Officials racing to solve trotting cup mystery
A 65-year-old Waimate trotting cup has been saved from the scrap nearly 400 kilometres away from where it was presented in 1954.
The trophy, inscribed as the Waimate Centennial Trotting Cup, is believed to be the trophy presented to the winner of the feature race in the Waimate centenary year of 1954 but it has never been engraved and how it got to Southland is a mystery. Waimate officials have no idea how it ended up at the Riverton Recycling Centre and the South Canterbury township’s trotting club had hoping it
was the Waimate Trotting Cup which went missing about four years ago.
‘‘This cup has never been engraved so its not the cup they were thinking it was,’’ Anna Miles, the vicepresident of the Waimate Racing Club, who has been at the centre of the cup’s return, told Stuff. ‘‘It is a different Cup. That’s where the mystery lies. They have one that has been presented so this is a different.’’
The Waimate Trotting Club is now planning on presenting this ‘‘special cup’’ from now on as the Waimate Trotting Cup, which is timely as the club’s meeting is on March 24.
Miles got involved when contacted via the club’s Facebook page by a Mark Eramiha who said his
friend Phil Barton had found the cup, which had been thrown out at the recycling centre where he worked. Barton rescued the cup and felt that it needed to be returned to Waimate.
She then devised a plan to have the cup returned. ‘‘Mark dropped the cup to Riverton galloping trainer Kelvin Tyler. Kelvin took the cup to the Invercargill races to get picked up
by a Washdyke trainer but the trainer forgot, but luckily his wife, Karen Tapper, of Timaru, was heading that direction later in the week so managed to arrange picking up.’’
The trophy ended up with Timaru trainer Steph Clark, who passed it onto Miles at the end of February at a meeting at Phar Lap Raceway in Timaru and yesterday it was handed
over to Waimate Trotting Club vicepresident Lindsay Miller.
Miles is also checking with the archives person at the Waimate Museum and has emailed the secretary of the Waimate Trotting Club in the hope there are recordsto show who won the cup in 1954.
As the history of the trophy is not confirmed, Miles said any further information would be appreciated.
‘‘I have no idea what the cup was made for. That’s why I want to go down to the museum to see if they have any records and things like that.
‘‘I’ve come to the thinking that it is something that was presented in the Waimate Township Centenary year. Now we need to do more research.’’
The trophy . . . is believed to be the trophy presented to the winner of the feature race in the Waimate centenary year of 1954.