Tui Vale likely at Trentham

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33786, 7 March 1975, Page 9

Tui Vale likely at Trentham

Tui Vale has been a horse of admirable consistency io a variety <»f track conditions this season, and appears to be capable of winning the President’s I landicap, first leg of the • Wellington Racing Club’s T.A.B. double tomorrow.

Back in the spring. Tui Vale was good enough to heat some smart sprinters on a soft track in the Awatea Handicap at Trentham.

i Less than a month later he beat Auditor and other good I I I metric milers in the Jockey Club Handicap at Riccarton.l In winning the Manawatu club’s Summer Cup in I min! 35.25ec and in running! King’s Romance to a head at: weight-for-age in the! Wanganui Jackson Stakes he; supplied further evidence of his prowess at 1600 m. But: where it might have been! expected that he would run; in the Thompson Handicap tomorrow Tui Vale is being pointed for the 2200 m race. I Obviously Tui Vale’s: trainer, Mervyn Andrews,’ j was satisfied with the four-! i year-old’s fifth when shipped: ■up to a middle distance in the ' 'Rangitikei Cup on Februari (22. WEIGHT ADVAN I XGI With 51.5 kg, Tui Vale is; 7kg below the top-weight, ! Duty Free, and Okg below Guest Star. Such advantages! !could count for much if the: ground is easy or worse. : Duly Free was several, : lengths better than Guest. I Star — they were second and; third respectively — in the: ! Benson and Hedges Inter I .Island event at Riccarton.j But Guest Star might have! i been caught below his best; ■that day after receiving an I in jury in his lead up race ; Guest Si ar has been a! I formidable and highly con '

By

J. J. Boyle

sistent campaigner at TrenIham. and northern backing might make him favourite. Sobeit might need all the luck going to avoid being pushed wide all the way. More fortunate in the draw are lot! Hagen and Four Leaf, and their chances might finally depend on the footing. PLUCKY RUN The soft I rack for the inter-island event did not suit them, but Four Leaf showed lots of pluck io battle it. out for fourth inches behind Guest Si ar. and Fort Hagen came late from the back for tilth. • Gold Ducat, from Takanini, and Tiptoe, from Woodville, may be two of the dominating figures in the finish of the Thompson Handicap. Gold Ducat was third in the Anniversary Handicap, won by Auditor, at Trentham on Wellington Cup day. Last week he “trotted" up by live lengths over 1000 m at Ellerslie. Tiptoe showed she could manage 1600 m well when a close third behind Tui Vale in the Summer Cup at Awapuni in December. In her only two starts mice she has been in the role of runner-up behind the brilliant Blue Blood in the Telegraph Handicap on Web linglon Cup day.