Surplus not evident in some Washdyke fields

Press, 31 August 1978, Page 18

Surplus not evident in some Washdyke fields

Bv

W. R. CARSTON

Statistics show that New Zealand has a surplus of racehorses, particularly in the lower grades. But this fact is not reflected in the B ; ze of some of the fields at the South Canterbury Jockey Club’s restricted meeting at Washdyke next Tuesday. The club had no trouble fi'lmg the fields for maiden sprinters — they even had to eliminate nine of the 69 ecceptors for the three Twizel Handicaps — and the Murphy Handicap, for maiden metric-milers, also attracted a capacity field. The same applied to the Somerville Handicap, the second leg of the T.A.B. double, which caters for ciass-five sprinters only, but support for the event for ciass-four sprinters only was pathetic and the two races over the longer distances for class-four and five horses and the event for maiden ravers were not much better.

I Two races, the Ted Falvey and Peter Hampton Memorials, on next Tuesday’s 10i race programme will be twoi dividend events and it would not require many scratchings to put three other races into the same category. In fact, it would require only one scratching to make the Falvey Memorial a onedividend race. Only five class-four sprinters were paid-up for in this 1200 m event. The Hampton Memorial, to which high-weight conditions apply, attracted seven acceptors. This event caters for class-four and five met-ric-milers and horses which I have started in hutdie or steeplechase races. The response from owners and trainer of class-four and ! five stayers, which are catered for in the D. B. President’s Handicap, was not much better. This race, which will be the first leg of the T.A.B. double, attracted i only nine acceptors. Club officials were not

disappointed with a field of; 10 for the E. J. Richards Hurdles but they did expect a bigger field then eight for the Strathconan Stud Stakes, an event for maiden stayers. “For some years now clubs have been under pressure from owners and trainers to provide more races for maiden stayers,” said the club’s secretary, Mr L. R. Oliff, yesterday. “The support we have got this year is not very encouraging. “Next week I’ll be taking nominations for Geraldine and there are two maiden races there and no divisions,” he said. “One of those races is for staying maidens and if acceptors exceed the safety number there will be eliminations and if it affects those who failed to support us this time they will be grizzling.” As far as the class-four sprinters were concerned Mr Oliff said he could not understand where they had all gone. On the first day of the club’s winter meeting early in July the club had

iput on a race for them and although it had been run in divisions 30 were eliminated.

“It was just about the same in the corresponding event for the stayers in the same class,” he said. “It was not a divided race but we still had to eliminate between 20 and 30.” Since the introduction of the computer the Racing Conference does not keep records of the number of horses in the various classes available for racing in the three zones — north, central, and south — but the south, which takes in all of the South Island, had about one-fourth of the horses in maiden class and about onethird of class-five and four horses.

As these three groups make up the bulk of the horses racing — the statistics show that up till June 7 last season 5425 individual horses had raced — it is hard to understand why the South Canterbury club could muster only five starters in its class-four sprint.