Vermont one of top chances at Ashburton today

Press, 24 June 1978, Page 20

Vermont one of top chances at Ashburton today

Racing and trotting

By

J. J. BOYLE

The two-year-old, Vermont, should be one of Riccarton’s brighter chances on the programme for the first day of the Ashburton County Racing Club’s winter meeting today.

The experience he gained from his first race which produced a fourth should be employed effectively in the Lyndhurst Handicap. Vermont is from the promising first crop of the Inglewood Stud stallion Beaufort Sea. and is a halfbrother of Europium, which developed good form from the Thistol! stable. Earlier today Vermont’s, Bellborough half-brother and stablemate, Denali, is booked for his race debut in the Maiden Stakes, one of the, legs of the on-course treble, i Other races of the treble 1

are the Hinds Brush Hurdles! and the Trial Maiden Stakes. The field for the Hinds Brush Hurdles offers plenty! of form. It is spearheaded by the Washdyke-trained AHez Rouge, a winner at his two most recent starts over hurdles, and has other likely | material in the Oamaru winner Nubilus, and the impro-: iving Candidate, Game Warrior and Rosearna. Those with some regard for the horses-for-courses i theory are likely to show some interest in Lazy Loot,; which splashed through mud! and slush for an easy win on the flat at the corres-! ponding meeting last year.

(This stablemate of Vermont has not shown form in his brief career as a hurdler but he apparently rated a second ’ thought by the handicapper,! who weighted him at half a( kilo above the minimum.. Such a rating assured him iof a start in a capacity field.' ( Four of nine horses left on ( ; the minimum were left on a list of reserves. Another interesting light-! weight in the hurdles is the i i Nelson-trained Mr Richmond. He is a better-performed, flat runner than most of the’ others in this field, and is a! horse with a preference fori rain-affected tracks. He will';

be ridden today by the Wingatui jockey, Allie Robinson, who won this race on 'Celsius last year. , Tiva, from Southland, Arapeta, from Waimate, Lomond Queen, from Wingatui, and Capital and Rockford, from I Riccarton, should be on the (list of stronger contenders in the first leg of today’s T.A.B. double. Rockford will not be as race hardened as most of his rivals, but two good gallops I this week should have (brought him along nicely, and a soft track will help to advance his cause.