RACING Glamis Lad Should Be Match For Northerners

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32030, 3 July 1969, Page 4

RACING Glamis Lad Should Be Match For Northerners

Glamis Lad will be one of only two colour-bearers for the South Island in the Whyte Handicap at Trentham on Saturday. But numerical odds should be one of the least considerations for the Wellington Racing Club’s feature winter mile race.

Jay Ribbon won this race for the south a year ago and in Glamis Lad South Canterbury has a contender with even more attractive credentials on present-season form.

Mr K. G. McLaughlin’s Kurdistan gelding has won five races this season. Glamis Lad’s third victory in his spring campaign was in the Wellington Racing Club’s Wainui Handicap under 7-11, or 71b above the minimum.

Then he ran second to the brilliant Waikato mare, Honour Me, when carrying 8.5 in the Pearce Handicap, one mile, on the final day of the Wellington spring meeting.

Glamis Lad has 8-8 in the Whyte Handicap and is just as close to the minimum as he was when he ran second in the Pearce Handicap. Yet in the meantime he has won twice more besides running a good second to the brilliant young Meldie over seven furlongs at Ashburton. Glamis Lad took up his winning record again this year when be struck tracks to his liking at the Dunedin winter meeting. There he won. the mile Miss World Handicap with 8-7 by more than three lengths, and showed that the step up to a middle distance was easy for him by winning the Birthday Handicap, Hf, under 84 by a length and a half. Firm, Yet Won In his latest race at Ashburton he carried 9-8 at a distance short of his best and on a track firmer than those that have shown him to best advantage. Glamis Lad has 61b less than the top-weight, Royal Theme, which was runner-up to Jay Ribbon last year when attempting to concede 201 b. Royal Theme, a strong Arragon gelding from E. Ropiha’s stable, showed nothing in the hands of a lad in two starts at the Hawke’s Bay winter meeting, but he was making a fresh start after a spell, and he should be thoroughly fitted for a hard mile on Saturday. Domodossola was a well beaten second behind Colorado Boy over a mile and a half at Trentham on May 3, but that was after a win by a wide margin over Ilf at the Hawke's Bay winter meeting. Strong Finisher For ability at a mile he might be shaded by the Matamata mare, Ruakiwi Lass. She found seven fur-

long! too short for her at Tauranga on June 21, but came fast and late from well back&for a good second unThe iart time she raced over the Whyte Handicap distance Ruakiwi Lui won impressively. That waa lit the Waikato Racing Club’a Flying Mile Handicap, In which She carried 84 and justified favouritism In a strong field. She had earned favouritism for the mile by winning at seven furlongs, again u favourite, on the second day of the Waikato meeting. The Gisborne-trained Golden Summit would have commanded respect in a winter programme at Trenham without a winning background because of some doughty performances on earlier visits. Now, as the impressive winner of the two main middle-distance events at the Hawke’s Bay winter meeting he commands a high place of favour.

Tosb, from Hastings, and Aeolian, from Riccarton, ran

well enough at the Hawke's Bay winter meeting, and earlier, to attract attention. Tosh won at this distance at the Great Northern meeting. Last season he showed his mastery of heavy and holding ground at Trentham in winning both races, for hack milers at the Wellington May meeting. Derby Winner Lord Cheval brought off a surprise win in the Wellington Derby on his last appearance at Trentham. Two recent starts, one at Ellerslie, the other at Avondale, showed

little, but they were at shorter sprint distances and each time the Proud Look colt was well beaten for early speed.

It is unusual to find a Derby winner in a winter race like the Whyte Handicap in the season of the classic victory, but Lord Cheval showed his mastery of soft footing early in the season when he won stylishly against hacks at Ellerslie.

Free Pass was an expensive failure at the Gnat Northern meeting. A sprint victory at Masterton held out high hopes for a successful Ellerslie campaign by last year's Winter Cup winner but he

did not run within a stone of his best.

A fifth over seven furlongs at Hastings last Saturday was a better run, but Kalott came up with a superb performance in that race, finishing at a great rate for third. Pony Mudlark Cambridge Fair will be the “potiy” of the field, but Bst 21b gives this mudlark every chance to triumph if he has the ability to run a mile right out. He has been kept to shorter distances on earlier, winter campaigns at Trentham.

Two years ago Cambridge Fair won the Stewards* Handicap, six furlongs, then ran third in the Onslow. Last year he won both races. His last two starts have produced a win and a fourth. His victory was over seven furlongs at Ellerslie on June 7. He was fourth over six furlongs at Avondale last Bijali, from Stratford, and Sunwarm, from Takaaini, are two recent winners in the field, and in running sixth at Hastings last week Tudor Lad gave every sign of a return to the form that carried him to three, successive wins, two of them at Trentham, at this time last year.