Strong Northern Team To Race At Hastings

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29932, 20 September 1962, Page 4

Strong Northern Team To Race At Hastings

"The Press” Special Service

AUCKLAND, September 19. The form of Fountainhead and Stipulate and the manner in which Fedele and two other northern two-year-olds acquit themselves will be of particular interest at Hastings on Saturday.

Stipulate and Fountainhead are in toe T.A.B. double races and the younger horses in the Hastings Stakes. Stipulate has only lately resumed racing, after a let-up during the winter. Fountainhead has not started since he finished unplaced in the June Stakes at Randwick on June 2. He is a big horse, which may not be at his best.

Stipulate should be getting near form. A five-year-old from Takanini Stipulate ended last season with a sixth in the Oliver Nicholson Handicap, 11 furlongs, at Ellerslie, on April 28. In a sprint at Avondale on September 1 and another on September 8 he was not very prominent. He will race a mile and a quarter on Saturday, in the Spring Handicap, and that suits him better than a sprint. Stipulate has 7-12. 31b less than he carried in the Oliver Nicholson Handicap, and 161 b less than he would be required to carry at weight-for-age. The weight Fountainhead was given for the second leg of the double, the Members’ Handicap, is exactly that which he carried in the June Stakes—9-3. Eighteen months before, with the same weight, he ran a New Zealand record of 1:84 for six furlongs in the Telegraph Handicap at Trantham. Two days later he won .with 9-9 over the same course.

Won in Australia Between toe autumn last year and last winter Fountainhead had six starts in Australia. His best race was his first: he won over six furlongs at Canterbury (Sydney), with 9-2. Fountainhead has attracted keen interest since being speeded up again in his work, and on toe odd occasions his trainer, G. W. B. Greene, has asked for real pace he has shown that at seven years he is still a very fine galloper Fontura, a half-brother of Fountainhead and another of Greene’s team, is one of the Auckland and Waikato candidates in the Hastings Stakes. Jne one. besides Fedele, ■s In The Blue. Fedele, with SUpulate, is trained by C. M. Jillings and In The Blue comes from N. Crawford's stable at Matamata.

The Hastings Stakes, over half a mile, is a long-established event at the Hawke’s Bav sprtng meeting, having been run since 1939. That year the winner was Kindergarten. Few in the meantime have been as good- Perhaps the most notable were Commanding, which toJjXMT)’ 0 aDd UP and Com’Fedele is toe only one of the 17 acceptors in toe Hastings Stake* which has raced in the event; he has started twice for a first and a fourth. Under the set-u'eight conditions on Saturday he has the same weight—“■“rtr 8 ® the other colts and gelding* and Sib more than the h;**es That makes him well placed.

Smart Beginner Fedele is a fast (tarter, and he may be very hard to beat, even though he has No. 12 at toe start.

* < P od man * months, has attracted attention at Takanini with his brilliant jumping of the standard ln « hurdles. With his close third to Yars and So Wealthy j 1 *. J^ aercu ]ast Saturday taken into account as well, he has a

very good chance in the Hollycombe Hack Hurdles.

Gershwin's opponents seem very moderate Their ages range from five years to nine, and none recently has seemed near form in open class

The best other chance from the north seems to be held by Paye Gold in the Gold Trail Stakes, even though she will have to contend with Silver Pelt. The Gold Trail Stakes is a handicap for toree-year-old fillies over seven furlongs, with a maximum weight of 9-0. That is the amount given Silver Pelt, and Paye Gold has 7-12. Two starts back Paye Gold beat all except Court Raid over six furlongs in hack class at Ellerslie on August 26. Since then she ha* finished fifth in the Avondale Guineas, after making toe pace through holding ground. From No. 3 on Saturday, she seems bound to run very prominently. Paye Gold is from D. J. Riordan's stable at Te Awamutu. She is a chestnut by Syntax from Lover Girl.