New Zealand’s Champion Pacer

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 76, 21 June 1927, Page 6

New Zealand’s Champion Pacer

GREAT BINGEN EULOGISED The fame of New Zealand s crack pacer Great Bingen has become world-wide and according to latest reports from America, where they breed pacers and trotters to go fast, he is looked upon in the far-off land as a probable world beater

A S far as followers of the light-har-oA. ness sport in this country are concerned. there is no likelihood of anyone wishing to dispute the greatness of the son of Nelson Bingen— Bertha Belle, who has been rightly described as a “wonder” horse and a "super” horse. BREEDER’S OPINION During a conversation with the Canterbury sportsman and breeder, Mr. K. Le Lievre, Aybados” learned that the Southerner has a very high opinion of Great Bingen, and is naturally proud of the horse's achievements. “He is,” remarked the breeder, “undoubtedly a great horse and is bred on the very best lines for a continuation of these two essentials in a champion, stamina and speed.” Mr. Le Lievre studied the question of breeding with Nelson Bingen and Bertha Belle very closely and came to the conclusion that the mating of the Bingen blood with that of Peter the Great, sire of Bertha Belie, would give the desired results. That his deductions were correct has been proved in the remarkable achievements of Great. Bingen, and the result, which is indeed gratifying to the Canterbury

sportsman, is a triumph for his research work. According to Mr. Le Lievre, Great Bingen has a large quota of the Peter the Great strain from which he gets his wonderful stamina. That Great Bingen’s performances are appreciated by New Zealanders is fully demonstrated by the fact that a Southern trotting club is recognising his fine feat at the Royal meeting by making a. suitable presentation to the pacer’s owners, while the tribute in a leading American journal shows the high opinion formed of his ability in the iand of the “Stars and Stripes.” DOMINION APPRECIATION A red riband bearing a novel-de-signed clasp will be presented to Messrs. J. R. McKenzie and D. P. Glanviile, owners of Great Bingen, by the New Brighton Trotting Club in commemoration of the champion pacer’s great victory in the York Handicap ot the Royal trotting meeting held at Addington in honour of the visit of his Royal Highness the Duke of York. The clasp has the name, “Great Bingen.'’ written in prominent letters across the centre, and the surrounding panels bear an inscription of the club’s gift to Great Bingen’s owners. AMERICAN EULOGY The “Horse Review,” a journal devoted to light harness racing in

America and published in Chicago takes as the subject of its leading article on May 11 the trotting meeting held at Addington as part of the entertainment of the Duke of York, p! reality it is more a eulogy of Great Bingen and his fine effort of winning » 4.21 over two miles. The America journal makes one error in assuming that the Addington track on which Great Bingen made his record is grass one. In point of fact, it is what the Americans call a dirt track. The “Review” has the following amongst other things to say: GREAT PERFORMANCE In the past the “Review'” has several times contained articles and items about Great Bingen, as that horse has been for three seasons one of tho premier harness performers ot the Antipodes. He has been started raanv times during that period and has plae*«l to his credit the grandest series ot victories, at all distances up to two miles, ever scored in that part of the world. Nor was his performance in the York Handicap his greatest effort at the distance, as in a losing race he has taken a ‘ placed” record of 4.1 s 2-5 for two miles; but, viewed from any standpoint, his feat of March 15 was a superb one. Great Bingen is owned by Mr. J. McKenzie, and was driven by D. Withers. He is a large, finely-formed dark Brown stallion, and his breeding is of especial interest to American reinsmen. WORLD’S RACE RECORD The time was 4.21, which established a new world’s race record for pacers; at two miles. The American two-mile record for pacers is 4.17, made in 11*03, against time, behind a pace-maker by Dan Patch, 1.554. The next best American performances, by pacers, are the 4.191 of Chehalis, 2.44, and thi 4.223 of W.W.P., 2.51, both also against time. Racing at two miles was discontinued in America, save for a few special occasions, nearly 50 years ago, and the race record at this distance, pacing, still stands where Defiance and Longfellow placed it (in a dead-heat) in 1872. The world’s two-mile record, also against time, is. of course, the 4.104, trotting, of Peter Manning, made in 1925. . . . BLUE-BLOODED ANCESTRY The maternal ancestry of Great Bingen is also interesting, for not only is his dam a daughter of the phenomenal progenitor Peter the Great (2.74): she runs back, in the direct maternal line, to old Lady Thorne Junior, the dam of Santa Claus (2.17 j), one of the fastest trotting stallicms of the ’eighties, and later the sire of Sidney (2.19|), whose son, Sidney Dillon, sired Lon Dillon (1.584), the first two-minute trotter. A WONDER HORSE We fancy that few American pacing stallions would care to try to duplicate the feat of Great Bingen over a grass track. He must be a horse of intense speed, strength and courage, and wonderful soundness. His Antipodean admirers believe that over an American “parlour” track he would beat two minutes; and that, it will be granted, is no unreasonable claim.