RACING KUMAI PICKED FOR FIRST LEG

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30110, 19 April 1963, Page 4

RACING KUMAI PICKED FOR FIRST LEG

Good Heavy Track Performer

Kumai and Windvale Lad, two of the South Island’s top winter performers last season, will probably have ground to their liking in the Sockbum Handicap at Riccarton tomorrow. Hopes for a drier trade than on the first and second days of the Canterbury Jockey Club’s autumn meeting faded when there were heavy showers last evening.

’ Kumai and Wind- ; vale Lad are newcom- • era at the meeting. • Both showed glimpses lof their best form Lwith minor platings at .Riverton last weekend. Personify, the Dominion Handicap winner on Tuesday, end Desert Chief, the Great Autumn Handicap second, are at the top of the handicap with 9-0. They are 21b above McCool, which slammed his rivals in the Great Autumn Handicap but was soundly beaten by Personify over a mile and a quarter on Tuesday.

Riverton form can be expected to have some bearing. Success eluded both Kumai and Windvale Lad at the southern meeting at

Easter, but both ran into places, and shaped as if they would be improved with their racing there. Windvale Lad and Kumai were the star performers on the flat at the Wellington winter meeting last year, and favoured by track conditions they may play the dominating roles in the finish. Kumai was third and Windvale Lad fourth in the Riverton Cup. and Kumai was third again in the Tweedie Memorial on the second day. Zinder will be receiving weight from Personify, Desert Chief, McCool, Kumai, Windvale Lad, and Picright, but the three-year-old might find the wet going hard to manage. He has 7-12 and had 21b less in the Great Autumn. McCool had 8-1 in the Great Autumn and has gone up 111 b McCool carries weight well, but he hastened his defeat in the Dominion Handicap on

the second day of the meeting by pulling hard from the start. Yankinville, Royal Estate, and Royal Order may be the pick of the field for the waitham Handicap, the second leg of the double. It is a big field, but it has a long tail now that ShangriLa and The Wanderer have been withdrawn to run instead in the Challenge Stakes. Yankinville was a close third and Royal Estate a fair fourth in the Great Easter Handicap. Royal Order lost any chance she had when she stumbled and nearly came down about halfway through the race.

Double will probably be favourite for the Challenge Stakes. This will be her only start at the meeting, also her first start since her rather unlucky second to Key over a mile at the Royal Riccarton meeting in February.