Little Brown Jug might strive for $½M bonus

Press, 8 May 1980, Page 26

Little Brown Jug might strive for $½M bonus

By

J. J. BOYLE

Riccarton’s talented Little Brown Jug will be in Melbourne early enough next season to go after a bonus of $500,000 being offered for any jhorse able to win the Marlboro Cup, the Toorak Handicap and the Caulfield Cup.

The richest prize of its kind in Australian racing history covers three V.A.T.C. Faces which will be decided 5t Caulfield a space of 24 ays. Little Brown Jug’s trainer Peter Jones plans to give his galloping powerhouse one Start at the Grand National meeting, then make an early move to Melbourne on a countdown for the rich spring carnival. The $lOO,OOO Marlboro Cup, 1400 m, will be run at Caulfield on September 25. ' The second race of the Tat--tersalls Triple Crown will be ithe $75,000 Toorak Handicap (1600 m on October 11, followed by the $205,000 Caulfield Cup, 2400 m, on October 18. • A clean sweep of the three events would be worth $752,500 in prize money and trophies. First prize in the Marlboro Cup will be $68,750, in the Toorak $48,750, and the Caulfield Cup, $135,000. - The Marlboro Cup was first run as the Invitation Stakes in 1951. Since then •no horse has been able to ' win the three races. Jovial Xad (1951), Anonyme (1961) i •and Tauto (1972) have com- <

pleted the Marlboro Cup and Toorak double. In the last 30 years horses to win the Toorak-Caulfield Cup double have been Grey

1 Boots (1950) Galilee (1966), Tobin Bronze (1967), and ; Leilani (1974). I Any hope of a horse winr ning the bonus last year was

shattered when the outsider Private Talk won the Marlboro Cup. He was not even entered for the Caulfield Cup. Peter Jones plans to nominate Little Brown Jug for the Melbourne Cup and a start in the big one at Flemington will depend on the cup weight and on the horse’s form In lead-up races in Melbourne. Jones said yesterday that he would probably train Little Brown Jug from Mornington for the spring programme in Melbourne. If he does so Bob Skelton, who lives there, is likely to be offered the riding on Little Brown Jug and other members of the Jones team to make the trip. “Bob Skelton would get along with my fellow just fine, because he has the ability to settle and relax his mounts in their races,” Jones said yesterday. Jones is considering taking Aramis and the two-year-old Athos to Melbourne with Little Brown Jug. , Both have won for the 1 stable this season, and both have engagements at the ■ Amberley meeting on Saturi day.