RACING

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 158, 24 September 1927, Page 7

RACING

COMMENDATION ( PACE ON TRACK n FADES IN RACES MYSTERY HORSE ! (Special to THE SUN.) \ WELLINGTON. Friday. j j Private information received in Well- ' ingum from Sydney this week makes t it very clear that the form of Commen- < dation at the meetings in the Sydney j area has the people over the other « side thoroughly tangled. Ont letter says the mystery is that \ the big Limond gelding is galloping j on the tracks like a champion and run- < ning in his races like a second-rater, . or, if not quite like a second rater, like j a second-rater as champions go. Others think that he is not ready yet, and there is also a section of public opinion i which takes the view that there is , .‘ : omething wrong and that the horse * has disappointed his trainer as much as he l as disappointed the public. "Commendation,” says one communication, ' set us all talking when he first * arrived. He loked the part of a good '<■ racehorse, and we had the word of * New Zealanders who were competent 1 to judge that he was somewhere about * the class of Limerick. We had seen 1 what Limerick could do and thought that it’ the new fellow was anywhere ( near as good we were in for a treat ? when he was stepped out to race. ] A TWINKLING STAR "Then he commenced his track work, arid very soon every punter in Sydney was sitting up and taking notice. The newspapers here were filling us up | with the wonderful track gallops of

Commendation. They had discovered ( :i new star, and were booming it for all hey were worth. Hut they were justited in doing so, for after all they were >nly telling us exactly what he was ioin.jr on the training tracks. "There is no doubt whatever that his work was brilliant, for everyone who went. to Randwick to see the gallops was keen about him. Valicare and ■>ther flying machines had nothing on bim. and he did nearly all his work with a substantial weight in the saddle. CAME THE RECKONING "Came the first race, and he ran nobly—beaten a couple of heads by Limerick and Amounis. Limerick was more forward than Commendation. It was reckoned the gallop would do Commendation the world of good, and some taking this line of reasoning backed him to beat Limerick, the next time they met. They were sorrier and wiser after the race, as Commendation ran as rotten a race as ever was run by a decent horse, and on the other nancl Limerick went better than ever made a goat of his countryman. “Excuses are being made that the Roing did not su:t Commendation, and tnat it played in:o the hands of Limerick, but anyone who saw the race would need more than that story to satisfy them. Either Commendation is mn nearly as good as we thought he was or he failed for some reason that ls * w us unaccountable. SPEED A MISSING FACTOR “They say that Jones does not want 10 run him again till his owner comes «' el, horse has him tangled. I watched him through the race, and Knew we had lost our money a long m a l • rom home. Commendation was making no impression on the field. v mch wa s no t putting on the pace, there was no sign of the speed he snowed when he went out after Valithe first time he appeared here. *he biggest blow of all is to those f h° have done their money on him .. or the Caulfield Cup. That is as good ■ * gone, unless he can show a striking mprovement in form. I don't see how 18 to run out the mile and a-half f .. a tough handicap race when he has hed over shorter distances in com•wjtively small fields. "he curious thing is that he looks i We h and gal ops so well after fails’ so badly. Really, we cannot make .. out. There is nothing surer than nat if he reproduces his track form in of his races he will leave half the e ‘d standing. He might not beat Limr.n*u * s a ‘corker,’ but he will do nothing to the best that we have got.”

GONE AMISS TT is unfortunate that Haercra has -* gone amiss, for the gelding had been galloping in bold style on the training tracks, and his work suggested that he would play a prominert part at the Avondale and Auckland Spring Meetings. v 'c rfc ~r. ri~ -r -I- ri: '-r: yk ?r. rh