RACING COURT BELLE WILL TEST PALISADE

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31030, 9 April 1966, Page 6

RACING COURT BELLE WILL TEST PALISADE

£3600 Feature Race At Riccarton On Monday

R. J. Skelton sprang one of the big surprises of the year in switching from Palisade to Court Belle as his mount in the £3600 George Adams Handicap at Riccarton on Monday.

But it would be nothing more than a minor surprise if Court Belle ended Palisade’s spectacular sequence of autumn victories. Court Belle is good in any conditions and better than most in this field on rain-affected tracks.

While no-one would like to see Palisade denied a chance to do justice to himself under the big weight of 10-3 Court Belle would supplant him in favour if the track happened to become soft or worse. It remains to be seen. too. If the replacement rider on Palisade “gets on" with Mr A. T. Ottrey’s bis Ruthless gelding as well as R. J. Skelton did in winning on him twice at Trentham and again In the Awapuni Gold Cup. Good Combination Court Belle has established that she is a lot better at a mile and a half than at two miles, and she has been successfully partnered bv R. J. Skelton in two good races over the shorter distance in the last year. A year ago they carried off the Great Autumn Handicap narrowly well from Royal Duty, which had beaten Palisade in the Awapuni Gold Cup beforehand. In January Court Belle won the Summer Handicap at Trentham on an easy track under S-5. None of her rivals could put her to the test in the last furlong. Cassarook. another runner for Southland, and an

acceptor for Monday’s race, ran third with 8-8. Court Belle had 8-13 when a close seventh in the Wellington Racing Club Handicap five days after her Summer Handicap victory. She has 8-10 on Monday, so has to give much weight to some of her rivals, though the shortage of light riders will mean that some on the 7-0 minimum will be carrying overweight. Placed At Trentham Like Court Belle, Bandon, is better at a mile and a half than at two miles, and the Awapuni-trained Jekyll gelding rates a sound chance on his second to Palisade in the President’s Handicap at Trentham last month. In the Chalmers Handicap a week earlier Sail Away had finished third behind Palisade and Grand Filou. Like the others, Sail Away was outclassed by Palisade in the President's Handicap, but he finished close to the fourth horse and his best form at a mile and a half gives him a strong place chance at least. “It would have been hard to pass such a race by with [7-12,” said Sail Away’s Woodville trainer, S. A. Brown, yesI terday. Brown said Sail Away had jwon about £2500 since his (spring campaign in Australia, 'and he considers that with

better luck the Tsaoko gelding would have won more races than he has done. One of those races could have been the Wall Memorial at the Waipukurau meeting last week. Sail Away had a shocking run in a packed field and finished fifth. Stablemates J. R. Dowling, who won the Metropolitan Handicap on Cassarook at Riccarton last November, is expected to ride Red Siren, a second runner for the powerful Winsloe stable Red Siren is certainly rightin form, but Cassarook has done much of his racing in stiffer class, and has appeared only once since the Wellington Cup meeting. Red Siren was unbeaten in two starts at the Oamaru autumn meeting. Royal Estate won at his only appearance there, and did so in the manner of a horse coming right back to his best form, which has been very good. In a field so strong in class the chances of the winner coming from the tail of the handicap look remote, but the Foxton-owned and trained Lucy Gray and her younger half-brother, Riccarton’s Even Chance, might not be out of it if stamina is to have an important bearing on the result.