Successful protest: win for River Town

Press, 16 March 1982, Page 33

Successful protest: win for River Town

By

J. J. BOYLE

A successful protest by the Wingatui ’jockey, Jim Pankhurst, at Ashburton might have helped to shape the Easter programme of River Town, a big. chestnut from Invercargill. % Five Over Five beat River Town by a length and a half in the secbrtd leg of the Ashburton T.A.B. double, but placihgs were reversed after the club’s jiitlicial committee considered a protest based on an incident before the home turn. Jim Pankhurst claimed after the race that the interference had cost his mount at least three lengths. Five Over Five’s rider, K. Burnett, was subsequently suspended from one day’s riding, after the stewards ruled that he had allowed his mount to shift inwards, checking River Town.

River Town is now winner of four races and $7900, in return for the $4BOO he cost at Trentham as a yearling. A member of the same family as Pinnacle Ridge, a high-class performer some 30 years ago, River Town is faced in partnership by Messrs Bob Anderson (Riverton), Don Stewart (Dipton), Don Wright and Ray Pankhurst (both of Invercargill). Mr Anderson is president of the Riverton Racing Club, and if the weather allows for a dry track at Easter, River Town will run in the Riverton Cup. An alternative programme for the five-year-old would be another trip back to Canterbury, this time for the Canterbury Jockey Club’s Autumn Plate.

Mr Wright, racing editor of the “Southland- Times,” had riot faced a galloper at Ashburton until. yesterday.

His decision to fly north to see the race become doubly pleasurable, although he said he would have been happier if the result had riot depended on a protest;' River Town had his spririg programme interrupted by a virus, but showed signs of a return to useful form again with a placed nin ori the first day of the Cromwell meeting. Five Over Five was the each-way favourite for yesterday’s race following a win and two seconds in his leadup starts. Frontline, the second favourite to win, struck a trouble spot in the race, and showed little later, finishing seventh. Arrjon, a second runner for the Jim Lalor stable, did better, finishing third. River Town was one of five horses brought north by the Invercargill trainer, Ray Pankhurst for yesterday’s meeting. • First runner for his stable on the programme was Cadmium, which won the Lauriston Plate with ease.

Cadmium is raced by Pankhurst in partnership with' Mr and Mrs R. C. Muschamp, and is a three-year-old son of King’s Palace and KamoniC; a daughter of Demonic. . Kopara and Crusader Knight did not contribute anything towards the costs of the trip, but Brimarg put the seal of success on the day by ' winning the Elgin Handicap less than an hour after the successful protest to give River Town first in the Coldstream Handicap. Like Cadmium and River Town, Brimarg was ridden by Jim Pankhurst, a cousin of the successful trainer. Pankhurst returned to the South Island on Saturday after riding the ill-fated Powley in the last race of her ca’reer at Trentham.