THE INVERCARGILL MEETING.

Otago Witness, Issue 2808, 8 January 1908, Page 54

THE INVERCARGILL MEETING.

The Southland Hacing Club experienced ▼eny bad weather for the opening day of fcheir summer meeting, as a. strong gale of ■wind which was in -evidence throughout tb© entire afternoon made matters very unpleasant for the spectators. However, gales and rains are of common occurrence in the south, and the southerners took the weather philosophically, although the majority of the attendance kept carefully to the leeside of the stand and -other breakwinds on the course. Since the writer's last visit to the

' Invercargill track the club has made further improvements on their property. A new and fairly-imposing entrance gate has been erected, and a few more stalls have been added to the paddock aooommodation. The track -was in good order, and the plough gallop, although a bit narrow, looked like furnishing splendid going. In fact, if the material was on hand, a winner could be as well trained there as on any other track we have. The racing on both days was fairly interesting, although at times the form, going by "the book, wa-s difficult to follow.. Non-triers appeared to be frequent, and on the first day well-baoked fancies won all along the line. This proved disastrous to some of the fielders, and some of them declined to face the music on the ' second day. In this, however, they made a mistake, as several " good things " failed to get returned as winners. Notus, fresh from his victory on the previous day at Wyndham, won the Invercargill Handicap in nice style despite his 71b penalty. He ran the 10 furlongs in 2min losee with 8-7, and apparently had something to spare beside his winning margin. On the second day however, he had to strike his colours to both Jack Ashore and Sam Weller over a mile and a distance. The last-mentioned horses had a duel on the previous day in the Waihopai Handicap, and were respousible for the pace when they met m the Southland Handicap, although the Conqueror gelding did most of the work m that direction. Both the principal sprint races were won easily. Red Morn landed the Fliyng Handicap rery comfortably, but ran indifferently when sent out for the Final Handicap. ' On the second day Disappointment won xne Shtfrts Handicap from end to end. Some of the doings of the runners should have occupied fault-finding attention on the part of- the stewards, but as far as is known the trotting events, which comparatively were more honestly contested than some of the flat races, were the only items on the programme which calied tor inquiries and punishment.