Racing and Trotting Stablemates to be aimed for rich Auckland races

Press, 26 November 1979, Page 24

Racing and Trotting Stablemates to be aimed for rich Auckland races

From

J. J. BOYLE

in Greymouth

The lure of the rich stakes in Auckland will be reflected in holiday plans for at least three of the horses which supplied features of racing on the opening day of the Greymouth Jockey Club’s meeting on Saturday.

The Tuahiwi trainer, Ray; Harris, saw his stable run-! ners, Scotch Mist and Brutus, quinella the Suther-| land Handicap on Saturday. I On January 1 he hopes to go after the most glamourous and richest double of the racing year with this I pair. He plans to run Brutus in the Auckland Cup and Scotch Mist in the Railway, Handicap. Firpo, an attractive win-11 ner under top-weight of the i D. P. Wilson Memorial on j Saturday, will also be pre-p pared for a programme of; holiday racing in Auckland, J starting with a tilt at the ■i Avondale Cup. In the meantime all three,] horses have engagements on!' the second day of the Grey- t mouth meeting today and t

i should make more contributions to their good records. "It might seem ambitious to have the Auckland Cup and the big Auckland sprints i in the sights for these horses, but I’m satisfied they have the ability to make their mark in the north,” Harris said after Scotch Mist and Brutus raced so iweE on Saturday. Scotch Mist beat Brutus I by a length, but the runnerup went into this race on a programme interrupted by a virus. Harris had high praise for his apprentice, Gary Blair, who won on Scotch Mist. Blair was instructed to keep the hot favourite, Sly Wink, wide early, then allow the Levin mare to go ahead and get over to the inside

where the ground was soft-

he recorded this, his second win this season, by a length. Scotch Mist represents a considerable bargain for the $9OO he cost as a youngster. He i$ raced in partnership by Mr R. M. (Zeke) Wilson and Mrs Barbara Harris. Mrs Harris became a licensed trainer recently, and Scotch Mist gave her her first training success as partner with her husband. Firpo’s win in the D. P. Wilson Memorial on Saturday was his eleventh for his Greymoiuth owner, Mr Cliff Marsh, and it, took his earnings to $30,775. Orderho had stronger backing for a win, but the former northerner, winner of his two previous races on softer ground at Hokitika, had to settle for third this time.

Blair then took Scotch Mist forward two wide to keep Sly Wink under sustained pressure, and the Levin-trained sprinter cracked under that pressure and looked beaten 600 m out. FINISHED LAST

Sly Wink dropped away so fast that she came in last of the 11 runners. She had dipped at the start but was soon balanced and her complete failure was one of the talking points of the day’s racing. Stewards ordered that she be swabbed as a routine measure. While Sly Wink was dropping back through the field Scotch Mist was making the best of his way home, and

Lady Creosote, w.hich separated Firpo and Orderho in the Wilson Memorial, will noi oppose them in the corresponding race today, and they will surprise many if they fail to quinella the $3500 race. The Riccarton horseman, Ron McCann, who rode Orderho on Saturday, stood down from riding later in the day because of an arm injury, but he did not run out of winning chances as a result.

McCann trains Longsin, the winner by four lengths of the Air New Zealand Handicap, one of two races in the South Island apprentices’ series being conducted by the Greymouth club.