WELLINGTON NOTES

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 206, 19 November 1927, Page 6

WELLINGTON NOTES

FORM REVIEWED ROWLEY AND ASHHURST CUP (Special to THE SUN.) WELLINGTON, Friday. Trentham trainers have been out of luck this week. Just as they were giving their horses their final preparations for the Levin and Ashhurst meetings rain set in and lasted for several days without cessation. The tracks are very sloppy and heavy, in consequence* and some of the horses who needed strong work will not be seen at their best. A little rain at Trentham is always welcomed, as the tracks are liable to become very hard at this time of the year, but what we have had had is enough to break the hearts of those affected by the vagaries of the weather. So far we have had little real summer at Trentham, and there is an opinion prevalent among the old hands that the seasons are changing a good deal. Trust one of the old time trainers to know all about the weather.

An interesting arrival in. Wellington this week was White Fang, who has been racing in Australia for some considerable time w'ith a fair degree of success. White Fang is said to have arrived in good order and the little which could be seen of him suggested that he is all right. He will resume work shortly, and the intention appears to be to run him in the Railway Handicap, the principal short-distance handicap at the coming summer meeting of the Auckland Racing Club. LEFT IN THE SOUTH

Bronstell did not return from Riccarton with the other members of Mr. W. Higgins’s team, having been sold to a Southern sportsman. Bronstell is a useful hack when at his best. He has not shown much form for some little time, but his running at Riccarton during the recent meeting of the Canterbury Jockey Club indicated that he is returning to form. FLe goes well over distances up to seven furlongs and he should be able to win some races among the hacks there, though the best of the Southerners will have to give him a fair allowance in weight to enable him to score. It was announced in Wellington the other day that Duke Abbey had run his last race in hacks. He has done so well in the minor class that his appearance among the horses who compose the open company will be watched with keen interest. There are many horses who can win hack races, but have no chance of paying the feed bill when they go into the better class. Duke Abbey should not be one of these as he has done his work so well as far as he has gone. True, lie was soundly beaten on the last day of the Canterbury meeting, but the field was a big one and he proved incapable of running round the field and then staying on to win. He should have made a better showing, but he was not altogether disgraced. Where he will appear next does not seem to have been decided, but his appearance in

open company is being awaited with interest and it will settle a lot of arguments. MAY KEEP ON WINNING Some of the Trentham brigade are a little annoyed ' with themselves at having missed being on Kindle the day she won at Riccarton and paid the bigdividend. They were awake to the fact that Kindle was improving and that a hack race would go her way in due course, but had come to the conclusion that it would be better to wait for a meeting at which races were not so hard to win as they are at Riccarton. However, home rolled Kindle on the last day of the Southern fixture,, and as the price was a royal one there is much weeping and gnashing of teeth by those who left themselves out of the victory. Kindle is not done with yet. Rowley will make his next appearance in the Ashhurst Cup, and on his good showing behind Laughing Prince at Riccarton he is sure to be one of the favourites for the race, if not the actual favourite. He is one of the most' improved horses in this part of the island, and there is no saying that he will not win in better company than he has yet been asked to tackle. He showed at Masterton that he can go a mile and a-quarter as he won the Masterton Cup very attractively. The company was not strong, but Rowley is so much a better horse now that he should win among better class horses if he meets them at some of the early summer meetings.

DOUBTFUL ABOUT THE JOURNEY The form of Beaumont in the South was a little disappointing, but his party consider that he can do better and they took him back home and sent him on to Levin to contest the Levin Cup on Saturday. He does not usually relish a mile and a-quarter race, but the Levin course is small and mostly on the turn, and it is thought this might enable him to get the full journey.

Though Vertigern was beaten on the last day at Riccarton he ran a good race and finished fifth in company that was by no means weak. Seeing that those who beat him were Gold Brick who had a big advantage in the

weights), Nincompoop (whose form at the meeting was good), Monoghan and Rascal, and that those who finished behind him included Black Luke and Beaumont, there is no need to discard him on account of this particular defeat.

The Trentham two-year-old Concentrate did well on the Riccarton trip and looks all the better for the change and the experience. This colt is a full brother to Oratrix who won a hack race with distinction during the meeting. He is not one of the sort who will come early, but he improves with every race and gave a respectable showing each time he was lined up among the two-year-olds at Riccarton. He will be better as a tliree-year-old than as a two-year-old and on his breeding he should be a stayer. He is by Kilbroney from the New Zealand Cup winner Oratress, and he looks like living up to his breeding. THE RIGHT BREED

Banket, who raced at Riccarton in the colours of Mr. C. E. Elgar, is one of the family from which Lesert Gold comes. Like several others of the breed she is not living up to what was expected of her. Her sire is Psychology, so that she ought to be fairly fast, but up to the present she has not shown a great deal of pace. As her owner is prepared to pay good prices for his stock, it would give general pleasure to see him get hold of a good one. He has not been a lucky owner of racehorses, but he has a fair team now and fortune should not be against him for long. Kalos always has a great fancy for Riccarton and it is there he seems to run his best races. Luring the Grand National meeting he started three times

md was in a place on each occasion, tie showed up prominently in his race m the last day of the spring fixture iust concluded at Riccarton and though he time was fast he was a good sec>nd. Had he won he would have paid i dividend running into double figures md as it was the return was of wel;ome proportions. Kalos has hack

engagements ahead and there are few more likely to get on the winning list than he is unless he is stacked up against something pretty good. He is no champion, but he is very useful and as hacks go he stays well.