After 7 years... southern victory in Riddiford

Press, 16 July 1979, Page 20

After 7 years... southern victory in Riddiford

By

J. J. BOYLE

Terex on Saturday became the first South Islander to win the Wellington Racing Club’s Riddiford Steeples for seven years.

When Bright Blue won the race for the late Mr Bill Hazlett, in 1972 he was capping off a notable double he had opened with a Wellington Steeples victory. ' Terex gave it a good try I for that double this year, but was outstayed by High Chief in the Wellington Steeples last Saturday week. Terex had to slog over ground heavier than he would have preferred to win for Messrs Graeme Jackson (Washdyke) and Brian Flaws (Christchurch) on Saturday,

and he finished the 4800 m utterly spent, but with two lengths to spare from the light-weight Mateus.

It was a two-horse struggle, with an intriguing battle of tactics, from the second last fence.

Terex jumped that fence brilliantly, Mateus indifferetly. Then Mateus’s rider, Joe Mclntosh, brought the lightweight over to the inside in a bid to save the greatest possible amount of ground going to the last fence. The gap between the two narrowed to less than a length, but Mateus started to hang when they joined the course proper, leaving Terex two lengths clear. Paul Dooney, on Terex,

took fine care there would be no room for Mateus to make another bid on the inside at the last fence, and Mclntosh switched his line to come on the outside.

As Terex kept his line from his slanted leap at the last fence the two principals continued their struggle on a course that brought them wide on the track.

Terex gamely responded to every vigorous demand Dooney made on him, and came out on top by two lengths.

But the matter did not end there. Mclntosh lodged a protest. He claimed he had been interfered with at the junction with the course proper, and again on the approach to the last fence, but

his claims wire hot supported by the Wellington Racing Club’s judicial committee.

Terex triumphed as one of the hottest favourites of the meeting, a memorable windup to a North Island campaign which started with a win at Trentham in May, and also produced a Manawatu Steeples victory. If he recovers quickly from the exertions demanded of him on Saturday . Terex will be a formidable South Island runner in the Grand National Steeplechase mext month. The Riddiford-Grand . National has not been a popular double, but it fell to Teak 11 years ago, Miss Freda White’s popular old battler being promoted to first when Mosque’s rider weighed in light after the Hazlett horse had come home On his Own.