CUP SCRAMBLE

NZ Truth, Issue 1193, 11 October 1928, Page 14

CUP SCRAMBLE

Distance Not Beyond Laughing Prince

(From "N.Z. Truth's" Auckland Rep.) Though the first favorite, Laughing Prince, won the Mitchelson Cup from the jumbled-up -start, some of the kudos which may be rightly his is lost by reason of the fact that half the field took no actual part m the contest. OPORTSMEN generally would have •^ preferred to see horses of the calibre of Star Stranger, Te Kara, Catkin and others indulging m the contest. It is just possible that the Quantock horse would still have gained the honors, "but as a race it was disappointing to a large extent, with no great pace on as the time (2.37), on a fairly fast track, indicated. As a matter of fact, some of the riders engaged m the race seemed m doubt at different stages whether to treat the whole thing seriously. It all ended m Desert Glow leading the bunch into the home stretch, from whichstage Tilley's chestnut gradually began to assert himself and. eventually gained the verdict by two lengths, with Mask third two and a-half lengths behind Desert Glow. The order of the others was Royal Mint, Papatu, Queen Arch and Transformer. One thing the race did make clear was that a real distance is not beyond Laughing prince, as quite^ a lot of people imagined, for he ; finished with something m reserve and had 8.10 to carry. " OUT OF THE BOOM TT looks as jf Quincoma is hardly as '•*■ good as he promised to be when he was first put to the hurdle business, for' since winning at Trentham m the winter he has coat his admirers quite a small fortune. . > He could do no better than finish sixth m the , Trial Hurdles at 'Ellerslie on Saturday; last. , .. Quincoma may be capable of winning occasionally In the minor class, but he has certainly gone out of the boom.