RACING MIDDY PROBLEM HORSE IN SPRINT TODAY

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31239, 10 December 1966, Page 6

RACING MIDDY PROBLEM HORSE IN SPRINT TODAY

Middy, whose form last autumn established him as one of New Zealand’s topranking sprinters, could make latest form valueless in the H. A. Knight Memorial at Riccarton today.

Middy should have a firm track to suit him in the second leg of the Hororata Racing Club’s T.A.B. double.

Mr G. B. Thomson, owner-trainer of the brilliant four-year-old believes that a patchy track could have been responsible for an expensive last-start failure at Invercargill. Middy faces today's race with an unbeaten record over seven furlongs at Riccarton. He cut Canterbury’s best sprinters down to size in the autumn when he won the Great Easter and Waltham Handicaps. He was back at Riccarton for the New Zealand Cup meeting but after an unplaced

run in the Stewards’ Handicap, six furlongs, he was tried at a mile and a quarter in the Canterbury Gold Cup and at a mile in the Churchill Stakes. He was a good fourth in the Churchill Stakes, and it was a run that assured him of favouritism for his next start at Invercargill. Today’s race should show whether the condition of the track at Invercargill was his main stumbling block. Shipmate, the runner-up to Middy in both the Great Easter and Waltham Handicaps, will oppose the Mosgiel horse again today as part of what will be a popular bracket

Shipmate is bracketed with Pharasal, which was consistency itself in his campaign at the New Zealand Cup meeting, but had to settle for minor placings. Kalimera and Danny Kaye will be a formidable pair from G. S. Barr’s stable in the sprint field. They are stablemates of Seminole, the likely favourite for the first leg, the Gordon’s Gin Handicap. Millie Small, one of the double acceptors, was scratched yesterday from the Coalgate Hack Handicap and will run in the Sandown Hack Handicap. The Coalgate Hack is the second leg of the on-course double, the first leg being the high-weight. Gunga Din and Court might carry off this double for Riccarton stables.