Trotting

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20233, 17 February 1934, Page 13

Trotting

c/roTEr C /W. TRACK s. STABLE

ACCEPTANCES for the New Brighton Trotting Club's autumn meeting are due on Tuesday, at noon. * * * * Nominations for the Wellington Trotting Club’s autumn meeting will close on February 22, at S p.m. ❖ * * * Acceptances for the trotting events to be decided at the Banks Peninsula Racing Club’s meeting will close on February 23. A RECENT ADDITION. A recent addition to Mr C. P. Cameron's team at Santa Rosa is the aged mare Mahinerangi, by Nelson Bingen from a mare by P- tereta. She is a trotter, and started three times during the 1931-1932 period, but was not raced last season. Prior to going to Santa Rosa she was trained at Outram by A. Reid. * * * * R. Dunn has several horses of all ages in various stages of preparation at Santa Rosa. One of the “ plums ” on the farm is a yearling colt by Jack Potts from Princess Perfection, the dam of Sir Guy and Guy Junior. The colt by Jack Potts is a model individual, and has his father’s gift of pace. He is engaged in the New Zealand Sapling Stakes, 1935, and has started on the elementary stages of his training for that race. FOR SAPLING STAKES. The two-year-old chestnut colt Lord Wrack may represent Santa Rosa Stud Farm in the New Zealand Sapling Stakes, to be decided at the Ashburton Trotting Club's meeting in June next. Lord Wrack is a brother to Thornworthy. He is a nice pacer, and shows promise. * * * * The three-year-old pacer Guy Junior is recuperating in a gratifying manner from a strenuous campaign during the winter and early spring of last year. He has built up, but will not be asked to do any serious tasks until after Easter. His owner does not intend racing him again until next spring. RINGAMATA, J. Bryce has made another start on the three-year-old pacer Ringamata, who is a half-brother to Red Shadow, being by Ahuriri from Our Aggie. Ringamata showed a lot of promise about this time last season, but did not train on to take part in any of the classics. He has had a good spell, and is now beginning to assume shape for autumn and winter racing. Ringamata is a level-headed, good-looking colt, and there is no doubt about his ability to pace. * * * * The trotting gelding Great Wood has been working particularly well, and even from 72yds behind he will keep the opposition busy at New Brighton, which is his favourite course. Great Wood has raced well at the seaside, but has failed to reproduce anything like that form w’hen asked to. race elsewhere. NO NEW CHAMPIONS. American trainers have almost given up hope of ever training a trotter or a pacer to break the existing records. An American turf writer says that the outlook for performances marking new limits of speed in trotters and pacers in 1934 is not rosy. The custom of training horses for record-breaking, which was for more than half a century the chief incentive which moved Robert Bonner and his followers to buy fast horses, has all but died out among present-day horsemen. Besides the existing world’s records are so far beyond the power of anything less than a phenomenal horse to beat, that the prospect is discouraging. Peter Manning’s record of lmin 56isec for trotting one mile has stood unbeaten, and it may almost be said unapproached, since 1922, while the limit of speed for pacers has remained still longer unequalled, Directum I. having set the mark at lmin 56isec away back in 1915. Both performances were made without the artificial aid of a runner in front to act as a windshield.

Sir Guy is merry and bright after his victory in the Midsummer Handicap at Addington recently, and he will be a candidate for further honours at Easter. * * * sac DOING WELL. The trotting gelding Stanley Bingen is being kept in regular work at Oakhampton with a view to being in good shape for approaching meetings. Stanley Bingen competed in the Cashmere Handicap at the recent meeting of the New Zealand Metropolitan Trotting Club, but he marred his display by going to a break early in the contest. Stanley Bingen appears to be averse to starting from in front of the stand, and usually becomes unbalanced before he has covered a furlong. From the two-mile starting post, which is at the back of the course, Stanley Bingen begins well, and usually goes solidly all the wav. TROTTING TROUBLES. The outlook for trotting in America is full of uncertainty, with possibilities of marked improvement during the 1934 racing period, which does not begin until about July. At the moment the oldest of distinctively American sports has come to a parting of the ways. Two Grand Circuit meetings held in 1933, one at Salem and the other at Goshen, exemplify two radically different systems of harness racing and of management, One of which seems destined to be generally followed in the future to the exclusion of the other at nearly all meetings not held in connection with State or county fairs. Both of these meetings were re- • garded as being highly successful, but the success at Salem was of a radically different kind from the success at Goshen. The Salem meeting was designed to benefit horse-owners and track managers by financing the ex- • penses of both in large measure from the commissions derived from legalised pari-mutuel betting. This meeting continued three weeks in a small town within a short distance of Boston, and in fifteen racing days the management distributed £13,000 in purses and stakes for 111 races of 152 heats and dashes. Commissions from the pari-mutuel pools did not warrant a continuance of £IOO purses, so' they were reduced to £3O. Handicaps were introduced, and this made for spirited betting, and the pari-mutuels had a busy time, and showed big profits. This looks as if track managers will plump for small purses and handicap events this coming season. The Goshen meeting represented more nearly the old school of harness racing under progressive and enterprising pranagementX The promoter, Mr W. H. Cane, distributed £11,200 in stakes and purses for fifteen races and forty heats, which made up a programme intended for four days. At this meeting the £BOOO Hambletonian Stake, for three-year-old trotters, was the high light of the card, and attracted 30,000 people. Betting was conducted according to the old auction system. The profit made over the meeting was donated to the hospitals, as in former years. Mr Cane’s success at Goshen has led to his appointment as co-ordinator of the Grand Circuit. He has announced his intention of trying to extend the Grand Circuit from the Fourth of July from Salem to Dallas, with Arizona and California as the ultimate goal in future years. Horsemen identified with harness racing wait anxiously to see whether the new members of this organisation will follow the lead of Salem or Goshen. The new board of control will endeavour to hold -meetings all the year round instead of only during the summer period, as has been the custom for a great number of years. TROTTING FIXTURES. February 17, 21—Auckland T.C. February 21, 22—Gore R.C. February 24—New Brighton T.C. March 2, 3—lnvercargill T.C. March 3—Wellington T.C. March 9. 10—Cromwell J.C. March 10—Timaru T.C. March 1 4—Manawatu T.C. March 14—Kaikoura T.C. March 14—Wyndham T.C. March 15—Waimate R.C. March 17—Cheviot T.C. March 17, 24—Wanganui T.C. March 23—South Otago T.C. March 24—Roxburgh T.C. March 24, 26—Westport J.C.