RACING Oamaru Second Day To Be Broadcast

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29776, 20 March 1962, Page 4

RACING Oamaru Second Day To Be Broadcast

A request from the Oamaru Jockey Club to have race commentaries broadcast on the second day of the club’s centennial meeting next Monday has been aproved by the Minister of Broadcasting (Mr Kinsella) and the New Zealand Racing Conference. This was announced yesterday by the club’s secretary (Mr A. L. Ross).

The race commentaries will be broadcast through Dunedin, but confirmation about whether they will be made from 4YA or 4YC will not be known until later this week.

Although meetings at Oamaru are not normally broadcast, the club's committee felt the centennial meeting would have a wide listener, appeal and was of sufficient importance to make the request worth while. When Mr Kinsella was approached and permission from the New Zealand Racing Conference was sought earlier this month to have the race commentaries broadcast, it was hoped that approval would be given for both days of the meeting. But the request for the broadcast of first-day commentaries was declined and approval for the second day was given with the understanding that the practice would not be continued at future meetings. The principal race next Monday is the £lOOO Oamaru Centennial Cup. Other important events on the programme will be the £5OO Ken Austin Handicap, for open sprinters, and the E H Aubrey Champion Hack Handicap, in which hack stayers will compete for a stake of £375.

Quartered At Oamaru

The Riccarton trainer, J. L. Barr, did not return home after the first day at Oamaru. He has set up temporary training quarters on the Oamaru racecourse for the nine horses he has competing at the centennial meeting The stable horseman, R. Baldwin, and the apprentices. R W. Donovan and B. D. Collins. are also quartered at Oamaru.

D. V. Pankhurst. from Invercargill, is another visiting trainer who will remain at Oamaru until after the meeting. He had Aquinas and Open Cheque engaged last Saturday, but neither managed to reach a place. Open Cheque was sixth after appearing to have every chance in the hack sprint, but Aquinas might have been unlucky not to have finished closer than fifth in the William Gardiner Handicap. As the field jumped from the sails Personify ducked in, colliding with and unbalancing Aquinas, which quickly drifted back to last. He was still at the tail of a

strung-out field starting the last five furlongs but put in a big run over the final stages and was only a head from fourth. Trainers’ Prize A prize valued at £lOO will be presented to the trainer of the most successful team at the Oamaru Jockey Club’s centennial meeting. At the end of the first day’s racing the Riccarton trainer, J. L Barr, led T. E. Pankhurst, of Invercargill, by one point Barr saddled seven runners on Saturday and earned six points for winning with Bodkin and Roman Maid. Pankhurst did not saddle a winner but Lostalon, which w-as second to Bodkin in the John Buckley Handicap, and Solus, the runner-up in the William Gardiner Handicap, earned two points each. Calestan's third in the George Bruce Hack Handicap brought Pankhurst’s tally to five. Change Of Stable Omaha will be prepared for Easter racing at the Canterbury Jockey Club’s

autumn meeting by the Riccarton trainer, A. J Williams. Mr C. I. Hobson’s Oman mare joined Williams's stable yesterday. Omaha, which was formerly trained by her owner, has not managed to win a race this season, but has some useful places on her record. The most recent ol those was a close second to Picright in the Christmas Handicap at Washdyke on December 27. She has only raced twice since. Omaha's last win was alsc at Washdyke. She was successful there in the Claremont Handicap at the South Canterbury Hunt meeting in July before competing at the Christchurch Hunt meeting where she was runner-up to Melodic in the Brabazon Handicap.