Roydon Scott sets new record with easy win

Press, 1 September 1980, Page 31

Roydon Scott sets new record with easy win

By

PAUL MEIN

Roydon Scott stepped lively in the A. E. Laing Free-for-all at Addington Raceway on Saturday night, setting a new track and New Zealand record and, according to his trainer-driver, Fred Fletcher, should only be improved by the outing.

Roydon Scott equalled Forte Prohtezza’s record for the 2000 m when he led from start to-finish in 2min 32s in the Laing last year, and he showed that his frontrunning powers had not been dimmed with a brilliant display on Saturday, setting g new record of 2min 31.95.

The six-year-old swept to an-early lead, an advantage that was never tested, and ■ sprinted his last 400 m in 20.25, leaving In To View, the . only serious challenger, one and a half lengths behind at the line. /; Mack Dougal, which received a nice run behind , Game Adios in the trail, led the charge after the leaders, in a gap of three lengths,

with Trusty Scot closing well from the back foi fourth. Sapling, four places back on the inner finished on for fifth, with ‘ Rocky Tryax sixth.

Roydon Scott will be pointed towards the $6OOO Hutchinson Free-For-All in September the race in which Lord Module will start his spring campaign, but according to Fletcher, that could well be the last time the gelding is seen in action before the New Zealand Cup in November, with trials and workouts keeping him at peak fitness for the $lOO,OOO race.

Attempts to get Roydon Scott fit for last year’s Cup were thwarted, when, after brilliantly winning the Laing and then the Hutchinson

Free-For-All, he caught a hind leg in a fence and reopened, the wound on the inside of a hock, the very same wound which prevented him starting- at the Inter-Dominion Championships in March. Roydon Scott has now won 17 races for Mr Roy McKenzie, of Wellington, and stakes in excess of $BO,OOO. Wing Commander showed hard wearing qualities to narrowly win the second leg, the H. E. Goggin Handicap, from his more-fancied stablemate, The Raider. The tough five-year-old, now only two wins off cup class, was sent up three wide from the back in search of ■ the lead from the 1600 m. He pressed on while the pace was slack to head,

off Angelo Dundee with 1200 m to run.

Wing Commander fought off the challenges of first Waitoa and Angelo Dundee, and then a belated challenge from The Raiders which cut into his lead close to home.

However, Mr Ted Lowe’s Flying Lord gelding held an ever-diminishing head advantage at the line. The race was run in a torrid 3min 21.85. Glen Moira headed the remainder, some six lengths back, with the early pacemaker, Angelo Dundee, a battling fourth and Port View fifth.

The favourite, Dreamy Dragon, was handy early, but was shuffled back on the outer and made little impression when they sprinted. He eventually finished sixth..