got into deeper trouble when Eighteen Carat came back on him. Horsepower On the form displayed at Addington last Saturday, Horsepower proved himself out of the ordinary by putting up 3min 17 l-ssec as a three-year-old performance. Saddle and Harness 1 Marsceres and Heather Queen, who had failed rather badly in the Ellesmere Handicap of a mile and a-quar-ter on Saturday, performed much better in saddle when produced later in the day. There are some horses that appear to go much better in saddle than in harness, and the wonder is that their owners do not keep them to one class of racing. The performances of these two horses in the earlier race would not encourage support for a later engagement, but whereas Marsceres in the mile and a-quarter race carried 57 and 142 tickets on the two machines, he carried 439 and 522 when paraded in saddle. Heather Queen carried 58 and 90 tickets in the harness race and 125 and 237 in the mile saddle. The betting on Whippet also provided a contrast, for in harness he carried 18 and 45 tickets and in the saddle race the totals were 144 and 195 A Clever Reinsman

The mere winning of races does not make a driver a good one, for often the horse is good enough to win in spite of its driver, and often a welldriven race is more on account of happenings in the race rather than anv expert reinsmanship. Yet due credit must be given to the Oamaru reinsman, D. C. Watts, for his success with Red Pigeon and Waipahu Both victories were gained (says the Press) because of the great judgment shown by Watts, who in each case reserved his run until the others had given of their best. Race-driving is much like athletics and football, and the man who comes from behind and gets the last run in usually wins. There are far too few men of the D. C, Watts class, and this young driver, like many others, had first of all a good apprenticeship in the galloping sport. Watts is a resident of Oamaru. and while not in the centre of the trotting sport, his services are more in demand than those of most drivers.