RICCARTON FROM

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25784, 21 April 1949, Page 7

RICCARTON FROM

SOUTHERN HORSES HAVE DONE WELL MORE THAN £14,000 WON BY FRANCES th2r a out?f=^H® outh,aKd horses continued first J un o£ suc cesses on the jickev d f day3 of the Canterbury On th. autumn meeting this week. F?anee? da ?u the Mosgiel-trained Harichcap, W ™nd ““ We&S‘ stm?sorit# t a m!P established his TnPfh 1 ® among the two-year-olds Stakes S . takes - The 7 Tasman of thA the 4 p om ». n >on Handicap, two 2* „ the main attractions on the second Snekr W whiJh ? by E * cellenc y and Salmon opear, which were brought north hv th*. a?rt‘dav gi or tr m ner n P - Ellis - aft “ ‘ be Saturday. £ he Rlverton meeting last ri J£ be , Auckland Cup winner, Frances «tavYn» Urt . her a£ ‘ention to her quality as a A& g „ by wmnms the Great J? anc l!, ca b after being in front fieirf 11 ®} 1011 ...- There have been stronger have h?™ th r S race in the past ' but there and eSrt . more mterasting contests. Q ni3 pCertainly i few more exciting finishes, ran the s st . rlk mg Bulandshar mare ran tne distance in 2min 30 3-Ssec, which thin “the three-fifths of a second slower winner i reeord h s'4 »y the 1945 taSS' J lr tL? n ' a , Stand Siegfried mare trained by Wilson for Mr S. S. Taylor. frnnf I K : J S 4i, ridden a clever race in front by the Otago horseman, L W Hare Wat S a e de r “ c,car the-first haif?mne Haremtd Ce W ?. U ’ d be a laying test, oh th? fi rn 110 a tt em Pt to steal a march ld ’ and "hen he gave the «i*l? nd * s^ai inare a ‘breather” before the t. a a ?f S the race s P e edy. Balkis. fine T drew up ,t,° be .practically in line. Frances was called on for her ef- ;° r L near t he furlong, and her class stood Nivh? r 'T, h n n Tua tea and then Fine Wight challenged. The lightly-weighted u appeared to be going like a winFran?« f h a^ fUriOn < IXOIII the P° st - hut Fin? for a half-head win. Otago candidate, was another half head away third. R °yal T3n, which was expected to be WDcnn’lh® m i° S ! formidable opponents for Wilson s bracketed pair if the race was truly i? n »'h appear ed to be finished with early Hl r e home, but with a game effort trom n Fin e e d Nigh f t Or 3 C ’° Se f ° Urth ’ a neCk iit^> he H«? ri,t ?’ other representalv?’ * no \ Rn ish on as strongly as was ex Pected and was eighth. ha^KS e Vr hi< i h her fourth ♦ > as J 1 • 19- firsts, three seconds, and five «,; ds in 0 45 starts for £14.755 in stakes. Salmon Spear’s Class Salmon Spear, the winner of the Dominion Handicap on the second day in jjnpressn’e style, ran in the Riverton Cup last Saturday, but up to then he had not raced since the Dunedin meeting in December. The Salmagundi five-year-old snowed great promise as a three-year-old, and the merit of his early performances stamped him as a top flight handicap horse in the making. Unfortunately his career has more than once been inter*d - by usoundness, and his Invercargill trainer, F. W. Ellis, has had to adopt a patient policy with him *u Sa l n l on .pP ear ra ces for the estate of ihe late Mr H. J. Riddle. He was bred by Mr Riddle, who collapsed and died a after Salmon Spear had won the Easter Handicap, the main event on the second day of the Riverton meeting, two years ago. Salmon Spear is a son of Spearmaid, which was bred by Mr H. A. bu t sbe aR h er racing for Mr Riddle, for whom she was trained by A. McKay, who died last December. She won several races, and as a producer she nas been a great success, 'rhe first of her produce to gain distinction was the Balboa gelding, Spanish Lad whose record included an Invercargill Cup and a Dunedin Jockey Club Handicap. Two years later Spearmaid left Nigger Boy to Nigger Minstrel. Nigger Boy showed brilliant form, but his career came to an abrupt end in 1940 when, after winning the Jockey Club Handicap and the Members’ Handicap at Riccarton, his owner and his horses were disqualified for life. Desert Maid, a sister to Nigger Boy, showed useful form in the little racing she did, and as a two-year-old she won the Juvenile Handicap at Wingatui. Desert Maid’s stud career was brief, as she died in her second season, and Desert Girl, which had to he destroyed after racing on the third day of the last New Zealand Cup meeting, was her only produce. Nigger Lad was another of Spearmaid’s progeny to win. Grand Race Mare Excellency ran one of the best races of her career to win the Tasman Stakes on Tuesday from Citril, the Great Easter Handicap winner. Excellency was paid up for in the Riverton Cup last Saturday, but did not start, and she paraded in grand order for the mile weight-for-age race? Her effort to win in Imin 37sec. time which equalled the track record, strengthened the impression that she was not at her best when she attempted to win the North Island Challenge Stakes at Trentham last month. On the first day of the Wellington meeting she took the honours of the race, if not the winning share of the stake, when she ran second to Demonic. She was unluckily beaten in that race, but she did not show the same dash on the second day of the meeting.

