Definition of "trots"

A lot of people used to go out to the trots at Wayville. You′d see them all dressed up in their beads and bonnets and looking all flash, going off to the trots.

2002, Veronica Brodie, Mary-Anne Gale, My Side of the Bridge: The Life Story of Veronica Brodie as Told to Mary-Anne Gale, South Australia: Wakefield Press, page 49

‘Russ drank two bottles of Coruba rum at the races then demanded to be driven to the Auckland night trots. We hadn′t been that keen on going to the trots, but when we dropped him there we figured we might as well stay for a couple of races. […] ’

2006, Mike Dillon, From The Horses Mouth: The Keith Haub Story, HarperCollins New Zealand, published 2010, unnumbered page

I like both kinds of racing, thoroughbred and standardbred. Despite their lower social status, I like betting the trots just as much as I do the flats.

2008, J. D. Carpenter, Twelve Trees, Canada: Dundurn Press, page 24

“ […] It is a fact that thousands come, pay their fee, and go straight to the amphitheater to see the trots, without whose fees premiums could not be paid to other classes.”

2008, Drake Hokanson, Carol Kratz, Purebred & Homegrown: America′s County Fairs, US: Terrace Books, page 45

The introduction of harness racing on Saturday nights at nearby Wayville in 1934 caused serious consequences for the rest of the 1930s as ‘the trots’ regularly attracted crowds of 20 000. When the trots began to offer free admission to children accompanying their parents, the state Exhibitors′ Association, of which Thompson was then chair, tried to agitate against this on moral grounds.

2011, Mike Walsh, 8: From Hollywood to the Garden Suburb (and Back to Hollywood): Exhibition and Distribution in Australia, Richard Maltby, Daniel Biltereyst, Philippe Meers, Explorations in New Cinema History: Approaches and Case Studies, Wiley, page 164