THE TROTTING TRACK.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7765, 24 July 1903, Page 1

THE TROTTING TRACK.

NOTES ON HOIISE AND SULKY.

(By THE POSSIBLE.)

I hear that Sacramento has changed hands, his new onwer being the well-known tra;ner, R. M'Millan. According to an American trainer now in Russia, the Orloff trotters have not the right kind of legs to stand hard work.

Mr J. J.udin has had the misfortune to lose a. colt, rising two years, by Young Irvington — Dorothy, and, therefore, full-bro-ther to Bliss Irvington and Belle* Irvington. Tlie colt showed great promise.

Advices from San Francisco state that Messrs D. Price and Pettie have purchased several hoTses in America, and will leave for New Zealand again this week. Mr L. H. Hewitt mil accompany them back to New Zealand. ,

Peter Belles, proprietor of Piiyallup Hotel, Puyallup, Washington, still drives the famous old pacsr Sleepy Tom, now thirty-six years old. Mr Belles drove Tom last year at the opening of the King County Fair Association a quarter in 34£ sec.

It is rumoured that th© committee of the New Zealand Metropolitan Trotting Club doca not* intend to appoint a stipendiary steward this season. A good move was madte in having a stipendiary at the East«r meeting, and it seems a retrograde step to dispense with the paid official now.

John W. Browning invented hopple* all right, bqt not for the trotter, John 8., as generally supposed. Away back in 1865 Mr Browning had to make a certain mare " trot in harness" inside of twenty minutes in order to win a five-dollar wager. To do this jje conceived the idea, of " tying her legs together "—" cross tying' 1 them — and in putting this idea, in operation he invented the hopple. . His next application of the idea was on the trotter John 8., and hence hopples were originally intended for trotters, and not pacars.

The " Breeder and Sportsman " says : — "A telegram 'from Toledo, Ohio, states that Mr George H. Ketcham, owner of the great hor?e Cresceus, 2min 2isec, champion of the world, when informed that Mr A. B. Spreckles' mare Zarina 2min 13£ sec had foaled a colt by Cresceus, remarked: — 'I look for the colt foaled by Zarina at the .Aptns ranch to become the fastest trotter in the world. The colt is sired hy Cresceus 2-min 2-Jsec, and the dam is by Dexter Prince, whose descendants have shown a world of speed. , Zarina, had she not sustained an accident to her leg, would have made the fastest trotting mare in the worldj and I really believe would have received the mark;of 2min: I consider a colt oijit of her by Cresceus as having the best speed lines in the world.'"

The photographic representations of the most noted' trotters in America Leave little doubt that these horses .generally possess a pe'cuT "i }.;*.- which, imtlie eves of ninety-nine out i. every luindi'ed Australian horsejudges, is regarded 'as a grave fault. When ■a horse. stands with his fore-legs set.obliqu?ly under him, we at once remark that lie "stand's with his fore-legs too far under.''

Yet this is just what the American trotter almost invariably does. Maybe, this point instead of meeting with condemnation, will ere long be recognised as an indication of speed in the harness horse. Truly, a man would need to live at least 200 years, and remember everything he saw, to become an actual expert judge of horse-flesh. It is

n this

more than likely that cur education ir

line is hampered by prejudice. Several members'of the committee of the Kew Zealand Metropolitan Trotting Club attended at tho club's grounds on Saturday to witness a. 'trial of Mr H. A. Reynolds's patent totalisator. The machine has already been fully described in these columns, so it is unnecessary to go into details. It is worked with* marbles, which ure released on the purchase of tickets, the

trial on~Sa.*urday was niosf exliau.sT/.vf, line those present* seemed well plea«.-d with the invention. From present appearances it seems probable that the c.ub will shortly assume the working of its own totalizators. In this event a, mete up-to-date machine would be desirable, and if a* change is* made I hope to s-ce Mr Reynolds's* totalisator adopted. There has he-en a lot- of dissatisfaction of late regarding the working of the totalisator, and from what I have seen I feel sure that the new machine will do away with a, lot of the cause for complaint that has existed in the past.

