Strong N.Z. Record In Caulfield Cup

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31504, 19 October 1967, Page 4

Strong N.Z. Record In Caulfield Cup

They raced for two hundred sovereigns in the first Caulfield Cup, won by Newminster, in 1879.

A prize of $A40,800 is offered for this year’s Caulfield Cup, which will be run on the Victoria Amateur Turf Club’s beautiful course in Melbourne on Saturday.

The V.A.T.C., second only to the Victoria Racing Club in influence and importance, started by staging the Caulfield Cup in the autumn, but switched it to the spring in 1881, and ever since the cups double has accounted for tremendous interest in Australian racing. New Zealand-breds have had spectacular success in the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups in the last 20 years. They have won five of the last seven Caulfield Cups, and there have been few if any more illustrious winners of the race than Galilee, which won last year with 8-7, then went on to win the Melbourne Cup with 8-13 and, a few months later, the Sydney Cup under 9-7. Galilee contributed much to the extraordinary training record of J. B. (Bart) Cummings, of Adelaide, who has travelled to New Zealand each year in search of his future stayers.

Cummings has Fulmen and Red Handed in the Caulfield Cup this year. Fulmen won the Adelaide and Brisbane Cups last season to give the Cummings stable a spectacular grand slam in the big cup races in the Commonwealth. Fulmen is by Le Filou

from Dulcie and is a brother of Fileur, which was the Caulfield Cup favourite until he failed in the Caulfield Guineas last Saturday. Cummings’s second Caulfield Cup runner is Red Handed, a five-year-old chestnut gelding, also by Le Filou.

Last week Red Handed ran second to the brilliant Tobin Bronze in the Toorak Handicap, a race won last year by Galilee. The Toorak Handicap distance is a mile, which is considered short of Red Handed's best. Cummings’s almost freakish ability to have his stayers right at the top of their form for the richest races could pay off handsomely this time with Red Handed, which should have been sharpened by his race against the milers last week. Terrific and Stellar Belle, the two New Zealand-owned horses in the Caulfield Cup field, have bright chances on their best form. But many have taken a set against Terrific because he has not yet won a race in Australia. There is doubtful value in holding such a view because Terrific showed he was close to his best when he ran Stellar Belle close in the Turnbull Stakes at Flemington.

Whatever the Australians might think about it, a win by Terrific on Saturday would be immensely popular in New Zealand, if a humbling experience for those who feel that in the proper scheme of things the New Zealandbreds should at least be Australian-trained and ridden.

Stellar Belle has exactly weight-for-age with 8-9, so weight should not prevent her winning. But it is to be wondered if she will show to the same advantage in a sizeable, close-running handicap field at Caulfield as she would in small weight-for-age fields. Stellar Belle is expected to come in for stronger backing if it is a wet Caulfield Cup day.

I. Tucker, the Takanini trainer of Stellar Belle, won the Caulfield-Melbourne Cups double in 1954 with Rising Fast.

A year before Rising Fast won his first of two Caulfield Cups the South Island had a victory with My Hero, which was owned by the late Mr 0. F. Watson, of Christchurch, and ridden by Noel Eastwood. This win gave Eastwood a 100 per cent record in two attempts in the Caulfield Cup. In 1949 the tiny New Zealand horseman won the race on the Australian-owned Lincoln. New Zealand-bred horses in the Caulfield Cup field are:— FULMEN, b g syrs by Le’ Filou —Dulcie. TERRIFIC, b h syrs by Gigantic—Our Love. FUTURE, br g 7yrs by Targui—Festive Air.

STELLA BELLE, blk m 4yrs by Summertime —Belle Rosa. GARCON, b g 4yrs by Rawalpindi ll—Festive Air. GENERAL COMMAND, br g 4yrs b yAgricola—Sunbride. RED HANDED, ch g syrs by Le Filou—Red Might. PHARAON, br h 4yrs by Pharamond —First Nibble. BELLITION, b m syrs by Bellborough—Addition. SUNHAVEN, b h 4yrs by Summertime—Eugenic. FILEUR, br g ?yrs by Le Filou—Dulcie. ROMAN CONSUL, br g 3yrs by Agricola—Jinks. FOREST LASS, b m syrs by Comte de GrasseGenevieve. Rehandicap Kenrick. winner of the Ansett Ana Handicap at Hawera on Tuesday, has been rehandicapped 31b to 7-6 for the New Zealand Cup on the first day of the Canterbury Jockey Club's New Zealand Cup meeting at Riccarton on November ,4.