RACING

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 25, 21 April 1927, Page 6

RACING

(By "EARLY BIRD.")

Sent Home After competing in the Brighton Hurdles, Mia Bella was distinctly lame and her trainer, F. Loomb, considered it unwise to persevere with her and she was sent home to Te Awamutu. Schooling Moderately Some moderate schooling tasks have be€?n accomplished by Kamehameha, who is down to compete in hurdle events at the Avondale meeting. He will be ridden in his engagements by T. Williams. May Find it Harder At the Whangarei meeting Slump ran second in the Northland Hurdles, carrying 9.5, but it is doubtful if he would have occupied that position had not Llewellyn, Gold Peak and Kara mu fallen. At the Avondale meeting Slump will be seen in action in hurdle •vents and will be ridden by R. Olive. Going Well The Great Northern Oaks winner, Flying Juliet, has not taken any harm from the hard racing which she had at the Faster meeting, and is bowling along freely jn her work. Royal Tea's Unsoundness It is understood that there is every prospect of Royal Tea, who returned from Sydney on Monday, getting over his disability, but it will become time before anything definite is known. Royal Tea’s owner, MJt Emauuel, will witness his Royal Lover, performing at -> -> ’ > meeting near Sydney on Saturday Bad Mannered The Tea Tray colt Tea Set, who looks a solid customer for a two-year-old, was at Kllerslie yesterday morning, having a few lessons at the barrier. The chestnut’s manners at the tapes will have to improve, otherwise he will be giving the field a very big start. Crashed Twice Gold Rain was schooled over two pony and three of the larger hurdles at Kllerslie yesterday morning and gave a good display. In the Brighton Hurdles Gold Rain fell at the second fence, while on Tuesday morning in a sch.-olirig task he again crashed. Doncaster Winner

A few- days before the race, Don Moon came into favour for last Monday’s Doncaster Handicap. Don Moon, in coming from ne- rly last to deadheat for third in the six-furlong Liverpool Handicap recently demonstrated that he was at his best in a solidlyrun race and he would be battling on at the end of the Doncaster when most of his rivals were dead from fatigue. Like Cave Dweller, he is good wet or fine. In fact, a wet day would enable Don Moon to show to most advantage and he may be the horse backers hitched their waggons to. His owner-trainer Bob Bailie reported that he had done very well with all his racing since he won at Moore field and is better now than ever. Beating The Trainer

If backers squirm when they see a despised outsider flash past the post a winner—and they do squirm, no matter how philosophically they may take it when they have calmed down —how much more poignantly must a clever trainer feel when one of his horses displays unsuspected excellence? Three times in nine months it has happened to Bailey Payten—when North Logan won at 25 to 1, when Triplex scored at 33 to 1, and when Hustler won on Saturday week last at "Warwick Farm. Come to think of it, don’t such incidents furnish some answer to the suspicious follower of the game, who talks so glibly of “bottled up’’ horses and crooked deeds on the racecourse? When horses can get themselves ready to win more quickly than their trainers suspect poor punters cannot wonder that they find it difficult to pick winners. If the thoroughbreds could talk and tell their trainers when they were so well that they felt like “jumping out of their skins’’ the bookmakers would soon be driven out of business.

SINISTER WARWICK FARM RACE CHOPPING AND CHANGING Something untoward always happens when a race isn’t truly run, so punters can perhaps bln me Valicare for their troubles in the Chipping Norton Stakes at Warwick Farm recently. The previous week an odds-on favourite, she failed dismally, and this time nobody wanted to back her. She had her revenge by not making the pace, and so the chance of the favourite, Limerick, was spoiled, he was galloped on, and home came the long odds chance Amounis, to rout backers. It was a muddling run race. Yet the race was run in 2.5 i, record time for the course. There was something sinister about some of the happenings during running. INTERFERENCE First Limerick went to the front, and the pace wasn’t fast. Then it quickened, yet when it was at its height. Pantheon dashed past King Val and Limerick, and assumed control. Having got there. Brown slowed the field again on this importation, and it was while this was going on approaching the home turn that the interference to Limerick occurred. The field crowded round, he was jambed on the rails, and had a piece the size of a florin taken out of a leg. In the meantime Valicare had run up to Pantheon, and had headed him at the straight entrance. Then she went I to the. front, and led momentarily. But Windbag bad come round the field, and after a short, sharp struggle he outpaced Valicare, and himself drew clear. For a moment his name was on everybody’s lips. AMOUNIS’S SWOOP Then Amounis swept past on the outside, and without an effort he gathered up Windbag, and put the issue beyond doubt. It was only at the last that Limerick crept through on the rails, and, beating Windbag went on after Amounis. But the pursuit was hopeless, and Amounis won by threequarters of a length. Windbag was a length and a-quarter behind Limerick, in third place, and just ahead of Valicare, while Pantheon, at the end, eased back into fifth place, just ahead of the Leger candidate Thracian. The queer things about the face were more numerous than usual. The attempt to ride Valicare behind was one.

