PENTAGRAM

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 79, 24 June 1927, Page 6

PENTAGRAM

CHEST OF IRON FENCE WRECKED—HORSE UNHURT WINNING CHANCE SPOILED? Monument to the power that propels a thoroughbred through his race is a broken-clown steeplechase fence now awaiting repairs at Randwick course. Pentagram, the blew Zealand horse, crashed through it, himself unharmed, but the fence wrecked to its foundations. The fence near the bottom of the hill was the one that brought to an end what seemed to be an excellent chance in last Saturday week’s £2,000 steeple for Pentagram. Throughout the first round he was travelling well, jumping skilfully, and seemed to haVe a lot in hand. THE EASIEST FENCE What caused this accident is hard to tell, for it is the easiest fence on the course, and very low on the takeoff side. Perhaps Pentagram became mixed in the field, took off too short, and crashed into the obstacle. It was his chest that did the damage to the fence. Two feet six inches of closelypacked brush branches, supported by stout bolted timber six inches wide by two inches thick was wrenched from its support. The stout timber snapped like a carrot, and the brush was rooted from the ground, where it had been wedged as tightly as bolts and screws could hold it. Pentagram must have gone through it with the force of a ton of bricks dropping from a building. NOT A SIGN Yet he was unscathed. He worked two mornings later without a sign of soreness, and there were no marks to show where he had come into contact with the fence. It was a miraculous escape from injury, partly attributable to the use of brush fences, which give to a heavy blow instead of wounding a horse when he strikes. They are the most humane of all fences,, while at the same time presenting formidable obstacles to jump. Pentagram provides ample evidence to support this theory.