SMALL FIELDS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2817, 4 March 1908, Page 54

SMALL FIELDS.

The fields which have faced the starter for the lOOsovb stakes given by the Tahuna Park Trotting Cl»b have generally bern numerically weak, although .in many cases capable ©f providing good sport. At the recently -concluded Tahuna meeting there wer2 fcur events endowed with lOOsovs each. In the Tahuna Cup 10 figured on the cart', and six went to the post. This was a fairly s»ood field, and the winner had to step smm 4- l-ssec off a 20sec mark to win in a 5.15 olass. Six was the mam in the High-class Handicap (5.8, or better), and Durbar, who won. put up 4.47 2-5 in winning from scratch, when giving away 22sec. On the second day, in the Telephone Handicap, thres faced the starter, and in the Telegraph Handicap seven wen* on the track. These fields read fairly good when if. is remembered that the neighbourhood of a smin gait is required, but when it is also remembered that smin horses are fairly plentiful in Canterbury there is apparently room for improvement somewhere. It is the smin, or better, horses that make racing a spectacle worth seeing, and consequently when they are in the country every possible inducement should be held out to bring them to our track. High-class fields, however, have been invariably numerically small in the past, and the Tahuna Club ehould irake that the problem they are. most anxious to solve, in the future. As a. racing attraction the 2.40 or 2.50 horse is a thing of the past unless there happens to be a laTge bunch of the same gait in one race. Racegoers as. a Jaody would sooner see two or three horses stepping around 2.25 than c dozen paddling out a 2.59 speed, and if that is so, bow much more popular would our trotting meetings be if good fields were attracted by th« .high-class events. Perhaps the stakes for a fast gait are too small, and the club should consider the matter when they are measuring up matters in connection with their new track.