Oaks For Gaelic Spirit

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32220, 12 February 1970, Page 4

Oaks For Gaelic Spirit

tht Australian Racing Correspondent of “The Press”) SYDNEY Any trainer with a three* yeer-eld filly of staying strains in his care will have a special mission at Easter. ! Beyond doubt the owners of. such horses will want a start In the Oaks, with the hope of winning the right to meet Queen Elizabeth, who will be at Randwick that day and will decorate

I the Oaks winner and the winner , of the Queen Elizabeth Stakes. this year to carry $20,000 be-, cause of the occasion. Mr Norman Williamson owner of Jason Lodge Stud, who races Gaelic Spirit in partnership .with his wife and his mother-in-law. makes no bones about I it. He has told the Ally’s trainer. Theo Green, that it is the one race he wants with • this top-ranking New Zealandi bred Ally But for Daryl s Joy and Wood • Court Inn, Gaelic Spirit would have an outstanding record, and even with defeats she rules l as Australia’s best prospect of winning the classic. “Bart’ Cummings has now made his declaration with the filly. Gay Poss, which on Sat-j iurday made a smart return toi form by winning over six fur-: longs at Sandown. It was her, second start since resuming from a spell, after a light cam-j paign in the spring. Cummings has every reason! ito believe he can win yet an-1 other Oaks, even if his hopes; [rest on a filly as yet not in I the same class as previous i ’Oaks winners. Light Fingers; and Lowland, which were! trained by him. He had every: reason to buy Gay Poss for his!; .patrons for he had had a sue-1' ■ jcessful experience with thei. strain. ■' Gay Poss is b.v Le Filou from ,tSweet Time a mare bred very 1 iclosely in the fashion of Ziema < i and Rote of Summer. Ziema i ■ won the South Australian Derby' ' and was second to his stable-'i ..mate. Light Fingers in a Mel-h bourne Cup. Rose of Summer!; won the South Australian Oaks.i the Port Adelaide Cup and“ other races of note in her 10' wins over distances up to ©net: mile seven furlongs. ■ There is another Oaks winner • 1 close up in the family relations' ! —Najmf which succeeded in the : Great Northern Oaks in New Zealand

In fact, the family history ts studded with classic and major .handicap winners in the century that it has been in New Zealand and Australia. Sweet Time, the dam of Gay Poss, is by Summertime (imp.) from Sweet Wren, the half-sister by Able Seaman (imp.) tc Rose of Summer and to Najmi. the dam of Ziema.

i Sweet Time has had only two foals to race. Gay Poss and Floodlight, another winner tn 1 Melbourne Sweet Wren won I eight races over distances up to 11 furlongs, but Sweet Time ? 1 was a non-winaer . and so was f Sweet Wren’s damt Meer Mere However. Meer Rose ’earned • her niche in the family record Jby producing seven winners i among her 10 foals. One of her >mon-winners, Lady Letty. became dam of Quite Able, a proilific winner in New Zealand. Meer Rose was a daughter of ian English horse, Vermeer i(imp.), whose name is not often i 1 encountered in pedigrees even I though his pedigree suggests it ij should be. for he was by SolI'ario from a mare by Chaucer. Gay Poss was brought into 1 racing as a late two-year-old and won twice at that age. the ! second success being over one 'mile at Flemington, where she 'took charge at the two furlongs ■jand struggled on to win narrowly.

After an absence of about 10 weeks she won at the ,end of August a fillies’ race over six furlongs at Moonee Valley, and next start won at one mile at Caulfield, puttihg up such a good performance that she was a very strong fancy for the Edward Manifold Stakes at Flemington.

In this race at one mile, and ■racing at level weights, she was fourth behind Gaelic Spirit. /Wood Court Inn and Collette, t which were to share up the i : biggest slice of the stakes for 'fillies at the spring meetings ■at Caulfield and Flemington