Favourite owned by six wartime mates

Press, 7 November 1978, Page 23

Favourite owned by six wartime mates

From ALLAN BROWN Melbourne ■I The excitement of six elderly owners will be some- ,; thing to see at Flemington i this afternoon if the New Zealand bred four-year-old So Called, as most punters exIpect, wins the Melbourne Cup. I So Called, is raced in a •isix way partnership by the (men, bld wartime mates, who boast a collective age of 360 years plus. Only one of them, a syndicate member, Mr Ray ! ! Riley, disclosed yesterday is ■lon the right side of sixty land that not by very much. !! Manager of the racing j syndicate is Mr Peter WatIsbn of Canberra, who in fact [owns So Called but has thi horse leased for racing to himself and the other five as joint owners. The others in the partnership besides Messrs Watson i and Riley and Mr Dick j Banks Mr Harry Vine, Mr i Noel Moore and the “junior ! member,” Mr Bill Chippindall, along with Mr Rilev, ' all Victorians and retired ‘businessmen.

L The indifferent health of a I couple of them makes it di- : Ifficult for the six “oldies” to! -I get together at any particu- . lar time but all are deter- [ ;mined to be at Flemington. : today ready as one sa'd to z ! "tilt the ua off the town,” if o So Called wins. Bookmakers expect him to e : because they made him favourite yesterday at the a short odds of four to cne s and are expecting him to be ■, at an even shorter “by the e time the field goes to the post just before 4.40 New a Zealand time.” / Unless there are sudden s and unexpected devel- / opments between now and starting time New Zealand i I will be providing five of the -[ first six favourites in the t' Cup. Of these five horses, how-; j ever, only one is wholly s: owned still in New Zealand. IHe is the Matamata five--year-old. Our Big Gamble, ijwho races at home as Big t Gamble. r The other three New Zea-! r land-bred favourites besides - So Called are Arwon, Tak- , san, which is part Owned in 1 New Zealand and Vive Ve-‘ lours. I