WAIKATO NOTES

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 595, 22 February 1929, Page 6

WAIKATO NOTES

FIXTURES TO COME KING LU FOR WINTER RACING With T© Aroha’s programme passed by there is a lull in racing activity on tli© country circuit, writes The Sun’s travelling turf correspondent. With the Franklin Club's meeting to call for tittention on March 9, the keying-up process will soon be required again, and right at the succeeding week-end comes the two days' gathering which the Ohinemuri Club will carry out at Paeroa, to b© followed on March 23 by tli© Bay of Plenty fixture at Tauranga. That will terminate the regular run of meetings on the circuit, but the autumn will find two days by the Waikato Club at Te Rapa to be disposed of. With the rac.ug at provincial headquarters to come up at Easter and Wellington and some other fixtures also giving a call, .there will be plenty tor trainers to do in keeping their charges up to concert pitch. Only one appearance is down to the credit of Wedding March this season. That occurred in the hurdles on the final day of the Auckland Club’s summer meeting, when he bumped the big weight of 11.12 into second place. It is expected that the Cambridge horse will be given an entry for the Brighton Hurdles at Easter, and if the ‘poultice” is not too severe—itt will of necessity be hefty—the pass-out check will be for the saddling paddock. The Quin Abbey—Uranium gelding will also have other fields to conquer during the next four or five months, as his certificate as a first-class steeplechaser will also b© exercised. Wedding March has won a Great Northern Hurdle race and he is quality enough to win another and a steeplechase as well. But things have got to go happily with him in the running these days, as mishaps on the journey are most unwelcome when a horse gets as far up in the weights as Mr. R. Hannon’s gelding. He is a sweet jumper, up to good weights and genuine stayer—all the attributes which spell A 1 grade. Loss in Physical Condition

Mervette’s defeat in the President’s Handicap at Rotorua was not what lnost people expected, but subsequent happenings have indicated that all was far from being right with her physically. In the work-outs the daughter of Lucullus and Brayton had at her headquarters following her return, there was an absence of that dash which was present earlier in the season and which supplied her with the ability to win five races on end inside about a month, viz., three at To Kuiti and two at Auckland in the summer. Her trainer, A. Tinker, decided that it was futile asking Mervette to race at Te Aroha under the circumstances and she went on the spelling list a couple of days prior to that meeting. It may take Mervette some time to build up again to her best physical trim and she is inclined to be of the delicate type constitutionally. Probably it will bo round about the winter racing before we find her as capable as she was during December and January. Bright Day's 111 Luck Just when trainer Ted Wilson looked like getting a return with Bright Day the Fates were unkind. As the outcome of a fall while racing at the

Puhiatua meeting the big Day Comet chestnut got knocked about and has had to receive the constant attention of his trainer ever since. The progress Bright Day is making from his injuries is fortunately fairly rapid and there is a hope that he will be advanced enough to again go into work in the near future. A win for the chestnut would be a ve» — popular h

as it is long overdue. His trainer has i-par**d nothing in the way of attention to his charge and although the tide

has been out more than the average, so far as length of time is concerned, it must surely turn again soon.

Horses there are who have a way of their own, and Transformer would be branded in this schedule if punters were given the opportunity to vote their opinion concerning the Thurnham gelding. When he takes it into his head to stretch out the best he knows how, Transformer would give the majority of provincial handicappers something to do to keep pace with him, but there come occasions, so it appears, when even the moderates in his division can, at least, hold their own with him* Although he has done best on top of the ground I have known one occasion at least when he swooped down like a bolt from the blue in a handicap run under autumn conditions at Te Rapa, and made the best of the others in a good field play second fiddle to him. Trainer W. Woods has had Transformer in his charge most of the time he has been racing, and while the horse has notched

some fine victories and placed himself well on side financially, there must be times, methinks, when even this capable mentor puts on his thinking cap to survey the deeds of his charge and ponder on the why and wherefore. Transformer lias his off-days, but he’s not the only equine this could be applied to. Easy Money for Paganelli It was the easiest of easy money for Paganelli on his recent Southern trip, where his two starts saw him win the Taranaki Stakes and the Jackson Stakes. For the speedy Lord Quex gelding the classics we.re the opportunity for showing just how good a sprinter he is. Len Morris had to shake him up over the last furlong of the Jackson Stakes, but there was a very ready response when the pilot sat down on this piece of galloping machinery. The Wellington and Feilding Stakes were classics on his belt prior to these two latest successes, and there doesn’t appear much prospect of anything on the lists at Awapuni being able to go with him when the real job is on there next month. When the Lord Quex gelding lines up in Australia as a five-year-old, a mission that is said to be definitely fixed for the spring, trainer M. J. Carroll has rosy hopes of bringing some successes from Randwiek to the credit of a South Auckland stable. He deserves it all, too, because the splendid type of thoroughbred he has developed Paganelli into is a credit to h im and to popular owners in Messrs. G. R. Crawford, of Hamilton, and R* W. Roberts, of Taranaki, the latter one of the stars in the Rugby firmament less than a decade back. To be Tried Out Again

Tiie Lamb, it was announced, following his failure at Matamata, was to go out of work, but he is to be given another try-out apparently, as trainer Carroll still has him going on the tracks at Te Rapa. There was nothing amiss with his condition when the Lord Multifid gelding came under inspection in the paddock at Matamata. His failure there (it was not a strong field by any means) must have puzzled his trainer. Perhaps it is that age is making The Lamb unwilling to hit out to his best at all times, as he is not a horse who has been spared at all, so far as starts in his career are concerned.

Although King Lu puts in an appearance on the track at Te Aroha. there is no apparent intention to hustle him into engagements. The Lucullus horse likes the soft going, and his connections will bide their time and make this period their objective. When he was last raced, which was at Te Awarautu and Ellerslie in December, after a term at the stud. King Lu looked well, but he had not the vim at the finish of his races which we have known him to be capable of. The easy policy that has been carried out with King Lu in the intervening months will permit him to finish nicely and over the autumn and winter we are likely to find the old “kick” there when he measures strides with the best of the opposition.