RACING AWAPUNI GOLD CUP TO ROYAL DUTY

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30711, 29 March 1965, Page 4

RACING AWAPUNI GOLD CUP TO ROYAL DUTY

Plans For Easter Campaign At Riccarton

The brilliant Royal Duty will do his Easter racing at Riccar-

This was announced after he outclassed his rivals on a very heavy track in the Awapuni Gold Gup on the second day of the Manawatu Racing Club’s autumn meeting on Saturday.

Royal Duty, the New Zealand Derby winner last season, started his four-year-old racing with a second in the Winter Cup. He won a sprint event in die North Island before he was taken to Australia for spring racing.

Royal Duty was placed twice at weight-for-age in Melbourne, but was unable to run within a stone of his best form in the Caulfield Cup because he had been getting down on his heels. His autumn record since he resumed after a spell has been one of steady progress. He ran Palisade to half a head in the Wattie Presentation Handicap on the first day of the meeting. Bogged Down Under the weight-for-age scale, his chance of turning the tables on Palisade in the Awapuni Gold Cup looked hopeless, but the big Wingatui gelding got bogged down in the ground and only his gameness carried him past Tatua into second place near the end. “Very few horses can really handle that kind of ground and Palisade and Llanmai are two that can’t,” commented their Wingatui trainer, D. P. Wilson, on Saturday. Llanmai, the each-way favourite, had finished a moderate fourth in the Maurice Millar Mile Handicap earlier in the day. Palisade has been nominated for the Hawke’s Bay meeting, but will probably return south this week with Llanmai and Big Smoke. They have been entered for major races at Riccarton, and the Riverton Cup would be an alternative start for Big Smoke, winner of two races on the North Island campaign. Strong Fancy Tatua was an even-money favourite for the Awapuni Gold Cup, a race he won last year. He appeared likely to justify such confident backing, too, when he galloped easily into a clear lead just past the half mile, but L. N. McCutcheon, on Royal Duty, never allowed him to get far away. Tatua led around the home turn by a length from Royal Duty, and Palisade was struggling along in third position in a gap of six lengths. Well outside the furlong Royal Duty was clear and coasting. McCutcheon kept looking for Palisade, but had no cause for concern.

ed home one of the easiest winners of the race; his margin was five lengths. Tatua surrendered second to Palisade inside the last 50 yards. Sparkling Maid plodded home for fourth in a gap of six lengths, and Friendly Miss tired to fifth after leading to the half-mile. Sea Prince was so hopeless in the going that he dropped back beaten after disputing the lead when the race was only about half-way over. All-The-Way Win Le Plus, a smallish Oman gelding from Citril, once a top-class sprinter for the late F. A. Roberts, of Riccarton, survived a solid challenge from Kaupane in the Maurice Millar Handicap, which was the first leg of the T.A.B. double. Le Plus made all the running for this, his first win for 15 months, for his Wellington owner, Mr B. Wood. Le Plus gave D. Grubb of Wanganui, his first win since he took out a trainer’s licence. Le Plus ran to a short lead inside the first furlong. Kaupane was never far behind him, but had to take a wider course around the home turn, and still had to pick up about a length in the last furlong. There was only half a head in it, then six lengths to Mukupai, which made a run on the outside of Kaupane ■ on the home turn, but showed | signs of stress soon after straightening up. Llanmai was fourth, two lengths behind Mukupai, and just ahead of Summer Flight. J. R. Dowling gave up hope of winning on Llanmai after they went two furlongs. The chestnut was never handling, the ground. Second Leg Count Carmel and Outspan, taranaki-trained light-weights, dominated the finish of the Epsom Handicap, second leg of the T.A.B. double.

Outspan was the slightly faster finisher, but Count Carmel ran it out gamely for victory by a long neck. One of the features of the race was Arbelle’s big run for third about a length from the winner. She drifted at the start and was at least 12 lengths off the pace at the half-mile. Prince Hagen was tangled by the going. W. D. Skelton took the favourite very wide in search of better ground

around the home turn, but the three-year-old could make no headway from the furlong and finished fourth. He finished a length clear of Lei, which came to the end of a likely-looking run about a furlong and a half out.

Now trained at Masterton by A. Jenkins, Lei finished three lengths clear of her former stablemate, Baraboo, which was second to the straight, but could not fun out the distance in the conditions.

The Gigantic gelding coast-