FROM STUD AND STABLE Royal Flemington Will Be Rich In Pageantry

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30062, 21 February 1963, Page 4

FROM STUD AND STABLE Royal Flemington Will Be Rich In Pageantry

The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh yvill be at Flemington in Melbourne on Saturday to attena a special race meeting conducted in their honour.

This will be the only race meeting the Royal visitors will patronise on their Australian tour.

The Melbourne facing clubs have altered their traditional autumn meetings «o that foe Queen and Prince Philip can See as fine a day's racing aS Australia can provide. Normally the Victoria Amateur Turf Club has foe privilege of opening foe autumn carnival wifo its twoday meeting at Caulfield; Oaklelgh Plate day first, followed a week later by Futurity Stakes day. As the programme of autumn racing in Melbourne was originally drawn Up, February 23 would have been Oakleigh Plate day. When the Royal Tour was announced, the Victoria Racing Club asked the Victoria Amateur Turf Club to put its meeting back a week, and this request was granted readily.

As a result the programme the Royal visitors will see at Flemington is a combination of what wduld have been the first day of the Victoria Racing Club four-day autumn meeting and the special races Staged for the occasion.

Feature Races The outstanding feature of Royal Day will be foe Queen’s Cup, a handicap of a mile and a half wifo prise money of £5OOO. The real tHrill for the owner of the winning horse will be the presentation of foe Queen’s own trophy by Her Majesty. It is a very lovely example of foe silversmith's aft, ana takes the form of a King Charles I porringer complete with lid. Second in importance only to foe Queen’s Cup on Royal Day wiU be the Duke of Edinburgh Stakes, a mite face at standard weight-for-age with prize money of £4OOO and trophies valued at £5O fof foe Winning owner, trainer, and jockey. Another very interesting race on foe Royal Day programme is foe Lightning Stakes, a five furlongs Sprint at standard weight-for-age Wifo prite money bf £9OOO. This Should attract the speediest horses in foe land. The Royal Family has a special tore of steeptechasing and foe Queen will tin(toufrtedly take a keen interest ift foe appropriMtelynatned Windsor Steeplechase

run over two miles and half a furlong, Wifo prize money of £2OOO. As is appropriate to such an important occasion, Royal Day at Flemington will be rich in pageantry. Her Majesty’a love ot Highland music is well known, and 3he will undoubtedly enjoy the inspiring music to be provided by 250 pipers of eight of Victoria’s most accomplished Highland bands, and the stirring performance that can be expected ftoffi foe full ceremonial band of the Southern Command which comprises 40 players. An hour before the Royal visitors arrive, the Southern Command Band will give a display of manoeuvres and playing as it parades along the straight. It will then retire to a specially-prepared bandstand on foe lawn. Half an hour before foe Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh arrive, the highland bands will proceed along the straight in massed formation. The bands wiU be drawn Up iri ceremonial, order to greet the visitors Who will be escorted by 21 mounted troopers. The Royal car will drive slowly along the full length of the straight, turn and come back to foe reception point, to be welcomed tar Mr Ross Grey Smith, chairman of foe Victoria Racing Club. _ The Highland Bands will then play Scotland’s Royal Greetings, "Scotland The Brave.” Her Majesty will mount foe rostrum at the top of the committee reserve, and face the Southern Command Band as it plays foe Royal Anthem while foe Royal Standard is broken. m foe interval before foe running of foe Queen’s Cup, the highland bends WiU march along foe straight, stopping at three points to give a display of ceremonial manoeuvres and music. At her Majesty’* departure, foe highland bands Will again play "Scotland The Brave.” As foe Royal car proceeds at walking pare down foe stewWM, the highland band* will ptay the heart-warming "Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot."

“Golden Month”

Royal Day at Flemington wil! be the springboard of a golden month of racing in Melbourne. Beginning on February 23 and continuing for tour weeks until March M, foe mertopohtan race dubs in Melbourne wiM distribute at tenet £llsfloo in prire money; cootideraHy more if several races ate divided.

This treasure trove will attrart the best borera, especially Ml MeUmwne an. joys an almost unbroken rttecetrton of sunny autumn days at this time of the year. On the Saturday fofoxwtog Itoyrt Day, the Victoria Amateur Turf aub wa begin Ks very popular auttann meettog at Cttulfield. During foe Wo fays et fate meeting, foe rtub wtil rare a mMmran «t £ll,OOO with Ao race worth tert (MB £l6OO. Ufa ta fa marerae at £M9O on foe adverttaed prise money far ®e rerteapotrtihg meeting lart yefa, fad reflects the bene-1 fafai effort foe Totefastor Agency Board fit fa*rih< on V RJWJI Slmwt The OauMrfd meeting fatare pertieutariy for aprtntere. Gn foe fiffltt fay foe mai n Mtreettoa M foe £OOOO G*fc-

leigih Plate. over five furlongs and a haM. The Sixtysixth Futurity Stakes, seven furlongs, £4600, is the highlight of the second day. On Monday, March 11,. Labour Day Hriddey in Melbourne, the Victoria Raring Club autumn carnival will resume, and on that day the outstanding event will be the £6350 Australian Cup. There are two important changes in the Australian Cup this year. The distance of this old-established race has been reduced from two miles, one furlong and a half to 14 furlongs, and the Cup now precedes its companion race in the big autumn double, the Newmarket Handicap, instead at coming after it M in former years. The Australian Cup should attract a good quality field this year, as it used to do in the days when Melbourne Cup winners like The Parisian and Spearfelt won this race. Owners of good distance performers should regard the Gup as the ideal Stepping stone to the £Bl5O Queen Elizabeth Stakes on the following Saturday, which is also Newmarket Handicap day. The autumn classic for two-year-olds is the £5OOO Sires’ Produce Stakes which wild be run on the Lab: tut Day holiday, and for three-year-olds, the St. Leger Stakes, worth £4OOO to be