Thun has chance to equal Padishah’s great double

Press, 9 August 1976, Page 16

Thun has chance to equal Padishah’s great double

The immediate pro-i grammes for Thun and. Baiiymore. the first two! in the Grand National! Steeplechase on Saturday, were uncertain! after their big runs at Riccarton on Saturday, j Thun, now unbeaten in; three starts over country, has been entered for both) the Korai Steeples and the: Grand National Hurdles next! Saturday. Baiiymore. a battling second to Thun on Saturday,! will, if he passes a veter-i inary examination thisl morning, soon swell the; ranks of New Zealand jump-; ers in the Northern Hemi-! sphere. If he gets the all clear today Baiiymore will be, leased by Mr Pat Samuels,; of Auckland, from Messrs R.i B. G. Mahon and D. H. McDonald, who were at Riccarton on Saturday to see; their eight-vear-old fill sec- • ond place. 10 lengths from! Thun. In the first flush of a; great victory on Saturday! Thun’s Awapuni trainer Erie] Temperton had no firm plan: for Mr John Duncan’s versa-!

I tile Fondu gelding for the: final day of the meeting. ’ But he has splendid mat-! ! erial to go after that rare 'Grand Nationals double in lone year, achieved only once Ibefore by Padishah in 1939. I Fumbler gave it a great I try last year, running second Ito Detroit in the hurdles , after carrying off the Grand ’National Steeples a week (earlier. i Thun won under 61kg ofil i Saturday. He has 64kg in ithe Grand National Hurdles. I i Thun dominated the race' (to the same extent that he! (had dominated all pre-race i thoughts. Late last week his Awaipuni trainer Eric Temperton I clung with quiet confidence to the belief that Thun was far and away superior to .Mess Time, the jumper he prepared to win the Grand National with the same weight three years earlier. ; Mr John Duncan’s Fondu gelding had at his command a turn of speed none of the I others could match, and for Michael Gillies, riding in his (first Grand National Steeple- ■ chase, it was more like a jpleasant Saturday afternoon 'romp than sweated hard i labour to bring the bay out

on top in New Zealand’s richest-ever jumping race, A crowd of close to 12,000 on a fine but cool afternoon gave Thun a hero’s welcome after his third win in as many starts over country. They saw Thun tighten his grip on the race when, Cutts’s, the fifth fence, tripped the second favourite, Cobble O. i First time over Cutts’s I was also the end of the road [for Blason. the South Is-! (land’s strongest hope, and (the fourth favourite of 13 i runners. Blason’s bit broke soon after thev jumped the stand double fo'r the first time. His rider, Brian Kennedy, showed a brand of high courage to steer the horse with his whip into Cutts’s, but the Wingatui chestnut ran off the track after landing over the tallest fence on the course, jumped a set of ; harrows, and made for the trees. A much disappointed Kennedy then baled out. For much of the next round Idunno, Sir Stanley, and Thun formed the leading group, wfith Foreign Aid and Burglar Bill also taking close order. The Robinson stable lost its second runner when

Cutts’s tripped Sharzan the last time. Thuns was upsides with Sir Stanley at the kennels double, and Gillies allowed him to go clear by three lengths on the way round to Jumbo, the second last. ; By then Sir Stanley had exhausted his store of stamina, but Baiiymore was pressing on past Idunno in chase of the favourite. i However nothing short of ia blunder at the last fence or a quite sensational lack of momentum in the run home could have kept victory away from Thun. Baiiymore struggled in 10 lengths clear of the top weight Idunno. w'hich might be given the chance to run with substantially less weight in the Grand National Hurdles — he has 57kg — next Saturday. Idunno just saved third from Thornhill, but Sir Stanley dropped away into another long gap in fifth position.

Foreign Aid broke down before the second last when close and was pulled up. Bob’s Luck, the outsider but one, went out early, tripped by the second of the stand double a round from home.