Baron's Craig Faultless

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30193, 26 July 1963, Page 4

Baron's Craig Faultless

Baron’s Craig had his first test over the steeplechase course at Riccarton yesterday, but shaped as if he had been jumping it all his life.

This season’s Waikato Steeplechase winner consistently out jumped Erewhon in a run over eight fences. It

was a faultless display except for a slight misjudgment at the carnage paddock brush, where he stood off and struck sharply, but without losing much headway. Two Sout h landers who are cousins rode the two North Island jumpers. ■ The amateur. K. Langford, who will ride Bayline in the Christchurch Hunt Club'S Homeby Steeples. rode Baron's Craig, and R. O. Cairns was on Erewhon. They started at the brush near the nine furlongs, and Baron's Craig immediately jumped clear.

Baron's Craig kept jumping to the front at each fence down the back straight, and his superiority was moot evident at the kennels double Erewhon drew up on the flat each time and was not overshadowed at cutts’s. where they finished. The only other jumper tried on the steeplechase course was Almanac. The amateur, I. Gliddon. was. bumped to the ground when this Westenra Cup candidate landed awkwardly over Cutts’s Taken back, and with only a short run, Almanac jumped the big fence safely, and was taken on at a stronger pace over the pirie-furlong brush the boards, and the kennels double. Dashing Run The dashing, but unsound, Hastings jumper, Musketeer, was the star of the jumping done on the trial steeplechase course. Ridden by R O. Cairns, he sped away from Kaseno (R. .Williams) straight away and finished in a run over five fences with a long lead.

Musketeer did not put a foot wrong, and if he is as sure of himself over the big fences on Saturday, he should be hard to beat in the Homeby Steeplechase. He has won over country at Ellerslie and Gisborne, but unsoundness has restricted h’- racing. Sir Totara (Cairns) did a safe round of the trial

steeplechase course, starting at the boards and finishing at the double. He won the Enfield Steeplechase at Riccarton on Grand National day a year ago, and has returned looking bright and fit for major cross-country races at this year’s carnival. He starts his present campaign in the Homeby Steeplechase. Trainer Up Dusky Prince, ridden by his Tauranga trainer, N Craig, also jumped a : round of the trial steeplechase course. He did not line up the first of the double property and only scrambled over, but he was in no real trouble. Super View (M. Walther) ran down the boards,/ the first fence of his round, but, did not go at all badly over the brush fences on the trial course. He is bracke'id with Almanac in the Westen ra Cup at the Christchurch Hunt meeting. Flockhart (Cairns) started a round of four hurdles with a quick, spectacular leap at the first flight and maintained a good standard of jumping to the end.

He has won. his last six races as a hurdler, the latest being the Hawke’s Bay Hurdles, and he will probably start favourite in the Grand National Hurdles pn Tuesday week. Like Baron’s Craig, Flockhart is trained at Awapuni by E. Temperton. Flockhart is probably Temperton’s best hurdler since Gay Fellow, the Grand National Hurdles winner in 1950. Hopeful (Laughton) jumped two hurdles at a fairly good pace. Unless there is- a lot of drying in the ground he will not run in the Longbeach Hack Hurdles,.