FROM STUD AND STABLE Poor Odds Offered On Melbourne Double

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32320, 11 June 1970, Page 4

FROM STUD AND STABLE Poor Odds Offered On Melbourne Double

The first of Australia’s big spring cup races is still four months away, the ink on the entry forms is hardly dry, and handicaps have not been declared. But anyone hoping for realistic odds at this early stage of the game will be disappointed.

One of the leading Melbourne bookmakers has II Tempo as equal favourite with the Cummings - trained Tavel for the Melbourne Cup while he has installed Tavel’s stablemate, Gay Poss, as outright favourite for the Caulfield Cup.

The odds offering on a Gay Poss-Ii Tempo double are only 160/1. Of the New Zealand-trained Caulfield Cup entrants, Johnny Cash and Piko are given top billing, on the third line of favourtism, and anyone caring to couple them with II Tempo could expect only 250/1 Anne Gable, Bardall, and Not Again are on the next

line of favourtism for the Caulfield Cup and are at 330/1 with II Tempo. The Riccar ton trained Meldie with II Tempo is at 500/1, and the Every Post-Il Tempo combina tion is at 800/1. Not Too Old “Bart” Cummings has scoffed at a suggestion made in Australia that II Tempo will, at eight years, be too old to be a force to reckon with in the Melbourne Cup on November 3 Cummings looked to Wingatui's Great Sensation for his example of a horse able to hold its form at a high peak when well into the veteran stage. He recalled, correctly, that Great Sensation had won the Wellington Cup three times in succession but did the veteran one slight disservice in saying he had won his third cup at nine years instead of ten. Cummings has entered 21 horses for the Melbourne Cup and it is a tribute to his great record of preparing three winners of the race that he has horses on the first four lines of favouritism. Discussing the strength and potential of his contingent Cummings said: “The stan-

dard of my entry is not as I good as it has been, but then the standard of the opposi- ( tion may not be up to par ( either.” ( Far Better Cummings believes that s Light Fingers and Galilee, as t three-year-olds, were far 1 better horses than either Gay f Poss or Tavel. <

He thinks Tavel would have to improve “out of sight" between now. and his four-year-old season if he is to measure up to the class of Light Fingers and Galilee at the <ame age. “He is just a good stayer,” Jummings said. “Gay Poss has to improve also but 1 think she is more brilliant han Tavel.” Cummings mentioned King ledes as a good type. “The Press” racing editor .aw this Alcimedes gelding ■vin at Flemington last year md he did not have that explosive burst of speed that made Galilee so good, but he looked as if he would stay ’all day." Cummings’s entry of 21 for the Melbourne Cup and 25 for the Caulfield Cup is exceeded only by T. J. Smith’s entry of 30 for the Caulfield race and 24 for the Melbourne Cup. On the same day Smith entered 53 horses for the Golden Slipper, and several others for the A.J.C. Epsom and Metropolitan handicaps. Smith employs a private secretary, and she had been working from 5 a.m. until late at night almost every day for a fortnight compiling the entries.