RACING Dimedin Jockey Club Position Weakening

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28870, 15 April 1959, Page 4

RACING Dimedin Jockey Club Position Weakening

The Dunedin Jockey Club’s weakening position among New Zealand’s metropolitan racing clubs is evident in its programme for its winter meeting. The meeting has been reduced from three days to two, stakes have been reduced, and owners of openclass steeplechasers will have only one race to suit them.

; The Wingatui and Dunedin I Steeplechases have passed from the club’s programme, and there will be no open steeplechase on the second day. That means that the Otago ; Steeplechase is now the only race s for open-class ’chasers in Otago and Canterbury until the Christchurch Hunt Club’s Homebv Steeplechase at the end of July There is very little, then, to encourage South Island steeplechasing enthusiasts. The Otago Steeplechase will be worth £7OO this year. This is i £3OO less than last year, but iless than half the value of the race only three years ago. In 1 1956, when The Tongs won, the Otago Steeplechase was a £l5OO race, and the winner’s purse was £lOOO. In the depression year of 1933 ' the race was worth £2OO. Twenty I years ago it was worth £5OO and in 1923 it was £looo—nearly half ■ the value of the Grand National i Steeplechase. Capet might well win the Otago Steeplechase this year and earn £2OO less than he did for finishing second in the Grand National Steeplechase last August. The Birthday Handicap, the main flat race at the Dunedin winter meeting, will be worth £7OO this year—a decrease of £2OO on last year. The Birthday Handicap stake is £5O less now than it was 36 years ago. A comparison with the Riverton Cup is enlightening. The Riverton Cup is now a £l5OO race; in 1923 it was worth £5OO. Coleridge Destroyed Coleridge, winner of more than ; £22,000, was destroyed at Te Awamutu last week after a re- i currence of an old leg injury. 1 Coleridge took top ranking as < a sprinter for his owner-trainer, < J. L. McDonald. He was a con- ] temporary of Syntax, which beat ] him in the New Zealand St. Leger and Great Northern Derby. But he fashioned an outstanding record as a sprinter. In winning the Auckland Easter Handicap with 8-12 as a three-year-old in 1956, he ran

11 the mile in Imin 35 2-ssec, which ) is still a race record. ? Coleridge twice won the North i Island Challenge Stakes. His other victories included the Web > lington Guineas, Great Northern i Guineas, Waikato Guineas, Wei- ’ lington Stakes. Taranaki Stakes - and Belmont Stakes. Since his racing career ended Coleridge has done a little stud ■ duty at Te Awamutu. ’ He was • by Khorassan from Namakia, by Gay Shield from Quinkama, by 1 Quin Abbey. Teaka Active ■ Teaka is in the early stages of a preparation for another cam- ‘ paign. His Riccarton trainer, W. . A. Welton, has had the big Kurdistan gelding doing work around the roads for a few weeks. Teaka was being bothered by tendon trouble after two starts at the New Zealand Cup meeting, and he was put aside. He is now five, and* this might have been his best season. The South Island could do with a performer of Teaka’s ability at present. In his four-year-old racing Mr C. L. Smith’s chesfnut achieved high ranking with some solid campaigning in top-flight company. Teaka’s four-year-old campaign extended over 12 races, and he won five of them. On his home course he won the Metropolitan, Fendalton, Midsummer, and Great Autumn Handicaps, and he started the season with a win against the • open sprinters at Ashburton. At Trentham he was runner-up to Liban in the Wellington • Racing Club Handicap and to Bali Ha’i in the St. James’s Cup. 1 The St. James’s Cup was the feature race at a meeting staged to mark the Royal Mother’s tour ' of New Zealand. After the race ’ Sir Ernest Davis presented the I Marco Polo II gelding to the 1 Royal visitor.