RACING & TROTTING

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 18823, 11 March 1931, Page 13

RACING & TROTTING

On and Off the Track. A BUDGET OF NEWS AND VIEWS FIXTURES. Racing: Mar. 11, 12—Dannevirke R.C. Mar. 14, 17—Wellington R.C. Mar. 14, 17—Ohinemuri J.C. Mar. 17 —Opunake R.C. Mar. 19—Waimate R.C. Mar. 21—Bay of Plenty J.C. Mar. 23—Oamaru J.C. Mar. 21, 23 Manawatu R.O. Mar. 26—Opotiki J.C. Mar. 26 —Otautau R.C. Mar. 28, 30—Westport J.C. April 4—Tuapeka County J.C. April 4, 6 —Wairarapa R.C. April 4, 6—Feilding J.C. April 4, 6—Auckland R.C. April 4,6, 7—Riverton R.C. April 6—Beaumont R.C. April 6—Waipukurau J.C. April 6 —Kumara R.C. April 6—Waipapakauri R.C. April 6, 7—Canterbury J.C. Trotting: March 14—Timaru T.C. March 18—Wyndham T.C. March 21—Cheviot T.C. March 23—South Otago T.C. March 25 Manawatu T.C. March 28—Wellington T.C. March 28—Thames T.C. April 4, B—N.Z. Metropolitan T.C. April 4, 6 —Hawera T.C. Dannevirke races to-day and tomorrow. Timaru Trotting Club’s meeting on Saturday. Wellington meeting Saturday and Tuesday. The-first race at Washdyke on Saturday is timed to start at 12 o’clock. Kilfane, who has been off the scene for some time, has been nominated for the hack steeplechases at Riverton. The Southland pacer, Erin’s Advance, owned by the veteran S. Inder, is now in J. McLennan’s stable at Oamaru. The New Zealand St. Leger is not often won by a filly, but this year it looks a good thing for Lady Pam. A train will leave Timaru for the racecourse on Saturday at 11.5. A return train is timed to depart from the racecourse platform at 5.25. The ex-North Island jockey, N. Trillo, who was in Southland for some time, is now at Washdyke.

The Wrack mare Lydia was sold at Invercargill for 60gns. Sea Mist was allowed to go at the same figure. Bracken was passed in at 105gns. Mount Boa and Lord Argosy are the South Canterbury entrants for the Great Easter Handicap. Mount Boa and Glenrowan are engaged in the Great Autumn.

Ministerial sanction has been given to the Amberley and Hororata Clubs to hold a combined meeting at Riccarton on May 2nd. Permission to use the course is forthcoming, and all that is required now is a permit from the Racing Conference. The Nelson Trotting Club last year held its meeting at Greymouth. This season the fixture lapsed at Nelson owing to lack of entries, and last Saturday’s races were held at Wellington. Everybody in Auckland is waiting for the English trainer F. Smith to take Miss Braeside to the races. The Canadian pacer is showing a lot of speed in her work. “Put and take” is the way her prospects are summed up. Wiltshire is in steady work in the Waikato, and another Grand National winner, Beau Cavalier, is undergoing a preparation at Ellerslie. It is to be hoped that both stand up to strong work, as ’chasers of their class are not numerous.

An acceptance of 19 for the Timaru Trotting Cup makes pleasant reading, and the presence of the two crack three-year-olds—Red Shadow and Arethusa—will lend additional interest to the big race. There is little prospect of the Hawke’s Bay or Napier Park Clubs racing in their own territory this season, but a suggestion has been made that they should hold fixtures at Trentham or Awapuni. The Waipukurau Club is undecided concerning its Easter Monday date. The acceptances for the Timaru Trotting Club’s meeting on Saturday show a satisfactory increase on those for last autumn meeting, and are greatly in excess of those received for the January fixture this year. In January the average per race was 111; for Saturday next the average is 14. South Canterbury horses have been nominated fairly freely for the Riverton meeting at Easter. Included in the entry lists are Town Major, Glenrowan, Admiral Drake, Inevitable, Shortly, Jock o’ Hazeldean, Red Royal, Pharaoh, High Speed, Totolomai, Otauru Lass, Valves, Deportment, After Ten, Willow Glen and Diamond Jack.

