WEST COAST RACING

Hokitika Guardian, 14 January 1921, Page 1

WEST COAST RACING

HOKITIKA MEETING. COMPLIMENTARY COMMENT. ■‘Wayfarer” in the N.Z. Referee this week wiites : .\ friend of mine who made his first visit to the West Coast of the South island during the recent Christmas and New Year holidays, has returned delighted with the sport provided by the tvestland Club at its Summer Meeting. He is not a regular attendant at race meetings, but lie has been t-o- Riecarton and Trentliani on many occasions, and never he declares, has enjoyed himself at eitner place as much as he did during the two afternoons ho spent on the pretty little course over the hills, carved out Oi the piimeval forest, and equipped and beautified with admirable judgment and taste, ‘‘it was just the sort of meeting we used to have up country thirty-live or forty years ago," ne said, “with better accommodation and better organisation and management. There was the same social feel-

mg the same hearty enjoyment, of ovejything that was going, and the same keen interest in the racing apart from the betting.” The condition: seem indeed to have been quite ideal lint it must not he assumed from the visitor's enthusiasm that our Wesl Coast friends are indifferent to the fascinations of the totaiisator. On the two days of their last Summer -Meeting they put through £19,152 through the machine, a very respectable sum for a community so far removed from any big sporting centre; and this year tliey ■aised the total to £24,441 an increase >f C 0289. At the meeting of the Greymouth 'Club which followed immediately upon the heels of the Westland Meeting ,the sum of £40,805 was passed through the machine, an increase of £7657 upon the sum handled last year. These two meetings year h v ye ay are attracting larger fields, hut they still provide happy hunting grounds for owners who have horses not quite good enough tu win against strong opposition. Last year the veteran Arlington put up a unique record there. Beginning at the Westland Meeting he won the Pacific Hurdles with ]M. and the Tasman Hurdles with 12st. 11b, and! then going to Grevmouth won the [first Hurdles with 13st, the Second Hurdles with 13st 131 b. and finished third to Trickery with 9st Gibs and

Cast Iron lOst. 711) in tlio Third Hurdles with lost "Ills. Nothing of tho sort occurred at the recent meetings, but it is a pleasure to rend of that good sportsman Mr I). H. Roberts, winning the Westland Cup with Castellan, a> liorse of his own breeding and a brother to (Uondower by Glennpp from Ecarte; and .Mr (1. Adamson, another good sportsman, taking the (trevmouth Cup I with Tiranga by Coronet from Tarina, I'an aged gelding that was. thought to ho just suited by the conditions*prevailing on the West Coast. The stako for the Westland' Cup was supplemented by a real piece of silver, and the presentation of this trophy to> Mr*Roberts gave Mr T. R. V. Seddon, tin* member for the district an opportunity to remind! his assembled constituents that the winner was h v one of tho sires imported by his father's Covernment with a view to ini-

proving the utility horses of tlio Dominion. Tim incident is reminiscent of tlic story told in tils biography of the groat Prime Minister being asked by the custodian of one of the State sires to distribute cards of service during his travels through the country. Mr Seddon accepted the cards, but it is not on record that lie made a vcr v good canvasser on this occasion. The limitations of m v friend's holiday did not permit him to attend the Greymouth Meeting, hut his more fortunate companions in the Christmas jaunt tell him it was just as enjoyable as the Westland Meeting. The proverbial West Coast hospitality prevails everywhere.

A Wellington correspondent sends the following note to the Referee also:— Visitors returning from the meetings on the West Coast at the South Island express themselves as highly pleased with their Christmas tours. Winners were not so easy to pick at it was generally supposed they would be, and the "West Coasters knew just as much about the business as other people did, hut much of tho sport was really good, and the hospitality of the local folk never flagged.