"WANGANUI TROTTING RACES.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XXIV, Issue 9662, 23 October 1882, Page 3

"WANGANUI TROTTING RACES.

TO THE EDITOB. Snt, — A portion of the columns of your paper being usually devoted to sporting, I beg leave to call attention to what I consider requires the strictest investigation at the hands of the Wanganui Trotting Club Committee. The club referred to profess to take a certain stand in this district, and if they wish to deserve the support of the public, they will have to protect them to the very utmost. What lam about to allude to may perhaps be easily explained , | but until such has been done the public will remain dissatisfied. The Nelson mare Wakatu was entered and trotted for the first heat of the Maiden Bace, and was heavily backed by the public in the totalisator, and, to everyone's surprise and disgust, she was distanced. The winner's time was 3min 6sec for one mile, and, as Wakatu was distanced, her time must have been about 3min 18sec. Now, sir, contrast this running with the same mare's trotting in the Handicap, three miles. She was then giving the winner (Castaway) 15sec, and at the end of the first mile she had got within Bsec of him, and he trotted the mile in about 3min 4sec, and as Wakatu had caught up 7sec on Castaway she must have covered the first mile in 2min and .57sec, or 21sec faster than she trotted in the Maiden Bace. It was very noticeable that certain patrons and followers of the stable to which Wakatu belongs backed her heavily for the three-mile handicap, although she was distanced in the Maiden Bace, and it was also noticeable that the same persons who backed Wakatu in the Handicap put their money on Jack in the Maiden Race, which he won. I leave the public and the Wanganui Trotting Club to draw their own inference. I may mention that tbe affair was the common talk of the patrons of the racecourse on Saturday afternoon, and if stich performances are not inquired into by the Wangsnui Trotting Club the sooner the club winds up the better for all true sportsmen. — I am, &c,. A. Member W.T.C. Wanganui, 22nd October.