Allowance will assist Shining Monk today

Press, 6 July 1983, Page 31

Allowance will assist Shining Monk today

Special correspondent Cambridge With the apprentice allowance that he is expected to enjoy, Shining Monk will become one of the brightest prospects at the Cambridge Jockey Club’s meeting at Te Rapa today.

Shining Monk is top weight with 57kg in the second leg of the double, the Lorigan Handicap, a class three race over 1400 metres. But with a stable apprentice, Eric Simmonds, his rider, this amount will be reduced to 52.5 kg. In his last two starts Shining Monk finished fourth on the first day of the Great Northern meeting, then first on the middle day and second in his latest attempt, a class three 1600

metres at Pukekohe on June 24. A four-year-old gelding, especially able on heavy tracks, he will now be in the comfortable position today of just Ikg above the minimum. Silver Guide and Pardon Me, if recent form is anything to go by, will be the hardest for Shining Monk to beat. Pardon Me has a laststart third placing behind Tidestemmer at Tauranga on June 25, and Silver Guide

was just a neck away in fourth place. Silver Guide, a three-year-old filly, pressed First Sovereign close the previous time, over 1200 m on the third day of the Great Northern meeting. She looks promising. Pirgoda and Royal Reprieve are strong stayers in heavy ground and a couple to beat in the first leg, the Leamington Handicap. Both are inclined to get back in the early stages of

their races but they nearly always run on well. Royal Reprieve all but won in his last race, a 2000 m event at Ellerslie on June 29. He won three of his first five races this season through the spring when the tracks were very soft. Berceuse, a four-year-old mare from Foxton, evidently stays well so she might be the hardest for Pirgoda and Royal Reprieve to beat.