RACING Lei Could Have Run Last Race

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31247, 20 December 1966, Page 6

RACING Lei Could Have Run Last Race

Lei, which brilliantly won the Manawatu Challenge Stakes at Awapuni last Saturday, has probably run her last race. She has already been scratched from all further engagements at the Manawatu meeting.

In the birdcage after Saturday’s race Lei’s owner, Mr I. A. R. Macrae, said he might retire the mare in the near future. In a telephone conversation with the Palmerston North correspondent of “The Press” the next day he said it was almost certain she would not race again.

Next season Lei will be mated with the highly-priced stallion Oncidium. Mr Macrae, who is a shareholder in the syndicate which owns this English-bred sire, intends to have Lei let down quietly and take her back soon to graze on his Masterton property. Lei will go into retirement with an outstanding record. She has won from six furlongs to a mile and a quarter in all types of going. Altogether she has had 59 starts for 16 wins and 20 placings worth £13,300 in stakes. Of that total £IBOO was earned in Australia. Because of Lei’s breeding potential Mr Macrae must be very pleased now that he turned down an Australian offer of £IO,OOO for her a few years ago.

But there was a time when Mr Macrae, who today is highly successful, would have thought twice about turning down such an offer. When he bred Defaulter and Expanse some years ago he knew both horses were good but could not afford to take the risk of racing either. So two of the country’s greatest gallopers slipped through his fingers.

No doubt Mr Macrae will be hoping that Lei produces something approaching their calibre. But he will probably be satisfied if she produces something as good as herself.

Expensive Placing Parlez d’Amour probably gained the most expensive placing of his short career at the Methven Racing Club’s meeting on Saturday. Messrs P. Bennett and S. T. Edwards’s High Rank gelding finished third in the Manawatu Challenge Stakes—a notable performance for a three-year-old which only recently cleared maiden class. For the sake of the £145 he earned for beating some wellperformed open-class rivals in Saturday’s weight-for-age event Parlez d’Amour is going to have to pay heavily weight-wise in future hack races.

In the Apprentices’ Hack Handicap last Saturday Mr R. N. Bluett, the Manawatu Racing Club’s handicapper, had

given the gelding 31b above the 8-0 minimum—a fair rating for a horse with two hack sprint placings on his record. However, Mr Bluett revised his opinion about Parlez d’Amour’s ability when he issued his second-day weights yesterday. Mr Bluett had given Parlez d’Amour top-weight of 9-6 271 b above the minimum in the Improvers’ Handicap next Saturday and top-weight of 9-7—281 b above the minimum —in the Milton Hack Handicap. The connexions of Parlez d’Amour will, no doubt, long remember the day their horse beat such good performers as Apa, a Brisbane and Auckland Cup winner, and Baloo, My Call and Roman Consul, which have all shown outstanding open class form. To Be Spelled

Sabell, which was entered for the Dunedin and Timaru Cups, will not accompany other members of J. L. Barr’s team on the holiday circuit. Mr L. Franklin’s Sabaean gelding will have a short spell. After winning the Geraldine Cup and the Beehive Brandy Handicap—in which he beat the New Zealand Cup winner Royal Bid—at Rangiora Sabell’s form fell away. His most recent failure was in the Gordon’s Gin Handicap at Riccarton last Saturday week.

If all goes well Sabell will be brought back into work for autumn racing. Sabell’s place in the team has been taken by Conway Stewart. This two-year-old

Fountainhead gelding has been “farmed” out by his part-owner and former trainer, G. S. Barr, who has as many as he can manage in training at present. The other owner of Conway Stewart is Mr D. Leslie, for whom G. S. Barr trains Danny Kaye.