TROTTING Samantha To Be Retired After Racing At Auckland

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30234, 12 September 1963, Page 5

TROTTING Samantha To Be Retired After Racing At Auckland

Samantha will be a notable absentee from this year’s New Zealand Cup field. The U. Scott mare will be retired to the stud after competing at the Auckland Trotting Club’s spring meeting which concludes next Saturday week.

Samantha will be mated with one of the Roydon Lodge Stud stallions; which one will not be decided until G. B. Noble has discussed the matter with Samantha’s Wellington owner, Mr R. A. McKenzie, later this week.

Samantha is one of four horses G. B. Noble will campaign at Auckland. The others are Adies Heather, Meadowmac and Garcon d’Or. They were sent north last Tuesday. Also on Tuesday night’s steamer express were Pohutukawa and theMataura staiblemiates. Belle Vue and Highland Step. If they all race up to their best form the South Island could have a good meeting all-round.

Samantha caime night to form from the start of the season. The only reason she has not won so far is that in each of her four races she has run up against the brilliant Cardigan Bay. She was the best of his rivals in the Lightning Handicap on the first day at Addington and again chased him home on the first night at Hutt Park in the Roydon Lodge Free-for-all. In her other two starts Samantha has been third. None of the field in the September Handicap this week are in the Cardigan Bay class. So it will surprise if Samantha cannot give the bulk of her rivals up to 24 yards start and a beating in the first leg of the Auckland club’s double. Near Peak Form Adios Heather is another approaching peak form. She performed exceptionally well to finish second to Vanderford after beihg forced to race three wide much of the way in tire Farewell Handicap on the final day at Addington. A reasonable ruh from the limit in the Glenfield Handicap on Saturday should assure her of some of the stake. Meadowmiac and Garcon d’Or will be bracketed rivals in the Grey Lynn Handicap, a sprint race with special conditions for three and four-year-olds. Meadowmac, a three-year-old, will start from the limit He made a big impression to win the Ti-maru Nursery Stakes the first time he raced and improved a sound record with placings in four of his other five starts last season. Meadowmac resumed in the Canterbury Challenge Stakes ■at Addington last month. He put another placing bn record by finishing fourth. Major Set-back When Garcon d’Or won three races in succession—at Washdyke, Alexandra Park and Hutt Park —in the summer of last season it seemed as if he was one which would just rush through the classes. But a split hoof proved a major set-back and his form tapered right off. When Garcon d’Or began his racing this season —in the- Four-year-old Stakes on the first day at Addington—it seemed that the hoof could have still been causing him bother for he

was always well back. His task from the 36-yiard mark on Saturday night could be even more difficult.

| Poihutakaiwa will probably i be the popular fancy for the | Royal Oak Handicap, the principal race for trotters. He failed to run on in the Christchurch Handicap on the first day at Addington but could not have been more impressive than when he beat a first-class field and came from the back to win the Winaer Handicap on ttie second day of the National meeting. Although Pohutukawa has met with mixed fortune at Alexandra Park his best on that course has been very good. In fact the only race he managed to win last season was the J. Rowe Memorial Cup at the Auckland summer meeting. Change Of Driver R. Young, who drove Pohutukawa in his races at Addington, will not be available this week. He has several horses engaged at Amberley. Belle Vue and Highland Step were taken north by the Southland reinsman K. Balloeh, who will drive them at Auckland. Belle Vue, which ended her campaign in Southland last season with a sequence of three winning runs, shaped like an early improver when

she made ground for fifth at the end of two miles in the H. E. Goggin Handicap at New Brighton last Saturday. That run should have brought her to peak for the United Handicap, the first race on Saturday’s programme. Highland Step also began a fresh campaign at New Brighton,. She showed up for a while in the B. J. McKenna Handicap but had to race wide and was well beaten at the end. That was her first race since February so she should improve. Highland Step struck a solid patch of form at this time last season. One of her two wins was in the Takanini Handicap, a race she will be contesting again this Saturday night. EQUALISATOR AT TRIALS The Christchurch Trotting Club will be operating a 5s Equallsator and a 5s Double at the Canterbury Trotting Owners’ and Breeders' Association’s Trials next Tuesday, September 17, at Addington. Light refreshments and a licensed booth will be provided at the course. A collection will be taken at the gate by St. John Ambulance. —Advt