Red Tempo beats Strawberry Road

Press, 5 September 1983, Page 23

Red Tempo beats Strawberry Road

NZPA Melbourne Australia’s richest weight-for-age race, the W. S. Cox Plate, is shaping as the championship round in the Red Tempo v. Strawberry Road battle.

The former New Zealander, Red Tempo, levelled the score with Strawberry Road in the $35,000 Memsie Stakes (1400 m at Caulfield on Saturday with a determined three-quarter length victory. It was revealed after the race that the $275,000 Cox Plate (2000 m at Moonee Valley on October 22 is the only remaining race this spring in which Red Tempo and Strawberry Road are likely to meet. The trainer, Colin Hayes, said he would now give Red Tempo his next.start in the $104,500 Marlboro Cup (1400 m at Caulfield on September 22 rather than take on Strawberry Road in the Centennial Stakes at Moonee Valley one week earlier.

Neither horse will follow the original plan of running in next Saturday’s Craiglee Stakes at Flemington. Red Tempo (2-to-l) turned the length and a half defeat inflicted by Strawberry Road in the Freeway Stakes at Moonee Valley a fortnight ago into a three-quar-ter length win on Saturday. Strawberry Road (l-to-2) had raced to a two-length

lead with 250 m to run but weakened in the last 50m to finish two lengths ahead of third placegetter, Holsam. Hayes said there could be no excuses for Strawberry Road’s defeat but added

that he was not prepared to declare Red Tempo a better horse. “Strawberry Road will be harder to beat in the Caulfield Cup,” he said. “There is nothing between the two horses over sprint distances but when Strawberry Road gets into a race over a bit more ground he is likely to have an edge.” The winning jockey, Brent Thomson, said he had been prepared to concede defeat when Strawberry Road raced two lengths clear in the home straight. Gary Willetts, the rider of Strawberry Road, said he was “dumbfounded” by his defeat. Red Tempo was at home on the heavy track but Thomson said the horse

would be “just as good if not better on top of the ground.” For Willetts, the chance to ride Strawberry Road is unlikely to come again. His regular jockey, Mick Dittman, will be in the saddle when Strawberry Road has his next start, probably in the Centennial Stakes at Moonee Valley on September 17.