HANDICAPPERS ARE POOR

NZ Truth, Issue 1239, 29 August 1929, Page 13

HANDICAPPERS ARE POOR

Horses For Middle Distance

(From "N.Z. Truth's" Auckland Rep.) > If .the form of the Jellicoe Handicap contestants is to be taken, as a guide, then the northern middledistance handicap class does not promise to be much better than last season.

THIS is the only conclusion to be arrived at when credence is given to the fact that r though there were seventeen candidates m last Saturday's contest at Ellerslie it took the winner — the aged Barometer, with only lib. above" the minimum, 2.16 3/5 to cover the ten furlongs, while m June, when Seatown won the Cornwall Handicap over the same distance the Taranaki chestnut,' saddled with 201bs. above the minimum* registered 2.13 2/5.

The Jellicoe field really included no fewer than a double-figure number of northern handicap winners of the past, and there : were few absentees to look for to improve the position.

Most hope will probably be centred m the production of Prince Humphrey, Corinax, Royal Doulton and Flying Juliet, but the prospects are not too bright when the best of the southerners are sent north m quest of stake-money.

The northerners m sight for handicap events are mostly of moderate class, and while they have matters to them-

selves punters are up against it m their efforts to select the winners of important middle-distance handicaps.

They are much of a muchness m quality and it does not seem that any great hopes can be held out for real genuine consistency when so many moderates and "has beens" constitute the handicap class. ,

The position will probably be the same as last year, when winning form simply could not be relied upon.'

When the., aged and patch'ed-up Barometer could show a clean pair of heels to sixteen others it does not say too much for those who finished behind him.. '-,- .-■■'