Narrow win for Hytest

Press, 25 August 1980, Page 25

Narrow win for Hytest

Special correspondent Auckland Hytest and a pint-sized 16-year-old apprentice jockey in C. B. Dowling, combined to take the $12,000 Jellicoe Handicap at Ellerslie on Saturday — the biggest success for both. Often a minor placegetter — once in the New Zealand Cup — Hytest gave no sign until well into the last 200 m of doing any better in the Jellicoe. Even with 100 m to go the finish seemed almost certain to be between Big Gamble and Sovereign Step. Hytest then seized an opening close to the inside, was through in a moment and the winner by a head from Big Gamble in just the last couple of strides. Sovereign Step, after being forced over a bit more ground than some others, was a length away,. taking third place narrowly from Rajah Beebe and Hotsand which shared fourth.

There was promise in the run of Oakwell, even if she came in only sixth, and Kahu, although a bit further back, again looked a good stayer by the resolute way he came home.

Hytest failed to win in 21 attempts last season but he sometimes went close, once for second place behind Rajah Beebe in the Carbine Club Stakes, a 1600 m at the Great Northern meeting. His New Zealand Cup minor placing, a third behind Royal Cadenza and Bahrain, was in 1978.

Now seven years old, Hytest was the highest-priced yearling at.- the Grand National sale in Christchurch when bought by his Avondale owner Mr P. S. Jelicich for $5OOO.

Hytest continued on in Canterbury for his first few years being prepared at Riccarton. It is some three years since Mr Jelicich brought Hytest north to manage the training and it must be said he has done pretty well with the horse.

Once Hytest showed form Mr Jelicich bought the dam, Queen Boa, which has since bred a colt by Approval which unfortunately died, and a yearling filly by Treay of which her owner has high hopes. Just where Hytest would race next had not been decided at the week-end. Avondale next Saturday and the one after would seem fairly natural, except that Mr Jeiicich feels the horse goes best when fresh after a short break from racing — the Jellicoe was his first f or about a month. While tlie first three performed with much credit

they might all have been back a placing but for Hotsand being quite badly checked after the first 200 m. A consequence was his being cut back to near last by the time they were at the 800 m.

An inquiry by the judicial committee found that no other horse or rider was blameworthy. Young Dowling, a son of the Te Rapa trainer R. B. Dowling, to whom he is apprenticed, began race riding a bit less than 18 months ago and this latest win was his fifteenth. Walking at about 38kg or somewhere around five stone, he must surely be one of the smallest big race riders anywhere. Even Dollars, the highestweighted and smallest horse in the field, rounded off a notable hat-trick when taking the second leg of the T.A.B. double, the Admiralty Handicap.