TROTTING

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XIII, Issue 800, 6 July 1905, Page 9

TROTTING

Mr C. F. Mark left for Wellington on Sunday to attend the Trotting Conference.

The annual balance-sheet of the New Zealand Metropolitan Trotting Club shows that the business of the club for the year has been highly satisfactory. The total receipts reach £13,780, and the expenditure (including stakes, £9499) totals £15,081; included in this is the cost of improvements, £2OOO. The amount expended to date on buildings, etc., amounts to £11,152. The assets, after writing down buildings, etc., £3367, stand at £BOOO.

Matters are very quiet locally in trotting circles, and there is virtually nothing doing. The chestnut gelding Officer, by King Harold—Shetland mare, which Mr Martin Taylor recently took across from Auckland to Sydney, won the Pony Handicap at Epping on the 27th inst., and was afterwards sold to Mr J. J. Smith for £lOO. Officer started •at 5 to 1 on and won by 40 yards.

Although Mr T. Playfair, the owner of Ribbonwood, issued • a challenge some days ago to trot any horse in the Commonwealth, no reply has yet been received (says the “Town and Country Journal”). The champion is being given -easy work to prepare him to meet anything that may come along.