Cretan Should Easily Win Matai Steeplechase

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30487, 8 July 1964, Page 4

Cretan Should Easily Win Matai Steeplechase

(From Our Own Reporter)

WELLINGTON, July 7.

Cretan should easily outpace the others in the £l5OO Matai Steeplechase, one of the major races on the second day of the Wellington Winter meeting at Trentham tomorrow.

The distance is two miles and a half and the dashing grey from Te Puke should win this one safely if he can be kept on to

his fences. ‘ . R. A. Jenkins, who replaces A. K. Lawrence as Cretan’s rider, will be taking fine care he has the Shikari gelding well out on

his fences, eliminating the risk of a run-off which almost certainly cost the horse victory in the Wellington Steeplechase on Saturday.

The Matai Steeplechase will be only Cretan’s third start as a ’chaser, and a win here would almost certainly make him a favourite for the Grand National Steeplechase. He has 9-10 and is four pounds below Yeti, winner of his last three races over country, and a jumper's flat at Awapuni. Yeti won the Hawke’s Bay Steeplechase with 9-4, beating No Offence, at his last start.

He beat Cretan in the Collinson Jumper’s Flat at Awapuni at his previous start and before that he carried off the honours in the Wanganui Steeples—Solitude was third and the Grandstand Steeples over the same course. Yeti has been bothered by soreness since his Hastings victory, and his withdrawal from the Wellington Steeples field took much interest out of the race. Could Be Better Baron’s Craig may be better able to handle the conditions than the dashing Hast-

ings jumper, Musketeer. Musketeer beat Baron’s Craig by five lengths in the Hastings Steeplechase on June 27, hut the latter ran a pretty fair race, making a second run after hitting one fence hard. Baron’s Craig, a Waikato Steeples winner earlier in his career, will be ridden by J. H. Hely, who won this race last year on Golden Dreamer. Most of the others have been racing pretty moderately but there is another good race left in Lochwood, the Wellington Steeples fourth, though it might not be at this distance. Rider Spent Lochwood lost third to Braemar only in the last few strides of the Wellington Steeples and it seemed he would have secured that placing quite safely if P. K. Cathro had been able to ride him out. Cathro finished the race in a state of near collapse, quite unable to give his mount any assistance, and one of the

other jockeys had • to ride alongside and help Cathro to pull the horse up near the mile barrier. B. L. Hillis, Lochwood’s Takanini. trainer, said today that he will probably keep the veteran for the Riddiford Steeples on Saturday. Chef and To Reign, minor place-getters behind Harlech in the Trentham Hurdles on Saturday, should play dominating roles in the £1250 Lambton Hurdles over the same distance tomorrow. Chef beat To Reign quite easily for second in the Trentham Hurdles, but To Reign faced this test on an interrupted programme after slipping a muscle a few weeks earlier, and he might be capable of more improvement. Very Good Form Mireusonta, a newcomer at the meeting, but a hurdler with very good form on a past campaign at Trentham, is the one most likely, perhaps, to take the value out of first-day form. He ran only a fair fifth in the Hawke’s Bay Hurdles. He stays well in bad ground, and- if his jumping is clean and quicker than it was in the Great Northern Hurdles, in which he finished fourth, he might be hard to beat.

Flockhart easily beat a weak field of ’chasers at Wanganui last week,--but he was last in the. ■Hawke’s Bay Hurdles the start before that. There will be an on-course double on the Juvenile Handicap and the Matai Steeples and the T.A.B. double is on the Parliimeptary and Members’ Handicaps. The Riccarton trainer, W. A. Welton, is hopeful of a start for Waverley in the Members,’ Handicap. The filling in Waverley’s leg. had gone down this mornifig.W. D. Skelton who was left without a ride in the Parliamentary ' Handicap when Titian was scratched yesterday will now ride King’s Cove. , . It is believed that Titian, the unplaced favourite in the Whyte Handicap, has since broken-down. B. F. Andrews has been engaged to ride Sweetnotes in the Parliamentary Handicap. The Washdyke jockey, A. Cowan, returned south at the week-end. C. I. Goss will ride the Wingatui hurdlers, Corduroy and Ravelston, in their engagements tomorrow. Ravelston was not 100 per cent fit yesterday after his fall in the Trentham Hurdles on Saturday, but fee had improved this morning, and a start for him seems likely. The track will be holding. The weather was fine today after mo-ning fog but there would have been little drying.