Hororata double triumph for Mellay’s runners

Press, 23 May 1977, Page 18

Hororata double triumph for Mellay’s runners

Bv

J. J. BOYLE

Nine members of the tribe of the deceased champion stallion, Mellay, strove for a possible of four wins at the Hororata Racing Club’s meeting on Saturday. Their combined efforts produced victories in the two feature races, two seconds, and a fourth.

; stronger contender had she been brought wider into betiter footing. | Gotta Go, the each-way j (favourite in the Gilbey’s; 'Handicap, could not find the: 'finishing speed to capitalise l ion a good run to the l ■ straight and finished fourth ' three-parts of a length behind the consistent Te ; Pango Nui. ; Greek Prince, an elder bro- ' ther of the well-performed mare. Binkie, gave Saturday’s , racing an interesting start by ' winning the Bangor Hurdles ; narrowly after a battle with i the favourite, Sheikle, and the little-fancied Red Jekylli j Greek Prince is one of few West Coast-trained horses to •be seen out as jumpers, and I his victory on Saturday ' brought early success to the . Omoto stable of lan Grant, who after a promising start II was quickly forced out of flat ; race riding because of weight i problems. Greek Prince was ridden on • Saturday by Paul Dooney, who had won on the Coch- . rane-trained Sheikle at the i Jockey Club’s i meeting last Wednesday. ;

War Jet, the only three- j v ear-old in the first leg ofis the T.A.B. double, easily i beat the four-year-old I Thomas Mellay into second. Sir James, one of Mellay’s 1 two other runners in that ' race, was a battling fourth J under top weight in condi-ll tions not to his liking. Top Secret and Bold Mel-,1 lay represented Mellay in, the second leg of the T.A.B. double. Top Secret came out' a game winner under topweight of 58.5 kg on a holding track and Bold Mellay finished fifth. After a so-so run on the same course earlier in the, week. War Jet did not lift ! the enthusiasm of the crowd to any high level when he won the Black and White!; Handicap hands down on' Saturday. Even allowing for a < change from loose wet' ground to stuff of something more like chewing gum texture. the form students could have hardly predicted War Jet would win with the ease he did under 53.25 kg. which included close to 2kg! overweight.

Thomas Mellay reached second with a run he had started from the tail of the field. t Sir James struck the front j briefly in the straight, bur was pegged back to fourth; ,by Godsend, the mount of I Ron McCann, who has partnered Sir James in most of his victories. Top Secret, a courageous winner of the Gilbey’s I Handicap in the hands of 'Kevin Morton, may be in her last season of racing. Trained at Wingatui by Cliff ; Reese-Jones for Mr and Mrs J. S. Mclntosh, of western , Southland. Top Secret is a five-year-old Mellay mare; from the family of Taras' Bulba, Turfcutter and other, igood winners. Her win oni Saturday was her fifth in the; second leg of a T.A.B. double this year, and it; came a week after a good second in the corresponding race at Trentham. Top Secret’s only challe-j nger near the end was Ric- ! carton’s Endowered. but her half-sister and stablemate, j I Trade Secret, which finished 1 seventh, would have been a

!. Steve Allen, who partnered Sheikle on Saturday, extended a rewarding association jwith Super Guy later in the /day. This combination trifumphed in the Jim Beam ' I Steeplechase. Mr J. R. Elliijott’s seven-year-old Fountainhead gelding galloped i strongly and jumped ably in 1 front throughout, recording this, his fourth victory as a ’chaser, by five lengths from I Mexicano, which beat Editor 1 by inches. If the day’s racing was 1 memorable for anything else i it was probably Gamekeeper’s 1 victory at odds of over 90 to one in the Nellavale. Handi- ’ cap. An eight-year-old Game 1 Keeper gelding raced in partI nership by Mrs B. A. Har- ' land, of Brighton (Otago), ' and Mr R. S. Russell, Game- . keeper failed to attract a bid : when offered at the South Island annual sale in Christ- : church last year. Gamekeeper’s only prei vious win was also at Riccar- , ton. in a division of the ■ Courtenay Handicap in April, :! 1974- He was then raced by >jhis Otago breeder, Mr Goridon Thomson.