Trotting

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1043, 6 August 1930, Page 12

Trotting

ADDINGTON TOPICS

CARNIVAL OPENS ON SATURDAY GOOD FIELDS ENGAGED The excellent acceptances received yesterday for the opening day of the New Zealand Metropolitan Trotting Club’s national carnival should ensure the success of the function. Large fields will be the order of the day and winners will be well concealed and difficult to spot, as is customary at the opening of the new season. Latest reports from the South state weather conditions have been all against training operations. The bull: of the work is done on the cinder track but trainers do not depend on this circuit for winding-up essays. It Is suggested that Addington-trained candidates will be a bit backward on the opening day Anyhow, there is three days’ racing. One ot the most open races on the Metropolitan programme the first da> is the Selwyn Handicap. Lindbergh is a..particularly brilliant pacer, and may be expected to hold off Eugene do Ore* and Warplane. * * • M. JLJ. Edwards is not so strongly represented as usual at the Metropolitan August meeting, but in §arsaI purilla and Krina he has a pair who have only to elect to give of their best to be among the stake-earners at tb** meeting. Regal Voyage should be the hardest to beat in the Trial Handicap at Addington next Saturday, and the most likely to bring about her downfall are Country King'and Apex. The last named looks well and has worked pleasingly on more than one occasion of late. There is little doubt that Erin’s Pointer will be the public selection for the Advance Handicap, the race for four-year-olds at Addington next Saturday. as her records of 2.45 4-5, and 3.25 cannot be denied. She is in splendid fettle for the meeting, and unless Glenrossie has improved to any great extent, she should triumph. Midland showed up really well by following Fifa home on the first day of the Canterbury Park winter meeting after a slow beginning, and there is a lot to be said in favour of his chances of bringing about the defeat of the fancied division for the Introductory Handicap at Addington this month. He is doing everything asked of him by A E. Bussell at New Brighton s * • Wakataua comes from a family’ of proved stayers and he gives every- promise of advancing the fame of that family. The way be beat Logan’s Pride all the way of the last two furlongs of the Ellesmere Handicap at the Canterbury Park winter meeting was good enough to insure that he will take a lot of heading from a 4.34 mark. * * o R. \Y. Townley succeeded in getting Herbilwyn to trot solidly this season, and was unlucky not to win with trotter. Herbilwyn. who ranks as a brother to Jean McElwyn, has a rare burst of speed which he has not always controlled, but anything approaching his best form would make the son ot Nelson Bingen and Miss Spiers a thorn in the side of 3.32 class opposition

Pluto’s bold showing in the Ashburton County’ Handicap will ensure that he will have a following for August engagements. Anything approaching his form of last August would spell success for the Denver lluon gelding. * • * Aleron has come through his preparation in sound order. The Oinako gelding is better than he has yet been required to show in public. One that is likely to go well is Country King. He has done plenty of solid work on the cinder track at Addington lately and is cherry ripe. Erin’s Fortune w’il] be the Southland hope at Addington next Saturday and her chances of sharing in the prize money are fancied in the home province. Rose Audo may continue on her winning way in the decision of the Stewards’ Handicap at the Metropolitan August meeting, btt. between them. Sarsaparilla and Admiral Bingen are sure to make her do it all the way • * * The big problem of the Queen Mary Handicap -at present sfeems to be the choosing of something likely to beat Harold Logan, but unless the gelding

responds to veterinary treatment for unsoundness, he may not be a starter. Provided he is got to the post sound, this vastly’-iniproved pacer is. regarded as having a mortgage on the race, and if anything is destined to upset him, it should come from Wakataua. Erin’s Fortune and Logan’s Pride.

J. Young, the Scottish trainer, is expected to arrive in New Zealand with a team of five horses early this month, and will set up as a public trainer in stables adjoining the Addington course The horses will not be required to undergo a period of quarantine, as the dreaded foot and mouth disease is not carried by English horses. Young is Uie father of R. Young, who was connected with Mr. J. R. McKenzie’s stable until recently.

