COMEDY RACE

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 131, 24 August 1927, Page 10

COMEDY RACE

ANTICS OF TWO RUNNERS THRILLS FOR SPECTATORS Punters who made the trip to a recent meeting at Menangle Park should consider themselves indebted for life to the provincial club’s committee. No comedy-producing company ever provided an audience with such a' hilarious few minutes as the gathering received per medium of the Three-year-old Handicap. With only two runners, Callamondah and Strad, the crowd was unprepared for thrills, but they got them in abundance. As the barrier rose Strad, the odds-on favourite, whipped round and made off in the wrong direction. Callamondah, not to be outdone, made a dash for the outside fence. Both riders quickly got control of their mounts, but when they really commenced to race Callamondah had a ten-lengths’ break. She didn’t hold that advantage for long. Strad made up her lost ground so quickly that inside a furlong she had assumed control. FOLLOW THE LEADER The turn into the straight was the scene of the next thrill. Just as backers of the favourite were applauding their courage in laying the odds on, Strad, who had been giving young Burn a torrid time keeping her on the course, got the upper hand, and instead of making the turn continued on a straight course for the outside rail. Jt- was the signal for Callamondah backers to chortle, but their jubilation, too, was premature. In true “follow the leader’’ style Callamondah set out on Strad’s tracks. She didn’t go so wide, however, and actually headed the favourite in the straight. It looked pounds to peanuts on her winning at that stage, but she tired toward the finish, and Strad wore her down to win by half a length. Another roar from the gathering greeted the hoisting of the time, 1.22 for six furlongs, but seeing that the “field’ gave the watch at least three seconds' start, and covered nearer seven furlongs than six. the time wasn’t as bad as it appeared.