Firpo belies his age

Press, 8 September 1982, Page 34

Firpo belies his age

J. J. BOYLE

Firpo is nine but showed the jaunty qualities of horses half his age to make a top weight’s triumph of the P.G.G. Ashburton Cup yesterday. This was his seventeenth win, and his third since Mrs Greta Lalor bought him in August of last year. Mrs Lalor’s husband, Tom, has trained Firpo for all his racing. He put him to hurdling last winter and met with

immediate success, but his owner does not plan to switch him back to hurdling , this-year “not while he is , racing as well as he is at present.” The Chilean, Tito Poblete, found a trailing run for Firpo i from the start in yesterday’s ; race, and had little to coni cern himself about when he urged the nuggety Pep geld- , ing into the lead early in the i run home. Firpo gave Poblete one of ; his early wins when he ' settled in New Zealand, and

a later victory for this combination was in an Invercargill Gold Cup. Handsome Heir, the second favourite, improved several places and picked up several lengths in the last 600 metres for his second a length from Firpo. “I got the run when I wanted it, but we were not getting much room for a while when I was .getting him away from the inside,” Handsome Heir’s rider, Ron McCann, said later. Princess Nardia, after

pacemaking, saved third by a neck from the hot favourite, John Peel.

Jim Cassidy thought John Peel was going well enough 600 m out to give him confidence. “But he did not have enough kick there when I asked him for something extra in the straight,” Cassidy said. Of those further down in the field an excuse could be made only for Black Rule. He reared in the stalls and lost at least 10 metres when the field was sent away.