Visitors Superior At Yonkers

Press, Volume C, Issue 29511, 12 May 1961, Page 6

Visitors Superior At Yonkers

(Specially written for "The Press" by JOHN NOBLE]

Had False Step been able to start in the first leg of the International Pacing Series at Yonkers Raceway last week, I very much doubt if an American horse could

have paid a dividend. In the light of Arania’s performance this may seem confusing, but she pulled very hard throughout the first mile while unable to receive a trail, a circumstance which beat her in the day of the Inter-Dominion Championship meeting in February at Addington.

It was C. C. Devine’s intention to take False Step to the front from the start, whereupon Arania would have been able to receive a trail.

Arania and False Step had been consistently beating Apmat in their work so it would not have been impossible for them to have finished first and second.

The superiority of the Australian and New Zealand horses is attributable not to any more ability, but rather to the hard racing they had had in Christchurch and Sydney before coming to Yonkers. It has left them in better condition than the

American horses, the best of which have just come from winter quarters. Cruel Blow False Step’s withdrawal was a cruel blow to his connexions and supporters. The first indication that anything was amiss came three hours before the race when he walked gingerly from his box to the saddling enclosure. His condition deteriorated rapidly and by the time Devine was summoned, he was very sore, although nobody could locate the source of the trouble. A veterinary surgeon diagnosed a recentlyinserted nail in his near hind shoe to be pricking him. The nail was removed, but False Step was worse than ever when he cooled out after being jogged. It was not until midday on the day after the race that Tony Vassallo, who is in charge of False Step, located the sore spot in a swollen gland high up under his offside forearm. The cause of the inflammation is not known and no-one is prepared to say how the horse will be affected in the next few days.

Arania’s faliure was not as dismal as reports might suggest. She drew No. 5 and refused to be steadied into a gap between the third and fourth horses on the first turn. She continued to pull fiercely until the field had gone one mile. At that stage she “gagged" and choked. Her excitement, generated by unfamiliar starting conditions, made her so keen that she actually outsped some famed American sprinters over the first quarter.

G. B. Noble is having a harrassing time correcting her and he may even have to use special gear, which is illegal in New Zealand and Australia, to stop her pulling.