OTAHUHU TROTTING CLUB'S SUMMER MEETING.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume V, Issue 229, 13 December 1894, Page 6

OTAHUHU TROTTING CLUB'S SUMMER MEETING.

Local race-goers will be catered for at Potter’s . Paddock on Saturday next by the Otahuhu Trotting Club, who hold their Summer Meeting on the date mentioned. There will be four trotting -events decided, and the ponies will provide two fiat races and one hurdling event. There is a promise of good fields, judging by the acceptance list (published elsewhere), and, should fine weather be granted, the club may rely upon a successful meeting. As regards the events for ponies, I think that in the mile and a quarter hurdle race the top weights, Butterfly (11.8) and Pica (11.4) hold the field very safe, and for a •single vote I should fancy Pica. For, the six and ia half furlongs Flying Stakes the grey pony Robin may prove the performer his friends have •tilwa's maintained he is, but I like Lady May or Direct, and f >r one commend me to the firs’named. The Maiden Pony Ha dicap has a b ; g field engaged, and, remembeiing what deceptive

little cusses Potter’s Paddock maiden miniatures are, one is incline to say to himself, “ Be wise in time, oh fearless mind,” and leave the tipping effort alone ; but an attempt is expected, so mine is—Zephyr or Direct. My colleague “ Nancy Hanks ” provides the following tips for the trotting events : — Maiden Trot, one mile aud a-half. — Pioke, Corina and Otara. Otahuhu Trotting Cup, two miles and a-half. —Yum Yum or Schoolgirl. Clyde should walk in but I understand he has just been taken up so I cannot recommend his chance even with the good handicap awarded by Mr. Knight. Harness Trot, two miles and a-quarter. — Three Cheers and nothing else. THE WELLINGTON CUP. My Wellington confrere comments as follows on the leading handicap of the W.R.C. Summer meeting.—Mr Evett’s adjustment for the Wellington Cup is now engaging the minds of those who love to talk “ horse” in this city. It has been very favourably received, and rightly too, for it appears to be a good production, course a few errors are manifest, in fact very tew handicaps are without them, for handicappers are. but mortals. Mr Evett had not to seek far for the horse to commence his handicap with, for Prime Warden’s deeds this season places him head and shoulders above any of the other performers. With 9.10 he cannot be despised but 1 fancy -if Murray Hobbs’ stable wins our Cup it will be by the aid of Lady Zetland. Au Revoir, 8 10, now meets his conqueror in the Otago Cup on 51b better terms, a fair allowance at the scale of weights, Saracen, with 8.8, has too much weight on this season’s performances, but Liberator has nothing to complain of at 8.6. He is a doubtful starter, however, owing to not training on satisfactorily. Skirmisher has escaped lightly with 8.5, and the Dunedin representative, it brought to the post fit and well, should make the best of them travel.. I have an idea that a mile and a half is his favourite distance, and it would appear so by the desperate race he made in the Metropolitan Stakes at the recent C.J.C. meeting, when heads separated Prime Warden, 8.11, Skirmisher, 8.4, and Roj al Rose, 7.7. He.now meets both of the horses he separated in the event mentioned on better terms—Prime Warden at a difference of 121bs and Royal Rose lOlbs. That form alone entitled him Io more than 8.5. One point may be said in Royal Rose s favour that the horse was not himself at Christchurch—perhaps that has influenced the- handicapper s opinion. Lottie cannot complain at 8.4, as she has many good performances to her credit, but Dreamland should have been placed on the same mark with Mahaki, instead of being asked to concede the Maori horse 71b, The pair met at our recent meeting over a mile and a furlong with 71b in the black horse’s favour, and he gave the Cadogan mare fully a 71b beating. Lady Zetland is well in at B.3,'and if brought back to last autumn’s form, when she donkey-licked good fields in the Easter and Autumn Handicaps at the C.J.C. Easter meeting, carrying 7.10 in the latter event and running the mile and a half in 2min 38|sec, she must hold a good chance. Golden Plover has won everything he has been asked to accomplish this season, including the two principal races at the Napier Park meeting, and the St. Andrew’s Handicap at the Feilding meeting, in which he carried 8.10. He is very well treated at 83. I pass by Clanranald and Pinrose, and come to Rangipuhi at 7.12. Mr Evett has taken liberties with this horse, and should he come back to the form he displayed two seasons back, I fancy I will be borne out in my opinion. He has triumphed in several mile” and a half runs, his best performance at that distance being in the Feilding Easter Handicap as a five-year-old, when he carried 8.2 and ran the distance in 2min 38 2-ssec. At last year’s Dunedin Spring meeting he put down Prime Warden and Skirmisher over a mile and a quarter, run in 2min 12sec, receiving 211bs and 71bs respectively. He must be reckoned with, and so must the other Maori representative, Mahaki, 711. He is a coming horse, but I would not be surprised if Mr Evett is called upon to re-handicap the son of Ingomar after the Auckland meeting. Passing on I arrive at Westmere’s name at 7.9, at which weight Mr Paul’s horse has a fair chance, but North Atlantic reads better at a pound less, taking into consideration his two-year-old form and his victory in the Spring Handicap at the Hawkes Bay meeting this season. Goosander is Badly treated at 7.8. Merganser’s sister has not won a single race so far, and why should she be allotted 7.8 ? Musket, 7.7, has a nice racing weight, and on his running at Feilding holds Kent very safe. Senator,7.6, will beat more than will beat him, and Blarney, on the same mark, should prove a thorn in the side of many of the contestants. He won the Wanganui Derby in a comfortable manner, and ran a good race in the C.J.C. Blue Ribband, being eased up at the finish. Cretonne, Monte Carlo, and Leontini might have been let off with a few pounds less. The maiden, St. Valentine, has caught it hot, being given 7 5, at which weight Purepo has nothing to complain of. The same remarks may be applied to Banner, 73. The West Coaster has not been seen in public since he stretched Lottie’s neck in the Thompson Handicap at our Autumn meeting last year, but will probably be over for our meeting. The shorter races, however, should suit him better than the Cup. .In giving King Harry and Sea Serpent 7.0, I am afraid the handicapper has blundered badly. Of the light weights Marino and Planet appear the best, and the latter convinced me by a gallop I saw him accomplish at the Hutt that he is not a bad “ covey,” and Mr Geo. Hunter, who has had a happy knac in the past of winning away our Cup, has got a good filly to battle for him —I would not care to say another Cjnisca. The re-handi< apping of winners at the Christmas meeting will probably throw a different light on the handicap, but at present I fancy the winner is concealed in the following half-dozen : — Skirmisher, Royal Rose, Golden Plover, Rangipuhi, Mahaki, Planet, and if I were asked to name it in one I would reply SKIRMISHER.