Elmar looked best of Avondale Cup hopes

Press, 7 December 1981, Page 28

Elmar looked best of Avondale Cup hopes

Special correspondent Auckland Elmar looked the pick of the Avondale Cup candidates which ran at To Aroha on Saturday and a very good prospect indeed for Wednesday’s $60,000 race. Closest behind Bound to Honour at the finish of the Thames Valley Stakes. Elmar was also the only one of the beaten lot which looked to be running on with much spirit. Certainly Bound to Honour beat her by a length and a half but the margin might have been less with a bit further to go. Of the other cup horses which, tackled Te Aroha’s weight-for-age event. Turanganui was closest, in seventh place, with Wren's Pride and Gun for Fun. also bound for the big one at Avondale, almost in line. Antoinette finished her racing preparation for the cup disappointingly, back second-last after ' running herself out well before the finish, again much too keen for her own good. Elmar is in the Avondale Cup with 52kg which is 3.5 kg less than she carried in the Thames Valley Stakes. There is hardly any question of her being able to get the 2200 m course, 600 m longer than the one on Saturday. She was reported yesterday by her trainer. Ray Cleaver, to have come through the Te Aroha race in excellent shape and David Peake will again be taking the mount. This adds up. surely, to Elmar being a foremost prospect for Avondale, even against the likes of Glamour Bay, Kevs Boy, Decibel and Von Cettes. A fairly natural next race for Bound to Honour would seem to be the Avondale Guineas. Her trainer. Bill Sanders, has Bound to Honour entered for that one, next Saturday, but could not be certain, yesterday of her starting. He would be looking at the field, he said, before making a decision. An alternative could be the lesser-valued $lO,OOO Dulcie Slakes at Te

Rapa on December 15. That is 1600 m whereas the Guineas is 2000 m. Bound to Honour has won two of her last five races. This latest success following one equally notable at weight-for-age in the Great Britain - New Zealand Stakes at Ellerslie. She finished once second and twice third in the other three. Add two wins, including the Wakefield Challenge Stakes, and her many worth-while minor placings last season. ,and her record becomes greatly impressive. The way she won on Saturday confirmed Bound to Honour as a filly with speed and a stout heart. She had a hand in the pacemaking all the way with Antoinette, ran clear when the other horse gave in. starting the run home, then stayed on gamely. What is more, she was within the smallest fraction of a race record, her Imin 35.46 s being just 0.06 of a second outside the best which Battle Eve recorded in 1974 and Show Gate equalled in 1976. Sequita ran consistently for her third placing, just behind Elmar. Isle of Man. a trifle disappointingly for fourth, even if less than a length further back. Isle of Man might have been cramped for space briefly when trying to challenge" about 200 m out. but he lacked, when clear, his usual strong finish. Ivan Bar is not in the Avondale Cup but” he won the Otway Handicap at Te Aroha as though he could be a possibility for one of the later good staying races of the summer. From a fair way back. Ivan Bar dashed wide to join Azawary in front with 200 m or more to go and he stayed on the better by a neck. The Avondale Cup horses in this one were Kahawai (third) Avago (fourth). Turanganui (seventh), and Big Yield (ninth). Ivan Bar. a six-year-old gelding by Bardall. won five of his dozen races last

season, on occasions looking highly promising. He is owned and trained at Matamata by Mr Jack Tims, a former successful amateur rider who included in his wins the 1957 Wellington Steeplechase on Conkeda. Conkeda was a fine, bold jumper, raced by Mr Tims’s father, the late Mr Bill Tims.