WINGAIUI.

Otago Witness, Issue 2454, 27 March 1901, Page 43

WINGAIUI.

While on a visit to the Wingatui racecourse las-c week I took the opportunity of having a quiet stroll round the racing track to see for myself what grounds there were for the complaints of certain trainers that the course was 60 rtaiaotive that their horses were unable t<

fchow their true form on it. It has been a 4 serted by the dissatisfied ones that there ar^ so many hills and dales in the racing track 1 ; that it is next to impossible for a strangO 1 horse to run well on it ; but a close inspection^ of the raring area leaves me with the opinioj^ that there is only one defect of any gre»« magnitude, and that is the dip which occurw just after entering the straight. If lam rigbA in my opinion, then all I can say is that so_u\ people are easily displeased, for if Wingatr; is a hilly course, what price the Aucklant\ track ! Anyone who has visited the norther JV nice-course must ha\e observed that there arV two or three mountains to be climbed in th. 1 course of a longish race, yet we hear little o^', nothing in disparagement of that convincing ground. No; trainers are apt, when theiA charges fail to run as well as expected, t(\ blame the going, when, as a matter of fact they themselves are to blame for the mannei' in which they treat their horses. To take ft caso in point. Tortulla arrived three day, \ before the Dunedin Cup meeting, and becaus^ she made no show in the Cup M'Taggart &\ once attributed her inglorious display to thVv fact that the track did not suit the Torpedo mare — that, in fact, she could not gallop on such a track. There is a deal of moonshini i iv such a statement. Had the mare beem well, and given a fair chance — which she had not been given. — I haven't the least doub\ but that she could, have galloped as well ati Wingatui as she could on any other course, as i did her stable companions, Advance and Boreas. As I said before, there is one defec» in the course, but I understand that after thi ■ May meeting the D.J.C. Committee intend having that portion levelled up, and the rail ings run all the way lound the course.