RACING Busy day ahead for trainer

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33095, 9 December 1972, Page 8

RACING Busy day ahead for trainer

D. J. Thistoll, who saddled four runners for three wins and a second at Omoto last Monday week, will have an even busier time at Riccarton today.

The successful Riccarton trainer will field 12 members of his team at the Hororata Racing Club’s summer meeting.

The three Greymouth winners — Shipmaster, Frosty and Bel Cavallo — are among the Thistoll representatives I today but they are unlikely to be top fancies in their respective races.

Shipmaster, which, for all his eight years, turned in a youthful performance to win the Edgar Goulden Handicap at Omoto, will certainly have to be taken into contention in the Hororata Cup and the same will apply to Frosty and Bel Cavallo, whose missions are the L. Derrett and Sandown Hack Handicaps, but

the top prospects from the stable are expected to be Onset and Perfect Pride.

Onset, a gelded son of Oncidium and the 1965 Winter Cup winner, Careen, showed that he was on the verge of winning form again when second to Rebel Lad in the Apprentices’ Hack Handicap at the N.Z. Cup meeting last month. On that occasion he was handled by M. Cohen. This time his rider will be the trainer’s son, P. Thistoll.

On that occasion Onset was going a mile. This time the promising young stayer will be one of Frosty’s rivals in the nine-furlong Derrett Hack Handicap. On the same day that Onset was the runner-up to Rebel Lad, Perfect Pride had to settle for a similar plac-

ing behind Hogan in a division of the Ellesmere Handicap. The record of this improving Proper Pride filly this season is now two seconds from three starts so a victory must be close at hand. The first runner for the Thistoll stable today will be Royal Grace, whose six starts as a three-year-old last season yielded two wins and four minor placings. Although she has not raced since April, a bold first-up run over six furlongs in the H. A. Knight Memorial Hack Handicap would not come as a surprise. Satinwood, a Shifnal gelding having his first race, and Classic Legend will be the stable representatives in the Trial Plate No. 1. The latter would be an obvious choice after a string of minor placings at recent starts but he has a very wide draw to overcome.

Besides Shipmaster, Thistoll will saddle Foreign Aid in the Hororata Cup. The latter is not the every-day type but his best run is very good. He produced such a run only two starts back and won the Riccarton Handicap on the first day of the N.Z. Cup meeting. Thistoll will also have two runners in the Gordon’s Gin Handicap, second leg of the 1 T.A.B. double — the Hororata Cup is the first — and both ; would have to be included among the stronger possibi- , lities. Regal Ration, which began his five-year-old racing with a win against the milers in . the Qantas Plate at the Grand National meeting, would probably prefer a longer distance than seven furlongs, but while fresh — he has not raced for two months — he might manage it successfully on such a roomy course. Surge Again’s form allround this season has been a , bit disappointing but he is a talented sprinter well down in the weights and must be : respected in a field where the strength of form runners is dominated by horses which usually shine over more ground. Study award ‘‘The Press" Special Service AUCKLAND. The Auckland Racing Club’s totalisator engineer. Mr D. R. Linkhorn, has been awarded an overseas study award by the Digital Corporation, a world-wide company engaged In developing and manufacturing all types of data and digital processing equipment. Mr Linkhorn will leave New Zealand in March and expects most of his studies to be in Australia.