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Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29269, 29 July 1960, Page 4

Homeby Steeples At

Riccarton

Nupla might prove Trentham form the best form by winning the Homeby Steeplechase at the Christchurch Hunt Club’s annual meeting at Riccarton tomorrow. Nupla was third in the Wellington Steeples and equal second in the Riddiford Steeples at the Wellington winter meeting earlier this month. Peter Keith and Lochgair, the only ones to beat Nupla in those races, will not oppose Mr F, J. Pickup’s Revelation gelding tomorrow. Nupla will be one of two representatives for H. P. Long’s Te Rapa stable. The other will be Patrick Molloy, which Long races in partnership with Mr S. Caddigan.

Nupla and Patrick Molloy have had no experience of the Riccarton country, but if that is to be a disadvantage it will be one shared by most of the others in the field.

The steeplechase course has not been opened for schooling this week because of the heavy state of the ground, so it must be left to the race to show which horses can best meet the peculiar demands made by the big Riccarton fences on jumping ability. As far as can be judged from the big cross-country races at Trentham, Nupla should come through his first Riccarton test with credit. His jumping did not fail him at Trentham.

In the Wellington Steeples he went rather too keenly for the first round or so to last out the race quite as well as Peter Keith and Lochgair on a heavy track. But he went a very sound race for his second (a dead-beat with Orelinol in the Riddiford Steeples. He tried to lead for the last five furlongs, and went under by only three parts of a length. The distance was three miles. Nupla’s jumping in the Riddiford Steeples was cleaner than Patrick Molloy’s. The Great Northern Steeples winner ran sixth. He dropped out of a contending position in the last mile, and was beaten off at the end. . That run supported opinions that Patrick Molloy was “flattened” by his winning run in the Great Northern Steeples. Another Chance But judgement should perhaps be suspended until after tomorrow. The Riddiford Steeples was Patrick Molloy’s first race since Hie Great Northern meeting. The Grand National Steeplechase has been the main item on Patrick Molloy’s programme. The stable horseman, G. O. Mudgway, has taken the ride on Patrick Molloy in the Homeby Steeples. That could be significant, but it was not at Trentham where he made the same decision and saw the second string horseman, J. R. Potter, ride Nupla into a place. V. H. Simpson wil] ride Nupla in the Homeby Steeples. Potter will ride Break Away, winner of the Hawke’s Bay Steeples, but a failure in the Wellington Steeples. Capet, top weight with 11-2, was the Homeby Steeples fourth two years ago. Last year he was third with 10-9 to French Echo and

Swift Gold, and a week later he won the Grand National

If safe jumping is to have the big bearing on file result Capet will take beating, but after some work missed since he last raced over country he might feel the strain of a fast-run race. Newcomer Capet’s stablemate Tadpole has had no cross-country experience at Riccarton. Besides he has been bothered with a leg injury. He has more galloping ability than any of the others in this field but claims for supremacy in. a Riccarton ’chase cannot begin and end there. Sea Contour will have solid backing. One reason is that he belongs to the Matangi team of Mr I. Robinson, who has had outstanding success with his jumpers at Riccarton.

Another, and probably more important. is that this Contact gelding outclassed his riyals over two and a half miles in the Adamson Steeplechase at Hawera the last time he raced. That was on July 2.

A strong front-running gallop and some fast jumping gave Sea Contour victory by 20 lengths over Calm Lass, winner of the Egmont Steeples a week earlier. Sea Contour was third in the Egmont Steeples. He hit a board fence and finished far back. Calm Tide, from Awapuni, is this year’s Manawatu Steeplechase winner. He won that race with a solid stayer’s run. A week later he ran fourth-in the Hawke’s Bay Steeplechase, in which Break' Away narrowly beat Capet. Dusky Prince, winner of his last two races over country, one a hack steeples at the Great Northern meeting, may be the best below Cahn Tide in the weights.

Arctic Sun won the Otago Steeples in June, but did not make the grade when tested against the northerners in the Wellington Steeplechase. Cheroot, from Riccarton, and Ravelston, a fit sprinter from Wingatui, are selected to win the double, the Camla Hack Handicap and the Brabazon Handicap.

Cheroot beat some smart hack milers on the first day of the South Canterbury Jockey Club’s winter meeting on July 2 and has not raced since. Ravelston won at six successive starts before failing in the Claremont Handicap at Washdyke last week. But be came right back into favbtir with a brilliant gallop at Riccarton yesterday. ,