McCool-Warfare Picked For Riccarton Double

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30107, 16 April 1963, Page 5

McCool-Warfare Picked For Riccarton Double

McCool will probably be the popular fancy of a field of eight in the Dominion Handicap at Riccarton today. This race is the first leg of the double on the second day of the Canterbury Jockey Club’s autumn meeting.

McCool is top-weight with 8-13 and is up 121 b on his Great Autumn weight, but the distance is two furlongs shorter

Apart from McCool it is a field of newcomers.

Personify, the closest to McCool in the weights, and R. J. Skelton's mount, has very solid form at a mile and a quarter

The Personify-R J Skelton combination has been pretty formidable all the way through open class and it will have solid backing for a place at least. W. D. Skelton will ride Rhythm Rein, which has a long string of meritorious performances on record a-t Canterbury meetings, some times on firm tracks but more often when the ground is soft or heavy He has had one race since a summer spell and may be ready for a peak run on a track that should suit him.

On his best form Kastanea looks the best of the others He was a good third in the Oamaru Autumn Cup. but was taken out of the Great Autumn field perhaps because of the deterioration in the track. Apart from McCool, the

only last-start winner in the field is the Wingatui-trained Bador After some solid form in high-weights he beat some smart milers for a surprise win at Beaumont on April 6 Second Leg Warfare, which was just nosed away from victory by Vitamise in the Great Easter Handicap yesterday, looks fairly certain to run prominently again in the Templeton Handicap, the second leg of the double. Warfare has 8-13 and will be giving away much weight to all her rivals, but she is highly consistent and is tipped to complete a topweight’s double. One of Warfare’s strongest rivals will probably be the three-year-old Manana. At times he has shown glimpses of class up to a mile and a half, and was placed on a rain-affected track at the last Grand National meeting. There may be little to choose between half a dozen of the others. Cobble should be a light-weight’s chance on her second in the Warstep Stakes, and Paua could be a capable fresh runner at this distance.

The Frenchman and Grand Prix should be easily the best of the eight acceptors for the Kildare Hurdles. The Frenchman was twice second in as many starts at the Grand National meeting, and Grand Prix won in weaker class at the Dunedin autumn meeting.

The Autumn Nursery Han-

diicap, for two-year-olds, may provide another duel between Morris Francis and Castle Air, which were first and second in that order at the Banks Peninsula meeting at Riccarton. In the meantime Castle Air has finished third behind Boundless and Magician in the Champagne Stakes.