Gesture Will Be On Hand At Riccarton

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 937, 2 April 1930, Page 12

Gesture Will Be On Hand At Riccarton

Trip to Australia Is Abandoned SIDE-STEPPING CYLINDER? It is now definitely announced that the Australian trip of Gesture and Concentrate is off, but that Cimabue will be sent over for the Randwick meeting held at Easter. In the running of the Awapuni Gold Cup last Wednesday, Concentrate was badly galloped on, and finished last, and no doubt it was this fact that was responsible for the Kilbroney gelding finishing last in the weight-for-age event. This mishap to Concentrate —which he has not yet quite got over—resulted in the Australian trip being abandoned. Cimabue goes across this week in charge of H. Lorigan’s head lad. Cimabue has 9.0 in the A.J.C. Doncaster Handicap, one mile, run on Easter Saturday. To Race at Riccarton If Concentrate races at all at Easter it will be at Riccarton. There he is engaged in the Great Autumn Handicap, in which his impost is 9.5, Historic being above him with lib more. Neither horse is hopelessly out of it on the score of weight. It is stated, too, that Gesture will be on hand at Riccarton at Easter. His principal engageVnent ‘there .is the Champagne Stakes, run over six furlongs. It is surprising to find Gesture taking on the Riccarton race, and one wonders if the connections of the Chief Ruler filly are not a wee bit afraid of Cylinder. Hence the side-stepping of the Limond colt at Ellerslie on Easter Saturday. One is inclined to venture an opinion in this connection, when it is recognised that the value of the A.R.C. Champagne Stakes to the winner is £6OO, whereas at Riccarton it is £420.

One probable sufferer by this decision is Mr. John Donald, breeder of Gesture, who would be entitled to £IOO if Gesture happened to win the Ellerslis classic. In the Riccarton event his is the honour and glory alone. Sprinter Only? Then the C.J.C. Champagne Stakes is run over six furlongs, and the Auckland race over seven furlongs—for the first time. Does this signify that there is a doubt as to Gesture’s stamina? There is no doubt that she is brilliant, but brilliancy and staying power do not always go hand in hand. In the Sires’ Produce Stakes at Awapuni last Wednesday, Hard Words gxtve his opponents something to do. He began brilliantly, and was soon four lengths ahead of Gesture and Cylinder at the end of two furlongs. Then Cylinder fell; Gesture was just a shade in front of. him at that stage. The Chief Ruler filly had to be forced along to run up to Hard Words at the bottom of the straight, and then she was given a few hard cracks with the whip. That was at the end of six furlongs. Was It a Test? Gesture then went away from the Aucklander, but if she hadn’t done so it would have been surprising, not only in view of her record, but as much from the fact that at present six furlongs seems to be the end of Hard Words’s tether. That Gesture should beat a tiring horse by a couple of lengths was a fitting triumph, but could she have done better? * The more one thinks of it, the more is it to be regretted that Cylinder should have gone out of the race in such an unfortunate manner. Although no doubt the deciding factor in taking on the Riccarton event is the fact that Concentrate can be better placed there than at Auckland, with perhaps a weaker field in the distance event, there might have been some uneasiness as to how Gesture would fare with Cylinder over the seven furlongs course of the A.R.C. Champagne Stakes at Ellerslie. One would wish that even now the plans could be rearranged so as to permit of Gesture meeting Cylinder at Ellerslie on Easter Saturday.