FROM STUD AND STABLE Blank Cheque might be sold to Australia

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32677, 5 August 1971, Page 8

FROM STUD AND STABLE Blank Cheque might be sold to Australia

Negotiations for the sale of Blank Cheque have been reopened and the future of this good winner might be settled by the week-end.

Approaches have again been made to Blank Cheque’s owners, Messrs J. A. Wilson and J. C. McKerrow, on behalf of Australian interests.

The offer was an attractive one. “You would have to win a race like a Wellington Cup to justify turning down such a price,” Mr Wilson said yesterday.

Mr Wilson said he was not enthusiastic about taking the horse to Australia for any length of time and while the horse was under offer he felt it was pointless making any plans.

Blank Cheque showed marked gameness in winning the Brabazon Handicap last Saturday. He is an acceptor for the Winter Cup but a decision about a start might necessarily be a late one. The top Wingatui jockey, E. J. Didham, who won the Brabazon on Blank Cheque, will ride Meldie in the Winter Cup.

A two-year-old Halfbrother to Blank Cheque has joined the McKerrow team at

Washdyke td be prepared for a racing career. This youngster is by the successful young Otago stallion, Mellay. Blank Cheque's dam, Present Again, also has a yearling colt by Mellay, and

r she will be mated this season - with the Waikato-based Tric--1 trac. Trip off i The Hastings jockey, R. B. 1 Marsh, yesterday decided to

cancel his trip to Riccarton for Grand National Steeplechase day on learning that Harry’s Pal would not run in the Winter Cup. Harry’s Pal was one of the more interesting North Island horses in the field. He brought off a stable coup when “he won fresh up against the sprinters on the second day of the Wellington winter meeting, and held his form with a third on the final day.

With Triton as the spearhead, the northern representation in the Winter Cup still looks formidable. His Ayr, a runner for the Otaki stable of K. J. Thomson, arrived at Riccarton on Tuesday after a good trip. Thomson, who won the 1967 Winter Cup with Kalott, had not engaged a rider yesterday for His Ayr, but the mount may go to the Riccarton apprentice, R. J. McCann. The Awapuni - trained Locarno was scratched yesterday for the Trial Hurdles. Kurd Mahal drew badly in the Avonhead Handicap and has been withdrawn, allowing Between Times to reenter the field. Who Knows, one of the leading form contenders in the Avonhead Hack Handicap, is likely to be spelled after her campaign at Riccarton. She has shown her best form on soft and heavy tracks, and one of her rare weak runs was at Oamaru, where the ground was comparatively firm.