RACING & TROTTING

Timaru Herald, Volume CXL, Issue 20294, 18 December 1935, Page 6

RACING & TROTTING

On and Off the Track A BUDGET OF NEWS AND VIEWS FIXTURES Racing: Dec. 26—Waipufcurau J.C. Dec. 26, 28—Taranaki J.C, Dec. ?S, 23, 30—Westland R.C. Dec. 26, 28—Dunedin J.C. Dec. 26. 27. 28— Manawatu R.C. Jan. 1, 2—Auckland R.C. Jan. I—Waikouaiti1 —Waikouaiti R.C. Jan. I—Wyndhaml—Wyndham R.C. Jan. 1, 2—Stratford R.C. Jan. 1, 2—Marton J.C. Jan. 1, 2 —Hawke’s Bay J.C, Jan. 1, R.C. Jan. 1, 2—Greymouth J.C. Jan. 2—Oamaru J.C. Jan. 2, 3—Southland R.C. Trotting: Dec. 26—Ashburton T.C. Dec. 26—Gore T.C. Dec. 26, 28— Wairarapa T.C. Dec. 26, 27—Westport T.C. Dec. 27, 28, 31—Auckland T.C. Dec. 28—Winton T.C. Jan. 1, 2—Canterbury Park T.C. Jan. 3—Westland T.C. Jan. 4, 6 —Greymouth, T.C. Jan. 10—Reefton T.C. Jan. T.C. Rebel Chief will not be paid up for in the Railway Handicap. Vervain 7.9 was omitted from the list of weights circulated for the Farewell Handicap at Oamaru. Acceptances for the Auckland Cup are due on Friday, and uncertainty regarding the programmes of several horses will then be dissipated. As the result of his racing at Takapuna and Dargaville, Impasto is a fit horse, and if he fails to earn some money at the Auckland meeting no excuses can be made for him. Owing to the death by accident of the six-year-old daughter of Mr and Mrs J. Campbell, Lady Graceful will go in charge of W. Bryce, but Mrs Campbell may follow later. The class for the big race on each day of the summer meting of the Foiv bury Park Trotting Club, the Dunedin Cup and the Metropolitan Handicap, has been fixed at 4.29. Although Emilus Way went to Auckland last week in charge of Mr Rudd, the Tasmanian owner, Evicus remained in J. Young’s stable at Addington and will be an acceptor for the Ashburton Cup. It was recently announced that Royal Banquet was being reserved for the Manawatu Cup, but if that was the case his connections must have overlooked the entry date as the horse is not in the list of those handicapped. A three-year-old by Iliad from the dam of Might won a maiden event at Woodville under the name of Boomerang Mr . J. Watt won a Great AutuEmn Handicap with a King Billy gelding named Boomerang and there seems to be no reason why the name V>uld have been duplicated.

After nominating Tooley Street and Horotiu for the Auckland meeting H. Rama decided that the opposition looked too strong. He therefore entered them for the Taranaki and Stratford meetings, where they are to be raced during the holidays. F. D. Jones may revise his plans for a North Island trip during the holidays. With Document sold and Bereft showing signs of hock trouble, he is left with Dollar Prince as the only really sound member of his proposed team, so he is doubtful about going on with the trip. Davolo, after being exercised at New Brighton for a week, was given a mile gallop on the plough at Riccarton yesterday. It did not please his trainer, C. Davey, and after Mr P. F. Campbell had been consulted, the proposed trip to Auckland was cancelled. Davolo will thus do no racing during the holidays,

