Calcutta Sweep’s Spring Programme

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28047, 15 August 1956, Page 4

Calcutta Sweep’s Spring Programme

RACING

Calcutta Sweep, one of the most promising stayers produced last season, will start his five-year-old racing at the Ashburton spring meeting. Afterwards Calcutta Sweep will embark on a North Island campaign leading up to the Wellington Racing Club's meeting in October. He will be accompanied by the three-year-old Dhofar. which started on her second season of racing in the Cashmere Plate at the Grand National meeting.

Calcutta Sweep did not win his first race until the last New Zealand Cup meeting, but when he added another victory and beat all but Mundus in the Otaio Plate it was clear that the future was bright for this Royal Chief gelding in staying events.

Calcutta Sweep won the Wairarapa Cup brilliantly when he had his third start in open company. He was a rather unlucky third to Field Chief and Robinson in the Wellington Racing Club Handicap, but was unplaced in the Summer Handicap, for which he was favourite.

Again luck was against him when he ran in the Peninsula Handicap at Motukarara on March 3. He was pocketed on the inner in the straight and was fourth in a small field. He was taken back to Trentham for the Autumn Handicap, his first test over two miles. The pace was slack for a good way. and the race was not run to suit Calcutta Sweep, which was fourth behind Merry Legs. Llanisfair. and Golden Galleon. Calcutta Sweep was then put aside for a few weeks in the North Island before being put into work again at Riccarton by F. A. Roberts. Calcutta Sweep needs firm tracks to show’ all his ability, and will have rich opportunities this season with so many outstanding stayers away in Australia. Like Calcutta Sw’eep. the form of Dhofar should improve when the tracks firm. She won twice last season, each time on a fast track, and ran other useful races when conditions were to her liking. She showed all her earlier brilliance to lead over the early and middle stages of the Cashmere Plate but was beaten by the heavy track on the home turn. Dhofar lacks good size, but she should build a serviceable record as a stayer before weight beats her. Matings to American Time , A new avenue from the sale of Australian racehorses to America will be | explored when the sire Star Kingdom ' will be mated during an off-season I period in Australia. His progeny will ! be born at the same time as mares are foaling in the United States. ■ A part-owmer of the sire. Mr A. O. Ellison, recently announced that Star 1 Kingdom would be mated with a ■ limited number of mares with an eye Ito the American market. The fee i would be 600 guineas (Australian*. | The mating of horses in Australia to American time is not new. but this is ! the first time local breeders have set j out to test the American market for untried horses. The decision to test this new field ■ follows the keen interest shown in America in Star Kingdom’s progeny. No other sire has had such remarkable . success in two seasons in Australia as i Star Kingdom. For the second year in | succession Star Kingdom has broken ithe Australian record for two-year old i stake winners. - For the season which ended on July 31, Star Kingdom's two-year-olds won I more than £24.000 in prize money, i This is £3OOO more than the record I total he established in 1954-55, his i first season. Remarkable Treble i Garden State, which had finished ' last but one in the Oaks at Epsom, i won the Irish Oaks at the Curragh i last month.

Garden State carried the colours of her Newmarket trainer, Harry Wragg, who had also prepared two Irish classic winners earlier in the season. This has been a remarkable treble. The runner-up in the Irish Oaks was Janiari. which was second to Sicarelle at Epsom. Garden State is a filly with top-class breeding and as her third dam is Galaday II she is bred on identical lines to Never Say Die by Nasrullah. by Nearco. She is the second produce of Monkeyshines, which Mr R. Sterling Clark bred in the United States in 1948 by the Australian horse. Eernborough (by Emborough). Monkeyshines raced in England, but her solitary success for Mr Clark was in a six-furlong plate at Pontefract. She is. however, half-sister to the sprinter Fairy Flax (by Pensive), winner of eight races, including the King's Stand Stakes ( Ascot )and King George Stakes (Goodwood), and to Flying Wedge and Time to Reason, neither of whom stayed beyond a mile. Confetti, dam of Monkeyshines, never raced, but is a close relative of Never Say Die's dam. Singing Grass, being by that mare’s sire. War Admiral, out of Galaday H by the great

Franco-American brood-mare sire Sir s Galahad 111 and tracing to Chelandry. ( Galaday 11. which was bought as a yearling by Mr R. S. Clark, for whom i she won seven races in the United i 5 States, and the Town Moor Handicap I (DoncasterL was a prolific and highly ! ‘ successful mare. Confetti was her 1 eleventh foal and is one of her seven | 1 daughters to produce winners, most j < notable of the others after Singing • ’ Grass's dam. Boreale. being One Thousand Guineas and Oaks winner Galatea . 11. I, Well-bred Youngsters 1 The two-year-olds that were pro- < duced in the two parades at the Grand < National meeting were not tested for ' anything like their best speed because i of the state of the ground. The fillies’ section last Saturday was . < of special interest, not for what was ' i shown but for what was on show. I 1 First to finish was an attractive < brown filly by Lucky Bag from Waltz- ■ ' ing Matilda. * This half-sister to the C.J.C. Stewards' Handicap winner will ' ’ be raced by, Mr J. Boyd-Clark and j is trained at Riccarton by R. H. Burns This filly was one of Mr Ken Austin’s Inglewood Stud draft at the national sales last January, but did not attract ' a bid. If she confirms the promise she has shown so far she will improve the very good record of Inglewood products. Miss Fire and Her Ex. which followed the Lucky Bag fillv home, are both in the Riccarton stable of C. i G. Humnhries. Miss Fire is a brown filly by Faux j Tirage from Calm, by Tima nova from I All Quiet, by Siegfried from Speech- ; less, so is closely related to the outstanding winners Dormant. Silence. . Western Front. Brunhild, and others. ; Miss Fire cost Mr Hall 320gns at i the national sales. Her Ex was one ! , of the most easerlv-sought fillies in I: the national sales. This brown dau?h- J ter of Gahador and Lady Ex cost Mr ■ ! L. R. C. Macfarlane 1500gns. She is i a sister to Royal Cipher and threequarter blood sister to Sierra, both brilliant performers in Australia. She : is a’so a half-sister to Sierra and Lady ■ Ruthex. both very fast sprinters. • Extravagant, the grand-dam of Her | F.x. was an unraced h elf-sister to the champion Defaulter, and Expanse, win- i r.er of six races including the Great | , Northern Derby and St. Leger, the I Rnval Stakes, and the Auckland Cup ’ I Pale Blue. Mr D. McFarlane’s grey ' I filly by Gabador from the brilliant | ■ Pastel, did not show anything like her . I best speed in the parade. But in j earlier tests on the tracks she has shown ability, and should make an imnression in the early two-year-old | racing. j Pale Blue is trained at Riccarton ■ by M. Ryan, who also prepares Lochia . for Mr McFarlane.