Metal Has Left For Australia

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 352, 12 May 1928, Page 7

Metal Has Left For Australia

WILL RACE AT EPPING PACER IN GOOD FORM The Auckland-owned and trained pacer Metal, whose registration has been repeatedly refused by the New Zealand Trotting Association, left yesterday for Sydney, where he will take part in the Epping meeting on May 21. Metal is a handsome brown horse, owned by Mr. James Johnson, of Epsom, and was bred in Australia, being by the well-known and high-class sire Don Pronto from Amie Bells, and contains in his veins strains of the greatest trotting blood in the world. Since taking up his residence in New Zealand, Metal has not been able to don silk owing to the authorities refusing to register him for owner Johnson. The New South Wales Associatoni, however, had signified its willingness to register the son of Don Pronto some time back, and finally his owner decided to cross the Tasman and have the business cleared up. A Promising Sire During the last two seasons Metal has been a 1; the service of breeders in the Waikato district, where he was in great demand. He is a horse of splendid temperament, full of quality, and possesses a head containing plenty of brains, and breeders were not long in

recognising that he was a young sire full of promise. In his first season at the stud he proved a wonderful foalgetter, and the bulk of his early productions are quality-looking customers, and showing themselves possessed of speed. In Good Form That Metal is endowed with this important factor he has demonstrated in no mean measure at Alexandra Park during the last few weeks, and when he steps out at Epping on Monday week Johnson’s charge will be as fit as the proverbial fiddle. Ranking as an improver, the handsome young sire showed superiority over a number of similar class at Epsom, and the manner in which he cleaned up two or three pacers that have got on the winning list this season augurs well for the success of his mission to the Commonwealth. The New Zealand Brand Although the New Zealand authorities would not recognise the claims of Metal for registration, he was, before leaving- for Australia on the Maunganui, branded with the New Zealand sign by an official of the Auckland Trotting Club. Metal is engaged in a 10 and 12 furlong event at Epping on May 21. and his* entry into tlie racing game will be watched with interest. If the son of Don Pronto and Amie Bells reproduces his Alexandra Park form on the other side of the Tasman, he will repay his owner for his enterprise. Auckland trotting fans will wish Jim Johnson the best of luck in his venture.