RACING Melbourne Cup next for Fury’s Order?

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33778, 26 February 1975, Page 8

RACING Melbourne Cup next for Fury’s Order?

“Where next?” Walter McEwan, the Hawera trainer of Furv’s Order, was asked after the big chestnut brilliantly won the fifth Benson and Hedges Inter-Island at Riccarton yesterday.

“He’s for the paddock;, he’s finished for the season,” McEwan said. “No Sydney Cup at Easter, but, all going well, the Melbourne Cup next spring.” Fury's Order gave weightall round to beat Duty Free by a neck and the others by wide margins in a race dominated by the northerners. The talented Wanganui apprentice, Brent Thomson, said Fury’s Order would have won by a wider margin only for trying to loaf in the last 50 yards. “It was the first time II had ever ridden him, and he gave me a great feel, going keenly through the race.”

“I decided to sit behind Duty Free and 1 was under instructions to come around rather than go through them. He certainly responded when I asked him to go through with it. He’s some kind of a horse,” Thomson said with enthusiasm. STRAGGLERS

Fury’s Order, on this occasion, was not ridden from

dead last, as had happened in some of his earlier races. And, as a result, his task was made so much the easier, even if he was running ahead of only stragglers going into the last 800 metres. Fury’s Order remains unbeaten in three starts at Riccarton. Mr L. H. Bridgeman’s first win on the course was in the iNew Zealand Two Thousand Guineas. His second, and only other start there before yesterday. was in the New Zealand Cup last November, ( when he triumphed under top-weight. SWITCH It was planned earlier to I have Fury’s Order in Melbourne last spring for the Melbourne Cup, but a switch was made to the Riccarton race when it seemed doubtful whether it would be possible to give the four-year-old a thorough lead-up preparation. “He’s been up since August and although he has had no more than 13 races he had three cup races and has had enough in the meantime,” his trainer said yesterday. Duty Free, which won this race two years ago, earned

the respect of his rider Bill Skelton for a plucky second bid for the honours. “He slipped about a bit leaving the straight, but after that he settled well, and he was not disgraced in having to settle for second to a horse like Fury’s Order,’’ Skelton remarked. HELD UP Guest Star, the second favourite, only just saved third from Four Leaf. "We were held up for a few strides behind Duty Free on the home turn, but otherwise it was all plain sailing,” Bob Skelton said, Brian Andrews said Four Leaf had travelled beautifully all the way until he had to come off the bit. Then he had floundered on the rain-affected track. “A good run, all things considered,” Andrews remarked. Fort Hagen came fast and late from far back for his fifth, but was in a gap of two lengths. Regal Ration was the South Island’s best, and he was a well-beaten sixth. The Wellington Cup winner Timon showed nothing, finishing seventh, and Black Rod struggled in eighth.