COMMENDATION LEAVES SCENE OF HIS MANY FAILURES;

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 181, 21 October 1927, Page 6

COMMENDATION LEAVES SCENE OF HIS MANY FAILURES;

Two months ago Commendation j reached Sydney apparently to pluck | the rich plums at Rand wick, Caulfield, i and Flemington. Yesterday he left Sydney for New Zealand, minus ail j that glamour which surrounded his 1 arrival. To-morrow he will be for- j gotten by the public in its attempt to puzzle out the Caulfield Cup, a race j for which but a short time ago Commendation was the sole centre of conversation. Thus laments a Sydney writer. Commendation is just another case of a horse unable to strike form another case of hasty action on the part of an owner depriving a horse of full opportunity to reach his top in Australia. His New Zealand performances apparently do away with any doubt as to his right to be classed among the top-notchers. He was the leading light among a good class of horse last season, was placed on quite the same plane as Limerick, and came to Australia with the same glamour as tne champions of a few years back. That he will return a disgraced horse is just one of the vagaries of I racing. Commendation’s first effort at Warwick Farm was sufficient to show the Sydney public that all the tales < of his pace had great foundation, but his subsequent failures clearly showed 1 something was wrong. Whether that something was permanent, however,: was never definitely shown, simply because his owner, Mr. W. Gaisford, took it upon himself to decide that Commendation would never strike his form. Mr. Gaisford should know as much about the horse as anyone else, but his action certainly seemed hasty. Commendation’s track defeat by Limerick was the deciding factor, but Mr. Gaisford evidently overlooked the fact that Limerick is regarded in some quarters as the best horse since Gloaming, and to be beaten by only two lengths by such a galloper was surely no disgrace. That gallop may have been the turning point in the Australian career of Commendation. He may have been in the process of regaining form, but that can now be no more than supposition. Commendation has gone, to return again, according to his owner, and it is hoped that when he again races in Sydney his form will be that which has made him an idol in New Zealand.