‘WORTH COMING FOR,' SAYS PIGGOT Sailing Home beats off Game by a neck

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32848, 23 February 1972, Page 8

‘WORTH COMING FOR,' SAYS PIGGOT Sailing Home beats off Game by a neck

(From J. J. BOYLE, Racing Editor o "The Press.") HAMILTON. Sailing Home will go into retirement—probably after her Easter racing at Ellerslie. Miss J. Edgar-Jones made this announcement minutes after her great stayer won the New Zealand International Invitation Stakes at Te Rapa yesterday.

In the hands of the English champion jockey, Lester Piggott, Sailing Home showed her champion qualities to win the Waikato Racing Club’s feature race.

Sailing Home showed machine-like power and boundless courage in a sustained duel with the brilliant Hastings veteran Game. Until 50 yards from the post, it looked as if it would be a very clcse thing, but Sailing Home’s superior stamina paid ofi at the end. There was a neck in it at the post, and Sailing Home was slowly widening that margin. The race could not have had a better result.

Sailing Home and Piggott were the great favourites with everyone, and the combination was cheered before and after the race. Something of a withdrawn character with an ice-cold temperament—Piggott was visibly affected by the warmth of the reception. “It was worth coming for," said the brilliant English rider who did not find it a new experience in riding a winner at his first attempt away from his homeland. He had a similar experience on a New York track some years ago.

Piggott intrigued the crowd when he mounted. He rides so short that his knees are well above the saddle, which means that he is unable to kick his mounts out in the style of the New Zealanders and the Australians.

Towering Being tall, besides, ht looked a towering figure as he cantered Sailing Home to the start. Then he dismounted and walked her around quietly behind the starting gate. Under instructions from Miss Edgar-Jones, Piggott got Sailing Home in the leading line early. Then settled her beautifully balanced in the wake of the pace-making game.

Piggott had been assured of the Riccarton mare’s ability to mount a sustained challenge. so he placed the Dogger Bank mare within threequarters of a length of Game five furlongs out. Game met Sailing Home’s challenge in the straight in a manner that captured the admiration of the leading Melbourne jockey, R. Higgins. Topsy and Young Ida helped to rout the Auckland and Waikato representatives by filling the next two places. Topsy was scrambling on a rain-affected track near the three furlongs, but when she struck better footing in the straight she went to the post strongly—only about a length from the winner.

Young Ida was a battling fourth just ahead of her stable-mate. Silver Knight, which appeared to be slightly sore after the race. A delighted Miss EdgarJones said after that Piggott had ridden the mare just as she had wished.

In her birdcage speech after receiving a gold cup worth $5OO and a second trophy for her part as trainer of the winner, Miss EdgarJones said her confidence had been unbounded from the moment she learned that Sailing Home would be ridden by “the world’s champion jockey.”

Confidence

“She raced well all the way,” Piggott told reporters. “I was frightened of the horse in front (Game) some distance out. and I decided to

have a go at him as early as I did because Roy Higgins was trying to slow us down. I could see that Game still had a strong run in him when we drew alongside, but I was confident a furlong out that we would win.”

After such a result Piggott said he was keen to return to New Zealand and ride again. “The hospitality has been tremendous,” he said. “I can see now why the New Zealand racing crowds are so fond of a horse like Game,” Higgins said after the race.

“This fellow put in a

tremendous run. Fifty yards from the post I was still hopeful of winning, but in the last 20 yards Sailing Home was too strong." G. Edge said the turning point of the race for Topsy came near the three furlongs where the Otaki-trained mare "paddled” for a few strides on some tricky footing. “When we got to better ground near the furlong she finished like a rocket,” Edge said. “It was a first-class run.” ‘Plodding’ “A good run for a filly in a field of that strength,” said the Melbourne light-weight jockey W. A. Smith after riding the New Zealand Oaks winner Young Ida into fourth place. “She felt as if she had a good run in her before the turn, but was plodding in the straight.” The Sydney jockey N. Voight was not confident of Suttle’s chances six furlongs out. “She felt good for a start, but she struck different footing near the six and that was practically the end of her.”

The Wellington Derby winner, Llanantnony, scrambled and faltered three furlongs out on the rain-affected track.

“He was hopeless on that kind of ground, and I knew a long way from home that there would be no joy in it for me,” said Llananthony’s Wingatui jockey, E. J. Didham.

R. B. Marsh, the rider of Evenstead, said he could not have been happier with the run his mount enjoyed. “But he just wasn’t up to improving in the run home,” he said. Said A. Lister, who rode Laurel Oaks: “I was a million to one chance six furlongs out, and the odds lengthened the further we went. He was sore in the near fore where he had been troubled by coms a couple of weeks ago.” Well beaten W. D. Skelton (Simon de Montfort) said the Wellington Cup winner “never went a stride; was never on the bit. In fact, I had to give him a couple of reminders as we left the straight with a round to go. He was beaten a long way from home.” The Queensland jockey, C. O’Neill, felt Kirrama was a chance until about half a mile out. He was instructed to ride the big four-year-old some way off the pace for a start, and he was pleased with the progress for a fair way, but when he asked the Takanini horse for something extra, there was only a flicker of a response. Kirrama finished eighth.