Garcon Roux Beats Three-year-olds

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31921, 24 February 1969, Page 5

Garcon Roux Beats Three-year-olds

“The Press” Special Service 1i i WELLINGTON, j Garcon Roux trounced a top- I' line field of three-year-olds to I win the Cardigan Bay Stakes at Hutt Park on Saturday i; night. At the finish his winning margin was only a length, but it i was not the fact he won that < impressed, it was the way he • won. Perfectly driven by J. B. i Nobie. Garcon Roux did not ] have to do an ounce of extra i work. With two furlongs to run he ] was fourth, just two lengths i from the leader. Leroy. Within ] a furlong, he was on the outside of Leroy and Noble only had to | keep him going to win by a i length. i In the early part of the con- 1 test Garcon Roux had been i forced to race without a trail, but he soon got that from < Minipat and the rest was plain ; sailing. < It was Garcon Roux’s fourth 1 successive win, but more impor- f tant it placed him in New Zea- 1 land Cup class, and he is the <

‘ first horse to reach this mark las a three-year-old. i The field he beat on Saturday was not a poor one. Leroy.: i which finished second, had won jine N.Z. Derby. Gerrand. [Friendly Forbes, Blue Dawn. 'Loyal Adios and Minipat were I all winners. Leroy, although beaten, was far from disgraced. He was quickly into the lead and then slowed the field down. His driver, A. K. Holmes, allowed him to stretch out with three furlongs to run and in most instances he would probably have won. It was just unfortunate for Leroy that Garcon Roux was in the field. Gerrand was third on the fence right from the start and that was his position at the finish. He had every chance, but could not match the first two. The consistent Blue Dawn drifted to the rear of the main group early. She figured in a spectacular finish for fourth, taking that place bv a nose from Sandal Bay. A head back I Friendly Forbes and Loyal Adios! dead-heated for sixth.