Silver Elm appeals in stakes

Press, 6 February 1986, Page 21

Silver Elm appeals in stakes

Special correspondent Wellington The weight-for-age conditions of this afternoon’s $lO,OOO Wairarapa Thoroughbred Breeders’ Stakes at the WairarapaCarterton Racing Club’s meeting at Tauherenikau give the classy Awapuni mare, Silver Elm, every chance to get back to winning form. Not since the Cuddle Stakes last May at Trentham has Silver Elm been successful, but she is owned in the area, has drawn fairly well and has every chance to break the losing sequence.

Silver Elm has won nine races and over $127,000. Her class can best be judged by a number of fine performances last season. She was fifth in the Television Stakes at Ellerslie when favourite, fourth in the Easter, second in the Air New Zealand and first in City of Sydney Handicap at Trentham and the White Horse at Te Rapa.

The autumn has proved to ba Silver Elm’s best time/for racing and the

trainer, Noel Eales, has a clutch of solid prizes available for her in the next couple of months. This - will be Silver Elm’s second attempt on the Wairarapa Breeders’. Stakes. She was ninth in Aptitude’s contest two years ago, when it was raced at Otaki. The field is big and the challenge is likely to be headed by the filly, French Polish, the good mare, Bess, and Gay Kitty. French Polish has been, busy enough this term. Just last Saturday she went to Rotorua and tackled the Evergreen Stakes. She was checked in that race so her final placing, tenth of 15, is hardly a guide. In her previous outing she made ground late to finish sixth in the New Zealand Oaks, though she was some distance from the winner, Royal Heights. After the closest of seconds in the Pahiatua Cup, Bess failed in two runs at Trentham, but she can do better and is due another chance. > The Breeders’ Stakes

field also includes Panphilae, a last-start winner at Foxton, and the Bothwell stablemates, Wyuna and Myola. Myola won at Hawera and Wyuna at Trentham. Gay Kitty will be a big chance. The mare is in good form and from a handy draw will be suited by the Tauherenikau course. She won at Woodville earlier in the summer and was a sprint winner, by five lengths, last time at Awapuni. She has won on the course before. Last season she won four times and almost beat Eastern Joy in the Eulogy Stakes at Awapuni. Fille Du Monde, first at Trentham and third at Foxton, and Be My Music, which has won two of her last three races, come into the picture, while the chance of Clue’s Gift looks good. The seven-year-old is trained on the course, has won there three times and after winning there in January, has gone on to run third in a sprint at Awapuni behind Gay Kitty.