Wairarapa Trotting Club.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume III, Issue 150, 8 June 1893, Page 8

Wairarapa Trotting Club.

(^V->s.;;'. v; - :. ■ -■ ; "• (From our own Correspondent). ' ■■ ■ . - Wellington, June 5. The inaugural meeting of the Wairarapa = Trotting Club at Carterton, on Thursday : ■ last, was held under very favourable auspices as regards weather, attendance, and sport. Although in the early morning it was raining in Wellington, which - deterred a lot of city sports from going to the meeting, it was a beautiful day in the- Wairarapa, and a good crowd —fully i2oo —turned up on the A. and P. Associations Show Ground, where the track has been made. At present the course is only 30 chains in circumference, and is ratharjjtoo full of sharp turns for large fields ; but it is intended shortly to take in an adjoining section, which will enable the stewards to lay off a half-mile track with easier turns. Although the attendance was large, and the sport good, speculation was very limited, and Mr A. R. Macfarlane, who worked the totalisator, put through only during the / afternoon. The Maiden Handicap, which opened the proceedings, brought out the largest field of the day, exactly twenty facing the starter, Mr “ Dick” Roake, the well-known huntsman. The race 1 was won very easily by a rather ugly black mare called Sultana, belonging to Mr A. Gordon. Dick, a likelylooking chestnut, was put about as a good thing, but finished in the ruck. The District Handicap fell to an old stager named Jumbo, who was trotted about here for years and only won one race and that with a very long start. Age has evidently improved him, for later on, after making a terrible mess of the , Stewards’ Handicap, which was in harness, he came out and won the principal race x of the meeting, beating a very hot favourite in Mr Tate’s Conway, winner of the last Johnsonville Trotting Club Handicap, and paying the good dividend of £l3 16s. Conway should have won, but he was too fresh, and continually broke, which lost him the race. The Stewards’ Handicap fell to the mysterious Dick, who started such a favourite for the Maiden. He now showed excellent form, and really made mincemeat of his field, which included several fair horses, including Fragment (who was favourite), Prince 11, Jumbo, and Fred Reid. Dick’s party did well over this race, but I am rather surprised that the stewards did not ask for an explanation. I hear now that it is not long since this horse was brought up from Christchurch, but I know no more. The Selling Trot was thought a “moral” for the Maiden winner, Sul- < tana, who was penalised 7sec., making her start ajsec. from Fairholm, the scratch horse. Again backers were wrong, for Sultana did not move so freely as in the former race, and succumbed at the finish to an old local trotter named Wait-a-whi)e, belonging to the secretary, MrW. McKenzie, who was giving the favourite i3sec. The winner was sold at auction by Mr Lowes of Masterton and knocked down to Mr T. Price for £\z. In the Wairarapa Trotting Club Handicap, which, as I have said, fell to Jumbo, nine started, including Fragment, issec, and Prince 11., 3jsec, but nothing could get near Jumbo and Conway, and Fragment, who was third, was fully 100 yards away from the second. In the Grandstand Handicap (in harness) Prince 11., who had performed indifferently in the big race and Stewards, showed real good form, and won with a bit to spare from Fred Reid, sosec, who also exhibited great improvement on his Stewards’ Handicap form. The Consolation, which was run almost in the dark, fell to a ‘ varminty ’ looking bay gelding The Spider, 35sec, who had exhibited good speed in the Maiden, the District and Grand Stand Handicaps, but had collapsed badly at the finish of all three. He did not collapse in the Consolation, however, but waltzed home, cutting out the two miles nearly a minute faster than the District Handicap—in which he was only second —was trotted by Jumbo. The Papawai Maori Brass Band was present and played some exceedingly good music. The general management was excellent, and the stewards are well satisfied with the result of their first meeting, which certainly passed off very harmoniously. The trotters present were not of a very high class as a whole, but five or six seemed to have good action, and - as the scratch horses, Fragment, Rugby and Fairholm were out of every-

thing there must have been some pretty good ones going. Mr A. King, the handicapper, was successful in getting excellent acceptances, but none of the finishes were very close, although the favourites were not successful except in one race.