Low-key meeting had its moments

Press, 11 October 1976, Page 19

Low-key meeting had its moments

The South Canterbury! l Jockey Club’s low-key' meeting at Washdyke I on Saturday produced its highlights for those! few who took the trouble) to take in the racing at/ Washdyke. Significant contributions! were made by the Ashburton : trainer, Jim Lalor, and his apprentice, David Walsh; by the Riccarton jockey, Max' Skelton; and by members ofc

[the tribe of the deceased, 'champion stallion, Mellay. I I Lalor saddled and Walshi (rode three winners, one of them Chiltern Blaze, a son I of Mellay which is obviously (good and might yet be very 'good. I Skelton also rode three (winners, one of them sired 'by Mellay (Peak Mellay), I and another (Minella) produced by a daughter of the ; famous Otago sire. ’ Mellay’s third winner was) [EI Towk. which beat the Lalor-trained Jim Bob

ihandily in the Ted Falvey i Handicap, the first race on (his three-year-old programme.

El Towk has a fairly generous quantity of the sharp speed of his dam, the flying Shcwetta, and his Wingatui trainer, Jim Pankhurst, might be tempted to aim him for the New Zealand Two Thousand Guineas in November if he meets his next test, the guineas trial at Gore at Labour week-end. The Lalor stable put four runners — Just About, Golden Gate, Excessive Talk, and Also in Orbit — into the first leg, the Glenpark Stud Handicap for class 4 and 5 horses. Excessive Talk did best of them, finishing third, but Golden Gate, a close, and fast-closing fifth almost certainly lost a dividend-bear-ing place after being hampered by the erratic running lof Just About, whose rider ■ was in difficulties when his saddle slipped in the middle stages. However, Riccarton’s Southern Comfort was a. worthy winner, and an easy one by four lengths. The Wingatui jockey, Gene Sanderson, could have hardly I wished for such a result ifrom a chance mount, as [Southern Comfort was. At I odds of almost 20 to one, Southern Comfort supplied a I rewarding result for those who have proper regard for winning form; the six-year-old had won at Geraldine at his previous start.