Another massive southern onslaught on Great Autumn

Press, 20 April 1979, Page 1 (Supplement)

Another massive southern onslaught on Great Autumn

Wth Mr Ay Bee and Yipp's Secret to supply the main ingredients and a dash of Miles Better, Dark Isa, Prodigal, and Candyboy as back-up, it is unlikely 7 there will be even crumbs from the Great Autumn Handicap “cake" for any one trained north of the Waitaki river at Riccarton tomorrow.

Mr Ay Bee and Yipp’s Secret will meet for the second time at the meeting, but both will go into the first leg of the Canterbury Jockey Club’s T.A.B. double as last-start winners. Mr Ay Bee gave Yipp’s Secret skg and beat her by inches in the George Adams Handicap (2000 m last Monday. Being a gelding, Mr Ay Bee was not eligible to run in the D.B. Galaxy Stakes on Wednesday, and to the surprise of no one Yipp’s Secret won at odds-on. Tomorrow they will meet on the same terms as they did in the George Adams, but up I.skg over 500 more metres.

Mr Ay Bee should not have his brilliance blunted to any great degree. He slammed his rivals in this race a year ago under 53kg. In the meantime he has won five

Yipp’s Secret has one vital quality for staying races — ability to relax and settle quickly, leaving her those reserves' for her finishing runs on the big courses. The Cochrane stable apprentice, Jim Collett, knows Yipp's Secret thoroughly and is riding with all the confidence one could expect of one on a high crest of success

comer to the C.J.C. meeting. Miles Better is trained at Invercargill by Wilson Ellis, whose father, the late Fred Ellis, made some memorable Riccarton “raids” up to about 20 years ago. Dark Isa, a stablemate of Yipp’s Secret, battled tenaciously to take third from Candyboy in the D. B. Galaxy Stakes, and would have given both Yipp’s Secret and The Fantasy more to do if she had settled better in the early running.

the Great Easter Handicap, will be the popular fancy for the second leg, the Waltham Handicap. But he should get some stiff southern opposition from The Fantasy and Napiat, and might also come under heavy pressure from Brutus and Cracker Day if there is any easing in the track. The Fantasy is coming .back from a middle distance — she was just touched off by Yipp’s Secret in the D. B. Galaxy Stakes — but 1400 m showed her to the best advantage earlier in the season. Napiat finished fourth and was promoted to third in a tight finish to the Great Easter and was rested on the middle day of the meeting.

By

J. J. Boyle

more races, making him one of the most exciting of the South Island’s handicap horses this season. As winner of 10 races this season Yipp’s Secret has also made a splendid contribution to racing records, and there would be no more popular winner if success went her way.

In that regard, though, Mr Ay Bee will want for nothing as the mount of Michael Mein, who has a great record in feature South Island races this season, including three “first legs’’ over the Easter carnivals. Ability to win three races including a Riverton Cup “on the trot’’ makes Miles Better an interesting new-

Candyboy has winning form at this distance at Riccarton, and Prodigal ran out 2000 m in the style of a stayer when third in the George Adams Handicap. Spy Force, the Riccarton four-year-old relegated to fifth after finishing first in

If the dry spell of weather holds, leaving a dry track for the third day of the meeting,