TROTTING NOTES.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20330, 13 June 1934, Page 10

TROTTING NOTES.

®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®[ for the trotting events at the Oamaru Jockey Club’s winter meeting will close to-day, at 8 p.m. Nominations for the Marlborough Trotting Club’s meeting, which will be held on the New Brighton Trotting Club’s course, on July 7, will close on Monday, June 25, at 5 p.m. * * * * The New Zealand Trotting Association has decided that owners of maiden horses starting for'the first time in a race must be in the birdcage, and ready for inspection at least one hour before the starting time of the first race of the day. CAN. BUT WON'T. Indian Author, who is now one of D. Cook’s team at Auckland, has put on a good deal of condition since she last raced and, although her recent tasks have not been of a serious nature, she is showing solidness. She is speedy and requires only to maintain an even gait to win. It is possible that in her more robust condition she may perform better. Her backers hope so. IMPROVING FAST. I Singing Bird is showing improvement in her track essays at Epsom and is now trotting more solidly than hitherto. A. W. Broughton has not bustled the mare and she is in excellent condition to compete in the opening trotting event at the Auckland meeting this month. Singing Bird has plenty of speed, but is not too reliable, and the first time she goes solidly on race day the Guy Parrish mare will figure in the finish. AN UNRELIABLE TROTTER. W. T. Dye has Moko Girl looking very bright, and the bay mare is in nice order to undergo a preparation for the fast trotting events at Alexander Park this month. She has not been set any serious tasks as- yet, but she is keen to go much faster. Moko Girl has more speed than the average trotter, but fails to race solidly, breaking at times when there is no speed on, and for this reason she cannot be recommended as a safe betting proposition. PETER PIRATE A MUDLARK. Although he has won good races under varying track conditions, Peter Pirate has proved himself a decided mudlark, and some of his finest performances have been registered under winter conditions. Two seasons ago he started four times at the June meeting at Auckland, scoring three firsts and one third. Early this season he was twice successful at two miles, besides being placed in sprint events. A. W. Broughton, who now trains him, is getting him into racing shape again for the approaching meeting at Epsom. BALLET GIRL. A prolific producer in the past, attempts to further breed from Ballet Girl, who is now well up in years, have been unsuccessful. By Bellman (a blood line that is prominent in many of our best performers), Ballet Girl is out of Rothschild Girl, by Rothschild. During the past three seasons she has been mated with various sires and colts but has not held to any. Her last foal was to Guy Parrish, and she is now a well built three-year-old filly, that goes at the square gait and is yet to race. Ballet Girl has been extensively bred from and her progeny include Minstrel (by Lee Norris), Ballet Boy. .Sunny Nelson (deceased, by Nelson Bingen) and others.

With the principal winter meetings disposed of. trainers will now turn their attention to members of their teams for the Marlborough Trotting Club’s meeting which will be held at the New Brighton Trotting Club’s course on Saturday, July 7. For this period of the year, the programme is a particulraly good one, catering as it dees for races for maiden and improving horses. It is during June and July that trainers spend their time preparing novices for the numerous opportunities that are provided for them at the early spring meetings, and being at home it is quite on the cards that the Marlborough Club’s meeting will be liberally patronised. In addition to the slow classes there are races for horses that can pace two miles in 4min 44sec. and for those that can traverse a mile in saddle in 2min 21sec or better. Nominations will close on Monday, June 25, at 5 p.m. WINTER TROTTING. _

Light-harness racing is not a winter sport, as at this time of the year the weather is apt to be anything but favourable. Two important fixtures in the Forbury Park meeting and the Ashburton meeting were seriously handicapped by bad weather and a consequent shrinkage in the totalisator returns, states “ Sentinel .” Still, no one would dream of advocating that light-harness racing should be confined, as nearly as possible, to the spring, summer and autumn, as is done in the case of flat racing in England. Even the National fixture, held in August at Addington, has had two postponements during the same meeting > Flat racing and races over jumps are not seriously hampered by heavy going, but, of course, the jumpers are not “ hitched to a sulky ” and required to drag wheels as well as themselves through the ground. The ideal conditions for the light-harness sport exist at the New Zealand Metropolitan Trotting Club’s spring meeting, which is generally held in fine weather and under favourable track conditions, but when held in winter the pacers should wear skis and be hitched to a snow-racing sledge as in Russia and Canada. The sport, however, is very popular with the public, no matter what conditions are on hand, and shows more signs of being on the wax than on the wane. TROTTING FIXTURES. June 14—Rotorua T.C. June 16 South Canterbury J.C. June 20. 23 Auckland T C July 7—Marlborough T.C. (at New Brighton). July 2S—South Canterbury H.C.