TROTTING NOTES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24951, 25 June 1942, Page 7

TROTTING NOTES

By Sentinel Commencing on August 1, the South Australian Trotting League will require owners of sires to pay a fee of £2 2s each year. The Metropolitan Trotting Club reserves the right to select horses for the Free-for-All of £7OO. The selection will be made after the final payments, and all fees for non-starters will be refunded. According to Australian critics, discretionary handicapping has been working a very noticeable improvement in the trotting meetings and also in the betting market. There seems to be a very remote chance of discretionary handicapping being restored in New Zealand. At Ascot on June 1 the stakes for the two principal events were worth £BO (2 24 class) and £75, and two others oi £25 and £3O. The Ascot course is the racing headquarters of. the Victoria Racing and Trotting Association, which has secured the same number of days for racing as the Victoria Racing Club for Flemington. The South Australian Trotting League has adopted a rule which provides tha "the owner of every registered sire shall keep a written record on the prescribed form of all mares served by such sire, and within 29 days lodge a copy thereof with the league." A rule on similar lines is required in New Zealand. According to a writer in the Australian Trotting Record, the lack of interest in light-harness racing in Sydney is due to a serious lack in the way of publicity. It requires the appointment of a publicity agent and an improvement on the very meagre advertising. The writer goes on to say: "The low prize money lends itself to a great temptation to let horses run a bye and wait for bigger prize money."