RACING Big Smoke Fancied For Ashburton

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31093, 23 June 1966, Page 4

RACING Big Smoke Fancied For Ashburton

Big Smoke is assured of favouritism for the Maronan Handicap, the first leg of the Ashburton club’s T.A.B. double on Saturday.

He earned that position with the ease of his win over seven furlongs in the Members’ Handicap at Wingatui on June 11. That day he beat Just Peter by four lengths, and that performance took on further lustre when Just Peter won against the sorinters at Oamaru on Tuesday. Most horses in the skilled hands of D. P. Wilson hold their form well.

In winning six races last season Big Smoke twice won at successive starts, and a second separated his two other wins at that age.

The Gigantic gelding has done comparatively little racing this season which could give him an edge on some heavily-campaigned performers in the Ashburton mile. Good Miler Big Smoke is 111 b below the top-weight, Careen, whose win in the Winter Cup last August and in the Golden Mile Handicap at Te Rapa

leaves no room for doubt that she will be running over her best distance on Saturday. Careen has been at a disadvantage at times when the fields are large and the courses are small, but Ashburton, like Riccarton, suits a back runner of her type.

Shakes won this race under 8-11 last year, and improved a solid record on the course with another win there in the autumn when making a fresh start.

His Vest run in the meantime gave him a second in the Amberley Cup, seven furlongs. Last time out he was an unimpressive eighth in the Waimate Cup, but that run should not have the final bearing on his chance as a miler. Castle Gregory failed over a middle distance on a firm track in the Oamaru Winter Cup on Tuesday, but, having won • against milers in soft ground at Wingatui at his previous start he could not be regarded as one of the lesser lights. Mogambo and Misjudge are in form to give them place chances at least. They usually run their races out strongly and Mogambo was unlucky in one of his starts at Wingatui, where his record was a third and a fourth.

Cobble will have an Otago following on her Oamaru Winter Cup third but, after a fairly strenuous season, it is doubtful if she can find enough improvement to beat the likes of Big Smoke, Careen, and Shakes. Second Leg Time and Tide, Natter, and Jester Jinks will be strong representatives for Riccarton in the Seafield Handicap, second leg of the double.

It will be a fresh start for the New Zealand Oaks winner, Natter, but she is thoroughly fitted to run six furlongs, and in her training programme she has invariably looked good. Time and Tide was an unlucky fifth, and Jester Jinks a creditable third when they

met in the sprint at Waimate last month.

Any deterioration in the track would probably help Jester Jinks more than any of the others. On a soft track at Ashburton this time last year Jester Jinks won his first race by five lengths, and in his only start later in the season he easily carried off the Christchurch Hunt Club’s Camla Hack Handicap. Another win at the Grand National meeting at the start of the season gave this Red Jester gelding open ranking. Time and Tide, like Natter, is a three-year-old, and he could find more improvement than several others in this field.

In the ordinary course of events six furlongs would probably be short of Morris Francis’s best distance. But, this being his first start since the summer, he could match most if not all the others on a track likely to suit him.

Another fresh runner with a chance at the distance is Apache. He has shown only odd flashes of form over the last year or so, but he has looked good in training recently and if he gives generously of his fine turn of speed he could be right in the finish.