BAD "SPEC."

NZ Truth, Issue 1238, 22 August 1929, Page 13

BAD "SPEC."

(From "N.Z. Truth's" Christchurch Rep.) Though his name is coupled With some of the richest flat events of the New Zealand turf, Steve Barret's ambition m life is to win a National. W7HEN Wharncliffe and Charlatan broke down early m the season, Steve purchased the jumper, Grand National, from Charlie Vallance, the Masterton sportsman, but the performance of the Martian gelding up till, -the second day of the National meeting must have given Steve that empty feeling. If his new purchase ever puts a gold vase on the ancestral sideboard his win will create something worse than a West Coast earthquake. ,In his first start under the green livery at the Christchurch Hunt meeting he tried to take off with Barrington at the first jump m the Kennels Hurdles and flopped. He nearly did the same thing m the Hunters' Hurdles at Riccarton, but got round after an indecisive display of jumping, while m the Spreydon .Hurdles, -'he could not go with them at all, and only two horses finished behind him. As a prospective Grand National winner he looks bad buying.