WEST COAST CIRCUIT

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 236, 24 December 1927, Page 5

WEST COAST CIRCUIT

TO OPEN AT WESTPORT GOOD TESTING GROUND The West Coast of the South Island has long shown a wonderful attachment to the light harness sport and its advent as a speculative medium "through the legalised machinery of betting dates to the final decade in the last century. For many years Coast racing was confined principally to the utility class

of hanse which the golden west boasted at that period, but it was not long before the more enthusiastic admirers of the pastime went in for a higher-grade trotting animal. VISITS FROM EAST COASTERS Later Canterbury owners found it a payable proposition to visit the West, and annually a useful contingent would make a pilgrimage across the Alps, and pick up the largest crumbs falling from the various trotting clubs’ tables. Records show that some of the best of New Zealand’s pacers and trotters raced successfully at West Coast fixtures before blossoming out in more brilliant company. COMMENCING THEIR CAREERS Among these can be mentioned such well-known and high-class-performers as King Cole, Jingle, Theseus, Sungod, Sceptre,, Sympathy, Marie Tempest, Stormy, Harbour Light, Nighborn, Audominion, Trimmer, Great Actress, Golden Devon, * Loganwooif, Cannonball, Cardinal Logan and Imprint. The latter won his first race at Greymouth, where Loganwood and Cardinal Logan also annexed good handicaps before climbing to their present high position in the trotting world. Great Actress and Trimmer won the chief event each day at Westport last Christmas and both have reached higher society since then. The Coast circuit is a popular one, and opens oil Boxing Day at Westport* which club has a two-day fixture. This is followed by one day at Hokitika, and two days at Greymouth, while the session is brought to a close with two events on each day’s racing card at Reefton. RUNNERS ON MONDAY The racing at Westport on Boxing Day will be full of interest and some

good-class horses are engaged, including several from the Canterbury and Nelson districts. The following should be prominent during the meeting: Alpine Melody, Ocean Chimes, Avon, Merryjigs, Comfort, Wild Peter, Locanda Boy, The Thistle, Peter Wilkin, Bonnie Thorpe, Meritor, Rap, Kreisler, ' Clive Bell, Jessie Bells, Knocklyn.