RACING McLEAN STAKES AT WINGATUI

Press, Volume C, Issue 29620, 16 September 1961, Page 4

RACING McLEAN STAKES AT WINGATUI

Representative Field Of Two-Year-Olds

The clash of some highly promising youngsters in the McLean Stakes at Wingatui today will be one of the major attractions on the first day of the Dunedin Jockey Club’s spring meeting.

The McLean Stakes is the first totalisator event of the season in the South Island for two-year-olds and it has attracted a representative field from stables in Canterbury, Otago and Southland.

Wingatui trainers will- saddle eight of the 12 youngsters expected to go to the post. At least three of these will be high on the list of fancied runners. Cobble, a speedy daughter of The Cobbler and Purple Planet in G. B. Thomson’s team, will probably have the strongest backing of the Otago contingent. She gave an immediate impression of early brilliance by winning a heat* of the two-year-old parade at Wingatui last month. Idol Prince, a LlanstephanGoldwasser colt in J. W. Pankhurst’s team, and High-

land Fair, which will represent A. E. Didham's stable, both shaped well in the colts and geldings’ section of the same parade. Idol Prince led his field home and Highland Fair made ground for third. The latter, a colt by Fair’s Fair from Lovely Idesll, is reported to have improved tremendously in his education meantime.

Royal Estate, from Wingatui, and Trovatella, a member of P. H. C. Stock’s Orari stable, dropped out of the field yesterday. But Trovatella’* defection may not prevent a Canterbury victory. Lubaean, a Sabaean - Lubeck gelding which is also in Stock’s team, has displayed sufficient ability in params to place vic-

tory well within his reach. In his section of the two-year-old parade at the Grand National meeting Lubaean was the runner-up to Prince Callan. There was also much promise in his third, beaten a head and a neck, in the corresponding event at Ashburton last Saturday. Prince Callan did not make the same impression at Ashburton as he had at Riccarton but he was galloping on very heavy ground and that could have accounted for his showing. This CallanderForest Princess gelding from C. C. Stokes’s stable will be Riccarton's sole representa-

tive in the McLean Stakes. The T.A.B. double will be op the Ranfurly and Telegraph Handicaps. The successful combination might be Rhythm Rein and Gold View. There will be a double for course patrons only on the Spring Hurdles and the St. Kilda Hack Handicap. Thumper, from Riccarton, and the Wingatui-trained Chatloch, may be the favourites in the respective legs.

There was fine weather in Dunedin yesterday but unfavourable conditions are forecast. Unless there is rain to make the going heavy the track will be soft.