GOLD CUP AT AWAPUNI

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27312, 31 March 1954, Page 4

GOLD CUP AT AWAPUNI

GOLDEN TAN SHOULD WIN AGAIN

The weight-for-age Awapuni Gold Cup on Saturday will give the champion Golden Tan a first-class chance to improve his good record for the season; The winner’s share of the stake is £875 and a cup worth £125, and if Golden Tan wins, as is expected, his earnings for the season will be advanced to £11,320, and his total to £17,265.

In the field of seven on Saturday are the Royal Auckland Cup winner, Coaltown, the high-class sprinter Paper Strip, the hardy handicap horse, Hutton, &nd the three-year-olds, Idaho, Glenkay, and Sublime.

Idaho and Sublime are the New Zealand Derby and Oaks winners this season, and Idaho may-have been a shade unluckly to be beaten by the Riccarton filly Surprise Ending in the New Zealand St. Leger. Hutton won the race two years ago, and was rurmer-up to his stablemate, Gendarme, last year.

Three years ago, Mainbrace added this race to his • string of three-year-old successes, and a year earlier another great 4hree-year-old, the Ric-carton-trained Beaumaris, was successful.

The list of winners of the Awapuni Gold Cup is studded with other great names.

Derest Gold won three times in succession for Mr T. H. Lowry during the First World War, and that feat has not been repeated, though Sasanof, Nightmarch, and Silver Ring have been double winners of the race.

There were no contests for four years during the Second World War. Kindergarten won in 1941, and Langue D’or won the next contest in 1946. Fresh Start

The brilliant King’s Fair, which was unable to race at the last New Zealand Cup meeting after being found burnt about the mouth, will make a fresh staft in the hack sprint at Awapuni on Saturday. King’s Fair is a stablemate of the season’s champion, Golden Tan. Should Turn Tables

Mr Heine did very well to finish third, within a neck of the winner, Captain Hawk, after starting from one of the outside barrier positions in the two-year-old handicap on the first day of the Manawatu meeting. ■ She should turn the tables on the Riccarton youngster in the Stonyhurst Handicap this week if she begins quickly from the No. 3 barrier position. Some Tiki’s Next Race

Some Tiki will be a short-priced favourite for the Te Matai Hack Handicap on the second day of the Manawatu meeting, after showing ability _above the average to win over a mile at Trentham.

He will be having his first test over a mile and a quarter this week, but the longer distance should be to his liking. His older brother, Gold Tiki, appeared to be on the way to the top as a stayer vzhen his career was cut short. Success in Vice-Regal Colours Pirate’s win in the King George Handicap at Awapuni last Saturday was his fifth for the season for the GovernorGeneral (Sir Willoughby Norrie). The four-year-old Neptune gelding has now won £3115 in the Vice-Regal colouis from fiVe wins and five other placings in 20. starts.

Speaking during the presentation of the ribbon to the owner of Royal Applause, winner of the Sires’ Produce Stakes, his Excellency praised K. Nuttall’s splendid handling of the horse and also thanked his trainer, D. T. Marks, for having got Pirate back to winning form after the set-back he suffered with a cold, which prevented him from racing at Trentham earlier in the month.

SMART SPRINTER’S DEATH

CURRENT DESTROYED AT INVERCARGILL "The Press" Special Service INVERCARGILL, March 30. Current, ene of the best-class sprinters and one of the most consistent to race in Southland in recent years, was fatally injured at Invercargill this morning. He was doing pace work on an inside grass track when he fractured a sesamoid bone in his off foreleg. After an examination, he was destroyed. Current was by Mrs S. W. Jones, of Invercargill, and was trained by F. W. Ellis, who intended racing him at the Canterbury Jockey Club's Easter meeting at Riccarton. He was bought at the 1948 national sales for 200 guineas. In five seasons of racing. Current won 10 races and secured 19 placings from 56 starts for £4175 in stakes. In nine starts this season, he won three races and was six times placed. At his last appearance At Wingatui last month, he won over seven furlongs under 9-9 in Imin 25 l-ssec, one-fifth of a second outside the track record. As a five, six, and seven-year-old, he started 34 times for eight wins and 17 placings. A Tiderace gelding, he was a halfbrother to Exchange. Their dam. Ditty Box, was by Paper Money from Sailor’s Quest, by Polazel from Sea Raid, by Night Raid.