APMAT'S TRIAL

Press, Volume C, Issue 29501, 1 May 1961, Page 5

APMAT'S TRIAL

U.S. Trainer Impressed IN.Z Press Assn.—Copyright) NEW YORK, April 30. The Australian pacer Apmat and the New Zealand horse, False Step had caused a stir among drivers and trainers at Yonkers Raceway, the New York "Her-ald-Tribune” reported today. The prominent driver, W. Haughton, who now trains the New Zealand pacer Caduceus, did a '“double take” while timing Apmat in a two-mile training run. the newspaper said. Haughton timed the Australian gelding in 14 seconds for the last furlong, the equivalent of better than two minutes for the mile, Caduceus, now leased to an American syndicate, will be one of the American entries in the three-race international pacing series to begin on Thursday at Yonkers.

False Step, which beat Caduceus three times out of four before Caduceus came to the United States last year, has been galloping in training and the form experts at Yonkers have had to go on his record rather than his times. “But what they see, they like," the newspaper's harness racing writer said.

The other New Zealand pacer, the mare Arania, had not yet shown out in training, the newspaper said. The driver, Cecil Devine, said False Step would not be returning to New Zealand after the international series. “He will either be sold, leased or left in the United States for someone else to train. As yet we don’t know which,” he said. False Step would have to spend six months in quarantine on the way home and so would miss a full season’s racing. Arania was also likely to stay in the United States for a period, her driver, George Noble, said. He said the four-year-old would be bred with one of the top U.S. sires and taken back to New Zealand in foal if possible. No plans have been disclosed for Apmat.