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Overview
This 1960s slot horse racing set was made in Hong Kong for Lincoln International and boxed and assembled in New Zealand. As Warwick Henderson explains in The Fascinating History of Toys and Games Around the World, it was produced at a time when slot car racing sets were particularly popular, and New Zealand pacer Cardigan Bay was at the height of his fame.
Harness racing (formerly known as trotting) developed in New Zealand in the 1880s. The programme for the Wanganui Trotting Association meeting held in January 1881 included races ‘for vehicles drawn by one horse,’ and this was the forerunner of the modern sport. Standardbred horses were imported to New Zealand along with new racing sulkies, and trotting events became popular in their own right.
Cardigan Bay was a champion pacer and the first horse in harness racing to reach $1 million in earnings. He was a household name in New Zealand in the 1960s, and also gained superstar status in the United States. In 1968 Cardigan Bay appeared on an episode of the Ed Sullivan Show, and his subsequent return to New Zealand was commemorated with a stamp issue featuring his image.
References
- Henderson, Warwick. The Fascinating History of Toys and Games Around the World. Auckland: New Holland Publishers.
- Meyer, Emma. 2008. Horses - Recreation. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/speech/19292/cardigan-bay
- Mountier, Mary. 2015. Horse and greyhound racing. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. https://teara.govt.nz/en/horse-and-greyhound-racing