EXCELLENT FIELDS

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 36, 11 August 1936, Page 13

EXCELLENT FIELDS

PAKURANGA A GOOD DRAW

(Special from "Early Bird.")

AUCKLAND, August .10.

The entries .for the Pakuranea Hunt Meeting at Ellerslie next Saturday week are very good considering the stake-money on offer. A feature of the . nominations is the number of horses from outside the province accorded an entry. ■■ The class in the vflat races is good. - ■ .

■Most interest in the open sprint next week will be taken in Gallio, who will be confronted with no easy task to beat the horses likely to oppose him. The three-year-old is forward enough to make a bold bid, and he will need to be if he is to win the Wanganui Guineas three weeks later. Gallio is I hitting out very freely at Te Awamutu and the need of a race is the only thing that may count against him next week. His impost in the Dunedin: Handicap [represents a couple of pounds over weight-for-age, but then the minimum !'is a stone higher. ■<

LIKELY CLASSIC FILLY. / Another three-year-old that the public will be waiting to see in action this season is the Te Rapa filly Merial, whose two winning efforts in the autumn at the Waikato Meeting were so impressive, for she gave the leading division a'start from the-home turn and then beat them to the judge. OnEaster Monday, two days after filling fourth place in the Champagne Stakes,, she was third in a nursery handicap event under 9.2. She is engaged in the hack sprint at Ellerslie next week, and if she is forward enough she may take some beating. In view of her classic engagements her form will be followed with interest, for she has shaped like a horse that would not be bothered by the distance of the Guineas contests. ;■'.■: ■~ .; •• .':.■' . .••. , Some of the best handicap horses In the province will be seen in" the open sprint at Ellerslie next week, and while most of them will be.out of their best distance the event should convey some idea as to their future prospects. The most prominent.of these handicap performers are Caliente and Tybalt (winner and runner-up respectively in the Mitchelson Cup at Ellerslie last spring), Mazir, and King Musk, while the Manawatu winner Silver Brier figures in both this and the handicap event. With so many of this class available for racing so early1 in the piece the prospects for the Avondale and Mitchelson Cups in the next few weeks are very bright; for others yet to be produced are good sorts in Master Brierly, Jonathan, and Royal Appellant, with Rereatu also likely to be tried in this division later. '

The field for the Pakuranga Hunt Cup'promises well, and with the best hunters engaged the contest over the Ellerslie hill (to be negotiated twice) should be as spectacular as, the race for this event twelve months ago, when Prosy Bpy and Ardmanning had a rare set-to over the last half-mile, the former getting half his head in front right on the post. Neither is engaged next week. Taranaki stables are strongly represented by Flower.Bag (winner of a point-to-point race la»f month). Cynical Kid, arid Indiscretion; and Tangled represents ■ Manawatu and Dark Princess Poverty Bay. The local hopes appear to be Electric Flash and Irish Comet, but there is a chance that the valuable trophy will once again be w6n by a visiting horse. FLEETWIND'S PROMISE. ; Fleetwind is going to be one of the early fancies-for-the.hack sprint event at Ellerslie on Saturday week, but the field .is going, to; be a very ;big. one (there will, have to. be 15 withdrawals to; obviate a division) 'and so the barrier draw will-settle-the chances of many: runners..Fle'etwind.-.is still working so well that it looks; as if she is at last coming right back\to her best form. Her fourth'.inva/hack event at the?" Great Northern Meeting was certainly encouraging? ior-she came from the rear to finish', so dose to the placegetters.^ ........ : •' •' ,: It is probable .that the early javpiu> ites for the JeUicoe Handicap, the' leading ..flat event,,-will be recent form horses in Horowh'enua and Silver Brier. The runaway win-of the.latter at the Manawatu fixture„ last month revealed her possibilities,.but northerners were not surprised, for she has been regarded as an improving handicap horse, air though it is a long time since she raced in the north. . She likes the BOf t ground and the Ellerslie track next week will favour her. for while it will be in good order it willnot be fast. Horowhenua has been galloping well since he ran into a place on the final'day at Trentham and he will.bother the Awapuni winner. Seven weeks ago Lagoon defeated Enge and a fair.field of provincial handicap horses in the Opotiki Cup, and with half a stone more to carry in the Jellicoe Handicap next week she will not lack friends, for when caught at her best she is liable to upset any good field. She has not been an easy horse to follow, her successes coming at intervals, but she scored at Tauranga in her last outing in' a manner that suggested that she would go, close to adding the Jellicoe Handicap to her record inn her present' condition.