The Forbury Park Club has decided to offer £IOO to the owner of the horse that breaks the existing track record (2nfin. 4 2-ssec) at the summer meete ing. If more than one horse breaks the record the prize will go to the horse that records the fastest time. Owners must notify the secretary of their intention to attack the record when nominations for the races are being taken. Mr G. J. Barton has promised to send Indianapolis against the watch. * * * • Umpire’s win at Otaki was his first since the Champion Hack Handicap at Tauherenikau last New Year’s Day. It was also his first sucess in the colours of his present owner, Mr W. Morrison, of Masterton, who trains him. He is a seven-year-old gelding by Winning Hit from the Antagonist mare Rivalry, thus being a full-brother to Knock Out and Final Shot, but he has done all his racing in the North Island. Wagering on this year’s Cambridgeshire was described as almost unprecedented, and easily the heaviest in England within “living memory.” At the final call-over of the card, 29 Close of operations on the eve of the horses were supported, and, at the race, 10 to 1 the field was an offer On the day, there was a rush to back Finalist, and after such wagers as £6OOO to £6OO had been booked he touched 6 to 1. English bookmakers appeared to be more liberal than their Australian bretheren.

At the last meeting of the Trotting Association, a letter was read from Mr H. W. Kitchingham, of Greymouth, in which he objected to the title of “Futurity” being given to races at Ashburton and Timaru, and elaborated his ideas of what the word Futurity meant in America. “Futurity” races are not confined to the States, and the term has different interpretations in other parte of the world. At Caulfield ttfere is a rich Futurity Stakes which has so little of futurity about it that horses may be nominated a fortnight before the race on payment of a special fee. There is nothing particularly apropos about the name for the Ashburton and Timaru events, but it is at least as appropriate as the title Electric Handicap bestowed on a 2.25 mile at Greymouth, or as the appellation of Dominion Handicap given to a race worth £175.

Beginnings of Totalisator The recent unearthing of a totalisator in the Waikato, which is claimed to be one of the first instruments of its class constructed in Auckland, has inspired the Auckland writer “Phaeton” to revive recollections of early days of

the .machine. It was in the autumn of 1880 that Auckland had its first experience of the totalisator Information had reached Auckland from Sydney that a Mr Siegfried Franck hackinvented a totalisator machine which iiad worked satisfactorily, and the Auckland Racing Club communicated with the inventor inquiring the pripe of two machines. Mr Franck made a visit to Auckland with two machines and an offer of £6O was matte to Mr Franck for the sole right to use the machine on the two days, but the visitpr wished the percentage deducted to be equally divided. The proposal was declined and negotiations were terminated. The dimensions of the totalisator invented by Mr Franck reached only to about 3ft by 2ft, and the face was limited to 10 horses. The right to instal a totalisator at Ellers=lie was given to some persons to work a kind of wooden apparatus, which was run from a portable structure, the figures (on two-inch wooden blocks) denoting the investments being simply moved along slides by the aid of fingers. It was installed in the saddling paddock on the first day, but very little money went on; in fact, the first event carried only £2. These investments were made on the winner, Hilarious, and when the respective investors presented their tickets and received only 18 shillings in return they had something to say. On the second day the totalisator was taken outside the paddock, being placed near the entrance gate. Investments came along slowly, but everything went well until the running of the St. George Handicap, in which King Quail came home first. When the machine closed —or when it was supposed to close —some keen eyes from the outside jotted down the figures opposite each horse, and four was ticked off as the number on King Quail, but when the face of the “tote” came to be examined after the race the number of King Quail’s supporters had increased to 14. The police was summoned and those engaged in working the machine were arrested. When charged at the Police Court subsequently the indictment was laid on the grounds of the persons concerned using an illegal instrument- The case excited great interest, and at the finish the magistrate, Mr R, C. Barstow, gave a decision in this strange form:—“l think Ellerslie js a public place within the meaning of the Act. I tfiink this is an instrument of gaming and that it was used in playing a game of chance. A mere element of chance was very simple in itself, but when trickery and confederates formed any part of the game the chances against the cheating were lessened That was a chance unfavourable to the public, and this element could not be shut out from view in considering such a case.” A month’s imprisonment with hard labour was the sentence imposed on the the persons charged. The paraphernalia was confiscated.