RACING Melodic To Compete In Waipa Turf Plate

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30316, 17 December 1963, Page 5

RACING Melodic To Compete In Waipa Turf Plate

Melodic will have his first race from R. T. Cotter’s Te Rapa stable in the Waipa Turf Plate at Te Awamutu next Saturday. This is a weight-for-age event for milers at the Waipa Racing Club’s summer meeting.

Melodic was sent north by his former trainer, I. McClure, last Friday evening. Although he was not accompanied by anyone from Riccarton on the trip to Hamilton he was cared for as far as Palmerston North by the Riccarton trainer, J. R. Shaw, who will campaign Boundless, Royal Mile and Tuborg in the south of the North Island during the holidays.

The decision to send Melodic north was left to McClure by the horse’s joint owners, Messrs F. R. Allen and M. A. McKenzie. “I could have kept Melodic here for holiday racing,” said McClure yesterday. “But as he was already liberally nominated for races at the Auckland meeting and it was my own idea that he be left in the north after competing at Ellerslie, I decided that to cary on with the original plans would probably be in the best interests of Melodic’s connexions.”

Although McClure’s holiday plans are a bit indefinite he is still hoping that Gay Filou will be fit to compete in the main staying handicaps on the South CanterburyNorth Otago circuit. Gay Filou has been given a fairly easy time since he injured the joint which caused his Auckland Cup campaign to be abandoned. The Le Filou gelding has shaken off the soreness but it will not be known whether he has made a complete recovery until he has been worked at speed again.

Had it not been for the proposed trip to Auckland McClure would have also had Caplin for Christmas racing.

But when it was decided after the New Zealand Cup meeting that the other members of the team would do their holiday racing in the north Caplin, which carries Mrs McClure’s colours, was turned out to spell. The Riccarton owner-

trainer, Mr J. F. Tutton, has made a change in plans for the holiday campaigns of Zinder and Champ. A proposed trip to Wingatui for these two has been abandoned. They will now begin holiday racing at Washdyke later this month.

Zinder did not shape at ail well in the Hororata Cup last Saturday. But his performance was probably affected when he pulled a plate on a hind leg during the running of the race.

Most of the Riccarton horses with engagements at the Dunedin Jockey Club’s Cup meeting will travel south tomorrow.

R. Preece, who originally intended taking five horses to Wingatui, will now take only Hullabaloo and the two-year-old Frolicsome. The members of the team which will be left at home include Misjudge, Bagful and Scuffle. Bagful jarred a joint and Scuffle was galloped on at Hororata last Saturday. Riccarton will have two other two-year-olds beside Frolicsome in the Champagne Stakes on Saturday. They are Polly’s Pal and How Swanky, both members of G. S. Barr’s team. Polly’s Pal will be R. J. Skelton’s mount and the Dunedin-owned How Swanky will be ridden by L. W. Hare. Barr will also take Polly Alonzo south to compete in hack races at the Dunedin meeting.

Magician and Zero will represent K. J. Thomson’s stable at Wingatui. The three-year-old colt will try to improve on a very good record this season in the James Hazlett Gold Cup on

Saturday and Zero is engaged in the Warrington Highweight.

P. H. Jones’ team at Wingatui will include Royal Leigh, Bodkin and Gay Toby. Royal Leigh, which will be one of D. N. Hadfield’s mounts, will be a rival for Magician in the James Hazlett Gold Cup. B. T. Jones will ride Bodkin in the Warrington High-weight but no rider has been engaged yet for Gay Toby, an acceptor for the Mornington Improvers’ Handicap. Picright will be Riccarton’s lone runner in the Dunedin Jockey Club Handicap, the first leg of Saturday’s T.A.B. double. This member of A. J. Williams’ team was the beaten favourite in the Hororata Cup last Saturday. Riccarton’s only runner in the second leg of the main double, the Flying Handicap, will be Seaend. She will be one of two horses D. M. Kerr will take south. The other will be Depending, an acceptor for the Trial Stakes. Blue Harken Leased Blue Harken has been leased by his Timaru owner, Mr A. T. Blair, to Messrs R. D. Molyneax and E. H. Lange, of Belfast. Racing horses is nothing new to Mr Molyneax—he raced Roman Maid with marked success a few seasons back —but as far as Mr Lange is concerned this will be his first venture as an owner. Blue Harken, which is now trained at Riccarton by J. L. Barr, will probably have his first race for his new owners at the South Canterbury meeting later this month.