RACING Big Anderton Team In Wingatui Engagements

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

RACING Big Anderton Team In Wingatui Engagements

The Wingatui trainer H. A. Anderton, who finished last season with a record total of 56 wins, will have a busy day at Wingatui on Saturday.

Anderton, whose team is one of the biggest' in the country, has accepted for 15 horses in five of the eight events on the second day of die Dunedin Jockey Club’s spring meeting. Six of them are in die second race, the Novice Stakes, and four are in the Grandstand Handicap, the main race and first leg of the double.

The McLean Stakes and the Dunedin Guineas, the two smallest fields of the day, and the Salisbury Hack Handicap are the only events in which Anderton will not have a runner.

The Anderton stable had 16 runners on the first day of the meeting last week, but none of them managed to win.

Kumai, which finished third In the Ranfurly Handicap, Ravelston, second in the Teigraph Handicap and Port Lanyard, third in the Spring Hurdles, got the closest ’ This trio will represent the stable again on Saturday, and so will most of the others.

Port Lanyard and Sizzler are in the Wakari Hurdles, Grey Peak, Corneil. Jolly Fox, Mondovi, Irish Rose and The Missionary in the Novice

Stakes, Runty in the Milburn Hack Handicap, Ravelston. McGregor, The Era and Kumai in the Grandstand Handicap and The Wanderer and Roseair in the Federal Handicap. Balloted Out The Missionary is the only one not assured of a start. He is balloted out of the Novice Stakes, and will not re-enter the field unless there are four scratchings. Runty and The Era are the only fresh runners from the stable for • Saturday. Runty has raced only once this season, at the Eastern Southland Hunt meeting at Gore earlier this month. Against the hack sprinters there, Runty lost his chance when checked on the turn and finished twelfth. The Era won at Gore, beating Peril and The Chief over a mile and a quarter in the President’s Handicap, but weakened to twelfth when tried over the Grandstand Handicap distance of 11 furlongs at Ashburton a week later. Two of the other Anderton runners in the Grandstand Handicap, Kumai and Ravelston, have much better last start form. Improver Kumai's third last Saturday was his first start since he finished out of a place in the Kennels Hack Handicap at the Christchurch Hunt meeting at Riccarton in July. Kumai, like several other members of the team, did not run at the Grand National meeting because Anderton missed the nominations for the minor events.

On Saturday Kumai will form a strong bracket with Irrepressible, which is trained by D. P. Wilson, and has a last-start fourth to'her credit over 11 furlongs at Ashburton.

Both Kumai and Irrepressible race in the colours of Mr T. K. S. Sidey, the Mayor of Dunedin. Neither The Wanderer nor Roseair, the stable’s two run. nets in the Federal Handicap, the second leg on Saturday, has last-start form, although The Wanderer finished a good fifth in the Telegraph Handicap after beginning slowly. Roseair has not won since she cleared hacks with a middle distance win at Gore last February, but she has raced only twice in the interim. Her start on Saturday will be her first since February 25. McGregor, the stable’s other runner in the first leg on Saturday, ran in the sprint last week, finishing tweith. The 11 furlongs of the Grandstand Handicap will suit him better. McGregor’s form on Saturday will probably affect betting on the Geraldine Cup on Monday, in which he is weighted at 8-0, lib less than he will carry over the extra furlong at Wingatui.

The Era is also in the Geraldine Cuq, and an' another member of the team, Ben Ledi, is in the President’s Handicap, the Orari second leg. Ben Ledi is unlikely to carry heavy support. He has not raced since June 5, when he finished last over* seven furlongs in the Members’ Handicap, won by The Wanderer, on the second day of the Dunedin Jockey Club’s winter meeting.