Explanation Offered on Handicapping Fiasco SPECIAL CIRCUMSTANCES As mentioned in THE SUN after the appearance of the New Zealand Metropolitan Trotting Ciub’s handicaps, the handicapping of Warplane in the Queen Mary Handicap of two miles was considered by the owner to be unsatisfactory. •Mrs. Sweetapple immediatelv suratclied her pacer for the two-mile event and asked for an explanation of Warplane’s mark. It will be remembered that the per-

formances of the Man o’ War ..ver two miles since his Hamilton v s 1 : lory was published .n The Sun, show' iiig that subsequent to his on.l the Hawera Cup off 4.36. Warpian* J 5 three times unplaced off 1.35 the L/.r occasion being at Epsom , V hn assessed by Mr. Pa til, who placed hitrl back tq 4.34 at Addington. iTO The Metropolitan Club has furnivh-i Mrs. Sweetapple with the handicap per s explanation. The gist of the renhis hinged on two factors. namelv firstly. that Warplane was not suflP-i ’ ently penalised by the Hawera hand! capper for his cup showing, and se*'” ondlv. that he was placed on 435 w the Adams Memorial Handicap und*i “special circumstances.” After roinr into the question at length the Chri«V I church adjuster contends he was lied in placing Warplane on 4 34. “Side-step and Dummy** Mr. Paul has attempted to ** B id . step” the issue by his contention "thai Mr. Goosman should have penalise, i Warplane 24yds for his second” in th» Hawera Cup, evidently because tk' Epsom pacer went a good race tramped 4.31. But later the Christ church adjuster places Warplane on 4.35. the same mark as allotted him UMr. Goosman. but on this occasion WPaul delivers “the dummy” in presence to the “side-step” by adding “ur. der special circumstances.” Allowing the Southerner's view o* , Warplane's mark to be correct at Ul, I why the special circumstances at-’ tached to the Adams Memorial adjus;- , ment? Of course, every schoolboy * knows by now that it was in an erI deavour to stop Harold Logan that | horses were placed on what has turned j out to be “false marks.” Juggling the System And in the attempt to defeat Harold Logan Mr. Paul was defeating tji.-. “ends of justice” as far as the Trotting i Association’s system of handicapping is concerned. For his victory in the mile and a-quarter on the first day at Auckland. Harold Logan was pepal'is** C6yds from his two-mile Hobson Handicap mark (4.37), which, to the nnjority of students of handicapping, was of the severest nature. Then on top of this the others (according to Mr. Paul's subsequent reasoning) were let up another 12yds. so in reality the eventual Adains Cup winner was penalised 4Syds for winning a lu-furlong heat. To justify bis 24yds penalty on Warplane for his Hawera Cup second. Mr. Paul quotes the Epsom pacers performances since February last, showing where he ran second at Alexandra Park and Thames over a mile and a-quarter, first at Hamilton in two miles and second at Haw**ra over a similar distance. Some fourth positions—none of which carry any priz l ; money or penalty—are also mentioned, but nothing is said of the 10 failur-cs recorded earlier in the season Nightmare and Ghosts Mr. Paul having definitely stared that Warplane’s two-mile mark is 4.34, further confirms his inconsistency in dealing with the “limitation of penalties” system. Here a horse is penalised 24yds for a second berth, while pacers like Wrackler and Jean McElwyn. winners of big h*gli-class heats, receive a 12yds penalty fer a win. With this sort of thing going on. making “ducks and drakes” of a system which was supposed to protect owners by Its equitableness, it is not surprising that Mr. John Rowe, president of the Auckland Trotting Club and vice-president of the New Zealand Conference, staled publicly last month that the system was to him a nightmare. To owners, who appear to get it “in the wherever possible, it is worse than a nightmare, and will prove the “ghost" that will scare them out of the game.