The fpur-year-old Salmagundi mare has been a good winner for Mr W. T. Oliver, of Thornbury, Southland*. She was un-‘ beaten in five starts as a two-year-old, and altogether she has won 13 races and £10,130 in stances. Excellency is the second living produce of the Robespierre mare, Rodeur, which is to be mated with Gold Nib next season. Rodeur foaled to Milling last year and is in foal to the same horse.

Faithful Pal, a half-brother by Man’s Pal to Excellency, appeared to be unlucky not to win the Templeton Handicap at Riccarton on Tuesday, Successful Family Descendants of the imported mare, Lady Wayward II in Attractive Air and Tenor Royal, raced prominently on the second day at Riccarton on Tuesday. Attractive Air, which did not race on the first day, won the Wigram Handicap in clear-cut style, and her elder half-brother, Tenor Royal (by Royal Chief), was narrowly beaten by Salmon Spear in the Dominion Handicap. Attractive Note, the dam of Attractive Air and Tenor Royal, was the second foal of the Tractor mare, Attractive Lady, which left good winners in The Joker and Lord Nuffield. Speedy, another daughter of Attractive Lady, also started in the Dominion Handicap on Tuesday, but she failed to acquit herself as well as her near relation. Tenor Royal. Attractive Lady was from Lady Sentinel, which was by Kilbroney from Lady Wayward 11.

Attractive Air as top-weight with 9-0 in the Gimcrack Handicap at Riccarton on Saturday, and on the strength of her impressive winning performance on Tuesday she will be wqll supported. Tenor Royal has been raised to 8-2 in the Sockburn Handicap for his minor placing on Tuesday. Speedy has also been paid up for in the Sockburn Handicap. Promising Stayer Tuatea carried 7-12 when he ran Frances to half a head in the Great Autumn Handicap, end in the Sockburn Handicap on Saturday he has ben given 7-6. He is one bf the best staying sons of *Pherozshah, and it was an encouraging effort for his first race over the distance. Tuatea’s dam, Good Abbess, is English bred, although she is by Robin Goodfellow, which has been at the stud in New Zealand for some time. Good Abbess, which had progeny in England, was from Buchaness, which was by Buchan from Mellowness, by Chaucer. CitriPs Earnings Citril is to be retired after racing in the Fifty-seventh Challenge Stakes at Riccarton on Saturday, and she may end her career with a win. She made a great attempt to win the Tasman Stakes on Tuesday after having won the Great Easter Handicap the day before, and she has now won £9520 in stakes. Citril will not be opposed by Excellency, which beat her on Tuesday, in Saturday’s race, and she appears to dominate the position. The rest of the field is made up of two-year-olds, of which Western Winner may have the best prosTreasure Hunt Purchased

The imported horse. Treasure Hunt, has been purchased for a substantial sum by Mr G. H. Murfitt, jun., and he will stand at his owner’s Riccarton stud during the 1949 season.

Treasure Hunt, whose first crop is racing this season, has already been represented by three winners, the latest being Spellbound, which won the Onslow Stakes in easy fashion at Ellerslie last Saturday. Another of his winners is Gay Treasure.

Treasure Hunt belongs to the successful Blandford sire line, his sire being the unbeaten Bahram, the 1935 Derby winner, which also added the Two Thousand Guineas and the St. Leger to his record. Bahram was the fourth son of Blandford to win the Derby, and he was the winner of £43,086 in stake money. Before being sold to America, Bahram also sired such hotable horses as Big ,Game, Turkhan, and Persian Gulf. Amuse, the dam of Treasure Hunt, also left Picture Play, winner of the 1944 One Thousand Guineas. Treasure Hunt’s granddam, Gesture, was a three-quarter sister to Absurd (six times leading sire in New Zealand and sire of the winners of nearly £300,000) and to Jest, winner of the One Thousand Guineas and Oaks, the dam of Chief Ruler (twice leading sire in New Zealand and sire of Royal Chief) and third dam of Signal Light, a successful young sire in England.