RACING PALISADE PICKED TO WIN GOLD CUP

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31211, 8 November 1966, Page 5

RACING PALISADE PICKED TO WIN GOLD CUP

Wingatui Champion Will Be Tomorrow’s Attraction

The reappearance of the champion, Palisade, at Riccarton assures the Canterbury Jockey Club of an outstanding attraction for the second day of its cup meeting tomorrow.

Palisade is the top-weight with 9-0 in the Canterbury Gold Cup, the first leg of the T.A.B. double.

This race last year was the starting point for Palisade’s spectacular run of seven victories extending from November until the autumn.

He beat the North Island’s best in handicap races at Trentham and in the Awapuni Gold Cup and Ormond Gold Cup, and it is a pity that Australians this year were not presented with a better image of a New Zealand “champion” than Terrific, which was no match for the remarkable Wingatui veteran in both the Awapuni and Hastings weight-for-age races. Won Fresh Palisade started his nine-year-old racing with a brilliant win over six furlongs at the Wyndham spring meeting. He came from last on the home turn to beat Captain’s Command narrowly.

Captain’s Command showed there was nothing run-of-the-mill about that form when he ran third in the Stewards’ Handicap at Riccarton on Saturday. Baloo is another veteran going after a second Canterbury Gold Cup victory, and a strongly-finishing fifth in the Riccarton Handicap on

Saturday held promise of a bold run from him tomorrow.

Baloo was in distinguished company when he won this race two years ago. He beat Blyton by a neck, and Palisade was two lengths further back third. Up to a mile and a half at least, Court Belle is in the top flight of handicap performers, and will give Southland strong interest in the race. Strong Fotin A second formidable runner for Gore stables will be Summer Magic, whose spring form has been of a high standard.

Summer Magic was withdrawn from the New Zealand Cup on Saturday morning, and his latest race was the Harcourt Stakes over the Canterbury Gold Cup distance at Trentham. He came from last in the final half-mile and ran the winner Raidan very close. That, even more than his third in the Wellington Handicap on the first day of the meeting, established the class of this southern four-year-old when he gets firm tracks to suit.

Raidan will oppose Summer

Magic again tomorrow, and with 7-4 he could be the hardest for Palisade to beat.

Game Colt

Raidan is not very big and there were others in the Derby better equipped physically to carry 8-10. But the Stratford colt showed he lacked neither class nor courage in a sustained battle with Fair Account, and he went under by only a neck. Sail Away, the beaten favourite in the 1965 Melbourne Cup, redeemed himself later last season with some solid runs over middle distances in New Zealand races. He has started his six-year-old racing very promisingly. Nothing finished better in the Harcourt Stakes, in which he was third, half a head and a length from the winner. This time he will meet Summer Magic 41b better and Raidan 111 b better, so if figures have the most important bearing Sail Away should have bright prospects for a place. Riccarton’s only runner will be Manana, which found two miles too far in the New Zealand Cup, but has a strong record over middle distances this year.

Manana won the Wellington Handicap three starts back, that following two successive wins at a mile and a quarter. Second Leg Feiramor looks equal to winning the Jockey Club Handicap, second leg of the double.

At this distance, one mile, he was third behind Rohe Potae and Surf Boy in the Pearce Handicap on the third day of the Wellington spring meeting. Trentham form is invariably valuable at Riccarton and it will take on greater stature if Kintyre starts here in preference to the Canterbury Gold Cup. Kintyre won the Awatea Handicap on the second day of the Wellington spring meeting. He missed a place in the Pearce Handicap, in which Tara’s Pride was another failure. But the strength of the northern form shone through again when Tara’s Pride ran Bellbridge close in the Riccarton Handicap on Saturday. Tara’s Pride might be the hardest for Feiramor to beat tomorrow, but Pharasal has come into reckoning with a strongly-finishing second in the Stewards’ Handicap on Saturday.