RACING Chance For Arctic Sun In Otago Steeples

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29220, 2 June 1960, Page 4

RACING Chance For Arctic Sun In Otago Steeples

Hopes for a Canterbury victory in the Otago Steeplechase at Wingatui on Saturday will rest mainly with Arctic Sun.

There is nothing spectacular about Arctic Sun’s immediate form background; but then victory in the race might not call for a spectacular achievement. In a rather ordinary field, even by South Island jumping standards, Arctic Sun has qualities that could bring him out on top.

A nine-year-old Tormie gelding raced by the Orari trainer P. H. C. Stock, Arctic Sun will face the Otago Steeples on a solid racing preparation. He has no winning form on his immediate record, but he has made steady if only slight improvement with each race lately. His latest race was at Waimate last Saturday.. He ran third in the steeples, and did not reach a contending position, but his steady run from well back in the field was encouraging.

A fortnight before he raced at Waimate, Arctic Sun appeared twice in one day at Ashburton. Ha was fourth in the hurdles, and filled the same position in the steeples. Those races, and his latest one at Waimate, should have fitted him to run out three miles with the best of his rivals. Honours in the Birthday Handicap, the Dunedin club’s main flat race, have been fairly evenly distributed over the main South Island provinces in the last few years.

Canterbury’s last winner was Rhythmonic in 1957. Cassius, from Wingatui, won in 1958, and the Gore-trained Vamoose was last year’s winner. Canterbury horses in the Birthday Handicap this year are Gay Tommy, Kelp. Column. Lightning Boy, Royal Halyard and Kalan. If it is typical Wingatui winter going. Gay Tommy will have the heaviest backing of the Canter* bury horses. He showed his mastery of track conditions peculiar to Wingatui this time three years ago when he was unbeaten in two starts against the hack stayers. He was three then but carried 9-1 the second time he won, and outclassed the others.

Won At Nelson Gay Tommy is one of two laststart winners in the Birthday Handicap field. He had a track to his liking on the second day of the Nelson meeting last month and won comfortably over a mile and a quarter. Kelp will be having his first test over a bit of ground on his present campaign. He started that campaign with a race against the sprinters at Ashburton last month.

One of three horses in this field trained by J. L. Barr, Kelp will probably manage the distance unless the track conditions are very trying. If it is to develop into a hard slog through mud this small but genuine Beaumaris gelding might be handicapped through his lack of solid racing condition.

Kelp will be one of three representatives for J. L. Barr’s Riccarton stable in the Birthday Handicap. The others are Royal Halyard and Kalan. Both ran without distinction in the Waimate Cup last week, but both should be improving with racing.

It Waimate Cup form is to be of full value the nine-year-old Column would have to be regarded as the best of the Canterbury horses apart from Gay Tommy which did race there.

Column was the Waimate Cup third. Lightning Boy, a stronger fancy, was four places behind him at the end, but on a bigger course at Wingatui Lightning Boy could beat Column this time if he goes as well as when he ran third at Ashburton two starts back.

Mudlark Marsana, a stablemate of Lightning Boy, won both open sprint races at the Dunedin winter meeting a year ago. when the tracl. was heavy. He has done nothing nearly as good since, and is back on the minimum ip the Winter Handicap, the second leg of the double. Track conditions similar to those a year ago may be all this Red Mars gelding needs to recapture winning form. Given those conditions his chance cannot be taken lightly from his place in the weights. Marsana lost lengths at the start of the sprint at Waimate last week, so it was impossible to get a line on his present fitness. But he is well seasoned, and could make a determined bid for a second success in the race. Riccarton’s lone representative in the Winter Handicap will be Waterfall. She has speed, but does not keep it up for very long in sprint races these days. Her sprint performance at Waimate was weak. Good Form Canterbury stables will be strongly represented in the Brighton Hack Handicap, the first leg of the on-course double. It will be surprising if Wandering Willie, Rhythm Rein, and Medbury fail to measure up to the class of their southern rivals. .Wandering Willie won a double, and Rhythm Rein was an unlucky second to Roa at Waimate last Saturday. Medbury was runner-up to Wandering Willie in a hack sprint. He was unable to test the Washdyke colt but was running against a young horse which could develop good class if he stays sound. Kastanea and Porcelain Prince are form horses for the St. Clair Handicap, the race for hack stayers. Kastanea improved a fairly solid record with a win in th ■ corresponding race at Waimate last week. Porcelain Prince was the unplaced favourite in that race, but he is the type to go a good bit better on a bigger track.

He was at the tail of the field early at Waimate, and made quite a big run around the field from the half mile. L. W. Hare did not persevere with him when he saw that the Wedgwood gelding was still too far from tbe front bunch to get in an effective challenge.