ST- LEGER MEMORIES

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 898, 15 February 1930, Page 14

ST- LEGER MEMORIES

SMALL FIELDS SEEN PHAR LAP’S MORTGAGE The A'.R.C. and A.J.C. St. Legers are races which generally emphasise the luck of yearling buying, comments a Sydney critic. Small fields for both are the rule, and when runners are more numerous than usual it means that quality is lacking. Nearly every year something stands out for one or the other. A St. Leger is rarely contested .by three good horses; in fact the race often approaches a presentation. Victoria has never had double figures for its St. Leger, the record being eight, and- the field has often included at least a couple started in the hope of getting second or third money, not because their owners seriously’ believed they had any chance of winning. Some poor horses have won the St. Leger, and though, as a good buyer, he can scarcely be begrudged his luck, Mr. L. K. S. Mackinnon has been fortunate in the last half-dozen years in winning V.R.C. St. Legers with horses of the calibre of Sandringham and Kpilogue. It would be difficult to contend they were racehorses of class, and yet each was equal to winning a “classic.” Odds Warranted Trivalve and Strephon, the last two winners of the V.R.C. St. Leger, started at good odds on respectively, and it was surprising the latter was not even a warmer favourite. He won as he liked, and of the hundreds of yearlings sold in 192 S was the only first-class three-year-old racing in the autumn of last year. Which goes to show that no matter how good a judge any man may. be, the odds are against his selecting a yearling that is going to make a real racehorse. It is the same in England and America. On spring form, the coming V.R.C. St. Leger appears such a certainty for Phar Lap that he is sure to start at long odds on. Reports from Melbourne credit him with looking well, and, like Amounis, he was not spelling long enough to lose his condition to any extent. Good For Phar Lap As Carradale will not be racing, Lineage may be Phar Lap’s principal St. Leger opponent at Flemington, but though she ran second in the Williamstown Cup, and won the Armadale Cup at Caulfield with 7.9. she would need to improve greatly on those efforts to stand any chance of downing the chestnut. Nor is. the position in Sydney likely to be much different. Phar Lap is bound to be very fit as a result of his racing at Flemington, and nothing he beat at Randwick in the springs appears to have the slightest chance of turning the tables on him. in the autumn. The coming A.J.C. St. Leger looks nearly as great a. certainty for Phar Lap as for Strephon, when the latter won last year at tens on. V.R.C. and A.J.C. St. Legers rarely give a racing return commensurate with the prize-money attached to them. ABILITY OF TRAINERS FAILURE OF FAVOURITES An English sporting writer, in a critical moment, has a lot to say about the ability of some trainers. He says that the strangest happening in modern racing would be for a public favourite to win one of the recognised big handicaps! No matter how much intelligence is brought to bear upon these races—no matter how much money is staked —they invariably result in a way which utterly dismays the punting public. Why this should be so? What is this strange racing world into which we have passed? The Cambridgeshire and other results caused him to ask some pertinent questions. It provoked him to challenge—in a general sense—the judgment of those who train horses for these special events, and to compare their obvious lack of judgment with the ability of old-time trainers. Art of Placing The preparation of racehorses is one job, and the placing of them is another. It is quite-a mental problem to call to mind the trainers who know what they are really about on the training ground as well as on the racecourse. Preparing a string of .horses is work for two men. There are a number of trainers very much in the public eye these days. Their names are household words. The man in the street and the casual racegoer listens with awe to all he hears abqut them. To know them and to learn their secrets would be the quickest road to fortune, thinks the listener. But was there ever anything more mythical than this valuation of the wizardry of the modern-day trainer?

The writer really thinks that if the majority of trainers had to derive their incomes from betting there would be precious few left with a bank balance in two years’ time. It is the owners who pay, and it must at times seem a very costly thrill! It is surprising how deeply an owner will dip into his financial resources to satisfy his vanity—the vanity of seeing his colours carried on the racecourse. It is about time some of the halos which are believed to linger about the heads of some trainers were put aside, anrl instead of garbing themselves in a way which would catch the eye of a film producer, they might roll up their shirt sleeves and get to work to know where they really are and why they go wrong so repeatedly. This is strong talk, but there are many who will agree with some of the English critic’s views. McCARTEN’S HOODOO AORANGI HOLDS IT When Aorangi flashed past Panola to win the Paddington Handicap at Randwick the other day, M. McCarten, rider of the second horse, was justified for remarking, “Here he is again.’’ McCarten and Aorangi evidently do not like each others’ ways. The Newmarket gelding has been ridden oy the.ex-New Zealand jockey in many races, but he has not succeeded with the horse that frequently has come along at the right time to beat McCarten’s other mount. Some little time back Aorangi was heavily backed by his owner for an Epsom handicap, and the form the horse displayed on the track influenced McCarten in accepting the ride. It is now history how Aorangi developed influenza on the eve of the race, and finished a long way last. In a Rosehill Flying Handicap, the Villiers Stakes, and the Rosehill Stakes last season McCarten rode Aorangi, but Reonui, ffom Price’s stable, won each race.

How easy it is for a backer to just miss a big win, and find himself paying out fairly large amounts on settling day, was revealed after the A.J.C. Anniversary meeting. The backer in question generally places substantial commissions for owners, but at the same time he uses his own judgment when investing his money.

Recently he backed Renora and Jeypore to win him £2.800, Renora and Aorangi for £1.200, and Jeypore and Aorangi for £BOO. Renora and Jeypore each ran second and Aorangi won, but in the latter’s race he was busily engaged working a big commission on another horse for a friend, and did not recoup his losses.