Inside runners bogged down

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33290, 30 July 1973, Page 8

Inside runners bogged down

A rain-affected track at Riccarton is no place for the rails runner—not the inside rail, at any rate.

Winners of all flat races at the Christchurch Hunt meeting on Saturday made their challenges on the wide outside. Aware of the demands being made on the horses by the sticky surface created by rain on the top-dressed

■ground towards the inside, ' the more experienced jockeys i sought to manoeuvre their; 1 mounts for challenges not far' i ’ from the outside rail. [ i One to profit from such a ’ manoeuvre was the Wingatui i ' horseman, J. R. Dowling, who ; won the Brabazon Handicap}: ’on Donnybrook Fair, the ‘ Montgomery Handicap on Kaih i Tak, and the Haldon Stakes : 1 No. 2 on Gingerly.

Dowling was close to a fourth win in the Haldon Stakes No. 1, on Gingerly’s stablemate, Royal Clover.

This Royal Bid colt was held up for a run for about half a furlong fairly late in the race, then was pegged back in the last few strides by [Triple, which was another to ■come down the outside on a ! run she had started from i near the tail of the field. By the time the last race came around few jockeys reImained oblivious of the situ--1 ation — that it was courting

disaster to bank on victor,’ with an inside run.

And the pattern adopted as the leading group made the straight in the Kennels Handicap look something like a pack of forwards screwing the scrum towards the side line from a desperately defensive situation.

Out of the ruck, wide on the track, came All Yours, a long shot, to beat the place favourite Custodian by half a length. Basin Street was the other dividend-payer, at generous odds for a form horse.