TROTTING Young Quinn breaks N.Z. record in Miracle Mile

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33712, 9 December 1974, Page 8

TROTTING Young Quinn breaks N.Z. record in Miracle Mile

This season’s record-breaking spree at Addington Raceway continued on Saturday when Young Quinn won the Stars Travel Miracle Mile, with the odds-on favourite, Robalan, down the track after breaking at the 200 m.

A strong, cool easterly wind swept through the straight and the horses had to head into it twice. But Young Quinn managed to pace the mile in 1:57, two-fifths of a second faster than the New Zealand mile race record established two years earlier by Wag in the same event.

Young Quinn’s Canbridge trainer-driver, C. S. Hunter, had him in front for the first 400 m. Then, he followed Hi Foyle to the straight, moving up with 500 m left when Robalan began to close on the pacemaker. Robalan was making no real impression on Yourj Quinn as he approached the straight three wide. Young Quinn had the measure of Hi Foyle soon after straightening up, with Robalan going to a break and dropping away when D. D. Nyhan asked him for something extra at the 200 m.

It was left to the four-year-old, Master Dean, to come along the insije with a

dashing burst to run Young Quinn to a length and a quarter. Not surprisingly Hi Foyle dropped back seven lengths in the run home, but lasted for third a length and a half in front of Micron, which made ground steadily over the final 400 m. Why Bill after vying for the lead early, was a nose further away fifth.

The first five to finish all broke two minutes for the mile. The pace was not all that strong early, the first quarter taking 29.2, the halfmile 59.8, and the six furlongs l:2Bsec. Raced by the father-and-son combination of Messrs R. O. and D. J. Baynes, of Edendale, Young Quinn has now had 25 wins and 18 placings for 290,412. Saturday’s win was worth $12,000, $5500 being bonus money.

He started on his return to Cambridge yesterday in the care of C. Brinsdon, who has been in charge of him since the Cup meeting. “His main mission is the Auckland Cup on December 31,” said Hunter. “If I think he needs a run before that race I will start him on December 27, but I don’t want to start him in the mile-race on December 21.”

Hunter added that Young Quinn had always been going well in Saturday’s race. "I knew Robalan

wouldn’t beat me as we turned for home, and the others were ‘flat,’ ” he said.

D. D. Nyhan, the partowner and trainer-driver of Robalan, was far from happy after the race. "He just wasn’t properly warmed up before the race and was never going as well as he did last month,’’ said Nyhan. "By the time the horses had paraded up the straight, there was only six minutes left to do a preliminary. Usually I jog him for about 2000 m, taking some five minutes for that, and then I send him over one mile, finishing with a sprint for a short distance. By then his wind is right and he is perfectly relaxed after a short walk before the start.

“But on Saturday he was never relaxed and that is how he raced. I wouldn’t suggest I would have beaten Young Quinn, but I had no chance of getting into the money because he wasn’t properly warmed up,” said Nyhan.

Robalan carried $24,583 of the $63,265 in win and place betting on the race, while Young Quinn carried $14,403. Nyhan’s criticism of the delay which resulted in insufficient time for preliminaries was confirmed by D. J. Townley, who drove Hakim. “I didn’t get a chance to warm him up pro-

perly, and this no doubt contributed to him breaking after the start. He just felt awful in the run up to the starting point and that is how he ran that opening 150 metres before he broke.

Both horsemen pointed out that clubs had been approached to ensure that at

least 10 minutes were available for preliminaries. They agreed that the other contestants on Saturday had the same time for their preliminaries, but pointed out that horses were different and some needed much longer warm-up periods than others.