MEANT THE DIFFERENCE

NZ Truth, Issue 1210, 7 February 1929, Page 11

MEANT THE DIFFERENCE

Favorite Might Have Won With "Pipe-opener"

(From "N.Z. Truth's" Special Auckland Representative.) When defeat comes to a hot favorite and the crowd think victory was robbed from them, there is always a stir.

NO defeat of recent times has caused more discussion than that of Siaosi m the Matamata Cup last Saturday. The fact that odds were laid on Russell's gelding, and that nothing came back/for second honours — it being a one-dividend affair — added to the displeasure of punters. There are those who considered Tinker may have made more use of his mount earlier, but that, if he had, Siaosi would have had the few Inches to come and go on. As a matter of fact, it has to beY remembered that Queen Arch is a very useful sort when ready. It is true that she did not have the spring and. summer, racing which Siaosi boasted, to" recommend hex*. Still, she looked somewhere near ready, and near her best she is always a dangerous quantity: . » It was no fault of Tinker's when it

came to riding m the run home, but the Te Rapa horseman certainly got a shock as he realized that Queen Arch ranged alongside m the straight. "N.Z. Truth" scanned Siaosi over on his return to the enclosure and formed the conclusion that defeat came about simply owing to the want of a'"pipeopener." On- making inquiries it was discovered that the gelding had given every encouragement of success m a gallop at Te Awamutu on the Thursday. However, he was boxed up on the railway journey most of Friday, and had not been worked on the morning of the race. , It was most disappointing to OwnerTrainer Russell to miss the stake and Cup than it was to the punters who lost their cash, and Burt himself must have notions that the horse would' have, been all the better with a pipeopener on the morning-. :