RACING Pep Fancied In Main Race At Trentham

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32127, 24 October 1969, Page 4

RACING Pep Fancied In Main Race At Trentham

Pep, one of the fresh runners at the Wellington spring meeting, should be a strong contender in the Watkins Handicap at Trentham tomorrow.

If the young Haweratrained stayer wins or, at least runs well in the first leg of the Wellington Racing Club’s T.A.B. double it will almost certainly ensure him of a start in the first of the major two-mile races for the season—the New Zealand Cup at Riccarton next month.

Pep, last season's New Zealand Derby winner, has already left the impression that he will take high ranking as a four-year-old. The only bleak spot on a record which has been marked by consistency this season was his last-start eighth at the Egmont meeting last week. His five starts beforehand had yielded three seconds, a win and a fourth. Pep is one of five runners in the Watkins Handicap field. The others are Ima Kiwi and Red Pepper, which will represent the Auckland province, the Aristoc and Embassy, from the central districts.

Ima Kiwi, which, like Pep, is a well-performed four-year-old, might have the strongest backing of the other newcomers. This member of K. D. Campbell’s Takanini stable will be trying for his third successive win. He rounded off an impressive double against the intermediate milers at Ellerslie last week in the style of a horse which might find a mile and three furlongs well within his range.

Proud Chief might be

another strong contender from Takanini. He produced one of his best staying runs for second to Twitchit in last Saturday’s Wellington Handicap. Wellington Handicap form will have also proved valuable if Tardini, Escameno or Jetmate are Involved in the finish. Tardini, like Pround Chief, came from far back for bis third on the first day; Escameno wilted only slightly after leading into the last furlong of the mile and a half and Jetmate might have finished closer than fifth with a clearer run from the furlong. Jetmate will be bracketed with Noir Filou, which should be more at ease over this distance. The last New Zealand Cup winner was well

out of his ground all the way among the milers in the Wainui Handicap last week. The switch to middle-dis-tance racing again by Glamis Lad will also prove interesting. -His two winning runs before that failure in the Wainui Handicap last Saturday were both at a mile and a quarter. Udare and Practice, which were both well fancied but soundly beaten in the Wellington Handicap, might last out this distance a little better but a better chance among the Hawke’s Bay contenders might be Bluffing. His attempt at an all-the-way win among the milers In the Wainui Handicap was an exceptional performance. He could well make amends for that narrow defeat if more patiently handled this time.