Alice’s late bid wins cup

Press, 10 December 1981, Page 26

Alice’s late bid wins cup

Special correspondent Auckland Alice was amply rewarded for a game but unsuccessful performance on the course little more than a month previously when she took the $60,000 Avondale Gold Cup yesterday. From a long way back in the strung-out 20 horse field with 900 m to go, Alice improved steadily on the outside until right up behind the leaders, Osmiridium, Tun Doon and Kev’s Boy once in the home straight. Osmiridium gave in and for a few moments Tun Doon seemed very likely to win. Kev’s Boy collared him in the next few strides and, right at the line it seemed, Alice made a final dab which won her victory by half a length. Tun Doon was a length and a half behind Kev’s Boy, taking third, and just inches ahead of Chimbu which had Gun For Fun alongside in fifth place. Avago came sixth then Decibel.

It was disappointing Decibel did not do better, she was a well-backed third favourite. Even more expensive were Gun For Fun and Von Cettes. But whereas Gun For Fun ran honestly and well, Von Cettes showed nothing of his real ability. “He was sour and just not wanting to race,” said Von Cette’s rider, Debbie Stockwell. The horse was, as usual, a long way out of his ground to start with but this time he never looked likely to get close. At the finish he was fourteenth.

The win yesterday was an all-Hastings affair. Alice is trained there, by Jeanann Hercock, aged 28, also a part-owner. The other owner,

Mrs Nereida Simmons, is also from Hastings, so is the mare’s rider, Jim Cassidy, serving an apprenticeship with trainer Patrick Campbell.

Young Cassidy — he is 18 years old — has now 44 wins to his credit this season which puts him equal top in the jockey’s table with David Peake.

Cassidy’s career tally is 240 and he has to collect just a further nine, before he “comes out of his time’’ on January 25, to equal the New Zealand record for an apprentice, held by Brent Thompson. Alice won, according to Cassidy when she had every excuse for being beaten. “She was just never properly balanced,” Cassidy said. “She always seemed to be flat." Cassidy could not be sure until quite close to home that Alice would head Kev’s Boy, but Greg Childs, on the other horse, was well aware 100 m

or more out of the danger from the Hastings mare. “I could see that blur of grey from the corner of my eye,” Childs said. “I was never confident.”

Alice will be back for the Auckland Cup, all going well, and it is reasonable to assume that Kev’s Boy will also be making a bid for the big one at Ellerslie. Certainly they will be two of the most discussed Cup horses as the next few weeks go by.

After Osmiridium led them to the finish post the first time, Antoinette took up the running in the Cup and carried the field along at a hard gallop until around the 600 m where she gave in quickly. A pretty fast time had been assured and Alice’s 2min 15.26 s was good going even if about a second outside Shamrock's winning gallop, on faster footing, last year.