Azranee could improve family’s Wellington Cup record

Press, 22 January 1982, Page 15

Azranee could improve family’s Wellington Cup record

By

J. J. BOYLE

Two of the very best winners of the Wellington Cup in the last 40 years have been Kindergarten and Golden Souvenir, half-brothers and grandsons of Adornment.

Azranee, another descendant of Adornment, has impressive credentials for his attempt to improve the family link with the historic race at Trentham tomorrow.

He will be having his first try at the distance but has won up to 2400 m. and has rocketed into popularity with wins at his last two starts. Azranee, is a six-year-old son of the stoutly-bred Azemann. and has earned full marks for versatility in his rewarding New Year programme.

On January 2 he made nearly all the running to win the Auckland Racing Club's Nathans Memorial on his home track at Ellerslie. Last Saturday he was back to left-handed racing for the Marton Cup. but the switch was easy for him. He killed off speed with superior speed from the front end. and his 2:12.1 for the 2200 m was a course record and one of the best middle-distance performances of the season Seven wins

Azranee has now won seven races, and four of his victories have been on Australian courses, one of them being in the Summer Cup (2400 m at Rosehill two years ago. He was prepared for his Summer Cup victory by Mervyn Ritchie, but is now trained by Mervyn's son, Gary, for a syndicate of 10. If he wins tomorrow Azranee will become the seventh successful six-year-old in 12 years. Other highlyregarded six-year-olds in the field are Koiro Trelay. Galaxv Lass, and Ruanuku.

Koiro Trelay is top weight with 54. He carried 53.5 when he won the Wellington Cup last season to cap off a splendid cups double.

He was taken to Melbourne last spring in a bid to become the first to win the New Zealand. Wellington and Melbourne Cups treble but

he pulled himself ragged in the big one at Flemington and never really got into the race.

His weight for this one does not set him a gigantic task, and the quality of the opposition is not daunting, but everyone would have wished for something more like a show of form from him in his New Year racing since his return from Melbourne.

Ruanuku's third with a run from far back in the Auckland Cup was the run of a stayer, and it might have assured him of Wellington Cup favouritism if he had not failed to do-better than sixth in Azranee's Marton Cup in the meantime.

Galaxy Lass, as winner of three of’ her last four starts up to 2200 m. is prepared at

Hawera by Walter McEwan, who has a great record with stayers, but has so far found the Wellington Cup elusive. Southern hopefuls Five-year-olds have won four of the last six Welington Cups. There has not been a female in that line-up. nor a South Island-trained stayer, but Firefly, from Riccarton. and Joyarty. from Wingatui. are being looked to with some confidence to fill gaps in the record. Firefly has won the Dunedin and Waikouati Cups at her two latest starts.

Joyarty. whose dam. Artifice. was an Auckland Cup winner, has made steady improvement with each race on a carefully-planned programme leading to this one. On the way through she won

at Vincent after a third in Miles Better's Invercargill Gold Cup.

One of the more interesting of the North Island five-year-olds is Hagenblu. He is by Copenhagen 11. whose best runners have excelled at shorter distances, but is from a daughter of the great Le Filou. and is a half-brother to Soeasy. a winner up to 2700 m in Australia.

Hagenblu won impressively at 1800 m in a lower grade for Paddy Busuttin's Foxton stable at Riccarton in November. In the meantime he has won twice more, and at his last start he finished like a stayer for fourth over 2200 m at the Pahiatua meeting on January 9. Payco. the Manawatu Cup winner, and a winner at sensational odds over a

middle distance at Trentham a year ago. is another five-year-old likely to be high on the list of fancied Central Districts hopefuls.

Four-year-olds have found success elusive since 1973. Rustler's vear.

Short Stops, a South Island light-weight with promising credentials, belongs to that age group and will get a start if there is one scratching.

She is by Noble Bijou, and runs her races in the style of a promising stayer

Avitt is a promising Waikato-trained four-year-old assured of a start, and likely to have solid backing from those who set great store by winning form on the testing Stratford course.