Extra weight unlikely to trouble Noble River

Press, 23 September 1983, Page 11

Extra weight unlikely to trouble Noble River

J. J. BOYLE

The presence of Noble River in the field might make a second thought about the first leg of tomorrow’s Otago Racing Club T.A.B. double an unnecessary exercise.

Top weight of 57 should be well within the powers of the Wingatui-trained Noble Bijou gelding, winner of the Winter Cup at the Grand National meeting at the expense of a small but talented band of North Island challengers. Noble River won the 530,000 Riccarton race under 53.5, and the extra demands placed on his ability as a weight carrier tomorrow should be more than balanced by the fallaway in class. Of those in the line-up against him tomorrow, only Supremity and Caparo also ran in the big metric mile at Riccarton. Supremity

was seventh, and Caparo last. Wingatui is unlikely to duplicate Riccarton’s firmish footing for tomorrow’s race, but Noble River showed his prowess as a heavy track performer when he recorded back-to-back victories on his home track in the winter, at the Otago Hunt and Otago Racing Club meetings, each time at 1600 m. Noble River won the Otago club’s Wrightson Bloodstock Handicap by two lengths from Seafarer, which he met at level weights. Seafarer will meet Noble River 3kg better tomorrow,

but Mr Cecil Wallis’s Beaufort Sea gelding has to prove he will match the topweight for racing condition after an interrupted programme because of soreness, which restricted his campaign at the Grand National meeting to one start, and an unproductive one. From his place two kilograms further down the handicap Super Dude could □resent most problems for Noble River. Super Dude won the Dunedin Guineas on a soft track last spring, and his second to Sir Ashley fresh up at Oamaru last month puts him into this race as

one of the more likely improvers. Canterbury's brightest prospect will probably be Streetem, a big Rocky Mountain gelding from the stable of John Parsons. Streetem ran Pamdora close over 2100 m at the Timaru meeting last Saturday, and the drop back to 1600 m this time might not make excessive demands on his versatility. At eight years the Wash-dyke-trainea Goldcrest is the veteran of the field, but he acts young when the tracks get heavy, and toiled rewardingly for two wins in conditions to suit him at the Otago winter meeting.

Startle, a stablemate of Streetem, should pose problems for her southern rivals in the Salisbury Handicap, second leg of the T.A.B. double. She is seasoned, and her win at Washdyke last Saturday as well as her second behind Charles Beaufort at Oamaru last month have suggested she might be in for a rewarding season. Lord Venture has more doggedness than brilliance, but the demands on stamina made by 2200 m on a rainaffected Wingatui track should allow him to battle into one of the places.