Unbeaten Red Tempo should extend record at Levin

Press, 24 November 1982, Page 42

Unbeaten Red Tempo should extend record at Levin

Special correspondent Wellington Red Tempo’s reputation goes right on the line at Levin later this evening when he faces the twin challenges of Our Flight and Clansman in the 1982 Bayer Classic, Levin s outstanding contribution to the racing season.

Red Tempo will come to Levin for the second time. His reputation was high when he won the Ryder Stakes last July and in two races since he has won at Cambridge and then the Great Northern Guineas at Ellerslie last month. Those have been his only races at three. Meanwhile Nicolove, Our Flight and Clansman have been busying round the race tracks, with Clansman winning the 2000 Guineas at Riccarton, Our Flight the One Thousand

Guineas, and Nicolove the Hawke’s Bay Guineas and the Canterbury Gold Cup. Nicolove is not at Levin today, but Our Flight and Clansman are. Clansman won the John Grigg and only once, after a bad trip, did he fail and that was at Wellington. He went home and won at North Canterbury and then most gamely beat Our Flight in the first of his Guineas races. Our Flight has won more money than most. She took out the Desert Gold—Well-

ington Guineas double and then the 1000 Guineas. Added to that she is trained on the track and her seven starts have brought five wins and two seconds this term. Her form is so good that nine times out of 10 she would be a hot favourite, but Red Tempo comes as the current star. Bruce and Robert Priscott have been patience personified with Red Tempo, the striking three-year-old son of Mussorgsky and though he has drawn out a little at an

awkward start, he looks to have the class to overcome. Last year Levin gathered Altitude, Noble Heights, Volare and Isle of Man, and this year they have the best three on current form. The dominance of the trio is such that prices about the rest of the field will be strong. Freewheeling, third in the 2000 Guineas and the Canterbury Gold Cup, Reveillia and Stage Hit, so impressive at Woodville, have some claims, but the major threat could come

from a couple of fillies, Passakiss and Beaufort Lass. Passakiss looked most impressive . when running on late in the Desert Gold Stakes and she gave Our Flight a decent race when second in the One Thousand Guineas. Beaufort Lass has won just once this season, to go with the six that made her the best of her sex last term. She. fought hard for third and fourth in the fillies races at Trentham and Riccarton and it may be that the course at Levin could suit her.