SECOND WINNER FOR WINGATUI

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31002, 7 March 1966, Page 4

SECOND WINNER FOR WINGATUI

Captain’s Command rounded off a notable day for Wingatui-trained horses at Trentham on Saturday by winning the £l5OO Railway Handicap.

Within an hour of Palisade’s victory in the Chalmers Handicap, the three-year-year Captain’s Command brought off his major success for Mr E. H. Young after looking hopelessly out of it early. Like Palisade, Captain’s Command was ridden by R. J. Skelton, and he was one of only three Wingatui-trained horses taken north for the meeting. Skelton was anything but hopeful of a win for Captain’s Command early in the race. ‘‘He was on the wrong foot and making no impression early,” Skelton said later. “But when I shook him up he really started to gallop and I felt I had the leaders covered safely when he took a gap two furlongs out.”

There Skelton was reassured by the sight of J. T. Anderson hard at work on Home On The Range which was to prove the best of his rivals. Home On The Range ran the race out gamely, but the Wingatui colt held him safely by a long neck to record his second win in his last five starts. In between those wins were

three thirds, two of them at Riccarton in February. Misere weakened slightly from the leading line but saved third from the fasterfinishing Rohe Potae, which was unable to get clear behind a wall of horses in the straight.

Wavering, the second favourite, tired from the front end to finish fifth. Tumble, which drifted to last straight away, passed some fast sprinters in the straight to finish seventh little more than four lengths from the winner.