Fillies’ series leave their mark on guineas

Press, 11 October 1979, Page 30

Fillies’ series leave their mark on guineas

By

J. J. BOYLE

I More numerous opportu(nities at a rewarding level I for three-year-old fillies i have changed much of the character of New Zealand: racing in the last few years. : Many of the changes have been beneficial, but they have tended to reduce the stature of races like the Wellington Guineas. In early classics like the Wellington Guineas much of quality looked for has been established from two-year-old racing. Last season, and the season before, the top-ranking two-vear-olds, as represented in the Free Handicaps, were fillies. Tang, which topped the handicap for the 1977-78 season, did not run in the Wellington Guineas last year. Nor will Coober’s Queen, the top of the two-year-old Free Handicap for last season. Coober’s Queen easily won the Lowland Stakes, the Masterton club’s feature race for fillies, last Saturday, and if she had been pointed for the Wellington Guineas there is little doubt she would have been a dominating favourite. But, as was the case with Tang last year, Coober’s Queen will be kept to racing against those of her own sex. Judena and Gay Sharon are the only females in the ‘Wellington Guineas field on I Saturday, but if the colts and geldings heavily outnumber the fillies they .do not appear to have matching superiority in quality. Judena was second topweight in the Free Handicap for two-year-olds last season, and could be favourite for the Wellington Guineas.

• But there will be grounds ■ for some gloomy analyses if Judena manages to win the • Trentham classic only a '(week after she was beaten ‘ (five lengths by Coober’s '•Queen in the Lowland • Stakes. Such a happening would invite one obvious question: • ; What price the colts and geldings in the line-up on Saturday? The absence of the Great Northern Guineas winner. El 1 Dufus, has further weakened ' this year’s Wellington Guineas, And a tangled ' skein of spring form became ■ even more complicated with 1 the failure of the Hawke’s : Bay Guineas winner, Talli- ' fer, to do better than ninth ’ in the Great Northern '■ Guineas. Tailifer won the Hastings ‘ classic with a finishing run! ■ of almost freakish power,and his comparatively life-1 less run at Ellserslie could 1 have been caused by his ‘ first racing experience “right-handed.” Mighty King has not raced ' since the Hawke’s Bay Guineas, in which he was runner-up. He is regarded as one of the Central Districts’ top chances, best able, some think, to capitalise on the situation if Tailifer fails to reproduce his Hastings form. The Te Rapa trainer, Graeme Rogerson, took Teddy Doon to Trentham last year ‘ to run third in the Wellington Guineas, then on to Ric- • carton to capture the New Zealand Two Thousand Guineas. Rogerson accepted with five members of his big ■ team for this year’s Wellingi ton Guineas — Hunter’s Gold, Good Show, Near- ; petuai, Tun Doon and . Giovanni.

f Hunter’s Gold has won • three races including the (Cambridge Breeders’ Stakes ‘since he returned to the (North Island after being • campaigned at the Grand (National meeting. ! He could not get near i Little Brown Jug and Ta(ramoa when third in the ‘Canterbury Jockey Ciub’s Cashmere Plate, and the success that has come his way in the meantime has placed some value on the ability of the top South Island colts.

Tun Doon is a non-winner but has made some modest headway towards recovering the $21,000 he cost as a yearling at the national sales. Tun Doon is by Wharf • from Mattiwilda, a half-sis-ter to Advocacy (12 wins), Airephelia (7) and Starophelia, grandam of Uncle Remus.

Rapid Remark, a son of the Riccarton-based Double Speed from the Cambridge stable of Alan Jones in the Wellington Guineas field, will come in for some attention following a fourth in the Great Northern Guineas and two wins earlier in the season.

Winning Words, the dam of Rapid Remark, won five races including the Warstep Stakes at Riccarton. Her dam Miss Buchan, was a half-sister to Lord Foxbridge, at one time New Zealand record holder for a mile and a half. This family has come up with the classic winners, Shady Street (South Australian St Leger, Adelaide Guineas) and Noble Street (Port Adelaide Guineas). The veteran Otaki ownertrainer. George Walton, will be looking to his Battle-

1 Waggon colt. Top Castle, to put his name into Wellington Guineas records. I Top Castle is from the i same family and carries the ! same colours as Comm.md[ing, which triumphed as I favourite in the 1961 Wel[lington Guineas but was disqualified from the race after : returning a positive swab, [and never raced again t, I New Zealand. I Commanding went into; Ithe Wellington Guineas that! [year with an unbeaten three- ‘ year-old record, which in-1 eluded the Great. Northern! [Guineas. ! Top Castle boasts no! (record of comparable bril-i [liance, but he was consid-i ered somewhat unlucky [when fourth in the Hawke’s! [Bay Guineas. i Ruling Lad advanced upj the list of fancies for the; [Wellington Guineas by winning the Waverley Stakes yesterday. This was his fourth win, in only five starts from the successful Taranaki stable of Brian Deacon. He was unbeaten in three starts at two years and he has been quick to break through for further success in his second season. Ruling Lad is by Ruling out of Lochiel’s Fancy (by Le Filou) and comes from the family that came up with Tudor Prince, one of the outstanding three-year-olds in a season that alsoj produced Beaumaris, Sweet [ Spray, and Super Snipe. i Ruling Lad’s half-sister,! Head Fancy, won nine races I from six to 11 furlongs and! was also a winner producer Also from this family was Silver Sunset, whose six. victories included the Auckland Racing Club’s George Adams Handicap.