RACING Equal Terms Great Easter Favourite

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28550, 1 April 1958, Page 4

RACING Equal Terms Great Easter Favourite

Equal Terms’s brilliantly-successful first appearance, after a spell, against the sprinters at Awapuni on Saturday will have a big bearing on favouritism for the Great Easter Handicap at Riccarton next Monday.

Equal. Terms is one of only two North Island gallopers in the field, and strong northern support could well make him favourite ahead of the Haweratrained Monogram, and Cheyenne, which will be probably regarded as the South Island’s best.

Equal Terms was one of the stars of early three-year-old racing this season. He won the Wanganui Guineas and Hawke’s Bay Guineas in successive starts before being beaten by Tawhiao, Rover, and Somain in the Wellington Guineas. In his early-season racing be showed he could adapt himself to changing track conditions. Before his wins in the Wanganui and Hawke's Bay classics he outclassed a field of hack sprinters on a heavy track at Hastings. The ground was easy when he won at Wanganui and soft when he nosed Switzerland out in the Hawke's Bay Guineas. The going was good for the Wellington Guineas. Tawhiao being forced to equal the race record of Imin 38sec to shade Rover. Somain

was third and Equal Terms was fourth. Equal Terms did not race again until last Saturday. Equal Terms is one of two three-year-olds in a field of 21 for the Great Easter. Success has eluded the three-year-olds since Master Dash won in 1944, but horses of that age have not contested the race in strong numbers.

Good Record Four-year-olds have won all but three Great Easters in the last 11 years. One of those winners was Citril, which was retired shortly after she won the race in 1949. Citril is the dam of Sarcelle. whose chance this year will be highly regarded if the track is firm. Four-year-olds in the field this year are Purser, Cheyenne, Salonica, Brianbra, Wondon, Aquarius, and Post Cheyenne and Purser quickly came to the fore in their open class racing in the summer. Cheyenne has done SO in the strongest available class, and his record inspires confidence in his prospects for Easter racing. The Craven Plate at Riccarton in February was his first win in open company. A week later he was much too good for a field of milers at the Royal Welcome meeting at Trentham. He distinguished himself further, though major success eluded him, at the Wellington autumn meeting. He was an unlucky third in the Thompson Handicap, and, though the track conditions were not to his liking, he was runner-up in the Hutt Handicap, won by Agathis. Solid Form Purser will start in the Great Easter with a solid form background. He has won his last two races and has not been put

to the test in either of them. The first of them was over six furlongs at Wingatui on February 15 and since then he has been successful over seven furlongs at Motukarara. Like most of the stock of Neptune, Purser is fairly versatile, and any deterioration in track conditions would not weigh against him in his engagements at Riccarton.

The ground was soft when he won against the sprinters at Waikouaiti on January 1. He had graduated from hack class with a win at Washdyke not long before, but was tried in an open handicap earlier this season, finishing third close behind Calcutta Sweep and Keep Time in the Ashburton Cup, 11 furlongs. Purser is trained at lUccarton by J. E. Shaw, whose stable will also be represented in the Great Easter by the fast Super gelding Brianbra.

Brianbra finished his hack racing at the Oamaru autumn meeting, where he won the Parkside Hack Handicap, six furlongs and was third over the same distance in the Kakanui Handicap, won by Sure Lance. Brianbra has been a winner over seven furlongs but Post, another light-weight, has been more than a match for him at the distance.

Post was an easy winner and Brianbra was a weakening third when they met over seven furlongs in the Post Hack Handicap at Riccarton on February 1. The light-weights have yet to establish their class but most of them have high speed, and if conditions are good the Great Easter this year will be a very fast-run race.