Success for Taranaki apprentice

Press, 27 November 1978, Page 21

Success for Taranaki apprentice

Special correspondent Auckland A 16-y ear-o Id Taranaki lad, Kevin Robinson, was given all sorts of trouble by Walking Delegate before he took the Apprentice Special at Ellerslie on Saturday but afterwards had nothing but praise for his mount. He was prepared to .for-! give Walking Delegate his! Tendency to run about under} pressure because for all that, ’ he said, the horse just never ! stopped trying. Robinson urged Walking Delegate hard from the' middle of the pack once in! the home straight and the horse responded with a rush to the front. He appeared likely to win clearly and even on the post it seemed! from most angles that he was at least a head in front. But the photo-finish showed he had no more than a! nose to spare from Tikeda which came very fast in the last few strides. It was pretty close right back to fifth, with ShifiloU;] (third) no more than threequarters of a length behind the first two and three-quar-; ] ters of a length and half a length in front of Gold Seine and Dawn Melody. Walking Delegate, another of the very strong team which has Bill Sanders at i the top of the trainers’ list,: is a three-year-old brown colt by Wharf from Cyme. Sanders secured Walking Delegate as a bargain year- ; ling — as he did the likes of the staying star, Bahrain. He was unable to recall on Saturday the exact amount he: paid'for the horse but re-i membered telling the

owners, Messrs D. J. Ferrow; and B. W. Robbins, that they had “as good as stolen the horse” so little did they have to pay for him. Walking Delegate began his racing with a third placing at Te Rapa in November! and struck a great patch of (form through the late sumjmer and autumn with a seciond, two wins, a further secjond and a fifth placing in' ! five successive attempts. One of his second placings I was behind Tang in the! Wakefield Challenge Stakes] and his fifth was in the! (Sires’ Produce Stakes at El-; lerslie. Saturday’s race was only his second this season. He ran the 1600 m in Imin 35.6, | jjust a fraction of a second! outside the time returned byj . Braless in the Great Britain-! New Zealand Stakes. I Robinson, one of eight ! youngsters from outside. Auckland and the Waikato ’who rode in the apprentice I special, sponsored by Air {New Zealand, had been twice to Ellerslie before and not-! jChed a minor placing on ;Beric. Employed these days by I F. M. Walsh at Inglewood,! Robinson is the son of al trainer, A. Robinson, of Fox-! ton, and recalls riding the home stable horses to the .Foxton track as a seven-year-old. He has been race: riding 17 months and has to| his credit 26 winners from around 350 mounts. The runner-up, Tikeda.! was ridden by Linda Jones,' of Cambridge, and the third placegetter, Shifilou, by P. J.! I Ralph, of Takanini so it was I a representative finish. I