Rip Van Winkle to parade at Addington

Press, 28 March 1979, Page 23

Rip Van Winkle to parade at Addington

Bv

G. K. YULE

The champion Australian pacer. Rip Van Winkle, will be seen in action at Addington Raceway on Friday. Arrangements have been completed for him to do stud duty in New Zealand for up to three years and he is booked to arrive in Christchurch today.

On Friday, Rip Van, Winkle will lead the field, out on to the track for the! Nevele R. Stud Stakes and 1 his trainer-driver, Michael I Vanderkemp, intends to allow him to sprint over about 300 m Rip Van Winkle will do stud duty at the Nevele R. Stud at Prebbleton, for the next two years followed by) one year at John Butcher’s) stud at Cambridge it sufficient support is accorded I him. Vanderkemp returned to Sydney on Monday night.) Before he left he said that) Rip Van Winkle could be) readied for racing within! about six weeks. “But I've no intention oil racing him again,” he said. “He's been a wonderful! horse to me and T’m going) to give him his chance to! make a name for himself at) the stud.” Rip Van Winkle, only al five-year-old, has been ac-l claimed as the greatest! horse to have raced in Aus-| tralia in the last year or] two. Some Australian critics!

.have gone so tar.as to say i that he is the greatest pacer |of all time .in their country. In three seasons and a ! half of racing Rip Van Winkle seldom finished out of the money in 73 starts. He gained 49 wins and a string of placings and won $295,090 in stake money. He was the champion ; Australian pacer at two years and three years and is) i’the only horse to have won) the Triple Crown in Sydney! [in 12 years. At two he gained 10 wins land three placings from 14 i starts and had winnings of: j 536,532. The following year; ! he gained 18 wins and four (seconds from 24 starts fori j. $74,865 in stake-money. He became the first pacer to) i win more than $lOO,OOO in i stake-money before the end iof his season as a three-' j year-old. I Rip Van Winkle set a I record of 2min 'l.9s at two land Imin 58.7 s at three. His !best mile time of Imin 57.4 s I was recorded at Globe Derby (Park, Adelaide. I At three he beat a field of

open-class horses over one j mile in 2min at Albion Park. He met the other fine open-class performer, Paleface Adios, on 10 occasions and beat him nine times. His other wins included two] heats and the final of the) Spring Cup at Harold Park, the Clive Uhr Championship in Brisbane in which he beat Maori’s Idol, and three heats) iand the final of the Austra-i ) lian championship at I Globe Derby Park, beating |Pure Steel. j Rip Van Winkle is a stallion by the Adios horse, I Thor Hanover, which had 'had 511 live foals for 236 (winners at last July 31. He (has been the leading sire in Australia for some time and, at the end of last season, his progeny had won more than 52.25 M in stake-money. Rip Van Winkle is a son of Thelma Lass, by Pacing Gift from Thelma’s Advice, a descendant of Thelma, ancestress of one of the most successful classic and open-handicap-winning families in the New Zealand trotting ' stud book.