Alice appeals at Waikato

Press, 14 November 1981, Page 24

Alice appeals at Waikato

Special correspondent . Auckland Horses from the Central Districts of the North Island, as they did last year, could well have the finish of the Waikato Cup today between them. Two of the foremost candidates are Alice, from Hastings, and Cuss, from Levin. Providing an excellent backup will be Claymore Boy, also from Hastings, and an Awapuni visitor. Hirelm. Drum gave Waikato’s big race to Hastings last year. Shamrock, from Woodville, took second place and Arethusa came in third. Takanini’s Decibel ran the visitors closest that time and she seems the best prospect to keep them at bay today. A six-year-old mare, Alice, as near as anything, won the 2200 m Allrounder Handicap,

at Avondale, two starts back. Meanwhile, she has won a 2200 m race at Hastings, just last Saturday. The form shown by Cuss lately reads equally well. He is good and thoroughly consistent. The start before last he won the Rotorua Cup and he was alongside Alice, the two of them third and fourth at the finish of the Allrounder. Alice and'Cuss are due to meet on practically the same terms as at Avondale. Probably there will again be little between them. Both have speed to keep in touch with the leaders. Cuss, especially, is a free goer, he might well make the pace.

Hirelm looked above average when brought to Ellerslie for a middle-distance highweight win at the end of September and she had continued to race well, last time for a game win in a class one 2200 m race at Awapuni on October 31.