A season for ‘firsts’ at Riccarton

Press, 6 December 1979, Page 12

A season for ‘firsts’ at Riccarton

By

J. J. BOYLE

It has already been a racing season for some notable Riccarton “firsts.”

Little Brown Jug contributed one of them when he slammed his rivals in the New Zealand Two

Thousand Guineas last month. He became the first Ric-carton-trained horse to

win the first of the national classics?' and he succeeded where some distinguished performers had failed before in adding the Canterbury Gold Cup as well. Now unbeaten in seven starts' this season, Little Brown Jug-will be a hot favourite for the first running of the $lO,OOO Coruba Rum Stakes at the Canterbury Jockey Club’s twilight meeting on Saturday. This is a 1600 m race run at weight-for-age, and it will bring together for the first time Little Brown Jug and New Zealand’s most famous veteran, Grey Way. The nine-year-old Grey Way has won 46 races and some $220,000. Little Brown Jug’s career record is eight wins and $47,020, but victories in hjs next three races, the Coruba Rum Stakes, the Avondale Guineas, and the New Zealand Derby would take him more than half way towards Grey Way’s spectacular stakes total. First prize in the Coruba Rum Stakes, which is sponsored by Allied Liquor Merchants. Ltd, Auckland, is $6500, the sponsoring firm contributing $5OOO and a $4OO trophy. Little Brown Jug will be shooting for $73,750 in the two Auckland classics, standing to win $62,500 in the New Zealand Derby. That’s galloping inflation for you when it is remembered that in the 1949-50 season Beaumaris was a record-breaking earner as a three-year-old, but his labours, including a victory at that age jn the Wellington Cup, yielded less than $32,000. The Dominion Breweries Handicap will be a second new sponsored race on the Canterbury Jockey Club’s programme on Saturday, and it gives Firpo, one of the stars of the recent Greymouth meeting, a chance to improve his excellent home-track record before he is taken north for the Avondale Cup. The Dominion Breweries Handicap is worth $5OOO, and is class 1,2 and 3 horses, run over' 2000 m.

The Dominion Breweries Handicap, first leg of the T.A.B. double, will be run at 5.15 p.m. and the Coruba Rum Stakes will start at 5.45 p.m. The first race on the card will be at 2.35 p.m., but there Will be a lure for those seeking to make it a social day with a “Happy Hour"' on the course. Bars will be open at 1.15 p.m. and for the next hour drinks will be served at half price. The Canterbury Jockey Club has plans well advanced for a start on improvements, expected to cost about $600,000, to its public grandstand. Tenders for this work will be called in February, and a start will be made early in March to bring facilities for betting, eating and drinking on two levels of the stand up to a high standard. The work should be completed before the 1980 Grand National meeting.