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; Trot Meet in Operation At Meadows Doing Well Expect North California Session To Average 25,000 Daily Play The reorganized Pacific Coast Trotting Association, now conducting a 33-day meeting of the harness sport at Bay Meadows, is bringing the game back to San Francisco and the Bay Area with a bang. Following a fairly slow start, the trotters and pacers gave every indication of coming back to Northern California to stay during the remaining weeks of the meeting. For the first eight days P.C.T.A. had a daily average mutuel handle of 07,039. The big stakes and the big days lie ahead, and the management is now confident that its 1951 meeting will prove a financial success, with a possible average handle of 25,000 per day. Seen in the light of past years, when P.C.T.A conducted a meeting at Bay Meadows in 1948, and one at Golden Gate Fields the following year, with the 48 handle just topping the 00,-000 mark, and the 49 daily average being in the neighborhood of 06,000, this years early showing is most promising. Attendance figures are also definitely on the rise. Last Saturday some five thousand patrons turned out for the sport, wagering a total of 99,675. They were treated to some of the finest harness racing seen in this district since the golden days of Le-land Stanford before the turn of the century. It is too early in the season for record times to be established, and the track, converted from the previous running meet to harness conditions, is not ,yet lightning fast. However, Freeman Hanover has trotted a mile in 2:05 and a mile and one six- teenth in 2:13, and the pacers have been shading close to that time. The form is exceptionally good. Photo finishes are the order of the day, rather than the exception, and the favorites are coming home in the 40 per cent bracket, with beaten favorites better than 80 per cent of the time in the money.
