RISING FAST IN FORM

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27426, 12 August 1954, Page 4

RISING FAST IN FORM

EFFORTLESS WIN IN BRISBANE (From the Australian Correspondent of “The Press’*) SYDNEY, August 9. Rising Fast is now a firmly-entrenched favourite for the AJ.C. Metropolitan Handicap, of one mile and five furlongs, to be run at Randwick on October 3. Bookmakers reduced his price after his Sood win over Euphrates in the Barnes takes at Brisbane on Saturday. The Barnes Stakes is a weight-for-agc race run over a mile and a quarter. Rising Fast beat Euphrates by four lengths, and ran the distance in 2min 3Jsec, which, although not a record for a mile and a quarter in Brisbane, is nevertheless the fastest time ever recorded there, in a weight-for-age race over the distance. Rising Fast’s trainer, I. Tucker, said that he was not certain of the programme for the horse. Rising Fast would leave Brisbane in a week’s time, and would be taken to Sydney or to Melbourne. However, racing men take it as certain

that the horse will first go to Sydney, and that, the Metropolitan will be Rising Fast’s first major handicap engagement. Tucker proposes to engage a Brisbane jockey, Andy Tindall, for all Rising Fast’s spring engagements. He says he will suggest this to the horse’s owner in New Zealand, Mr L. R. Spring. Truly-run Race As the time indicated, Saturday’s race was truly run from the outset. This made it a true test of the comparative ability of Rising Fast and his chief opponent, Euphrates, ridden by D. Munro. Euphrates is known as a very sound trial horse. He has won in first-class handicap and weight-for-age company, and when he is in form he is very reliable. In the circumstances. Rising Fast’s peiformance was outstanding, because he raced head and head with Euphrates al) the way to the turn into the straight, and then beat him by four lengths. Darby Munro said after the race: ”1 would love to ride Rising Fast in one of the big spring races. He’s one of the best New Zealand horses for years. “There mightn’t be much to today’s form on paper, but I’ve never seen a horse win as easily,” said Munro. “There is no doubt in my mind that Rising Fast is not only the best of the New Zealand horses which are here at the moment, but he is one of the best that have come over for years.”

Regoli and Sobriquet Win In Sydney, New Zealand horses won the feature races at the Sydney Turf Club’s meeting at Canterbury Park. Regoli won the Clisshold Handicap and Sobriquet the Canterbury Handicap. Regoli is trained by M. McCarten for Mr K. L. Richards, a New Zealand contractor. Mr Richards does not bet. Sent to Australia because he was banned in New Zealand as a “barrier brumby,” Regoli has now won 11 races, six of them on the Canterbusy track. He has always been tractable from the starting gates, and m fact is a model horse. His wins include the Canterbury Stakes at weight-for-age, the Australia Day Handicap, the Railway Handicap, and the C. W. Cropper Handicap—all top-ranking sprint races in Sydney. On Saturday, Regoli was at his best. He was. as usual, a-long Way back early, but he was in the middle of the field on the turn into the straight. In the last furlong, he swept past the favourite, Spearby, and the heavily backed Hans, to beat them convincingly. Sobriquet was an outsider for the Canterbury Handicap, in which he was ridden by L. Coles, an unfashionable jockey in Sydney. After being last at the three furlongs. Sobriquet raced up to the expectations of his trainer, Larry Wiggins, by winning with a good deal in reserve. At his previous start. Sobriquet was examined by the stewards before he was allowed to take his place in the field for the S.T.C. Cup at Rosehill, because he showed signs of lameness. During the week this lameness, caused by an infectiem in a leg, again became apparent, and Wiggins was in some doubt until Friday about starting Sobriquet. Coles recently was discharged from the Army. As a young apprentice, he. showed promise, but 'he lost favour, and before entering the Army, he was riding at conutry meetings. Wiggins noticed him riding in track work, and asked him to join the stable. Wiggins’s experience as a top-ranking jockey enabled him to see merit in the way Coles rides, and he is so pleased with the young jockey that he has offered him a permanent position in his stable in New Zealand. Wiggins says there is a bright future for Coles in New Zealand, because Coles’s style win suit New Zealand tracks and the race tactics generally adopted there.

TWO-YEAR-OLD SPRINT AT RICCARTON Motueka, a smart ngelding by Faux Tirage from Gold Flight, narrowly won the sprint down the straight for two-year-old colts and geldings at Riccarton on Tuesday. Second was the faster-finishing colt by Callander from Soft Light. Motueka is trained at Riccarton by J. S. Shaw- for Mr J. MacG. Inglis. He cost 1500 guineas at the national sales at Trentham last January. The Callender—Soft Light colt is owned by his breeder, Mr W. E. Hazlett, of Invercargill, and is trained at Riccarton by W. A. Welton.

Third was a bay colt by Defaulter from Falsgrave, trained by R. E. Humphries, Riccarton, for Mr A. Burke. This colt is a half-brother to Mr Burke’s mare. Direct Passage.