Afc th-e last monthly meeting of th© New Zealand Trotting Association a committee avus appointed to visit Auckland to inquir-o into the constitution of the Auckland Trotting Club. At the Trotting Conference on Wednesday one of the- delegates challenged the power of the Association to set up such a committee, but the chairman ruled that It had po-.ver. It wa-Sj, however, dec-idtd-. -to take a legal opinion on tho point, which was submitted to a Wellington barrister. This opinion was to the effect that the As-' sociation had no power to hold the inquiry. The President of the Association, advised that ihe matter should be referred back to the Association for further consideraticai, another legal opinion being meanwhile obtained. The members of the committee. Messrs C. S. Howell, W. O. Garrard and W. Rollitt, returned to Christchurch en Sunday, without accomplishing any good. The present position seems hard to understand. ! Proprietary clubs are understood to be against the law, and yet, if the legal opinion obtained in Wellington is correct, there is no power to inquire into the position of. any club as to the status of which any dcaibts exist. If this is the case, the sooner provision is made for dealing with questions of this nature the better.

The last- meeting of the New South Wales Trotting Club was weli attended, but the racing was poor, every race being won very, easily, aiid one event resulted in a walk-over. A couple of unpleasant features were associated with the day's racing. For the Maiden Handicap, Jul'iiyi was backed to odds on, but soon after the start Osterley 11., who was in saddle, went very erratically, and, colliding with Julian's sulky, smashed 1 a wheel, and, of comvie, Julian took no part in -the race. In- tliis event, one of the competitors was harnessed to a broken-down, old-fashioned, highwheeled sulky, wihch in- this age of prieur.iatics, shotild not be aLlowed, as it has a tendency to reduce the sport to a farce. Tho most unpleasant feature of the day was the action, of the stewards in connection with Joe, who competed in'the Kensington Handicap, for which he started at odds on. At the previous meeting, the stewards held an inquiry into- Joe's running, and administered a severe caution to those connected with him. Joe won, and a protest was lodged on behalf of Pat malone, for inconsistent running. This the stewards dismissed, but disqualified Joe,, his owner": (Mr R. Beckett) i\nd rider (Martin) for twelve months. The action of the officials was very freely discussed. Beckett is the most enthusiastic follower of the sport in the State. Had Joe been beaten, Beckett must assuredly have got into trouble, and for winning he also got into trouble, so that it would seem from the *itart he was between the devil and the deep sea. For using abusive language to tho stewards, Beckett was subsequently disqualified for life.

A deputation, consisting of Messrs Davey, M.H.R., Mark Armstrong, and Poliock, delegates from the Trotting Conference, accompanied by the Secretai-y (Mr kollit), waited, during an interval between, the Wellington races, on Thursday, upon the stewards of the Wellington Racing Club. Mr Davey pointed out that the North Island trotting clubs liad found it necessary, with the view of ensuring the success of their meetings, to include pony galloping events in their programmes. The pc ponies were, properly speaking, undersized racehorses, which were too small Lo compete in hack and other open events. The Racing Conference twelve months ago, on the motion of its chairman (Sir George Clifford), resolved that pony -races might, subject to the sanction of the jockey club,'.;, include two pony events in any day's racing at a legally constituted trotting meeting. The Wellington- Racing Club had, however, refused all applications for the inclusion of pony gallops on trotting programmes. Mr Davey further pointed out that the Trotting Association granted the .'iii'i. ications of racing clubs to include trotting events in their programmes!, and he submitted that reciprocity should prevail. The Trotting Conference, had unanimously approved of clubs being allowed two pony events per da}-, should they desire it. Mr Harcourt, chairman of the Wellington Rac ing Club, in reply, said that tho present committee would go out of office next month, but he would see that iho views of the Trotting Conference were duly, put before tho new committee, and an answer sent to the secretary of the Trotting Conference. Tlie deputation thanked the officials of the Wellington Racing Club for receiving them at such short notice.

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