Jumpers will again be in limelight

Press, 9 August 1980, Page 20

Jumpers will again be in limelight

By

J. J. BOYLE

Riccarton will offer much for the jumping devotees on the final day of the Canterbury Jockey Club’s Grand National carnival today.

The field for the Koral Steeplechase contains splendid material, and the almost certain prospect of strong inter-island rivalry will be continued in the following race the ninety-first Grand National Hurdles.

Folay, a gallant Grand National Steeplechase third, and Eric Temperton’s pair, Guess Who and Glandovey, are high on the list of fancies for the Koral. The Grand National Hurdles this year will come in for special attention because it gives Mr Hickey a chance to join a distinguished club. Only Town Survey and Smoke Ring have so far man-aged-to win the Great Northern, Wellington, and Grand National Hurdles in one year.

If he never wins another race, Mr Hickey has mad” a splendid return for the £475 he cost his young VvaiKaco owner, Mr Nick Littlejohn. But, of course, if he wins today, he will write another of Jhose Cinderella stories which abound in racing. Mr Hickey’s seven wins as a hurdler include one victory over brushes. Kaimoto, regarded as the most likely to extend the South Island’s strong recent record in the race, is a dabster jumping brush hurdles, and has been shaping as. if he could run all day and on any kind of track. If Wingatui’s Belle Camille wins the Amalgamated Handicap, second leg of today’s T.A.B. double, her trainer,

Cliff Reese-Jones, will probably give earnest consideration to an Australian spring campaign. Belle Camille’s trainer is a brother of Peter Jones, who will go after rich Melbourne weight-for-age races, and perhaps the cups with Little Brown Jug. Belle Camille has pleased her trainer since her great run in the Winter Cup. “She is eating up and thriving,” Cliff Reese-Jones said yesterday. Belle Camille will be giving weight to all but London Trader. The Winter Cup winner has 58kg but is up to it. and it will be surprising if one of his dogged finishes does not have some bearing on the race.