Burgos And Cobble At Short Odds

Press, Volume C, Issue 29623, 20 September 1961, Page 4

Burgos And Cobble At Short Odds

If the Riccarton gelding Burgos and the Wingatui filly Cobble both win at Wingatui on Saturday, their dividends are likely to be two of the smallest paid out in one day at Wingatui for some years.

Burgos, the leading two-year-old in the South Island last season, is in the Dunedin Guineas and Cobble, the easy winner of the McLean Stakes last Saturday, is the topweight in a small field in the Juvenile Handicap.

At his only start this season, Burgos was much too good for his opposition, in the John Grigg Stakes at Ashburton on September 9, drawing away in the straight to win by two lengths.

In a small field on Saturday in which Francisco is the only other runner with winning form this season, Burgos is sure of ■very heavy support. Like Cadiz, Braganza and Shahwan, the last three Riccarton winners, he will probably start at odds on. Cobble is also likely to start at odds on. She shaped impressively at barrier trials before going to the races, and in the McLean Stakes

last week, at her first start, she was clearly superior to the other two-year-olds.

Cobble is one of the first crop of the new stallion, The Cobbler. Although she was only one of the more promising of an untried lot of two-year-olds in the McLean Stakes, she was at very short odds, returning her backers £2 8s and £1 Ils.

In the John Grigg Stakes a fortnight earlier, Burgos, having his first start since Easter, was at even shorter odds. He paid £2 4s and £1 6s 6d. Small fields—like the one Burgos will meet on Saturday—and short-priced winners have not been unusual in the Dunedin Guineas over the last few years. Gold View paid £2 13s 6d in a four horse field last year, but in 1959 Cadiz beat six others to return £1 5s 6d and £1 4s 6d. In 1958 Braganza paid £1 12s and £1 5s and two years earlier Shahwan paid £1 Ils 6d and £1 4s. Kingship in 1953 was the longest-priced winner in the last 10 years, paying £7 13s 6d and £2 14s 6d.

Kingship’s .field was also the biggest of the last 10 years, with 13 njnners. Last year and in 1954, when Magic Circle won. there were only four and when Shahwan won in 1956 there were only six.