HORSEPOWER IN NEW QUARTERS

Southland Times, Issue 23548, 30 June 1938, Page 10

HORSEPOWER IN NEW QUARTERS

Mr Barton’s Latest Purchase

ROYAL DOULTON FOR AUSTRALIA The New Zealand Metropolitan Trotting Club shows a balance of assets over liabilities amounting to £91,238 7/-. The club distributed £39,775 in stake money during the year. Perseverance Since 1928 Almont Cling, then a five-year-old, has started in 78 races for one win and four placed performances. He is engaged at the Oamaru meeting. Taxation. Bill During the past season’s operations the New Zealand Metropolitan Trotting Club paid £21,195 8/3 in taxation and paid salaries and wages amounting to £2527 19/6. Lease of De Soto De Soto, who last season won £l5OO in stakes for Mr C. Johnston, has been leased for two years to V. Leeming. But for earning disqualification for a period, De Soto would probably have added considerably to this total dur-

ing the present season, and he might have taken a prominent part in the inter-Dominion championship. Although he is on a fairly tight mark, De Soto is only seven years old, so he should have several seasons of profitable racing in front of him..

Outstanding Performances

Among several outstanding performances registered in the Auckland province during the closing term, those of Nervie’s Last and Lawn Derby, two unhoppled Australian-bred pacers stand out. Nervie’s Last paced a mile without straps in 2min 4 2-ssec, equalling the Australian grass track record of Happy Voyage and Impromptu. Nervie’s Last also took a mile and a-hal( record of 3min 15 l-ssec and a two mile record of 4min 21 l-ssec.- The Auckland pacer has not been regarded as a true stayer but he is a very game pacer and his free-legged displays were quite a feature of the championship meeting at Addington at Easter. Lawn Derby, who was returned a winner at Epsom, recorded 4min 17 3-ssec for two miles, also without the aid of straps. Australia has produced a number of fine unhoppled pacers and Lawn Derby and Nervie’s Last are entitled to be considered in the first flight. Another For Australia Royal Doulton, a member of Mr G. J. Barton’s team, is the latest New Zealand pacer to be sold to Australia and she will accompany Tempest and Cloudy Range to the Commonwealth and race in the same interests as this pair. At C. S. Donald’s dispersal sale some time ago Royal Doulton was one of the high-priced lots of the sale and it was expected that the Jack Potts mare would win her way to good company, This she has failed to do in spite of repeated opportunities. Although Royal Doulton may fail to make a name for herself on the race track she has excellent credentials for stud purposes. Her dam Quality has produced a number of promising young pacers and she was a great race mare herself and took a record of 4min 27 4-ssec over two miles. Quality was by Denver Huon from Lady Superior, by General Mac from Lady Criterion, an Australianbred mare by King Harold, a son of Rothschild’s sire, Childe Harold. Lady Superior is the dam of Cardinal Logan (4.27 4-5), Bankhead, Richore (winner of the Sapling Stakes), Summit and others, while Royal Drusus (2.41 2-5) is out of one of Lady Superior’s daughters. Horsepower Sold

Some importance is attached to the sale of the season’s leading three-year-old pacer, Horsepower, by Mr G. Rosenbaum, of Wellington, to Mr G. J. Barton, who is at present visiting Australia. Horsepower was bred by Mr Rosenbaum, who is a very keen student of breeding, and who .still owns Free Advice (the dam of Horsepower) as well as Mountain Dell, another outstanding race mare. The three-year-old has joined J. Fraser’s team. Both Free Advice and Mountain Dell proved themselves genuine stayers and represent the best blood lines in the Dominion. After showing outstanding form in Winning the first two-year-old race of last season—the North Island Challenge Stakes Horsepower was a disappointment in the early three-year-old classics. Later this season, however, he won the Great Northern Derby, the Champion Stakes and then the All Aged Stakes. In the latter race he ran 3min 17sec for a mile and a-half, and this performance stamped him as one of the best of his age ever raced. In all his races Horsepower has impressed as a genuine stayer, and it was only his fine fighting qualities which won him the All Aged Stakes. This is doubtless one of the reasons that Mr Barton thought so highly of the three-year-old’s ability as in another year he will be given plenty of scope as a stayer. Free Advice was by Blue Mountain King (a dual Auckland Cup winner, by Ribbonwood, one of the best sons of Wildwood) from Intaglie, by Logan Pointer from Cameos (the dam of Onyx), by Galindo (a son of McKinney) from Thelma, by Kentucky from Pride of Lincoln, by Touchstone. Thelma proved herself one of the most prolific of all colonial-bred producers, and her list included Wildwood Junior, Authoress (dam of Author Dillon), Adonis (the sire of many good winners before being sent to Australia), Lady Sybil (the dam of Cardinal and Blue),

and Waverley (the sire of Willow Wave and many other good Southland winners)

Trotting in Victoria

On the occasion of a recent visit by members of the Victorian Parliamentary Sports and Social Club to Perth they were tendered a reception at Gloucester Park, headquarters of the Western Australian Trotting Association. Mr W. Beckett, one of the Victorian visitors, in a speech, declared that trotting in Victoria had been treated disgracefully. There was a time, he said, when Victoria exported thousands of pounds worth of horseflesh annually to India and other parts of Australia. One thousand pounds a day was then the minimum amount of stake money—now it was £4OO. A single race frequently carried £lOOO, and juvenile classics were endowed to the amount of £2OOO, for an individual race. These had all gone as the result of interference by Parliament. They had lost racing dates, and even lost their course. Preference had been given to a sport which was of no benefit to farmers or the State in the shape of dog racing. They had 200 dates as against 20 for trotting. It was shameful, but the day of the utility horse would come and was not very far distant. Perth was an object lesson to Victoria in the manner in which they provided amusement for those people who had to work by day but were free at night.