Various Sports, Including Cricket, Tennis, Golf

Lot 2562    Day 2    Various Sports, Including Cricket, Tennis, Golf

Estimate $1,000
Bid at live.noble.com.au

H.M.S. New Zealand Trotting Cup, fob medal handcrafted in gold (9ct, tot wt 11.05g, 36x36mm), no maker, ring top suspension, centre fitted with a gold medal of the type issued for H.M.S. New Zealand at Lyttelton Wharf in 1913, reverse only showing (M.1913/4), reverse of fob inscribed 'H.M.S.New Zealand/Trotting Cup/Presented to/W.J.Alpe./Owner/Lord Dillon'; also a bronze version of the above medal but as for above featuring reverse side only that depicts H.M.S. New Zealand (M.1913/4). Some oxidation on second medal, otherwise the first good very fine, the second fine, a unique pair.

From Auckland Star, Vol XLIV, Issue 116, 16 May 1913 - Courtesy National Library of New Zealand - Papers Past. ^^H.M.S. NEW ZEALAND - A TROTTING RACE.^CHRISTCHURCH, Thursday^^To-day Lyttelton established another record for the Dominion. It was the first People's Day, and an enormous crowd of visitors journeyed to the port to see the big warship berthed there. The total number of visitors to the New Zealand was 20,000, which constituted a record for the Dominion. The big item of the sports programme to-day was the H.M.S. New Zealand trotting cup, an exhibition trotting race organised and subsidised by the New Zealand Metropolitan Canterbury Park and New Brighton Trotting Clubs. Three handsome solid silver cups were the prizes for the placed horses, and each driver who took part in the race received a gold medal. In some quarters there was a doubt whether owners would bring their good horses out to trot for nothing richer than a trophy, but the organisers of the race took an optimistic view of the prospects, and the optimism was abundantly justified in the race. The race was run over a course of a mile and a-half, and was for horses that could run the distance in 3min, 30sec., or better, and, for the benefit of the uninitiated, it may be explained that this was the fastest class race over the distance that has ever been promoted in New Zealand.^(Note: The article mentions a gold medal was to be issued to all drivers but it appears that a gold medal was also issued to all owners.)