RACING Hopes For Cheyenne If Track Gets Better

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29268, 28 July 1960, Page 4

RACING Hopes For Cheyenne If Track Gets Better

The Brabazon Handicap was one of four races won by North Island horses at the Christchurch Hunt Club’s meeting a year ago.

Golden Candidate, Overdue, and Revolver made it a clean sweep for the North Island in the club’s main flat race that day.

Such a feat cannot be repeated this year, for Revolver will be the lone North Island representative. Revolver is second top weight with 9-4 this year. His qualities, and he has many, are held in the highest regard by Riccarton patrons, but they will probably look elsewhere for the favoured runners.

The ground was dry for last year’s Brabazon, but it will be soft, perhaps heavy, this time, and track conditions could place Revolver at a disadvantage. The condition of the track on Saturday will also determine Cheyenne’s place in public favour.

This brilliant Riccarton chestnut might win under any conditions, but his record shows that his chance will be a good bit better if the ground is not heavy. Two years ago Cheyenne was fourth in the Brabazon Handicap, won by Copenhagen, and a week later he beat Copenhagen in the Winter Cup. A sound run in the Brabazon Handicap, and Cheyenne will become one of the strong fancies for the Winter Cup. He had 8-6 when he won the 1958 Winter Cup, and has 11b less this year. Solid Record Compensate, the Brabazon Handicap top-weight, has few peers as a miler in the South Island when he is at his peak, and his ability to run out a middle distance solidly has helped him to fashion a solid record. Compensate was away from racing for a few weeks before he ran in the Claremont Handicap at Washdyke last week, and noone was very surprised when he failed to make a show. Compensate showed he was a match for the top milers at Trentham in March when he ran second in the Hutt Handicap and fourth in the Thompson Handicap. In the meantime he has won two races including his third Nelson Cup. Compensate has 9-5 in the Brabazon Handicap and 9-4 in the Winter Cup. Like all the others in this field, except for Kinsimm, a winner at Washdyke last week, Compensate would not be liable for a rehandicap for the Canterbury Jockey Club's mile race. Shangri La has a record that looks impressive by standards. She has done all her racing so far in Otago and Southland, where the class is weaker than in most other provinces. But there is much to be said for a mare that keeps running good races week in and week out, managing heavy and good tracks alike, and big weights under trying conditions. That, briefly, is the Shangri La story. Weight Carrier Shangri La is small, but last time out she carried 9rll into third in a sprint run on a heavy track at Wingatui. That was on the third and last day of the Dunedin meeting.

On the second day she won over seven furlongs under 9-3, and two days earlier she was second with 9-0 to Irrespressible, which had 81b less. Until last Saturday Ravelston supporters would have heavily outnumbered Shangri La supporters. Ravelston’s failure in the Claremont Handicap at Washdyke could have altered the situation, but not necessarily his chance of winning the Brabazon. Ravelston had won six races in as many starts beforehand, and in one of them, in Invercargill in May, he brilliantly beat Shangri La and others over a mile. Ravelston is 101 b below Shangri La in the Brabazon Handicap, and if he comes up with one of his best races the consistent Riverton mare will not find him easy to master. Form Runner Kinsimm, the Claremont Handicap winner at long odds last week, will be one of two representatives for the Cochrane stable at Gore. The other is Glenrowan, run-ner-up to McCool at Washdyke two starts back, but a disappointing failure at the Christchurch Hunt meeting. Blonde Sprite is now trained at Riccarton, but she has a background of North Island racing. This Resurgent mare last raced in May, when she was fifth in a stronger field over seven furlongs at Masterton. Two of the good ones she beat that day were Happy Warrior and Switzerland. Earlier that month she won over six furlongs at Marton and ran second to Bloomful over seven furlongs at Otaki. The last time she raced at Trentham, in March, Blonde Sprite ran third to Happy Warrior and Rosina Ann over seven furlongs on an easy track. Blonde Sprite could help to make recent South Island form valueless if she goes as well in the Brabazon Handicap.