Wellington Steeples winner was a wedding present

Press, 12 July 1976, Page 18

Wellington Steeples winner was a wedding present

Some wedding present] is Idunno, dashing winner of the Wellington Steeplechase at Trentham on Saturday. He is now winner of seven races for Mr and Mrs Graham Pepper, of Te Kuiti, who received the Idomeneo gelding as a wedding present from Mr M. H. (“Buster”) Tims.

Mr Tims who had much success with Tatua, placed only one tag on his gift to the Peppers — $5O to come out of the first win. That came in a flat race for classes 3 and 4 performers at Wanganui in June. 1974. He won twice more on the flat that year, each time in the hands of Brent Thomson, and broke through for his first win as a jumper in the Taranaki Hunt Cup last August. His rider that day was that skilful amatuer, Patrick Myers, who partnered him again in the Wellington Steeples. Revelling in the conditions on one of Trentham’s heaviest tracks. Idunno almost ran away and hid from the others in the gloom that followed a sudden, fierce gale. The others struggled in vain to keep in touch with the strong gallop of the nine-year-old, whose winning margin of 20 lengths was the widest in the four years the race has been run over the figure-eight course. Earlier this winter Idunno won the Wanganui Steeplechase and the Dombroski Steeples at Foxton — the Wanganui race by half a length from Ballycastle, which lost an almost certain chance of running second again on Saturday when he mulled the last fence. That left Ascona with a present of second place in the hands of his Cambridge owner, Ken Browne. With Nago struggling into fourth for Brian Tims, the race had a distinctive amateur

[flavour. Amateurs were on I three of the first four placeI getters. Pulled up The demands made on the jumpers by the strong pace set by Idunno in the conditions were to be clearly seen at the end.

Mexicano, the 2/1 favour, ite, was struggling before half way, and as he scrambled in the conditions his jumping deteriorated. He was pulled up when hopelessly out of it. Even Terms, the Wellington Steeples winner last year, was almost down to a walk at the end of Saturday’s race.

Sir Stanley, usually one of the most accomplished of jumpers, was not in sure touch in such conditions, and the first of the double, in particular, gave him some bother. He finished a distant seventh.

The pattern was little different in the other steeplechase on Saturday’s programme. Scenic Reserve, ridden with judgment and confidence by Brian Tims, won by three parts of a length from the favourite Thornhill. Royal Whip, with Patrick Myers up, was third making this another notable achievement for the amateurs. Scenic Reserve was having his first start, but he jumped with all the sureness and skill of some of the ‘chasing stars, and might be a worthy successor to Fumbler, which carried the same colours, those of Messrs Ivan Robinson and Jack Pollock, to victory in the Grand National Steeplechase last August. The favourite Thornhill easily outstayed Royal Whip for second, and might have carried his win backers through only for going down on his nose on landing over the second last fence. Two of the stronger fan-

cies won hurdle races on the programme. Owhata Chief, the 2/1 fancy, easily outstayed his best-backed rival, Bleu Streak, in the Trentham Hurdles, winning by three lengths. This victory came within a few days of the announcement that Owhata Chief had on appeal been promoted to first ahead of Bleu Streak’s stablemate Thun in the Great Northern Hurdles. Guess Who, a stablemate of Thun and Bleu Streak — they are trained at Awapuni by Eric Temperton — showed formidable staying powers in coming from far back for victory by a length and a half in the Vittoria Hurdles on Saturday. A four-year-old gelding by the Southland-based sire Royal Ridge, Guess Who was bred by his owner, Mr E. Worsdale, from the Quetzal mare Quita, a descendant of Air Belle, a talented North Island sprinter over 20 years ago.