RACING Rider Hoping For Change Of Luck

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31586, 25 January 1968, Page 5

RACING Rider Hoping For Change Of Luck

(From Our Own Reporter) WELLINGTON. The leading jockey, R. J. Skelton, who has a great store of experience at Trentham, believes that the riding has never been as “tight” as it has been at the present Wellington Gup meeting.

Skelton feels that Fairfleet was the best of good things beaten in the Seventh Asian Racing Conference Handicap on Monday. He was unable to find a run for the favourite until he pulled her sharply away from the rails to make a belated bid on the outside very late in the race.

Usually in a staying race at Trentham you will get the run eventually. It might come as late as the furlong, but it usually comes anyway. Somehow it is different this year,” Skelton said yesterday.

The former South Island jockey is hoping for a change of fortune with Fairfleet in the Wellington Racing Club Handicap, the first leg of the T.A.B. double on the final day of the Trentham carnival. In Monday’s race. Fairfleet looked as if she would have a perfect rails run—but only until the field reached the

• home turn. Then the perfect ; rails run developed into some- • thing like a jockey's nightmare. In Saturday’s race Fairfleet will start from No. 19. This means she could be “parked” outside at least one and perhaps more of her rivals, but • it should at least have her in a position from which she can be moved. I Fairfleet has 8-8 and is 31b below the top-weight, Udare, which made a record-breaking gallop in winning the Asian Conference Handicap with 8-4 on Monday. Udare’s career seemed to have ended two years ago when he cracked a sesamoid bone, but he has been brought back to fashion a record which has given him high ranking among New Zealand stayers. He has won 12 races and 533.530, and, in the skilled hands of the Matamata trainer, L. W. Ford, he should improve that record. Cup Winner Bright Chief, winner of the Auckland Cup, and a gallant second to Loofah last Saturday when attempting to complete the tough cups double, is hardy and consistent, and with a week to recover from the two-mile race he should make another generous effort. Jen Hai commands respect for two sound runs at tne meeting. His fifth in the Wellington Cup was meritorious because he had lost ground at a vital stage of the race, mainly through the inexperience of his apprentice rider. When W. D. Skelton rode him on Monday the tough Tsaoko gelding finished doggedly for third in a head and head finish with Udare and Amie.

Point Duty failed to stay two miles in the Wellington Cup, but he has been a force at a mile and a half at Trentham in the past and will probably have a big following. Empire King was another

beaten by the cup distance, but he has won at a mile and a quarter and does not look the least of the chances. Baloo has mixed his form at times, but even at 10 years he still takes high ranking among New Zealand's middledistance performers. He won a Manawatu Cup with more weight than his 8-8 in Saturday’s race, and if he has average luck in the running—he often gets a fair way from the pace early—his rugged qualities should stand to him in the finish.

Sir John, a fair sixth in the corresponding race on Monday and an impressive winner at Avondale at his previous start, shapes as if he will be one of the best lightweights. Tara’s Pride’s close and unlucky fifth in the Anniversary Handicap last Saturday held out nothing but bright promise for the George Adams Handicap, the second leg of. the T.A.B. double. Tara’s Pride made a record gallop to win this race last year, when he carried 8-6. He is now eight, but there was nothing in his Anniversary Handicap run to suggest that his powers were fading. This time he has 8-1. He is a horse of stronger physique than the Anniversary winner Pell Mell, which will be attempting to master 9-6. Pell Mell may lack inches, but he is not short of gameness, and in his present form he is at least a place prospect. A mile in this company could set Barellan an all-too-formidable task, but Gene, a newcomer at the meeting from the Waikato, has entered reckoning with brilliant placed runs lately. He has the ability to run close to the pace, and Styx had to make a very fast gallop to beat him at a mile at the Franklin meeting last Saturday. Pheroz Pride Pheroz Pride ran Pell Mell close in the Anniversary Handicap, and on that performance has earned a high place of favour. She is a back runner and will need luck in the crowded field of milers, but there is no doubt of her present fitness and her finishing powers. Bywon and Miss Lynette are already winners at the meeting. Nausori, a three-year-old from B. L. Hillis's stable, supplies fresh interest and adds more quality to the field as winner of the corresponding mile race at the Auckland Cup meeting, after a Great Northern Derby second.

Another form runner which will be making a first appearance at the meeting is Carls-

berg, a winner in style over six furlongs at Marton last time out. Carlsberg was third behind Tara’s Pride and Loofah last year. Cobbler Lane, the surprise winner of the Metropolitan Handicap, seven furlongs, on Monday, will find this class stronger but respect must be shown for any runner from L. W. Ford’s stable being campaigned at Trentham. Ford seldom brings horses to Trentham without doing well, and he had a notable triumph by carrying off a rich double with Udare and Cobbler Lane last Monday.