Perhaps ready for Cox Plate

Press, 20 October 1976, Page 25

Perhaps ready for Cox Plate

NZPA Melbourne. Melbourne Cup favourite. Perhaps. the “Greta Garbo” of the New Zealand challengers, will tackle the weight-for age stars in the $125,000 W. S. Cox Plate at Moonee Valley on Saturday. Perhaps is happiest on her own. which explains why she is being trained in the wilderness of Officer, a “whistle stop” village about 60km from Melbourne. The mare is a tough, seasoned stayer. She beat the best stayers in New Zealand in the Auckland. Cup over the Melbourne Cup dis j lance of 3200 m in January. Unsuited by the W.F.A. conditions, Perhaps finished powerfully to be third to How’ Now and Happy Union in the Caulfield Stakes, run over 2000 m. Trainer Colin Jillings who has waited 26 years for a horse good enough to start in the Melbourne Cup. expects a bold run from Perhaps in the Cox Plate “I couldn’t have asked for more since she ran in the Caulfield Stakes,” Jillings said last night. “She will tackle the Mac-

Kinnpn Stakes at Flemington on Saturday week as her final test for the Cup.” Jillings, who has 20 horses in work at Takanini, said he. was sure a New Zealander would win the Melbourne Cup. “I think Battle Heights and Kythera could be the hardest to beat,” he said.

“Battle Heights showed me in two runs at home that he is probably better now than he ever was. Forget that he is nine years old. Kythera is a very good stayer. She is to be feared, too.”

Trainer Tim Douglas at Flemington this morning said he believed Battle Heights had improved since his unlucky second to How Now in the Caulfield Cup.

“I'm not at all concerned at tackling the mare again in the Cox Plate,” Douglas said.

Other starters in the Cox Plate will include the Sydney W.F.A. star Purple Patch, crack filly Surroun. Taras Bulba and Great Lover from the T. J. Smith stable, and Think Big. Ngawyni and Ashbah from Bart Cummings’s team.