 | RACING HISTORY |
YEAR: 1954
FEATURE RACE COMMENT
1954 NZ FREE-FOR-ALL
Records are falling like cornstalks before Johnny Globe. On Friday he toyed with his opposition in the NZ Free-For-All to the tune of a fresh New Zealand and Australian record of 2:33 3-5 which is 2-5sec better than the previous record of 2:34 - also belonging to him.
Johnny Globe's new figures also displace Tactician's previous winning record of 2:34 1-5, and are a world record from a standing start. The world's pacing record, put up against time from a moving start, is Dr Stanton's 2:30 2-5, made in the United States in 1948.
Even after easing off towards the close of Friday's race, Johnny Globe paced his last mile in 2:01 3-5 and his last half in 60 1-5sec. He did not begin as fast as one or two others, but he was not long in reaching the lead, and thereafter the rest were confronted with a hopeless chase.
This was Johnny Globe's eighth free-for-all win - a record. On Friday his stakes-winnings reached £33,210, a record for a New Zealand harness horse or galloper - and passing the previous record of Highland Fling, who won £32,920 in the Dominion. Johnny Globe is compiling records galore - the world's pacing record for two miles 4:07 3-5; the world's race record for a mile from a standing start, 2:01 1-5; the world's grass-track record for a mile, 1:59 4-5, and the New Zealand three-year-old record for a mile and a quarter, 2:37, as well as well as the winning record, 2:37 3-5, are his other laurels.
Ribands, who lost fully 24yds at the start, proved himself a brilliant and remarkably game horse with a fine fighting spirit. He was forced to cover a good deal of extra ground, and he fought off strong challenges from Laureldale and Petite Yvonne, who were almost in line with him at the finishing post. In the circumstances, Ribands's time, 2:34 1-5, was the run of a champion. Petite Yvonne, too, earned fame with her 2:34 3-5, a world's record for a mare from a standing start, displacing her own record of 2:34 4-5 put up on the same course last Easter.
Credit: 'Ribbonwood' writing in NZ Trotting Calendar 17Nov54