RACING Onset set to win in weaker field

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33141, 3 February 1973, Page 8

RACING Onset set to win in weaker field

Onset earned $l6OO and the respect of observant Trentham patrons with a big run for second to Duty Free in the Wellington Racing Club Handicap last Saturday.

He stands to win little more than half that , much in the Halswell : Handicap on his home , track at Riccarton to- . day, but if, as expected, ' success comes his way, 1 he might run for the South island in the Benson and Hedges InterIsland event on the second day of the Canterbury Jockey Club’s meeting.

Onset is one of the South Island reserves for the $10,250 feature race next Wednesday, but if he wins today, he will come in for earnest consideration should 1 there be any vacancy in the team created by loss of form 1 or injury. Donnybrook Fair and Town Major, the other reserves for the South Island team, are also engaged today. | Town Major is one of the I top fancies for the high- , weight, and Donnybrook Fair will come in for heavy back-

ing in the Midsummer Handicap after a third in the Wellington Racing Club’s Summer Handicap, won by Spa. Donnybrook Fair will be attempting to win the first leg of today’s T.A.B. double with 8-1, the weight mastered a year ago by Smart Mellay. In form Smart Mellay will tilt at Midsummer Handicap honours again today, but with 41b more. She is right in form for her attempt to improve her good record on the course. Last week she won brilliantly over 7f. at Invercargill. When her Wingatui trainer, B. J. Anderton, brought her to Riccarton in November, she won the Jockey Club Handicap under clever handling by the Auckland jockey, D. A. Peake. Smart Mellay will drop half a stone on her Midsummer Handicap weight to 7-12 in the Inter-island race. Other inter-island runners engaged in the Midsummer Handicap today are Totara Maid, Bonney Belle, and Brown Satin. Brown Satin is on the 7-7 minimum in both the Midsummer Handicap and the inter-island event, so comes in on more advantageous terms in today’s race. Brown Satin sprinted with marked keenness in training at Riccarton on Thursday. Obviously she thrives on racing and travelling, and it seems almost certain she will test the best of her more heavily-burdened elders toi . da VImpressive Equally impressive in training this week was Jury. Like Brown Satin, he is a three-year-old, and is down in the weights, capable perhaps of performing just as ably for his age bracket as Smart Mellay did a year ago when carrying half a stone more.