SYNTAX FAVOURED IN SYDNEY CUP

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27874, 24 January 1956, Page 4

SYNTAX FAVOURED IN SYDNEY CUP

Popular Doubles Bet AUSTRALIANS ASSESS FORM [From the Sydney Correspondent of “The Press’*] SYDNEY, January 17. The New Zealand three-year-old, Syntax, is receiving big support in the double on the Doncaster Handicap and the Sydney Cup. Bookmakers say that nearly half the doubles taken when lists were circulated for the first time at the weekend named Syntax as the second leg. Australians are wondering how good Syntax is—whether he is as good as New Zealanders claim. « The assessment of the New Zealand jockey, Grenville Hughes, is that Syntax could give Caranna 101 b and beat him. Caranna for some time looked like being Australia’s best three-year-old, especially when he won the Australian Jockey Club Derby in good style. In Melbourne Sailor’s Guide was the top three-year-old, winning the Victoria Derby in fine fashion. But the rating of Syntax at 101 b above Caranna would not necessarily make the colt a champion. It is so long since Australia had a really reliable three-year-old that racing enthusiasts here have almost forgotten what it takes to make a champion of that age. Time and time again there has been a youngster seemingly endowed with the potentialities for greatness, but they have been inconsistent.

Pride of Egypt was one. He was a brilliant, easy-going colt whose early runs at times captured visions of Phar Lap, Peter Pan, Hall Mark, Trivalve and the others of an era when Australia produced not one good horse, but dozens each season. But Pride of Egypt, like the others, had limitations which were quickly discovered when his ability was seriously tested. An assessment Australians understand much better is that from Hughes—that Syntax is better than Dalray at this stage of Dalray’s career. Dalray is a yardstick which Australians know well. Any horse better than Dalray will be good enough to continue the clean-up which seems inevitable when New Zealand horses come here. Rising Fast Not Entered Many people think that Mr Leicester Spring, the owner, and the trainer, Fred Hoysted, erred in not entering Rising Fast for the Sydney Cup. Their decision to retain the champion for weight-for-age races is soundly based. But the Sydney Cup carries £12,500 in stakes, and could easily develop into a race well within the champion’s reach. Weight-for-age racing in Australia at the moment is on a plane higher than ever. Melbourne has its Queen Elizabeth Stakes with £lO,OOO added, in March, and Sydney has the Queen Elizabeth Randwick Stakes with £BOOO added, in April. In Melbourne and Sydney a selection of weight-for-age races with added money of more than £25,000 could be made for Rising Fast without asking a severe campaign of him. Perhaps this is a wise approach, since Rising Fast cannot get more than 9-0 in any one of them, whereas in handicaps his weight must be near the 10-0 mark. Rising Fast, therefore, will last longer, perhaps, under the lighter weights and in the more ' leisurely type of racing in which he i excels. I Rising Fast is very sound. There is no 1 reason why he should not race for two

,or three more seasons. But if Rising Fast was in the Sydney Cup he would be favourite in spite of Syntax. Australians love this placid horse, which has not let them down in fair contest. Somerset Fair is going along well In his training and will be ready for racing towards the end of the month. The betting lists show him favourite for the Doncaster Handicap. He is L capable of running the hard mile at Randwicak, brilliant enough to be well placed at the end of the initial threefurlong straight run, possessed of the stamina and courage to fend off challengers in the straight two-furlong run home, and big enough to look after himself in any jostling that may occur on the turn into the straight. King’s Fair and Prince Cortauld are next in order in the Doncaster betting.