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New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XIX, Issue 1094, 23 February 1911, Page 7

pacing hopples, a flying start, the course to herself, and the services of one of the greatest trotting horsemen Australia has produced. The telegraph was dumb about Valour’s really fine performance, but flashed that of Sal Tasker over the wires. "It is claimed that Sal Tasker’s performance of 2min. 18sec- is an ‘Australian’ record for a mare, but this distinction between '“Australian” and “Australasian” records is manifestly unfair to Australia. Rothschild, the greatest sire in New Zealand, was bred at historic Hobartville, within forty miles of Circular Quay, and so it is with many of the greatest performers in New Zealand, whose performances come under the heading of “Australasian” simply because the New South Wales premier club has not had a track sufficiently good for fast horses to race upon and put up records.

“If the performances of one horse more than another should go to the credit of New South Wales, it is Fritz’s trotting record of 2min. 13sec., but w r e find it under the head of “Australasian,” as it was put up on a New Zealand track. Vanish, the mare which put up the snlendid performance of 2min. 16sec. in a race, is New South Wales to the backbone, she having been bred ■ by the New South Wales studmaster Mr. J. A. Buckland, and educated in this State, but because from force of circumstances the mare raced in New Zealand, “Australasia” gets the credit. “Then, again, the Ribbonwood mare Ribbons, whose owner sent her to New Zealand to race for lack of a proper Sydney course, won a mile and a-quarter race at a 2min 1714 sec gait, and poor New South Wales also loses that fine performance. Myosotis, 2 min 13sec, in a race, the fastest yet put up by a mare, is by Huon, a horse brought to Sydney by Dr. Slate, and domiciled for a lifetime within 40 miles of the metropolis, but “Australia” does not benefit by the record. Under such circumstances, is it not but fair that the dual records should cease, and that only “Australasian” records should count?

“Sal Tasker’s best performance to date was an exhibition mile in 2 min16sec, with flying start and pacemaker. Let us see how this compares with the Australian champions. Vanc’eve’s son Fritz, and Rothschild’s son Revenue, have trotted their miles in 2min 13sec and 2min 11 3-ssec respectively. Huon’s daughter Myosotis and Vancleve’s daughter Vanish have paced their miles in 2min 13sec and 2min 16sec respectively,.both in races. Ribbonwood has paced a mile in 2min 9sec, Australian Dan Patch in 2min lOsec, Denver Huon a mile and a-half in a race at a 2min 15%sec gait, whilst trotter Verax the other day, in New Zealand, won a mile race in 2min 16sec. Ribbonite has paced a mile in 2min 16sec in an exhibition. The performances of .New South Wales-bred Vanish. Verax. Ribbonite. Valour, Denver Huon. Ribbons and others are far and away better than ” that of Sal Tasker, -but they were never thought worth troubling the telegraph operators with. which makes me once more term Sal Tasker the ‘much-boomed.’ ”