Adelaide Series Heats Will Finish Tonight

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30058, 16 February 1963, Page 5

Adelaide Series Heats Will Finish Tonight

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

ADELAIDE, Feb. 15.

A highlight of Saturday’s final qualifying heats of the 1963 Inter-Dominion Championship at Wayville will be the meeting of the two unbeaten starts of the series, Cardigan Bay and Dusty Miller.

Interest will also centre on the clash of the secondstring New .Zealander, Waitaki Hanover, with Idle Raider, whose legion of admirers are still reeling from the drubbing administered to him by the New Zealand champion, Cardigan Bay, on Wednesday night. Already Cardigan Bay, Dusty Miller, Waitaki Hanover, and Idle Raider are assured of a start in the £A13,000 final on February 23.

Nevertheless they will be the big drawcards on Saturday.

Eleven horses have three points or more and there will be keen competition to consolidate positions by horses

already with some points to their credit and others yet to score.

The Local pacer. Smokey Eric, a New Zealand-bred four-year-old gelding by Smokey Hanover fromUstica, could prove the top pacer in Australia in 12 months’ time.

He should pick up additional, points in the first beat on Saturday night. The despised Victorian pacers-—rated in some quarters as unlikely to provide even one finalist—have been the surprise of the carnival. Young Judy will go close to winning the second heat. Cardigan Bay looks a norisk proposition in the third heat in spite of Dusty Miller's good form. Waitaki Hanover, improving with every race and a proved two-miler, will provide a gruelling test for Idle Raider in the final heat. There will be a lot of money to say he can emulate the feat of his former stablemate, Cardigan Bay, and defeat the brilliant New South Wales horse.