Trotting Cup Always Been Difficult to Win From the Back Mark

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26916, 30 October 1948, Page 5

Trotting Cup Always Been Difficult to Win From the Back Mark

When Harold Logan won the New Zealand Trotting Cup in 1932 he started from 60 yards behind, but the limit was then 4min 26sec. Highland Fling is also 60 yards behind in to-day’s race, but it is a ssec tighter class. These facts must be borne in mind in assessing the champion’s chances in this year’s Cup, particularly when it is asserted that “ what Harold Logan can do, Highland Fling can do better.” But there is also the time factor to be taken into serious account. Harold Logan won this race in 1932 in 4min 16 2-ssec. Haughty, in winning her first Cup in 1942 went 4min 13 l-ssec, starting from scratch, and the following year, from 36yds, improved l-ssec, winning time that has not been equalled for the race. Both Indianapolis and Josedale Grattan improved on Harold Logan’s time. Emulous also has a winning record of 4min 12 2-ssec, and another candidate for Cup honours to-day, Single Direct, was timed to go 4min 11 2-ssec when he followed Ingle Belmer and Worthy Gold home in the President’s Handicap on the third day of the last Auckland Cup meeting. When he won the Cup last year, Highland Fling was only called upon to go 4min 18 2-ssec, but he won with surprising ease, considering the class field behind him, and from some of his later performances there is no doubt that he could have appreciably bettered that time. It is obvious, however, that if Single Direct, Emulous, or half-a-dozen of the other horses in the field ran up to their best form, Highland Fling will be called upon to better 4min lOsec to have a chance. The New Zealand Trotting Cup has been a difficult race for the back-marker. In 1924 Realm was third from 72yds, and in the following year, Great Bingen, from 60yds, was second, Great Hope, 72yds, being fourth. Great Bingen was fourth in 1927 from 60yds, and in 1934, Harold Logan was fourth from 72yds. Lawn Derby, the only other horse to start from 60yds, failed to get into the money. It will thus be seen that Highland Fling, on the present tight limit, is facing the greatest task that any horse has ever faced in the history of the race.