FROM STUD AND STABLE SOUTHERN INTEREST IN BIG AUSTRALIAN RACES

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31081, 9 June 1966, Page 4

FROM STUD AND STABLE SOUTHERN INTEREST IN BIG AUSTRALIAN RACES

While New Zealand entries for the big cup races in Melbourne this year are down on last year prospects of strong South Island representation look bright.

The Wingatui trainer, A. E. Didham, has completed

arrangements for a six - horse team to leave Christchurch for Melbourne on June 18.

He will take Royal Estate,, Bastille, and Ski, which have been entered for both the: Melbourne and Caulfield I Gups: Mon Amour, a Mel-1 bourne Cup entrant; Bellition, which has been entered for the Caulfield Cup; and the two-year-old JockPalisade. Fieldmaster. and Eiffel Tower are other South Island stayers entered for the Melbourne Cup. Eiffel Tower, now being campaigned in the North Island as a hurdler, was entered for the Australian Grand Nationals this year, hut was scratched the day the weights appeared. If he goes to Australia Eiffel Tower will probably join Didham’s team, which will be quartered at Mentone. The stable jockey, E. J.

Didham, has been associated with Eiffel Tower in his major victories—the Wellington Cup, Invercargill Gold Cup, and the Riverton Cup. An .Attraction No New Zealand horse would attract wider interest l in Australia than Palisade. : Australia sees few high- , class stayers capable of holdi ing their form with age on: them, let alone keep improving when well into the veteran stage. Mr A. T. Ottrey has said he would be keen to send his champion to Melbourne only if the veteran trainer, D. P. Wilson, felt fit and willing enough to make the trip and supervise the horse’s cup preparation. Wilson does not have happy memories of an earlier trip |to Melbourne with First In. This mare was taken over i for the cups but she went i amiss a week or two before I the Melbourne Cup, and Wilson made immediate plans Ito return to New Zealand.

“Wouldn’t you like to wait and see our famous Melbourne Cup?” a surprised Australian asked the Otago veteran. “I’d rather be winning at Beaumont than losing in Melbourne,” said Dave Wilson. Peterman and Terrific, the top three-year-olds this season. are two of the 23 New Zealand horses entered for :the Melbourne Cup. iA Setback

An injury to Peterman in March deprived New Zealand of an outstanding autumn attraction—a Palisade-Peterman clash at weight-for-age in a race like the Awapuni Gold Cup. All who like to see the good horses run will be hoping for such a clash next season, but they might not welcome the idea of travelling to Melbourne to see it.

The New Zealand entry for this year’s Melbourne Cup represents a drop of 18 from last year’s record of 41.

The handsome £15,000 prizes for the Wellington and Auckland Cups have now taken some of the glamour away from the Australian races.

Besides some of the New Zealand trainers with big teams and their usual quota of labour shortages find the prospect uninviting. Entries Too Early

All but the doubles bookmakers, who will have their first charts out in a week or two, and those hopeful ones seeking riches on the cups’ double, feel that entries for the big cups go in too early in the year. Weights appear several weeks before the races are run, providing many and various forms of anomalies by the time the early spring races have been contested. This year’s total entry in the Melbourne Cup is 377 compared with 465 last year and the record 541 in 1958. The Caulfield figure of 432 is 77 less than last year and well below the record 521 entered in 1962.