Three smart two-year-olds in Ray Harris’s stable

Press, 16 September 1976, Page 24

Three smart two-year-olds in Ray Harris’s stable

One Canterbury trainer |< who can look forward with 11 a degree ot confidence to! the early two-year-old I races this season is Ray i Harris. < In his Tuahiwi stables he has three two-year-olds I which already in trials have ' •hown a great deal of abil-H ity. . 11 Te Kapau Tane, a grey I colt by Lomond out of then Rejoicing II mare, Jan’s Joy, 11 has won both his trials tol‘ date and an early two-year- < old event should be well within his scope. His first run was in the i parade on the second day of | the Grand National meeting 1 in August. In an eight-horse < field he ran out a narrow n winner over his stablemate.il Astratune, with a Final f

Orders — Royal Regent filly third. His time that day was 27.45ec for the 400 m, which under the very heavy track conditions was a fair effort. Harris then took the colt to Oamaru on August 23, where he was a convincing winner by two lengths and three quarters over Hunting the Snark (by Shahram) and a Never Give Up - Little Lass filly. His time for the 400 m was a smart 25.45ec on an easy track. At this stage Te Kapau Tane, along with his stablemate, Scapa Flow, was being prepared for a tilt at the first two-year-old race of the season, the “Endeavor Four” run at Trentham on September 4 but the trip never eventuated.

“Both horses were definitely going to Trentham but due to the transport difficulties at the time it was impossible to get them there,” said Ray Harris last night. There is every reason to believe that Te Kapau Tane [should have a successful season. His half-brother Kenny Day, by Golden Plume, won the South Island Futurity Stakes as a two-year-old in 1970. Two more of Jan’s Joy’s progeny, Hagen’s Joy and Jan’s Pride, won two races and one respectively as two-year-olds. FINAL ORDERS FILLY Harris’s second string is the Final Orders filly Scapa Flow, which has also won two trials and run fourth at her only other attempt. The fourth was behind Te Kapau Tane at Riccarton during the National meeting. Since then she has won a barrier trial at Riccarton by a length in 25.8 and a parade on the first day of the recent Ashburton meeting. She, like Te Kapau Tane, shows any amount of promise and should also perform creditably for her trainer this season.

Scapa Flow is out of the Dogger Bank mare Cattegat. The other promising

two-year-old in the stable is Astratune —a Whistling Willie filly out of the Kurdistan mare San Louise — which has run second twice, each time behind one of her stablemates.

Her first outing was at Riccarton where she ran Te Kapau Tane to half a head. Two weeks later she ran second to Scapa Flow in a barrier trial on the same course.

All three will have their first totalisator start in the McLean Stakes at Dunedin on October 2. Two other two-year-olds which have been visiting Riccarton are Coed and Colour Me Blue.

Coed, trailed by Barry Taggart, has competed twice for a third at Riccarton and a second, behind Scapa Flow, at Ashburton. She is by Princely Note out. of the Stunning mare. Petite Bonne. Colour Me Blue, trained by Jim Tomkinson, is not yet ready for barrier trials but being a half-sister, by Taxco 11, to the Great Northern Oaks winner, Aquarelle, she should develop into a useful sort.

She is related to Ray Harris’s colt, Te Kapau Tane, the third dams of each being half-sisters.