Canterbury Trotting Club · January 1, 1900 · Official ASN replay
Zepha claims the Canterbury Cup
C&D game used: ASN Trotting · custom ASN game
Zepha wins the Canterbury Cup Handicap by 5.6 seconds over Hassan. Sam Slick finishes third.
2 miles · mixed · 13 finishers. Winning ASN clock: 5:25.8.
The official finish
| Place | Horse | ASN clock | Behind winner | Running clock | Allowance | Equipment | Gait breaks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Zepha | 5:25.8 | Winner | 5:25.8 | 26s | harness | 0 |
| 2 | Hassan | 5:31.4 | +5.6s | 5:26.4 | 21s | saddle | 0 |
| 3 | Sam Slick | 5:32.9 | +7.1s | 5:18.9 | 12s | harness | 0 |
| 4 | The Baron | 5:33.8 | +8.0s | 5:22.8 | 15s | harness | 0 |
| 5 | Collector | 5:35.1 | +9.3s | 5:20.1 | 11s | harness | 0 |
| 6 | Sing Sing | 5:35.5 | +9.7s | 5:34.5 | 25s | saddle | 0 |
| 7 | General Grigg | 5:36.1 | +10.3s | 5:32.1 | 22s | harness | 0 |
| 8 | Venus | 5:38.5 | +12.7s | 5:31.5 | 19s | harness | 0 |
| 9 | Moana | 5:38.9 | +13.1s | 5:30.9 | 18s | saddle | 1 |
| 10 | Young Burlington | 5:39.0 | +13.2s | 5:21.0 | 8s | saddle | 0 |
| 11 | Vickery | 5:49.5 | +23.7s | 5:23.5 | 0s | harness | 2 |
| 12 | Thelma | 5:49.7 | +23.9s | 5:40.7 | 17s | harness | 1 |
| 13 | Almont | 5:58.3 | +32.5s | 5:42.3 | 10s | harness | 3 |
Zepha finishes without a gait break. All 13 reported runners are represented and finish this ASN replay.
Historical source and reconstruction notes
The original newspaper placings are historical evidence and do not determine the ASN result above. The full field and handicap marks were transcribed from the owner-supplied Lyttelton Times scan.
Abilities are estimates accepted before play. This uses an experimental ASN quarter-mile model; the clocks are not calibrated historical measurements. Equipment has no performance modifier, and period traffic or disciplinary rules are not simulated.
- All thirteen runners identified. Collector allowance recovered as 11 seconds. Zepha 26 seconds overrides earlier OCR 28.
- Coupled betting entries do not merge runners: Young Burlington/The Baron and Thelma/Sing Sing remain separate horses.
- Narrative says Thelma was pacing; retain as source context without inventing a gait restriction or performance bonus.
- Dr Slate’s interference complaint received no action; historical context only.
- Existing v0.1.0 quarter-mile engine unchanged. Steady/Cruise/Press and random tactics retained; cruise-to-finish chooses Cruise for all remaining quarters.
- Equipment has no performance modifier. The mixed Cup uses the same neutral clock model; actual saddle/harness choice is retained per horse in preparation.
- No traffic, coupled-entry performance, period disciplinary or historical-protest simulation. Historical protests do not decide replay results.
- Premier Telegraph: assigned 5 seconds with a separate 5-second penalty, interpreted net allowance 0. Silvie Hue Final: assigned 10 seconds with a separate 3-second penalty, interpreted net allowance 7. This follows the existing Fairfield net-allowance convention and is a disclosed reconstruction.
- Intermediate heading explicitly prints two miles; historical time prints 3m17 2/5s, an apparent source anomaly. Use the explicit distance; do not calibrate replay performance to that time.
- Provisional proper-name readings retained. No rider/driver or horse career identities invented. Source order is not a replay result.
Lyttelton Times, January 2, 1900, SPORTING, newspaper page 3 · supplied PDF p.9–10
Full recorded-dice replay and frozen preparation verified. Review: KEEPER. Source result SHA-256: 3e9f83763c8fd3266c3724458776521abb499f2f577b80c80d57cb899a521594.