FROM STUD AND STABLE 13 YEARS SINCE STAYER WENT NORTH BY LAUNCH

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30388, 12 March 1964, Page 4

FROM STUD AND STABLE 13 YEARS SINCE STAYER WENT NORTH BY LAUNCH

Count Pedro’s win at Trentham last Saturday revived memories of highlights, and there were many of them, of a successful racing partnership of a few years ago. Count Pedro is owned by Mr G. A. Lang, of Wellington, and trained at Riccarton by Cecil Humphries.

Everything Count Pedro has done so far has suggested he will be useful as a stayer. And the connexions’ measuring stick on the chestnut’s ability will, doubtless, be Royal Tan, a big winner for Mr Lang and the Humphries stable in the late 1940’5. Royal Tan won a classic—the New Zealand Derby—and Count Pedro cannot emulate him there. But Mr Lang’s outstanding winner achieved much of his fame for his rugged qualities as a stayer. He won a Wellington Cup, and he might have won the Caulfield Cup the same year if he had dodged trouble near the end of that race. Royal Tan’s bad luck that day probably let Lincoln in for his win in the hands of Noel Eastwood, a son of the wife of Royal Tan’s trainer. Thirteen years ago this month Royal Tan’s connexions were faced with a problem. The Royal Chief gelding was one of 17 South Island ■ horses with engagements on the first day of the Wellington autumn meeting, but space in the inter-island ferries was not available because of the waterfront strike. Being a Wellingtonian, Mr Lang was very keen to see Royal Tan get to Trentham for the race. He investigated the possibility of flying the horse to Wellington, but there was no suitable aircraft available. However, the problem was solved for him when a friend who owned a 45ft fishing launch said it would be possible to bring Royal Tan across Cook Strait On the Tuesday before the races Humphries travelled to Picton with Royal Tan and the Thompson Handicap candidate. Te Kooti. As there was only one sling available for the trip on the Wednesday, Te Kooti was left behind, and Royal Tan was taken from Picton to Paremata in 4 hours 40

minutes. The trip was reasonably smooth, but no such luck the next day when the launch returned to take Te Kooti across. The big Defaulter gelding was unsettled by the trip, and did not run on the first day of the meeting. However, the phlegmatic Royal Tan had taken everything in his stride, galloped at Trentham on the morning after his arrival, and because his trip had excited so much public interest it was not surprising that he was sent out favourite for the Autumn Handicap. Favouritism was his share of it; he could finish only sixth, but the winner, Akbar, showed the strength of that field when, a few months later, he ran second in Delta's Melbourne Cup. Gulf Stream and Robin Dayes have been two other good winners for Mr Lang to be. developed in the Humphries stable. Gulf Stream had his trainer up when he won the Winter Cup at Riccarton in 1944. Three seasons later, when Royal Tan was coming to the fore, Mr Lang was having much success with another good handicap horse. Longsword. Longsword won against the

best in the mud, and also beat the best in spring and summer races. The distance of the Pearce Handicap was a mile and a half when he won that race at Trentham in the spring of 1945. A season later he won the Parliamentary and the Winter Oats on the same course. Mr Lang could have been attracted to Longsword on breeding. The sire was Lang Bian. St. Leger Hopes Zinder broke a run of “outs” by South Island horses when he won the New Zealand St. Leger for Mr D. W. J. Gould and the Tomkinson stable last autumn. Numerically, the odds were heavily against Zinder, the only South Islander in the field, but the northerners were right out of the race at the end, the best of them being beaten by nine lengths. All going well, the South Island, and Riccarton, will have two runners in this year’s New Zealand St. Leger, which will be one of the attractions on the second day of the Wellington autumn meeting on Saturday. They are Boundless, winner of the Gloaming Stakes, run under Derby conditions at the Wellington Cup meeting; and Valuate, which has been lightly campaigned since his New Zealand Derby third last November. Valuate showed great potential at the start of the season while the tracks were soft. The ground was easy for the New Zealand Derby, in which he finished ahead of Boundless, but hard tracks later affected his action and performance. C. C. McCarthy. who trains Valuate. would not find it a new exnerience to saddle a New Zealand St Leger winner. He won this classic in 1952 with Dalrav not long before he took Mr Cyril Neville’s grand colt to Australia. In Valuate. the South Island has a representative with a stronger chance than his latest race form would represent now that a hard track at Trentham seems out of the question.