TROTTING NOTES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25466, 22 February 1944, Page 4

TROTTING NOTES

By Sentinel

The tax paid in connection with the Auckland Trotting Club’s meeting amounted to £8250. Some doubt has been expressed about Integrity being able to stay a solidlyrun two-mile race. The doubt will be at least partially dispelled by his performance in the Waimairi Handicap, in which he stepped around 4min 23sec after losing ground at the start. Integrity appeared to make up his lost ground too quickly. He also appeared to be sent out too scon to win and suffered defeat by a narrow margin. Fourteen owners had won over £IOOO this season up to the end of January. The principal winners are as follows: B. Grice £4531 10s, J. R. McKenzie £3500, A. J. Wilson £2730, F. McKendry £2665, E. G. Bridgens £2IBO, A. Holmes and Cooper £IB7O, L. Berkett £1822, D. G. Nyan £IBOO, F. E. Graham £l6lO, J. R. Henderson £1470, A. Holmes £1285, P. A. Watson £1145, M. C. McTigue £ll3O, and Denize and McFlynn £1095. Commenting on the retirement of Mr G. Paul from the position of handicapper to the New Zealand Trotting Conference, the Trotting Calendar said: “Mr Paul was one of the first handicappers to depart from the strict time basis in framing his handicaps, and for this reason he came in for strong criticism when he put some of his revolutionary ideas into operation, but the results of his work soon began to confound the critics. One of Mr Paul’s principal contentions was that it was illogical to penalise a horse registering 2min lOsec in a 2min 20sec class, say, 10 seconds when the fourth and fifth horses, which might have finished within a fraction of a second of the placed horses, could not be brought in line. Mr Paul was rapidly evolving a system of his own, completely divorced from the time factor, and the more lenient view he insisted upon taking of horses putting up fast times on perfect tracks had a big bearing upon the scheme limiting haadicappers’ penalties which was passed by the Trotting Conference in 1929. M The announcement that volume XI of the Trotting Stud Book will be ready for issue at an early date is welcome news. The last volume was issued in 1934 and since then many valuable additions have been made to studs and stables, destined to play an important part in breeding and racing. A danger exists that when the returns of importations and breeding are not promptly returned under official supervision it may lead to a lack of interest in the breeding side of the sport. There were good reasons for the delay in publishing the new volume. The great difficulties to be surmounted by the compiler through a growing laxity on the part of breeders to name and furnish returns leave him with an unenviable task. It would tend to lessen his labours if the authorities insisted that a horse should not be eligible for nomination for any race of classic or semi-classic distinction unless registered for entry in the Stud Book. The Stud Book is the finger post pointing the way to progress, which can only be obtained by breeding the best to the best.