The defeat of Phar Lap by Waterline was the sensational feature of the V.R.C. meeting. The penalty and allowance conditions required the champion to concede 211 b to the other four-year-old New Zealander, so that there was no disgrace in his defeat. Actually it was a better performance than Phar Lap’s win in the Futurity Stakes at Caulfield last month, when Mystic Peak, still another New Zealander, ran him to a neck when receiving only lib. The disqualification of Courtlike at Blenheim, after winning the Brookby Handicap, was due to short-weight being carried. A 51b apprentice allowance was claimed, contrary to the Rules of Racing. The race was a highweight event with 9.0 minimum, and under the rules no allowance can be taken in races in which the minimum is 8.0 or over. The onus is on owners and trainers to carry correct weights, but a wide-awake clerk of scales would have prevented such a position arising. Racing and trotting club executives in New Zealand have not had a happy time this season, but things are very much worse in New South Wales. The financial stringency caused many country clubs to suspend operations, and the strongest city clubs felt the pinch. Then the Lang bets tax was imposed, and its effects have been disastrous. The bookmakers are fast becoming unemployed, and where it was at one time possible to invest thousands at Randwick without depressing the market, a few hundreds nowadays are sufficient to glut the betting market on a horse. The outlook for the A.J.C. meeting at Easter is anything but bright.

The handicapping of Arachne for the Nelson Club’s meeting continues to be freely discussed. Arachne won at Kaikoura off 4.44, in a 4.50 class, and at the Nelson meeting was placed on 4.38. The extreme penalty allowed by the system for a win in a 4.50 class is ssec, and the owner contends that the mare could not legally be placed further back than 4.39. The handicapper, however, claims that he was entitled to base the penalty on a faster mark that Arachne had been on prior to the Kaikoura meeting. This appears to be an evasion of the system, and it will be interesting to see what ruling the Trotting Association will give on the point. Arachne won off 4.44, and it seems reasonable to assume that any penalty should be based on that mark. The incident makes another arrow for the quiver of the advocates of fixed penalties.

Shipshape started four times at the Cromwell fixture, for three seconds and a third.

P. T. Hogan left yesterday en route for Auckland with Dulen. The two-year-old has engagements in important juvenile events at Ellerslie at Easter. F. Trilford departed yesterday for Trentham with the Irish colt Lord Argosy, who is booked to race in the Challenge Stakes, and Silver Salver. Apart from his record time at Trentham, Glare did nothing in New Zealand to suggest that he could win an Australian Cup with 9.0, and he will now drop out of the boom for a time. The trotting meeting at Hutt Park last week was styled the Nelson meeting, but it was run by the Wellington Trotting Club, and there was not a single horse from Nelson at the fixture. It is stated that Mr J. R. McKenzie has a scheme for handicapping trotters and pacers, in which the penalties would be based on the amount of money won. Gustavo is to be spelled until next season. The three-year-old brother to Count Cavour has been rather unlucky, and has not been able to show his real merit.

The imported stallion Hoylake has developed tendon trouble, and it is unlikely that any further attempt will be made to train him. His retirement will not be regretted by starters.

It is reported that a South Canterbury trainer will shortly transfer to Wingatui, to take up the position of private trainer to a Dunedin sportsman.

R. McDonald paid 20gns for Ilkley, and won three races with the Sutala gelding at Cromwell. The stakes were small, but it did not take long to show a profit on the deal. The abandonment of the Oamaru meeting was unfortunate for the Waimate Club, as it is certain that more horses would have been available if there had been two days’ racing. A. D. Webster arrived in Sydney yesterday with First Acre, the two-year-olds Movie Star and Hunt the Slipper, and a pony named Enter. The Australian climate, or the Australian class, suits First Acre, as this hardy gelding has won eight races there. Memories swerved away from the barrier on the first day at Cromwell, and his backers did not get a run. He made amends by winning a double on the second day, and has won three races since going into C. Gieseler’s stable.

