SMALL BUT SELECT

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 968, 10 May 1930, Page 12

SMALL BUT SELECT

AUCKLAND TEAM TO RACE AT WANGANUI DEARTH OF JUMPERS A small but select team from the Auckland Province will figure at Wanganui on Thursday next, and it is expected that some stake money will come North as a result of their efforts. All told there are eight provincial representatives accepted for Thursday, and they are the following: Treasury, 8.4, and Valstreet, 7.7, in the second division of the Purua Handicap, six furlongs. Flying Swift, 9.0, in the Hack Steeplechase. Town Bird, 9.12, and Flying Swift, 9.0. in the lvaitoke Pla<?k Hurdles. Prince Lu, 10.5, and Glenstar, 9.13, in the Century Hurdles. Flying Juliet, 7.0, in the Connolly Handicap. Leitrim, 5.4, and Town Bird, 7.0, in the Borough Handicap. It will be seen from the above list that the Auckland team is a pretty useful on© all round, and one of two of the horses from this end are not without strong winning chances. Big Sprint Fields True to its promise, the Wanganui Jockey Club lias divided the hack sprint, the six furlongs Purua Handicap, consequent upon the number of acceptors exceeding the safety margin by five. No less than 28 were paid up for, whereas the safety figure is 23. The placed horses in each division will receive £lO5, £2O and £lO respectively, making the total stake £270, whereas for the one event on the original programme the stake was only £175. As there were but seven races on the programme, the addition of an extra event makes eight races, enabling the totalisator to be opened on each division as a separate contest. It is extraordinary to find the open sprint, the Borough Handicap, attracting a field of 25, two more than the safety figure. A couple of late withdrawals, however, will relieve the club of any anxiety in this respect. While the flat events have filled so well (an average of nearly 18 a race), the big jumping contests, the Wanganui Steeplechase and Century Hurdles, liavo each drawn eight acceptors.