CHAMPION THRIVING

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30109, 18 April 1963, Page 5

CHAMPION THRIVING

Tali, With An Appetite “The Press’’ Special Service MATAMATA, April 17. Final Command seems to have thrived since his brilliant victory in the Easter Handicap last Saturday. His trainer, M. B. Abbot, of Tauranga, said that the gelding had eaten everything put before him since his return home. Final Command does not carry much flesh—“no lumber to put strain on his legs” as his trainer puts it —but he certainly looks bright and has not lightened much with the race.

Abbot feels that Final Command will not really come to his full strength until next year. “He is just a fraction under 17 hands, a very tall horse with an appetite to match,” he says. “He is still a trifle green and became really upset when he got into a traffic jam on the way from Pukekohe. But he had two races in the traffic to the track and I said to Garry Edge when I legged him up: ‘Look after him today, he has had a hard trip in.’

“The good sweat might have done him good because his skin and coat have cleaned and brightened since the race,” he said. At close quarters Final Command’s tremendous heart room and girth are apparent. In a birdcage he seems to have a relatively narrow head, but the big white blaze on his face gives an illusion because he measures a full hand-span between the eyes and actually had a wide forehead.

Final Commend is slightly forward at the knees, said by some to be. a fault, but his trainer commented: "You rarely see a horse like that unsound. They do not put strain on the tendons like a calf-kneed horse.’’ Abbot is one of the old school of trainers and at 73 has a lot of experience. “The natural methods are best.” he commented. “Time and patience. Keep their stomach’s and coats right by correct feeding. I try to avoid purgatives and chemicals for the kidneys. The less of that sort of thing the better. Horses are like people in that respect. If they are healthy they do not need a lot of chemicals.”