MELBOURNE CUP

Hokitika Guardian, 14 July 1931, Page 2

MELBOURNE CUP

PHAR LAP’S PROSPECTS

LEADING TRAINERS’ VIEWS

“Pliar Lap has no chance whatever of winning the Melbourne Cup with 10.10!” This is the opinion of James Scobie, who on four occasions led in the winner of the race, says the Melbourne “Sporting Globe.” “In mv opinion,” added the master of Pytchley Lodge, ‘‘‘a fair weight for Telford’s horse would have been 10.5 or 10.6.”

Racegoers throughout Australia have been awaiting Mr J. H. Davis’s Cup adjustments, chiefly out of curiosity as to Phar Lap’s weight. As a topic this has for the. moment supplanted the Gagoola case. It is years since the hnndicapper for the Melbourne. Cup has had to impose such a heavy burden on a candidate. As Phar Lap has proved so very much superior to other Australian thoroughbeds and-won the last Melbourne Cup as a four-year-old with 9.12, Mr Davis had no alternative but to fix a substantial burden for him.

There will be a difference of Opinion among racing men whether Mi’ Davis has gone too far. James Scobie opines that Carbine could not have won the Cup with 10.10, “Big imposts wore carried with suecess at that period,” he added, “but the. young horses are more formidable now than they were then, being better trained.

CARRADALE BADLY TREATED

“I regard Carradale as badly treated this year. The most favourably handicapped horse is The Dimmer, who captured a Perth Cup, was unlucky to lose the Australian Cup, and carried off the. Sydney Cup in great style, besides appropriating the weight-for age races at the Randwick carnival.”

F. Musgrave, the veteran Caulfield trainer, said that Phar Lap had received a prohibitive weight, and he would have to be more than a second' Carbine, to win the Cup under it.

“Perhaps Phar Lap is entitled to his 10.10,” added Mr Musgrave, “but the general run of horses nowadays are as good as they were in Carbine’s day and I woud not have him to win trie Cup. Last year he had 9.12 when he won—-and won well—but he has gone up nearly a stone, and l that is a stiff rise when the weights are so high.” It will be remembered that last year Phar Lap was all out to defeat Second Wind by three lengths. After the race Pike stated that it was the first occasion in which he had fatmd it necessary, up to that Btiige, to rule the champion right out, • With an additional 121 b, Phar Lap ceratinly has a, severe ta'sk ahead of him,

Some speculators evidently hold the opinion that Phar Lap has a better chance in the Caulfield' Cup, in which he has been awarded 10.11, for there was a. good deal of support for the gelding for that race in doubles immediately after the publication of the weights.

NO STABLE. MOVE.

His name was connected witli those of Carradale, The Dimmer, and Madstar to a fair extent, but there was nothing like a stable move about the business.

In one wager The Dimmer (Caulfield Cup) was associated with Pliar Lap (Melbourne Cup). The weight awarded Phar Lap is the greatest in the Melbourne Cup since Carbine received 10.12 in 1891—the year after he had won the Cup with 10.5. Phar Lap has been allotted more weights that Carbine at the same age, taking into consideration the gelding allowance amount to 81b.

But .it is impossible to estimate the chance Phar Lap possesses under his weight in comparison with Carbine. It is the opposition to Phar Lap .rather than what past champions did that must be taken into, account.

There may arise a- good three-year-old ; and -it is here that the danger to tne older horse lies. This season there has been no. outstanding two-year-old that gave promise of developing into a Cup horse. Mulcra, winner of the V.R.C. Sires’ Produce Stakes, and High Brae, who won the Maribyrnong Plate, have been assessed as the best of their year in the Cup, and have been awarded 7.6 weight for age. Of the two Mulcra appears to be the more likely stayer. But will lie develop sufficiently to become a Hon in the path of Phar Lap?

Asked to express an opinion regarding Phar Lap’s weight, H. Telford, his part owner and tainer, declined to make any comment. He said he did not wish to be drawn into any ' controversy on the subject.