RACING Pukeiti and Funny Way likely Oamaru winners

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32561, 22 March 1971, Page 9

RACING Pukeiti and Funny Way likely Oamaru winners

The Riccarton trainers, D. J. Thistoll and L. D. Barr, will campaign small but strong teams at Oamaru today.

They will saddle the rival candidates, Pukeiti (Thistoll) and Kurd Mahal in the Kakanui Hack Handicap, first leg of the on-course double.

Both have appealing form. Pukeiti won against the hack sprinters on the first day of the Oamaru meeting, and Kurd Mahal improved a patch of placed form with a second at Ashburton last Tuesday.

The Thistoll-trained Flower Girl and the Barr-trained sprinter, Funny Way, will form an appealing combination for form followers in today’s T.A.B. double, which will be on the Teachers Handicap and the Great Easter Trial. Flower Girl’s chances will be best served if there is a strong pace throughout the distance of one mile and a quarter and 138 yards. The engagement of E. J. Didham for Atomic Flight

will ensure very heavy backing for this Southland-owned and trained five-year-old.

Didham teamed successfully with Atomic Flight in the Gore Cup last month, and in the meantime Mr H. M. Tweedie’s consistent performer has raced twice for as many seconds. If a strenuous middle distance race at Ashburton last week has not taken the edge off his keenness Funny Way

should be one of the top contenders in the second leg, the Great Easter Trial. He will be ridden by the successful stable apprentice, G. R. Lee, who will be able to claim an allowance, which will bring the chestnut down close in the weights to those on . the minimum. Funny Way won over seven furlongs at Wingatui last month, that coming af-

ter a third over the same distance in a good field at Riccarton.

One of the strongest winning chances in other races on the programme should be the two-year-old, Glen Lyon. This close relation of the champion, Redcraze, and the good stayer, Red Siren, cost Mr and Mrs A. G. Wigley $2200 at the Waikato yearling sales last autumn meeting but she is shaping as if she will make a good return for that outlay. Her last two starts have produced two thirds, one of them behind Kenny Day and Attentive in the South Island Futurity Stakes at Oamaru last Saturday week. The Waikaura Champion Hack Handicap, the sixth race on today’s card, will take on additional interest as a race chosen for a patrons’ sweepstake. For 20 cents an entry patrons will attempt to pick the first four place-getters in the correct order.