Cranbrook Should Test Top Weight

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30543, 11 September 1964, Page 4

Cranbrook Should Test Top Weight

Magician and Cranbrook, winners of the open sprint races at the Ashburton club’s two-day spring meeting last year, should be two of the stronger contenders for honours in the Spring Handicap on that course tomorrow.

This race is the second leg of the T.A.B. double and it has attracted a stronger band of form runners than the first leg, the Ashburton Cup. Magician, the top-weight with 9-0, was within inches of winning first up for the season at the first Ashburton spring meeting. Seaend, which had raced at the Grand National meeting, lasted to beat Magician by a nose over six furlongs, but that race and the work done since should give Magician a definite edge this time. Magician was a length and a half better than Cranbrook over six furlongs when they met for the first time at Ashburton last season. They were separated by only half a pound in that race, and there is a pound between them tomorrow. Five Wins Cranbrook finished his four-year-old racing with five wins on his record and started the present season promisingly with a third in the Selwyn Handicap and a fourth in the August Handicap at the Grand National meeting. He carried 8-13 each time, and

his fourth against the milers suggests he has strengthened with a bit of age on him. Newbrook, a stablemate of Magician, was only two noses from Seaend over six furlongs last Saturday week after being checked twice, once early in the race and again at about half way. Like Magician, he was making a fresh start for the season, and that race can have done him nothing but good. Solid Record Seaend, in her present form, has bright prospects of finishing in the first four. She has a solid record at Ashburton, and seven furlongs could be her best distance. Approval, Mhor, Manana, and Gold View are fast sprinters at this distance, and any one of them could come out on top. Manana lacks early speed, but if he has anything like a good run from the three furlongs he might be the best of them all. Canadiana should be the best on the minimum and none will take her chance lightly if the track becomes soft or heavy.