It proved a dismal failure, and no credit to those who conceived the idea. From the Warwick Farm mile and aquarter barrier, just near a turn, Valicare could have stolen a march round the first turn that would have given her a big break. It was the one chance of victory for the mare. Hidden as she was she was beaten as soon as her run began. WINDBAG CROWDED Another queer point was Windbag’s position among the leaders so early m the race. The week before he had trailed in the rear, but on Saturday he was first to assume a winning position in the straight. And while he finished at a wonderful pace at Rosehill, he yesterday weakened over the last furlong, and was apparently badly beaten for stamina. At the same time, Amounis didn't give Windbag much room in passing. This helped to stop the champion. What happened to Limerick; and how in a muddling race McCarten allowed the New Zealander to get into bother was another problem that puzzled spectators. He was galloped on during the crowding, and that he should have finished so well in the circumstances makes it apparent that he would have won the race with a clear passage. FAST AND SLOW It was during the slowing down and sudden clapping on of pace mentioned above that Limerick lost his position, and Valicare, Windbag and Amounis all sweeping by on the outside to get favourable positions before the straight didn’t help a horse hemmed in on the rails. So Limerick was cornered, and couldn’t get out until the race was over. Limerick has been singularly unfortunate in races in which he was well backed. He beat Windbag in the Chelmsford Stakes last spring, but in the Craven Plate, when they next met. stuck to the rails as he did on Saturday, and. hampered for the last two furlongs, was beaten only a head. In the Cox Plate at Moonee Valley, in Victoria, he was chopped off in a similar manner, and beaten by Heroic. DISAPPOINTING Yet a three-year-old with Limerick’s brilliance should have been capable of avoiding trouble in the Warwick Farm race, and the form was distinctly disappointing. But the thing that some people took most umbrage at was Amounis’s improvement from last in the Rawson Stakes to an impressive victory over their fancied horses, and they hooted. Such reversals are hard to explain. It was a surprise not only to the public but to the stable, the owner and the jockey. No money was won. so there was no trickery to justify the hoots and evil epithets that were hurled at all concerned. His owner was glad, no doubt, to see him win. but sore, perhaps, at missing such a good chance for a coup at long odds*

HEROIC’S PROSPECTS THE SYDNEY CUP VALAIS HORSE’S GREAT TRIAL No ills have impeded the progress of Heroic’s Sydney Cup preparation (this race was postponed until today). Other horses have fallen by the wayside and some: have had to be steadied in their gallops because they weren’t doing well, but Heroic goes on unchecked by leg or constitutional ailments. He is the embodiment of good health and soundness and it will be a mighty good horse that bars his way to success, hot only in the Randwick weight-for-age races, but the Sydney Cup. Last Thursday his gallop over a mile and a-quarter and 85 yards of heavy going in 2.18$ was a performance of rare merit. NO ASSISTANCE He had no horse to help him. In fact, it is doubtful if Jack Holt could get one suitable for the job, so well is the chestnut just now. Running the first two furlongs in 30sec.. he came home the last mile in 1.485, and this, as well as his time for the mile and a-quarter, substantially eclipsed all other efforts over either distance. He had plenty in hand at the end, too, and obviously the gallop didn’t cost him the full measure of his vigour. Yet with A. Cairns in the saddle he carried a big weight in the heavy going. With all his hard work, Heroic is as fresh and playful as ever. He still refuses to enter the running ground without a little persuasion and he baulked on Thursday until Jack Holt had to come along on his pony and threaten the chestnut with a stockwhip. Then Heroic strode on to the course with dignity much as if he had played i his prank merely for the fun of seeing his trainer chase him. j He went soberly in the gallop. A GREAT HORSE MANFRED RETIRES WONDERFUL DERBY EFFORT The turf will see no more of Manfred. His retirement earlier than had been intended has probably been brought about by Harry McCalman’s this trainer) projected 12 months’ trip abroad to recuperate from a severe illness. McCalman, patient, skilful, and so conscientious, has meant much to Mr. Ben Chaffey, and those who know that gentleman well would not feel that they are hazarding much in guessing that he is responsible for his henchman’s holiday. In Manfred Mr. Chaffey has possibly the grandest galloper that has graced the Australian turf. Who that saw him left by half a furlong in the A.J.C. Derby will ever forget that marvellous run which enabled him to encompass the mile and a-half in 2.28$ and win with his head in his chest? PHENOMENAL PERFORMANCES Has ever a Caulfield Cup been more easily won than Manfred’s when with no less than 9.6 on his back he was being pulled up in the last 50 yards? With the memory of those two brilliant performances, to say nothing of others, the public can afford to forget the horse’s inexplicable displays of obstinacy which so often caused him to be left at the barrier.

