AMONG THE HACKS

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 209, 23 November 1927, Page 10

AMONG THE HACKS

FORM AT LEVIN HINTS FOR THE FUTURE (Special to THE SUN.) WELLINGTON, Tuesday. There was a hack seen out at Levin on Saturday that is quite likely to go far in his class this season. This is Desert Lad, winner of the Maiden Race. Maiden winners are sometimes hard to assess, just as maiden races are easy to win at times, but often are more difficult to succeed in than ordinary nack races are. Desert Lad was a really new ope to racecourses, and showed his greenness by his behaviour. He did not want to go near the barrier, and his supporters were fortunate that so patient a starter as Mr. C. O’Connor was officiating at the lever, and that an experienced horseman like Roy Reed was in the saddle. Even then Desert Lad got away badly, but he showed his quality by wearing the whole field down and winning by a head. It was a really good performance, and this son of Acre is quite certain to win other races. Horses that do what he did are above the ordinary run of maidens. Another hack that did well at the Levin meeting was Miss Pat. She had been sprinting well in private and it was recognised tha 4 - she would be in the money if she secured a good run •during her race. She ran a very fast few furlongs just before the Masterton meeting, and was expected to win there, but she was not quite forward enough. At Levin she was a long way back as the field turned for home, but she unwound a wonderful finishing run and cleaned up everything before the post was reached. It was only a five-furlong race and the straight is a very short one, so one can look out for Miss Pat in hack sprints at any time now. Tier form at Levin suggests that she will have no difficulty in seeing out six furlongs. AGAIN LET DOWN

Royal Picture let a great army of backers down at Levin on Saturday. He carried enough Wellington money alone to build a navy, and the opinion of the Trentham contingent was that he had been doing such good work on the tracks that if he was anywhere near the leaders at the home turn he would make light of them in the run to the judge. Royal Picture was well placed at the home turn and in the straight he dashed to the front. Everyone thought the race was over, but half a furlong from home Royal Picture stopped and could make only very ponderous headway; he had shot his bolt and could not stay on. He was beaten into fourth place. This is poor form for a horse that had done such encouraging track work. He was imported from England some time ago, and after being brought all that way is still a maiden.

Though he failed on Saturday, Archon is not a bad hack, lie ran a couple of thirds in his two starts, and on each occasion was a little bit unlucky. In his first race, his rider rushed hiip to the front in the race, and to get him there had to go round the whole field. This left him without a finishing run. In his next start he was pocketed approaching the straight, and this hampered him considerably. He ran well at Waverley, and his chance .of winning a race will come shortly. BRED THE RIGHT WAY The fashionably bred Excess was in the limelight at Levin, but did not do anything out of the ordinary. He ran second in a seven-furlong hack race, but had had enough before the finish and evidently was not quite ready. The race will do him good and there is a chance for him at some of the holiday meetings. Kilmoyler is showing a loss of form —that is, if his running at Levin is a criterion. He won well at Trentham in good company, but at Levin he never looked to have a chance at any stage of the race he contested, although races are much easier to win at Levin than at Trentham. Some Lad is back on the scene again after a considerable absence from the public eye. He goes well among the hacks over seven furlongs or a mile, and as he seems a much better horse this season than last, he must be given consideration in future events. He won a race last season and on that occasion beat a good field of hacks t Awapuni. This year he will do better. One of the Acre tribe who is coming along nicely is Broad Acre. He looks to be more .solid than he used to, -,rd on his running in the Maiden Race at Levin he can be expected to win hack races this year. There should be no difficulty in placing him to advantage at Christmas time. RAN GREEN Helotis has been showing a lot of pace on the tracks at Otaki, and she was backed aa a certainty by tl sports from that village when she was stepped out in a six-furlong hack race at Levin. Helotis showed that there was no myth about the speed stories, but just when she was about to take charge at the bottom of the straight she ran out very wide and lost all chance. If she can repeat the run she made on Saturday and keep on the course those who stick to her will get their money back. Powhiri was a useful hack last season for a while. He is coming back to form again and will be at his best very shortly. The Foxton gelding Maui has a lot of speed. He showed that at Wanganui. He would have been very ha d to beat in a hack race at Levin had he received a good passage. It was expected that the Levin course would suit him, as he usually begins smartly, but he lost the jump out and that ruined his chance. He was flying in third place at the finish. Mr. J. B. Gaisford’s colours have not been carried with much success on the racecourse of late, but he won with a vengeance on Saturday at Levin. It was in his jacket that Bissac won the maiden and paid a sensational dividend. In fact, the price was so big that the suggestion is that the stab?e could not have fancied the chances cf the Bisogne mare. She had all the luck of the running. First she drew the rails and then she was allowed up on the fence again at the home turn. With all this she just scrambled home by a nose. When she was started again later in the day she failed completely. COMING MORE SOLID Henna looks like being more solid this season than formerly. She was rather useful toward the end of last season, but on her running at Levin she will be better this season. The manner in which she downed the lacks who opposed her in the mile and a distance race was a revelation. She w: s expected to run very prominently, but no one thought the race was the goed thing for her that it turned out to be. Henna lay absolutely last all the way to the straight, and then was taken round the whole of the field. She had appeared to be doing her work asily, and once she was straightened up fer home she left no doubt that that \v< s the case. She ran from last to first in a few strides and could have won by a chain. On this form Henna will win a lot of mile races when the company is on the weak side, and will be hard to beat at times in fair class j company. Henna is by Kilbroney from j Lady Louisa, a Campfire mare who won some good races round about Otaki a few seasons back.

Vexatious had been galloping so ' well on the flat at Trentham that after her failure in the hurdles at Levin she was started in one of the hack fiat events. She did not win, but as a hurdler she ran a good race, a id was running on strongly at the end <-f the contest.

Rosebush, who Durst into prominence at Wanganui in September by , winning a maiden race and paying ! double figures, ran badly at Levin. ! She had a chance to jvin in each cf j

the sprint races she contested, but could not stay out the distance in either case. She has speed, but the other hacks worry her out of the prizes over the ’ast furlong of her races. Almost certain to win a hack sprint very soon is Flying Shot, who is now •in R. Johnson’s stable and looks very much improved. Two others worth bearing in mind are Eka and Carr: - gallen. especially Eka.