Verner on target

Press, 8 March 1982, Page 25

Verner on target

By

J. J. BOYLE

Takanini’s Ray Verner, one of New Zealand’s most talented trainers, secured a possible with his two runners at Trentham on Saturday. Verner also had five runners at Ellerslie, but he

was at Trentham to saddle Givenchy and Aulyn for back-to-back victories. Both were odds-on favourites. Givenchy carrying $34,083 of a win pool of $73,834 on the North Island Challenge Stakes, and Aulyn

$23,188 of the win total of $42,382 on the Plunket Nursery Handicap. To cap the day, the Hast-ings-owned Gold 1 Hope won the last race on the card at Ellerslie for the Verner stable.

Verner will now point Givenchy and Aulyn for major races on the third day of the Wellington autumn meeting next Saturday. Givenchy will run in the weight-for-age Chardon Mile, a race that will also be on the programme of his stablemate, Prince Majestic, if the ground is easy. Verner was most enthusiastic on Saturday about the future of the two-year-old Auk filly, Aulyn, which is now unbeaten in three starts. “She hasn’t beaten much yet. but she has shown me enough to make me believe she is a bit special,” Verner said after the filly won by three and a half lengths on Saturday. Aulyn’s dam, Helyn, was a winning daughter of Sobig. Last spring she foaled a filly to the champion stallion, Noble Bijou. "What would she be worth, bred as she is?” Verner asked on Saturday. “She-could be a $250,000 filly if she has everything right about her.”