LORD HALDANE CASE

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 937, 2 April 1930, Page 13

LORD HALDANE CASE

TRAINERS’ AND OWNERS’ OPINION HARDSHIP INFLICTED The chief topic of conversation at Epsom and Otahuhu trotting tracks during the last two days has been the disqualification of Lord Haldane at Thames, in the President’s Handicap. Owners and trainers, generally, who witnessed the racing are unanimous in the opinion that Owner R. Saunders has incurred a great hardship in having the race taken away from him. Furthermore, many drivers who took part in the Parawai Handicap, in which Lord Haldane ran unplaced, state emphatically that Saunders did his best to win all through the contest. A Real “Iffer” Lord Haldane.” said one driver, “Is recognised a£ an ‘iffer,’ and further, being a converted trotter is a bad breaker when he leaves his feet. J** the mile and a-half,” he* continued, Saunders was close up with me after half the journey was covered, wh6n the horse broke and dropped back. I was surprised when he came with such a rattle in the straight to finish so close up, and had the race been another furlong. Lord Haldane would have won.” Another reinsman said: “Lord Haldane is a great stayer and takes a lot of beating over the last half-mile of a two-mile race. In the President’s Handicap, the shorter limit was all in his favour, yet at a mile and a-half he was not a winner. His staying powers carried .him through at the end.” Others expressed a similar opinion, and there was a consensus of opinion that the facts, as stated in Monday's issue of The Sun, clearly explain the situation. Interviewed, Saunders said he got the shock of his life when told he was wanted to answer a charge of inconsistent running. ‘So keen was I to win the Parawai Handicap,” he said, "I asked the starter for permissign to have someone at the horse’s head, but the official, while sympathetic, would not agree to the request.” Discussing the actual race Saunders stated that when Lord Haldane put in a break half a mile from home, he was overhauling the bunch in front of him. “The break cost fully 100yds,” lie said, “but when the horse settled down again, he trotted in fine style.” Allowing for the fact of being 108yds behind, and losing another 100yds on the journey, to finish within five or six lengths of the winner, Lord Haldane must have run well under his handicap time. Selling Out Considering that he w;as harshly dealt with, Mr. Saunders has decided to get out of the trotting business, and in today’s Sun advertises Lord Ilaldane, a three-year-old filly, and two sulkies, with all racing equipment. Lord Haldane is a double-gaited gelding by Good Gift from Lady Haldane, and has won races at both the pacing and trotting business. He claims engagements at the forthcoming Wanganui fixture, where he should race conspicuously. over two-mile journeys. At £IOO, Lord Haldane will be a cheap proposition. The filly is by that good trotter HerbiLvyn (brother to the little pacing wonder, Jean McElwyn), from a half-sister to the brilliant Dilworth. The trotting fraternity will regret Mr. Saunders’s decision to get out of the game. He is the class of small owner that can be ill-spared, and during his lengthy career has raced purely for the sport, gaining the confidence of all sections the public.

TROTTING REMINDERS NOMINATIONS April S.—X.Z. Metropolitan T.C. (A. I. Rattray, secretary). April 15. —Taranaki T.C. (D. Le C. Morgan, secretary). April 15.—Cambridge T.C. (Walter Stopford, secretary).