A horse of magnificent build, tremendously powerful, he is getting a chance at the stud such as Australian - bred stallions seldom have —that of retiring with his virility unimpaired by severe racing as a five and six-year-old. There is a fine collection of mares at the Richmond Park stud, and it may be confidently expected that in years to come Manfred’s memory will be kept green by the deeds of his stock. Following is Manfred’s record: Eleven wins, five seconds, two thirds. At Two Years: Value of Stakes. Second, V.R.C. Criterion Handicap £l5O Third, V.R.C. Sires’ Produce Stakes 200 Second, V.R.C. Ascot Vale Stakes . . 200 First, W. Farm Fairfield Handicap 644 First, A.J.C. Easter Stakes 812 First, A.J.C. Champagne Stakes . . 3336 At Three Years: First, Heatherlie Handicap £7OO Second, Hill Stakes 150 First, A.J.C. Derby . . . . 6953 First, W. S. Cox Plate 750 First, V.R.C. Derby 4397 Second, Melbourne Cup 2000 Third, Futurity Stakes 200 At Four Years: Second, Memsie Stakes £3OO First, October Stakes 565 First, Caulfield Stakes 1100 First, Caulfield Cup 5150 First, ivfelbourne Stakes 1123 Total £28,830 WESTLAND RACES

WHARFDALE WINS AUTUMN HANDICAP CALIBURN LANDS RAILWAY Press Association HOKITIKA, Wednesday. The Westland Racing Club’s one-day autumn meeting was held yesterday in showery weather, which militated against the attendance. <£5,955 was handled by the totalisator as against £6,414 last year. Remaining results: AUTUMN HANDICAP, 1\ miles.—l Wharfdale, 8.2, 1; 6 Viewpoint, 7.8, 2; 2 Happy Days, 5.2, 3. Also started: Para, 9.2; Steel Bar, 8.1; Piccaninny, 7.11. Won by three-quarters of a length, with half a length between second and third. Time, 2.16 1-5. PRESIDENT’S HANDICAP, 51 furlongs.—4 Some Abbey, 8.7, 1; 1 Erin-go-Bragh, 7.13, 2; 2 Heisler, 9.11, 3. Also started: Corn Rigs, 10.0; Pahpian, 8.8; Big Push, 8.2; Lord Middleton, 7.8; Miss Martial, 7.7. Won by a head, with a length between second and third. Time, 1.12 1-5. DOMINION TROT, li miles.—4 Audubon Lad, 72yds, 1; o Sedmere, 180yds, 2; Great Abdullah, limit, 3. Also started: Bessie Dillon, Prince Mac, Val Logan, .Meritor, Athos, Arran Lad. Won by three lengths. HIGH-WEIGHT HANDICAP, 7 furlongs.—4 Motion, 5.7, and 3 Sartolite, 5.3 (dead heat), 1; 2 Steel Bar, S.lO, 3. Also started: All Gold, 8.11; Rapid Rose, 8.13; Marble Slab, 8.0. A great finish. The third horse was half a length behind the first pair. Time, 1.37. RAILWAY HANDICAP, 6i furlongs.— 1 Caliburn, 8.6, 1; 3 Hallownoon, 9.5, 2; 2 Rapid Fire, S.S, 3. Also started: Cashbox, 7.0. Won by a length. Time, 1.28 2-5.