Kiwi snatches cup victory with brilliant late bid

Press, 24 January 1983, Page 24

Kiwi snatches cup victory with brilliant late bid

From

J. J. BOYLE

Wellington The Luptons have had racing and hunting links with the Waverley District extending back to the last century. On Saturday. Kiwi contributed a brilliant chapter to the family saga with his nose victory in the Wellington Cup.

With skilful assistance from Jim Cassidy, who quietly celebrated his twentieth birthday the day before. Kiwi came from last to rose out the favourite. Maurita.

Kiwi is a five-year-old gelding by Blarney Kiss from Malrayvis (by Messmate) and is raced in partnership by Ewan and Anne Lupton. Ewan Lupton, aged 62, a farmer, still rides Kiwi in much of his work around the home farm.

“My wife made all this possible.” Mr Lupton said after their stayer’s spectacular cloud-dropping performance at Trentham on Saturday.

Anne Lupton has a liking for the stock of Blarney Kiss and a fondness for chestnuts. When she attended a Dalgety sale four years ago she found the combination she was looking for when she

inspected a youngster in one of the sales boxes.

She followed her fancy when she went into the ring and was emboldened to have her first try to buy a horse at auction when bidding faltered just short of the four-figure level. At $lOOO Kiwi became Lupton property. Now the farm-trained Kiwi has won seven races and close to $90,000. Kiwi is the third horse to carry the Lupton colours in a Wellington Cup. Re-Echo, one of the others, had to settle for fifth, but he won 10 races over shorter trips. Re-Echo’s dam, Gay Echo, raced with success over country for Ewan Lupton about 40 years ago, and became the grandam of Big Gamble, which won a Wellington Cup, and Chumson, the champion ’chaser of his year.

Kiwi gave Jim Cassidy his first winning ride in the Wellington Cup at his fifth attempt to win the race. His best result previously was a second on Zamalou. “I knew we had a lot to do in the last 600 m with the whole field ahead of us, but he felt so strong I was confident we would, with

average luck, get right into the finish." Cassidy said. "There was no way we could win if he had tried to loop the field. It was a case of sweating it out and waiting for the run through, and the gaps opened up for us just at the right moment. While Cassidy was back at the tail of the field with Kiwi, Greg Childs had the favourite, Maurita, beautifully positioned three places back on the inside, in perfect position td mount her challenge.

The Levin-owned four-year-old, one of the youngest runners, struck the front going strongly and hundreds took up a cry in anticipation of a favourite's win, and an overdue cup victory for a female.

Cassidy had angled Kiwi for his final challenge on Maurita’s left, and his daring ride paid off in the last few strides. ■

Mac Loud made dogged headway, in the hands of Phillip Smith, for third a length and a quarter back. Daisy was hard by fourth, a gallant effort by a mare which had tried to achieve a top weight’s victory from the front end.

Bold Monarch shaded the New Zealand Cup winner, Sirtain. for fifth. Bound to Honour raised some hopes when she made a bid for the lead on the home turn, but as was the case in the Auckland Cup, she could not keep up her run to the end of 3200 m. Mary Wake, the only South Island runner after a late withdrawal. made with Supremity, was a respectable eighth. But Rama was a weakening ninth. Her failure to get the trip probably stemmed from the keenness of her gallop out in the open in the front group for a long way. Von Cettes. the second favourite, was another expensive failure. The rangy bay settled to his race well down the field, but was struggling vainly to get in closer touch early in the run home. The jockeys who partnered the first two horses in the Wellington Cup were to the fore again in the finish of the Telegraph Handicap, second leg of the Wellington Racing Club’s T.A.B. double. This time, though, Greg Childs, riding another four-year-old mare in So Modest, had a taste of success at the

? expense of Jim Cassidy on ■, Diplomante. There was a length bei tween the winner and i runner-up, but little to ? choose between them on peri formance. 1 So Modest was in a con- ; tending position from the start, but Diplomante was i shuttled back through the ; field before half way, and i looked right out of it'in the ‘ run to the straight. So Modest is by So Vain, sire also of So' Dandy, a ; battling third in the Tele- . graph and winner of the , Auckland Railway Handicap the time before. Mr Tom Scott, a retired Matamata farmer, bred So Modest from his Rangong mare, Darilyn Kaye, which lost an eye in an accident as a youngster and never raced. Mr Scott’s racing partners are Maurie and Mary Ray, of New Plymouth, and Mrs Ivy Young, of Matamata. who share his enthusiasm for the game of bowls. So Modest’s most important win earlier for the Crawford stable at Matamata was in The Concorde at Avondale.