LAST JUVENILE TEST

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 70, 9 April 1937, Page 9

LAST JUVENILE TEST

At Awapuni To-morrow To-morrow 's Manawatu Sires' Produce Stakes will provide the final serious clash of the season 's two-year-olds, and it will be an interesting er.counter, as the field contains Francis Drake, the colt's Ellerslie' victor Smoke Screen, and the southerner Haughty Winner. Royal Chief is missing, but otherwise the youngsters engaged represent the best of the preseiif active two-year-old list. The Champi.gue Stakes at E'lerslie last week saw Francis Drake ,i'uffer a further defeat, this time at the haude of Smoke Screeu, but there is still a d-jubt wliether the Limoud geidirg is sctually his suteiior. At Awapuu- on Saturday the fight for honours between these two youngsters will be the main i'eature. lf Francis Drake ean wm Ue wi'll settle his account thorojghly, becau«« he has to give weiglit to Smoke Screen oti this oecasion, whereas they niet '.n level terms at Ellerslie." Unde-r the pena'.ty conditions at Awapuni Francis Drake will have to carry the full excess of 141b. so that his weight will be J.O, Smoke Screen just missos the fui! penalty, but he will have to put up an extra 101b., which will make his weight 8.10. Haughty Winner will also have to carry 8.10, and the only other with a penalty will be Greenwich, whose 51b.

extra will take her weight to 8.2. Elanage and The Crooner will carry 8.0, and the others (if produced on the day) will have the advantage of a 51b. maiden allowance, unless oue of them should win on the first day. The full penalty has 'only once been carried to success by a colt or gelding. That was back in 1918, when Finmark was the winner. A quartet of fillies, however, have succeeded under the maximum " impost, these having been Lady Cavendish (1925), Episode (1928), Gay Ballerina (1929), and Gesture (1930). The two latest winners, Legatee and Custos respectively, hav8 each saddled up a 51b. penalty.