Pink Coat has been in light work at Washdyke, but it is very unlikely that the attempt to put him through a preparation will be persevered with. The prospects of getting Pink Coat to the post again were not bright, but he was such a high-class galloper that the effort was worth making.

Autopay, winner of the Ascotvale Stakes at Flemington, was bred at Elderslie, Oamaru, and was sold for 140gns as a yearling. The stake was worth £IOSO to the winner, and as the Tea Tray colt had previously won a couple of decent races, he has turned out a cheap horse. Officials of the Hawke’s Bay and Napier Park Racing Clubs were in Wellington during the week conferring with the Racing Conference and the Wellington Racing Club with a view to having their autumn meetings held at Trentham. Although arrangements are not yet finalised, it is practically certain that these clubs will race at Wellington headquarters. Napier Park has been offered Saturday, April 11, and Hawke’s Bay has Saturday, April 18, its usual date.

The Oamaru Jockey Club holds four totalisator permits per year, but for two or three seasons it has held only three days races. It abandoned its January meeting this season, and now has adopted a similar course in connection with its autumn fixture which was listed for Anniversary Day, March 23rd. The reason given is poor nominations. As it has decided that it is unable to make a success of a meeting on a public holiday, it seems unlikely that the Club will race at all this season.

The report of a sub-committee of the Forbury Park Trotting Club, which was appointed to consider the question of handicapping, stated that the present system, as a system, would be very hard to improve upon, but the subcommittee suggested that (1) the Trotting Association should supply handicappers with the correct times of all placed horses at every trotting meeting; (2) that conference should give a lead to handicappers in respect to the penalties to be imposed on horses which run a dead heat; (3) that conference should issue as a guide to handicappers a uniform table of gaits for horses in the different distances. The report was approved. In the Trial Handicap (3.42) at the Timaru meeting, Belle Lorimer was rehandicapped to 120yds behind, or 3.32. In the Seadown Handicap (3.36) she was rehandicapped to 60yds behind, or 3.31. That looks to be inconsistent, but it is recognised that a backmarker has a very hard row to hoe in a 3.42 class, and the concession of a second cannot be cavilled at. There was, however, a possibility of an interesting situation arising. Mr G. Paul, in handicapping Arachne for the Nelson meeting, claimed the right to base a penalty on a horse’s previous mark, which might be tighter than that from which it won. If that principle is endorsed by the Trotting Association, it would have been possible, in the unlikely event of Belle Lorimer winning the Trial Handicap off 3.32, to have the penalty calculated from 3.31. However, R. B. Berry’s mare will not be at the meeting. Possibly the point will be cleared up by the Trotting Association this week.

The success of the trotting meeting held at Richmond (N.S.W.) a fortnight ago, when bookmakers were not licensed to bet, has resulted in the opinion being expressed in Sydney that before long the clubs will fall in line with New Zealand and banish the bookmakers from all trotting courses. In view of the decreased receipts which clubs have been receiving at meetings during the past twelve months it was a courageous step on the part of the Richmond Club to turn down the license fees of the pencillers and confine all betting to the totalisator. As matters turned out the move was surprisingly successful and popular, and according to views expressed by owners, trainers and others in the Press, the death knell of the bookmaker on trotting courses has been sounded. The prices returned by the machine were considerably better than those which the bookmakers would have offered. There was plenty of betting, arid instead of experiencing a loss over the meeting the Richmond Club will show a profit of something like £2OO. A writer in the Sydney “Sportsman,” after commenting upon the “bookieless” trotting meeting, also mentions that at Randwick there is to be a change in the totalisator betting, and in addition to a place machine there will be facilities for straight-out betting.