RACING Riccarton Trainer’s Good Season

Press, Volume C, Issue 29526, 30 May 1961, Page 4

RACING Riccarton Trainer’s Good Season

The Riccarton trainer, G. H. Murfitt, jnr., saddled up his sixteenth winner for the season and his fifteenth since February at Waimate on Saturday. Baywyn’s victory in the Trial Plate and minor placings later in the day by Reclaim and Pitch brought the stake earnings of stable runners this season to £4255. The 16 wins were worth £3160. The balance came from 36 minor placings.

Few members of Murfltt's team were campaigned strenuously in the early part of the season. The preparations of most of them were planned with a view to a highly successful autumn campaign. That has been achieved with results which probably exceeded expectations. The only stable winner before February was Tremble. She cleared maiden class at Hororata early in December. But the Canterbury Jockey Club's summer meeting marked the beginning of a run of successes which would be the equivalent of at least one winner a day for every meeting Murfitt han attended since. The most successful stable runner has been the hack stayer Sailorman. He started the sequence of victories for Murfitt-trained horses when he was successful in the Trial Stakes at Riccarton on February 4. Meantime Sailoruiren has earned a deserved spell after a campaign at Blenheim and Nelson in which he was unbeaten In three races against the staying hacks. Sailorman will not resume until the spring. Consistent Payout, which has three wins and many minor platings on his record and is also spelling at present, will be brought back into work about the same time. His first winning ruin—in the Christchurch Handicap on the second day of the C.JC. autumn meeting in April—was after four successive seconds. He has been placed in each of his five races since, including victories against the hack sprinters at Nelson and Amberley. Hopeful is the only member of the team which has represented the stable In open company. Like Payout. he has won three races in a fairly short time. Hopeful was having his eighth start for the season when he

beat the open sprinters at Oam-aru in March and since Ulen he has been successful in similar company at Nelson and Amberley. Tremble is the only other member of the team to have won more than one race this season: Her second success was against the hack milers at Motukarara in March. But that was a hard-earned victory which presumably left her jaded for in seven starts since, the best that she has managed was fourth in the Waitangi Champion Hack Handicap at Waimate on Saturday. Tremble will be spelled now until after the New Zealand Cup meeting in November.

The other members of the team beside Baywyn which have won one race since February are Pitch, Pinnacle Stream and Air View. Pinnacle Stream has since been put out of training because of tendon trouble. The team was further reduced after last Saturday by the return to their respective owners of Bavwyn and the two-year-old Jamie. Baywyn is owned by Mr C. T. Stewart, of Taiko, and Jamie, a minor place-getter in three of his nine races, carries the colours of Mr J. D. Lockett, of Clinton. Winter Team Although this brings the number of spelling horses from the stable to six Murfitt will still have a handy-sized team for winter racing. Among those on the active list which will compete on the flat are Hopeful, Pitch, Air View, The Drifter, Breaker and Lady Merlin, a two-year-old Treasure Hunt—Lady Doretta filly. Reclaim. which gave -promise of developing worthwhile form over country by finishing third in the Steeples at Waimate on Saturday at his second start since 1958.

should strengthen the ranks of local jumpers. Rushmoor is another jumper in the team which should eventually make his mark as a hurdler. He has shown ability in the role both in training and in the few races he has contested but as yet has lacked the solid condition which would enable him to run the distances out successfully. One of the most successful days for Murfitt this season was the second day of the Nelson Jockey Club’s annual meeting last month. He saddled up Payout. Hopeful. Sailorman and Pitch to win the last four races on the programme. Thumper Spelling The Riccarton stayer Thumper will not race again this season. When he does resume. probably about October or November, it is likely that he will be educated for a jumping career.

Thumper has been raced on lease by Mr D. W. J. Gould, honorary treasurer of the Canterbury Jockey Club, since the departure overseas early this year of his Blenheim owners, Mr and Mrs P. P. L. Dillon. But the Count Rendered five-year-old failed to produced anything like one of his best runs in Mr Gould's colours and it was decided to put him out of training. Thumper has been turned out on Mr Gould's Glenmark property. He will be spelled there until the return of Mr and Mrs Dillon towards the end of this year.