Casualty list growing fast

Press, 23 August 1976, Page 19

Casualty list growing fast

The casualty list among horses eligible for fast-class racing was swelled on Saturday when it was announced that Kotare Legend had been retired following his! eighth in the Louisson Han-| dicap. Earlier in the week the retirements of Noodlum and Willie Win were announced, while Commissioner will be .out of action for at least three months and will certainly miss the New Zealand Cup carnival in NovemNDer. j Noodlum will do stud duty lit the Ellesmere proptrv of Freeman Holmes, Willie Win

has joined Nevele Bigshot Snd True Averil at the Willowmere Stud of Doody and . Kevin Townley, and Kotare Legend will stand alongside 'Brade Hanover and Bay Foyle at Kotare Downs, Femside.

I Kotare Legend has for I some time been under treatIment for liver damage. “He i seems as well in himself as iever, but his run in the ; Louisson has convinced us that it would be unfair to the I horse to keep racing him,” isaid Mr Tony Abell, who raced the six-year-old in partnership with his wife. Kotare Legend, after being in the open for much of a fast-run 2600 m on Saturday, dropped right away over the last 250 m, finishing more than a dozen lengths from the winner, Lunar Chance. By Fallacy from Silver Halo, Kotare Legend was trained throughout his career by Leicester Tatterson. He had 48 starts for 14 wins. 18 placings and j 548,565 in stakes. He took la 2;00 record for one mile, 'with probably his best effort

being a second to Robalan in| the 1974 New Zealand Cup, a race in which he returned 4:9.5 for the 3200 m. After a fourth to Robalan in the O. Hutchinson Free-for-all at the New Brighton meeting last September, Kotare Legend’s form in his few remaining starts was

only a shadow of that expected of him. “A sinew across the back of a hock has been strained and I’ve been advised to leave him alone for three months,” said Nat Hall, owner-trainer of Commissioner yesterday. “There is

no structural damage to the hock and everything being equal he should be ready to race in the late summer or early autumn.” The injury is responding to treatment, but it is intended to give Commissioner every chance to recover comple-

tely before putting him back into training.

. Commissioner had only 13 starts last season, winning two races, including the New Zealand Premier Stakes. However, it was his placings in the Easter and New Brighton Cups late in the season that suggested he could be a major threat in the more important events this term.