Strong Aust. interest in Addington series

Press, 4 December 1978, Page 18

Strong Aust. interest in Addington series

Only a heavy casualtylist or a loss of form by a large number of horses will result in smallish Australian representation at the Benson and Hedges Inter-Dominion Championship series at Addington Raceway next March. This was the opinion reached by the racing secretary of the Metropolitan Trotting Club, Mr T. H. Davis, who accompanied the club’s vicepresident. Mr M. L. Taylor, on a nine-day visit to Australia.

After watching Maori’s Idol win the Dullard Cup at Moonee Valley, Melbourne, they travelled to Brisbane where they were impressed by the performances of Rip Van Winkle, Koala Frost, Sleepy Fella and others. They also spent a short time in Sydney where they spoke with owners and trainers of potential visitors to Christchurch. I “Even if a number of horses fall by the wayside, I don’t think there will be any trouble obtaining the 15 horses necessary to fill the

aircraft chartered by the Inter-Dominion Council,” said Mr Davis. “Ric Healy showed real enthusiasm at the prospect of racing Maori’s Idoi at Addington. He’s also thinking of bringing Maori Mara, a lightly-raced four-year-old half-sister to the champion. She’s won about three or four races in a row I and is apparently pretty good,” added Mr Davis. Both Mr Taylor and Mr Davis were impressed by the i Dullard Cup win of Maori’s i Idol, which might race at

Alexandra Park before coming on to Christchurch. “He’s some horse,” said Mr Davis, who thought that the reason he broke in the straight before winning the Dullard ' Cup was that he was still on the “fresh” side. “Everywhere we went owners and trainers expressed enthusiasm at the prospect of a visit to Christchurch, and I’ve never known so many club officials to have made firm bookings so far ahead for our series,” he added.