Waikato Will be There

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 571, 25 January 1929, Page 10

Waikato Will be There

CANDIDATES FOR TAKAPUNA

The Sun’s travelling Turf correspondent in South Auckland deals with the prospects of several of the candidates from that area who are engaged at Takapuna. In the Mood For the Job It is now some cry back to the days when W. C. Woods used to saddle the Pink ’Un up for racing duty. What a fine galloper he was! But the now domiciled Waikato trainer has gathered in the shekels with his latest star performer in Transformer, who, if my memory does not fail me, has gathered in no fewer than live decent gold cups. By the time these lines are in print Transformer will have reached Auckland, ready for his deeds at Takapuna. • Ready’* is written advisedly, because the Thurnham gelding is, if anything, better now than when he won the Te Ivuiti and Alison Cups last November. He has more weight to carry now, but *he Thames-owned galloper is in the right order to meet the additional in avoirdupois. Those who hang on to the policy of “wait and see'* will have time to repent at leisure. The “knowing ones” will be “there” at the coming weekend. Rated Too Highly? «ome people were inclined to get carried away when they saw Flying Prince score in a race or two among the two-year-olds in the early spring. The Flying King juvenile certainly looked the part when first paraded from Te Awamutu, but his efforts over the past couple of months or so have not been at all encouraging. In fact, he has not handled the imposts he has been getting since mid-October at all attractively. He certainly won at Opotiki the other day, but he hacl nothing to beat. In the Calliope Handicap at Takapuna on Saturday Flying Prince is obliged to carry 8.7, but it is not very likely that there will be many this way who will be eager to back up his prospects with much good coin of the realm. There are too many in the field with more rosy prospects for that. A Cup Candidate Desert Glow has run many good races at Takapuna, and there will be plenty who will be prepared to stake a little financial grist at the same headquarters on Saturday and Tuesday, firm in the belief that history will repeat itself. The Day Comet—Lady 'Winsome gelding has not shown anything profitable since he headed home the Cup on his own circuit at Te Awamutu, about the middle of December, but he looks more fitted now for his part than was the case a month back. If he is in the mood, a confident condition for his coming appearances, it is being forecasted this way. Desert Glow will make his hoofs rattle and the run his followers will get for their money will be extra good. A Temporary Lapse Arikitoa was a good hack to follow in the opening months of the season, and those who took the cue were well in pocket by the deeds of this representative from F. Loomb’s stable. The form of the Warplane gelding has been on the wane in his latest starts. as he has failed to live up to the good promise he displayed earlier on in the 1928-9 period. The Warplane chestnut is to be at Takapuna. where he will endeavour to show in the Hauraki HackHandicap on Saturday that the lapse has been only temporary. If those who follow track work at Arikitoa’s training headquarters have determined aright, the galloping machinery in this particular instance is due to operate with a further degree of effectiveness. It would only require to function somewhere near its peak for the best of the opposition to know they were travel- I ling. Paganelli Over a Distance I have seen it recorded that Paganelli is to participate in the northern trip when several of his stable-mates journey to Takapuna from Frankton. His party did not accept the invitation to load their charge with ten and ! ] a-half stone in the sprint next Satur- ] day. As the speedy galloping repre- . sentative of Lord Quex. a sire whose ■ stock are coming really good, has been j nominated for the Jockey Club Handl- | cap next Tuesday, there may be a pros- 1 pect of seeing him stretching out at 1 something foreign to him—a middle- j distance journey. The experts so I eften have it that speed merchants will ] meet the more extended needs, I

Desert Glow Doing Well

from the distance aspect, that Paganelli would have to be the exception to the rule if he proved otherwise. It is not the first time that theories along such lines have been rudely exploded, but there isn’t even prima facie evidence that Paganelli is likely to be the one to put the experts to the rightabout. There are no two ways about his sprint powers, however, but at that we must halt for the present. By the way, it is noticed that he is entered for the stakes at Hew Plymouth next month and the opening day sprint also. Has Only to Do it Right Awamutu, one of the juvenile brigade F. Loomb puts through their pacings at Te Awamutu, has been losing ground out of the barrier in some of his most recent appearances in public. This is a disadvantage which makes the task of winning well nigh a hopeless one, especially when it is only five furlongs from starting-peg to judge’s

box. Awamutu is a speedy sort, a claim he has been capable of vindicating more than once this season. He will require to be found doing it correctly all the way at Takapuna on Saturday. If this smooth state of affairs obtains in his case, the rest of the two-year-olds will know he is about from the home bend to the finishing-post as, so far as racing condition is concerned, there is little fault to be found with Awamutu these times. A Class Galloper Pegaway, who loaded his stake-earn-ing accounts of the latest season to the extent of £2,250 at the Auckland summer meeting, at which he had the first “pickings” of three good handicaps in a row, is not to be allowed to eat the oats of idleness for very long. His trainer, A. Cooke, has this member of his team doing sufficient on the circuit at Te Awamutu to keep his “racing polish” close to the point of perfection. That he may be required to race very shortly is indicated by the fact that Pegaway has been nominated for events at New Plymouth early next month. Of course it will, naturally, dt;pend on the handicapper’s estimate of his worth, whether the trip will be undertaken. For a big strider, the Lucullus—Peggy Pryde gelding is not especially “fussy” about the tracks he is asked to gallop upon from time to time. A couple ol‘ seasons back he quickly rose from the hacks to the front ot the handicap class, but, good as he was then, he is a better horse now. and the public will get further evidence of the fact between this and the end of July, when the “switch over” to the 29-30 race period is reached. RACING FIXTURES January 26. 29—Taka puna J.C. January 22. 24. 28— Wellington R.C. January 29. So—Pahiatua R.C. January 20—Clifden R.C. January 31. February 2—Egniont R.C. February 2—Matamata R.C. February B—Tapanui R.C February 7. 9—Gisborne R.C February 7. 9—Taranaki J.C. February 9. 11 —Rotorua R.C. February 14. 18—Dunedin J.C. February 14. 18—Wanganui J C. February 14. 16—Poverty Bay T C. February 16. IS—Te Aroha JI.C. February 20, 21—Gore R.C.