Staveley has splendid win at Ashburton

Press, 1 May 1978, Page 18

Staveley has splendid win at Ashburton

Staveley. from Ted Lowe's team at Hinds, and Lord Burlington, trained at MetJiven by Mrs Loraine Watson, broke through for their first successes of the season at Ashburton on Saturday.

Their successes in the legsi of the T.A.B. double were! not a surprise as they hadj been racing to some purpose; for placings. but luck had' seldom been with them. Staveley paced the 3200 m in the rousing time of 4mm, 16.45. a splendid run on a| track which was in grand; order but not lightning fast. ' Staveley’s success was a; popular one as Lowe, who is! in his last season of race 1 driving, is president of the; Ashburton Trotting Club. Staveley. in the open, early, received a good run) over the last 1600 m when Cams Minor moved up to! s -cond outside the pacemak-t ing Tanui. Staveley raced' clear early in the run home,' with Jaunty Hanover, the favourite for the event, cutting rapidly into his advanta ge. However, Staveley saw it through by more than a length to give Lowe his second success for the day.

Waterton won the previous I event in 3min 13.8 s for the ' 12400 m. ' I Garzandy, almost last racI ing to the straight, made [‘ground for a useful third, , but he was seven lengths : ifrom Jaunty Hanover. A close three-sided finish provided a little compensation for a tame contest <

. I in the second leg,|: jthe Somerton Handicap, h (Lord Burlington. | I twice second in the [previous week, got up in the hast stride to shade Roseland I Lord by a nose, with half a [head to the favourite. Sir < . Robin. Orfeo did well for I' fourth in the sprint home in 'which the last 800 m took 59.45. The promising three-year-old trotter. Powerful Junior, at odds of almost 25 to I, showed ability to win the Newlands Handicap for Greenpark father-and-son

training and driving combination of Tom and Barry Clark. Powerful Junior is a colt by the Light Brigade horse, Powerful Light, from Aware Star, a daughter of the trotting sire Ecosse (By U. Scott), He was bred at Wyndham by Mr R. J. Souness and purchased at the

(Southland sales for $350 by > the Clarks. ; “We’re only going to give him a couple more starts, both against his own age at Addington, and then give him a spell,” said Tom Clark on Saturday. “He’s showing fairly quickly and should be much stronger next season.” The Clarks also have a two-year-old half-brother by Fashion Comet to Powerful Junior and a yearling halfsister by the Hal Tryax horse, Hal Drive. “We bought them both over the phone for $350 each.” said

Tom Clark. “They both trot well and the gelding should make the grade next season,” he added.

A mixture of pacing and trotting brought about a happy result for Carl Middleton when Fabian won the Hampstead Handicap. He was in or near the lead all the way and was untroubled to hold' off Jerry’s Best and Quaid. A bad smash marred the Isleworth Handicap, all but eight of the 17 runners being involved. The incident happened near the 350 m mark with Clarrie Woodward being thrown over the running rail and Jack Mitchell landing against it. Mitchell received a cut on the head and abrasions and he was taken to hospital for an X-ray examination. The incident was found to have been caused by Stenhousemuir checking Abdication, which fell. Kim Tapper, the driver of Stenhousemuir, was found guilty of careless driving and his horseman’s licence was suspended until after June. 17.

By —

G. K. YULE