RACING Deserved Change Of Luck For Arbroath

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31335, 4 April 1967, Page 4

RACING Deserved Change Of Luck For Arbroath

Within a week of the brilliant Sydney Cup victory of his halfbrother, Galilee, the Waikato five-year-old, Arbroath, improved on a string of minor placings with a well-earned win in the Oliver Nicholson Handicap at Ellerslie.

Arbroath’s win in the first leg of the Auckland Racing Club’s TA.B. double ended a run of seven minor placings, in two of which he was beaten by a nose.

This latest win was Arbroath’s first since he took the Clifford Plate at Ellerslie on December 28. At his next attempt he failed in the Auckland Cup. But he followed up with a fourth, a fourth, a second, a third, a third, a second, and a fourth.

The first of his second placings was in the W. S. Spence Handicap at Ellerslie, Dolce Vita beating him by a nose. The next was at Te Rapa, where Disinee beat him by a nose in the Storey Memorial. Arbroat is by Chatsworth 11. He won at Ellerslie as a two-year-old and he has been a regular earner since for bis Cambridge owner, Mr N. R. Souter.

To win on Saturday he had to run the 11 furlongs in 2:15 4-5, four-fifths of a second outside the course record set by Arakhan in 1964. 61 Wins

W. D. Skelton increased his tally for the season to 61 wins with his three wins at Awapuni on Saturday. Skelton went close to riding the winners of the T.A.B. double. He won the second leg on Yoshiko and was second on Loofah in the Manawa*u Mile.

Yoshiko’s win put W. D.

Skelton within 10 of his brother, R. J. Skelton, and the Levin jockey is in such good form at present that the outcome of the premiership is by no means a foregone conclusion. Last Count is to be returned to his Matamata owner, Mr J. H. Lindsay, soon.

The six-year-old Count Rendered gelding has been raced on lease by Mr R. W. Mackay, of Christchurch, who won six races with him. The lease expires at the end of this month. There was a touch of the unusual about Last Count’s

winning record this season. He has had two wins this season, and he Won both races on the one day, at Kurow on January 7. Those successes were in the Kurow Cup and the Domett High-weight. Last Count is a younger brother of On Account, which was raced on lease by J. L. Barr from Mr Lindsay with fair success.

Mixed Fortune

Last Saturday was a day of mixed fortune for the Hawera trainer, W. McEwan. Early on Saturday morn-

ing McEwan’s star filly, Miss Mya was kicked just below the eye when exercising at the track. McEwan decided immediately to scratch her from the Pioneer Handicap. But a misunderstanding arose and it turned out that Turf Commander was taken out of the Maiden Plate field. After this mistake was discovered Miss Mya was scratched from her engagement.

The McEwan luck changed later in the day when Alkira won the Manawatu Mile. Her stablemate, Surf Boy, ran fourth in the same event.