Big Murfitt Team For Motukarara

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29760, 1 March 1962, Page 4

Big Murfitt Team For Motukarara

The Riccarton trainer, G. H. Murfitt, jun., will probably be the busiest man at Motukarara on Saturday.

Murfitt has 13 members of his team engaged at the Banks Peninsula Racing Club’s meeting, and nine will be racing for the first time.

The stable wiU have five runners in the Bradley Handicap, the two-year-old race on the programme.

None of these youngsters has had previous race experience but they were taken to Motukarara for experience and gallops with six other members of the team last week-end.

The stable’s two-year-olds are Bugs Bunny, Big Boy, Picca Leigh, Shakes, and Argus.

The stable horseman, B. W. McDonald, will ride Picca Leigh, a daughter of Pictavia and Dixie Leigh. She will be bracketed with Bugs Bunny and Big Boy. Murfitt will saddle two runners, Mutineer and Pay Boy, for the Wairewa Stakes, but is not confident of as good a result as in this race

last year when the stable representatives, Air View and Payout, were first and second respectively. Air View and Payout set a standard for two of their stablemates at last year’s meeting.

Later in the day Tremble won the Waihora Park Hack Handicap, and Sailorman was second.

This race has been replaced with a mile maiden, the Waihora Stakes, this year, and Dig Deep and Ham will have their first starts for the Murfitt stable in that event On Saturday Tremble will rhn against the hack sprinters in the Ahuriri Hack Handicap and Sailorman will run in the Parkinson Hack Handicap. The stable representatives in the open class races will be Treasure Mine (Peninsula Handicap) and Payout (Kinloch Handicap). )

Treasure Mine won as a hack at Motukarara a year ago. She was then trained by P. H. Jones.

Sailorman and Payout will be taken to Trentham next week for the first day of the Wellington autumn meeting. Payout will probably be brought home to race at the Oamaru meeting with Hopeful, Treasure Mine, Mutineer, and Dig Deep. Hopeful, the veteran of the Murfitt team, will be the only active member left behind when his stablemates go to Motukarara on Saturday.