Rich Ellerslie Races To Visitors

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30948, 3 January 1966, Page 4

Rich Ellerslie Races To Visitors

Horses from outside the Auckland province left none of the rich prizes for the “locals” at Ellerslie on Saturday and earned about £15,000.

An hour and a half after Apa won the Auckland Cup, the versatile Taranaki mare, Maria Mitchell, won the £3OOO Railway Handicap in the hands of W. D. Skelton. Between those two races, which formed the T.A.B. double, the brilliant Awapuni youngster, Prince d’Amour, won the £2soo'Great Northern Foal Stakes. Maria Mitchell’s Railway Handicap win established her as a notable all-seasons performer.

She showed what she could do in the mud when she won the Whyte Handicap at Trentham in 1964. On Saturday the track was about as firm as it could be, and Maria Mitchell won with a fast gallop in front. Maria Mitchell drew No. 1, and Skelton had her clear in a few strides. Ridden right out she won by three-quarters of a length. A most unusual feature of the race was the dominance of the greys. The four greys in the field filled the first four places. Maria Mitchell was followed home by Silver Sunset, Pheroz Pride, and Prince Manu. The failure of Pheroz

Pride to stand the early pace could have cost her victory. She finished at a great rate for third, only a length and a quarter from the winner. FULLY TESTED Prince d’Amour showed a champion’s class and a champion’s gameness in winning the Great Northern Foal Stakes. The Awapuni-trained Bourbon Prince gelding had to run the race of his young life to preserve his unbeaten record. In this, his sixth victory for Mr N. Beder, he had only a nose to spare from Valiant Rebel, but all the honours were with the winner. He started nine wide, and R. W. Taylor had to ride him hard to get to the front and over to the inside before the half-mile. It was clear on the home turn that it would be a two-horse finish. Valiant Rebel, a winner earlier at the meeting, made a sustained bid to master the Awapuni champion, and he could have had a narrow lead just inside the furlong. But Prince d’Amour's class shone through in a torrid last 50 yards, and he won by a nose. A measure of the superiority of the winner and runner-up to the others was the margin of eight lengths to the third place-getter, Valient Knight. Reoffered was fourth and Gay Garden fifth. A great volume of off-course betting had Prince d’Amour showing a place dividend of 12s when betting opened on the course, so there was little interest shown by patrons. Mr Beder’s notable bargain —he cost sOOgns at the na-

tional yearling sales —paid £1 10s to win and £1 6s 6d for a place. He carried £9218 of the win pool of £16,939 and £3835 of the place pool of £18,524.