BRILLIANT MARES

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 85, 7 October 1938, Page 13

BRILLIANT MARES

VALICARE AND GLENTRUiN

Few racegoers who remember them will question an assertion that Australia and New Zealand have known no more brilliant mares since the war than imported Glentruin and the local-ly-bred Valicare, but there is a definite divergence of opinion as to the relative merit of those two scorchers of the grass, writes a contributor to the Sydney "Referee." Though Valicare was out in 1925-2G--27, and Glentruin was not retired from the Turf until she became a 10-year-old for 1926-27 racing, the pair never met. and as all Glentruin's starts, with one exception, were on New Zealand tracks and Valicare's racing was confined to Sydney and Melbourne, there is not much data to work on for purposes of comparison. It was as a three-year-old that Valicare first carried silk, and she came through the season with aix unblemished record of seven firsts, races to fall to her being Warwick Farm Stakes, A.J.C. Flying Handicap, Carrington Stakes, Adrian Knox Stakes, Rawson Stakes, Doncaster Handicap, and Allaged Stakes. As a four-year-old she was not nearly so successful, wins in the Rosehill Stakes and V.R.C. C. M. Lloyd Stakes being the only ones achieved from 11 attempts. Her record as a five-year-old consists of but one unplaced outing, and when she left the glamour of the courses to take up stud duty she had competed 18 times for nine firsts, three seconds, and two thirds. Glentruin had a much more trying time. So far over was she at the knees that a deformity was often suspected. That she figured in 46 events for 20 firsts, 11 seconds, and six thirds, however, is' definite proof that if any limb weakness existed it was not at all serious. . . i The sole Australian race contested by Glentruin was the Warwick Stakes of 1924, and the manner in which sne acocunted for the opposition made it 'easy to understand how she had come to give the mighty Gloaming a couple of hard races in the Dominion. Valicare was a fine-looking mare and Glentruin would have passed muster in any company but for her rather unsightly forelegs. Though G. Price figured as tne trainer of Glentruin in Sydney, credit for her fitness at. Warwick Farm went to F. D. Jones, who had brought the white-flecked chestnut -across the Tasman. but a change, of stables had to be made as a result of his falling foul of the stewards over the running of Royal Despatch, another of his charges, on that particular trip.