Thistoll stable wins the Riccarton double

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34132, 20 April 1976, Page 8

Thistoll stable wins the Riccarton double

Karnak and Surge Again brought off a spectacular double for the Thistoll stable on their home course at Riccarton yesterday.

Karnak overcame a severe early check and played the role of giant killer by beating Grey Way into second in the George Adams Handicap. Surge Again came fast and late to shade Duntroon and Game Warrior in a spectacular three-sided finish to the Great Easter Handicap. A Grey Way victory was the hope of many thousands, but there was rough justice in the victory of Karnak, which was checked after Grey Way crossed over quickly from the outside as he was going to the front early.

Mein had been in two minds about taking the mount on Karnak in yesterday’s race before she was placed at Rangiora last week, and after the check from Grey Way yesterday, he felt he had a slim chance of victory. However the four-year-old Bucentaur mare, in this ! her third start against class i one horses, found just I enough with her light [ weignt to capitalise on the I toll pacemaking and a tenI dency to pull took off Grey Way’s vitality. I Bucentaur gave her | Christchurch owners, Messrs F. S. Biogg and S. L. Spiers, ! their second George Adams Handicap victory in three years.

Their earlier winner was Bel Cavallo, which, like Karnak, is prepared from the Thistoll stable at Riccarton. An earlier Thistoll-trained winner of the race was Pretentious, in 1970. Karnak was originally bought out of a Waikato sale and was selected for Messrs Blogg and Spiers by “Ned” Thistoll after he inspected her running in a paddock in the Yaldhurst district. Her dam Desert Secret, a Mount Denby mare, was sold to Australia in 1974. Karnak won a 1600 m race for class 3 and 4 performers at Trentham on March 13, ran an unlucky fourth in a high-weight at Nelson two weeks later, then had her

first start in the higher grade in the Nelson Cup, finishing fourth. “I was never able to settle him down, there was always something niggling at me,” Grey Way’s rider, Dodg Holden, said after the race. “The wide barrier draw made it impossible for me to find a smother for him, and that must have counted against him a lot.” Grey Way’s five-year-old programme is now over. It produced 13 wins, starting with a sprint victory at Ashburton and ending with yesterday’s near-miss at Riccarton. Royal Dell came fast from the back down the inside for third a head from Grey Way and a head in advance of Deep Mystery, which was one of the first to challenge Grey Way on the home turn. Audaciter, unable to run alone in the lead, as he likes to do, showed no competitive spirit in the straight, dropping away quickly to finish 10th. Surge Again won the Great Easter Handicap at generous odds — almost 10 to one — considering he had won in similar company at Rangiora a week earlier and, this time, was getting substantial relief in weight. He was ridden by the Riccarton horseman, Ron McCann, who was also his rider when he won his first race as a two-year-old at Rangiora, also in his previous major victory, the Champagne Stakes at Riccarton in 1972. Surge Again was near the middle of the field on settling. Predictably, Duntroon came out in front before they went far, but he was never allowed to get far away, and a victory for Southland looked very likely when Game Warrior ranged up on straightening. Close to home, Duntroon rallied courageously to take a short lead back off Game Warrior, but both went under to the bold late challenge of Surge Again. William Brown supplied a minor feature of the race by coming from second to last in the last 800 metres to finish fourth.