RACING Handicappers Have Different Opinions

Press, Volume C, Issue 29624, 21 September 1961, Page 4

RACING Handicappers Have Different Opinions

Week-end racing plans for Cardinal King and Cheyenne were probably influenced largely by weights. Cheyenne is top weight with 9-5 in the Federal Handicap, seven furlongs, at Wingatui, and Cardinal King will run at the Geraldine meeting on Monday when he will carry top weight of 9-5 in the President’s Handicap, also a seven-furlong race.

The Dunedin handicapper, Mr J. White, rates Cardinal King higher than the Riccarton horse over seven furlongs than Mr F. A. Jarrett, the Geraldine handicapper. Mr White weighted Cardinal King at 9.10, or sib above Cheyenne, But Mr Jarrett considers Cheyenne is one pound better than Cardinal King—which represents a difference of opinion amounting to 61b. Cheyenne was given 9.5 •nd Cardinal King 9.5 in the •print at Orari. Mr Jarrett, who is also the Canterbury Jockey Club’s handicapper, rated Cheyenne 21b better than Cardinal King in his Winter Cup weights this year, but these horses did not meet. Cheyenne was unplaced with 92 on a track that did not suit him.

Late last season these two horses met under a different handicapper, Mr A. L.. Lewis, in the Claremont Handicap at Washdyke. Cardinal King, with 10.5 had to give Cheyenne 71b in that race. Cardinal King, anchored by his big weight on a heavy track, was last. Cheyenne ran fourth.

Winners On Course

Cheyenne was one of six Riccarton - trained gallopers to go south yesterday. One of the party, the two-year-old First Watch, is unraced. But the other five were all winners at Wingatui’last season, and four of them won •t the Dunedin Cup meeting. Cheyenne won the James Hazlett Gold Cup, narrowly beating Great Sensation. Quite Able won the Dunedin Cup, beat Great Sensation by inches. Coral Ring won the Decern-

ber Handicap, and Burgos the Dunedin Champagne Stakes. Francisco, the other Riccarton galloper to travel yesterday, won his first race at the Dunedin winter meeting in June. Francisco and Burgos will meet in the Dunedin Guineas on Saturday. Quite Able, one of the staying finds of last season, will contest the . Grandstand Handicap, and Coral Ring will run against the sprinters in the Federal Handicap. Quite Able could be one of the star two-milers this season. He had his first attempt at the distance in the last New Zealand Cup, and ran third to Oreka and Port Wine. Record Gallop Last January Great Sensation had to put up a record gallop of 3min 17jsec for two miles to beat Quite Able by a head in the Wellington

Cup. They battled it out six lengths clear of Ilumquh, winner of the Caulfield and Williamstown Cups and an unlucky third in the Melbourne Cup a few weeks earlier.

Quite Able has had two races as a sprinter in the last few weeks. His latest was at Ashburton last Saturday week, when he put encour. aging dash into his finishing run after being near the tail of the field most of the way. He should how be close to his best; and his best would be adequate for the occasion. Coral Ring, a stronglyfinishing eighth in the open sprint at Ashburton, is another member of C. G. Humphries’s team not long tack after a winter spell. He shapes as if he could be a useful'winner for the stable this season. He has won at a middle distance and may be given a chance to revert to that role in the Geraldine Cup on Monday.