Trelay top chance

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32702, 3 September 1971, Page 1 (Supplement)

Trelay top chance

“The Press” Special Service DUNEDIN. The Wingatui trainer, H. A. Anderton, has elected to race Trelay in preference to Princess Mellay in the Tally Ho Handicap, the main flat event and first leg of the T.A.B. double at the Otago Hunt Meeting at Wingatui tomorrow. Trelay was under a cloud for a time after his two good second placings at Riccarton last month, but with most of his training confined to beach work he has made a complete recovery. Princess Mellay, which returned to winning form at Gore last week and which was to have started tomorrow, is now to be reserved for Ashburton next week.

Trelay will be better suited a mile in the Tally Ho Handicap and he is certain to start a firm favourite. His second to Triton in the Winter Cup and his second behind Origin in the August Handicap showed him to be right back to his top form of last season and with 8-7 he looks nicely weighted. He should get more opposition from Crunch, which has struck a solid patch of form. He found Princess Mellay much too good for him at Gore last week but he prejudiced his chance by pulling hard in the middle stages. He will be well suited by a mile. Red Carpet can usually be relied on to be close and he will be suited by a soft track, which he is certain to strike tomorrow. Auto Motor, which has run 11 successive placings, and the three-year-old, Tourie, which missed a start at Gore last week, have by far the strongest form for the second leg of the Taieri Hack Handicap. Auto Motor may fare best on a soft track but Tourie, a winner at his last start as a two-year-old and third in strong company at Riccarton at his only three-year-old appearance, should prove difficult to beat.