Shivaree wins stakes; sets course record

Press, 9 April 1979, Page 23

Shivaree wins stakes; sets course record

NZPA Sydney The four-year-old New Zealand gelding Shivaree caused an upset and set a new course record when winning the $150,000 weight-|for-age H. E. Tancred Stakes T2400m) at Rosehill on Sat- ! urday. Shivaree, having his first start since his second to La Mer in the Air New Zealand Staes (2000 m at Ellerslie on i March 3, was always in a j handy position and the New (Zealand jockey, Roger Lang, I quickly took him to the i front after Northfleet, ridden ! by Linda Jones, had assured a fast race with a bold front-running performance. Shivaree shot well clear and held on well to beat Dulcify by a length and a half with Happy Union a

further half a neck away, third. Lang later described Shivaree as one of the laziest horses he had ridden and said it had been hard work keeping him to the task. His trainer, Dave O’Sullivan, said: “He is a real slug and has never won a track gallop.” Bookmakers, however, were so impressed they i made Shivaree the 11 to 2 favourite for the Sydney Cup — but O’Sullivan said the gelding was almost a certain non-starter. “He is only a four-year-old and neither I nor his part-owner. Sir Douglas Clague, feel inclined to tackle the Cup,” he said. The O’Sullivan-Lang combination won the 1976 Sydney Cup with Oopik. This year’s race, worth $156,000, will be run at Randwick on April 21. There were no New Zea-land-breds in the $250,000 Golden Slipper Stakes (1200 m for two-year-olds. The race was won in brilliant fashion by the J. B. Cummings-trained filly, Century Miss., superbly ridden by the 18-year-old apprentice, Wayne Harris. Century Miss, the joint 9 to 2 favourite with Lowan Star, finished strongly to

, just keep out the Without Fear gelding, Dawn Command. Ridden by the New Zea--1 land jockey Brent Thomson, : Dawn Command appeared to have the race won 200 m , from the finish, but Century I Miss, ninth on the turn, ■ came with a perfectly judged wide run to win by a , head in Imin 10.75. ! Sweet Habit finished third > and Lowan Star was a dis- ■ appointing eighth.