SHARP CONTRAST

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 67, 10 June 1927, Page 10

SHARP CONTRAST

SOUTHERN JUMPER’S FORM TUKI ON SATURDAY AND WEDNESDAY The two showings made in his engagements at Ellerslie by the southerner Tuki provided very sharp contrasts. His success on Wednesday was coldly received by the crowd. A few mornings prior to the Great Northern meeting opening Tuki had given a magnificent display of jumping in a round and a bit of the country, fencing fast and cleverly, particularly over the hill. It was this piece of schooling that at once elevated him to the fancied division of prospective Great Northern Steeplechase candidates, and on the face of it there ap- ; peared to be a good deal of justification for the optimism with which his prospects were regarded. POOR SHOWING In the Great Northern Steeplechase Tuki was made fifth favourite, there being only about a hundred pounds between the southerner and the eventual winner. Beau Cavalier, on the totalisator.

Tuki was in a bunch at the end o: the first round in the Great Northern and then he began to fade right out

and the further they went the further away he got. At the finish he was in seventh place, but a very long way behind the first three horses. On this showing Tuki had little chance of winning the Winter Steeplechase, but the unexpected happened. IMPROVED BY RACE The majority of those on the course on Wednesday apparently considered that Tuki would not win, for the amount invested on him was only £268, or less than a fifth of the figure opposite his name in the Great Northern, so it seems obvious v that the stable were not prepared for such a rapid improvement, such as would win the race for their horse. Certainly they had no cause to hold out high hopes. But it just goes to show how a horse can improve with a race, and with a few days in between in which he can be sharpened up by sprinting tasks. Tuki began to lag over the first circuit in the Winter Steeplechase, but R. E. Thompson, apparently knowing what had happened on the previous Saturday, kept him up to the task in hand. BRILLIANT FINISH Setting out on the final circuit Tuki began to gain on the leaders, and he was still some way behind them on the hill. Coming down he went as fast as Beau Cavalier in the Great Northern, and it was seen that, so well was he going, that he was sure to be a nuisance to the horses in front of him —Kawini and Omahu. It was but true, for putting in a remarkable burst Tuki simply buried them for speed. He and Kawini came over the last fence together, but up the straight it wasn’t a race, for Tuki simply played with his opponent. Tuki pulled up remarkably well, and did not seem a bit distressed after his fast finishing effort over the final six furlongs. NATIONAL RECALLED This win of Tuki’s recalls the time when he won the Grand National Steeplechase two years ago. He had not been schooled over the country when he went out to contest the big jumping event at the Christchurch Hunt meeting, run at Riccarton ten days before the National, and he finished last It did not seem at all a good trial for the sterner test to come, but his trainer wasn’t disturbed, and did not school him in between. The result was to prove in startling fashion that his

trainer knew the animal with which he had to do. for Tuki never did anything wrong and won the big event. In a way Tuki’s performances at Ellerslie the past few days were a repetition of his Riccarton doings, with this difference, that he had schooled over the hill here —he had also won at Ellerslie before—and had gone so well as to suggest that he would win the Great Northern. LUCKY OWNER Tuki belongs to a well-known Otago sportsman, Mr. J. M. Samson, who has a weakness for buying up North Island horses when they appear to have got past their usefulness. That he has purchased with judgment is shown by the results. Look at Kipling, who. immediately after becoming the property of Mr. Samson, won three races at the following meeting of the Dunedin Club. Then there is the ex-Taranaki horse Vaward, only a moderate performer in this island, and now a good stake winner in the south. And there are others now running in the same colours.