TROTTING Too Many Horses Eligible For Cup

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30880, 13 October 1965, Page 5

TROTTING Too Many Horses Eligible For Cup

The desire of some owners and trainers to be represented in the £7OOO New Zealand Cup at Addington Raceway on Tuesday, November 9, will probably be frustrated unless the connexions of some out-of-form horses are prepared to withdraw them.

At the moment it appears that the New Zealand Metropolitan Trotting Club will be left with a field numbering more than the safety limit of 16.

The position could be further aggravated next week-end when it will be possible for one horse to qualify at each of the Forbury Park and Addington Raceway meetings. In addition, it will be possible for at least two horses to earn a 2min lOsec distance ranking at the Auckland meeting on October 23 and 25.

At present the 20 horses available for entry in the New Zealand Cup, listed in order of handicap, are: Anarca Direct, Avante, Gareon d’Or, Garry Dillon, Gay Robin, Great Adios, Idaho, Jacobite, King Hal, Lochgair, Orbiter, Pancho Boy, Robin Dundee, Van Rebeck It: Dandy Briar, Gay Reel 6: Jay Ar, Tactile 12: Cairnbrae 24: Lordship 42. The other horses listed on 2min lOsec have either been retired or shipped overseas.

Master Alan and Waitaki Hanover are assessed at 2min 9sec. Master Alan is unlikely to be ready for the cup, while the connexions of Waitaki Hanover have announced that they are going to reserve their horse for the InterDominion championship series at Harold Park. If, as seems likely, the programme committee of the Metropolitan club has to reduce the field when withdrawals close on Friday, October 29, great difficulty will be experienced in deciding on those horses not allowed to start.

Dandy Briar is the only horse in the list of 20 not to have started at a totalisator meeting this season. He has been entered for occasional races, but has been withdrawn each time. He has not been entered for the Hannon Memorial Handicap at Oamaru on October 25, so his cup entry, too. seems unlikely. Most of the others will be racing either at Forbury Park on Saturday, Auckland on October 23 and 25, or Oamaru on October 25. Important Form Form shown at these meetings could have a bearing on the ultimate selection of the cup field. However, most of the horses will be racing over sprint distances and in the cup thev will have to master a searching two miles. Sprint form in those circumstances has limited value: but then the programme committee will have little else to guide them. At this stage the committee has adopted no set policy regarding eliminations in the cup. but a decision will no doubt be made after entries for the race close tomorrow week. In the official programme. “the committee reserves the right to select the field.” That condition is all-embrac. ing and to all appearances it makes the task of reducing the field a simple one. But this year there is such a wealth of form that the task is an unenviable one. Whatever it does, the committee will come in for criticism. That will be nothing new. In past years horses eliminated from the cup have often shown splendid form later at the meeting. Cup class has been strengthened to an unusual degree at early spring meetings this season. Five horses have graduated to a 2min lOsec assessment for a distance and a surprisingly high number have graduated to the verge of cup class. Those to qualify for the cup so far have been Avante, Gay Robin. Idaho, Lochgair, and Pancho Boy.

It is interesting to note that

Avante, Gay Robin and Idaho have graduated to cup class with wins under invitation conditions. All three horses won against the strongest possible opposition and fully justify starts in the cup race. Some of the better-perform-ed horses of last season have been a shade disappointing so far this term, although all have shown encouraging form at times and have raced well enough to entitle them to a start in the big November two-miler.

If, as seems probable at this stage, more than 20 horses are eligible for the cup, the club is going to depend largely on the goodwill of owners to withdraw horses not considered quite at their peak Such a decision will be a difficult one for any owner, as it is the ambition of all breeders and trainers to get a starter in the cup. This year’s selection will be made more difficult by the club’s decision to close withdrawals on October 29 before the running of the New Zealand Cup trials at Addington Raceway on November 2, one week before the big race. However, if owners and trainers make an honest assessment of their horses before withdrawals, the position might not be as serious as seems likely at this stage. Better Luck “The Press’’ Special Service AUCKLAND. The Auckland trainer and reinsman. P. T. Wolfenden, had a change of luck, the first for the new season, at Te Awamutu on Saturday when three of his team, Edette, General and Bosun were winners. He also drove Nurse Brigade to win the Rochdale Handicap.