Australian horses relaxed

Press, 4 November 1983, Page 4

Australian horses relaxed

By JEFF SCOTT Scotch Notch, Willadios, and Steel Jaw, the threepronged Australian contingent for this month’s New Zealand Trotting Cup carnival at Addington, landed at Christchurch Airport at 7.55 ).m. yesterday from Mel>ourne, relaxed and ready to, take on their well performed New Zealand coun-

terparts. “The trip went smoothly and they travelled well,” said Graeme Lang, the trainer of the champion Victorian trotter, Scotch Notch, on arrival

Lang accompanied his star performer, while the Sydney 1 pacers, Willadios and. Steel Jaw, were in the care of a groom, Roger McNally, who has been attached for six'years stable of ..Brian Hancock, New South- Wales, 'who trains Willadios.

Hancock is scheduled to arrive on Sunday, having ' remained in Sydney to handle members of his team at Harold Park, Sydney, this evening.

Steel Jaw’s trainer, Norman Lang, also of New South Wales, arrived in Christchurch on Wednesday and was on hand to escort his charge off the aircraft last evening. The Australian horses will be stabled under constant security at Addington Raceway throughout the Cup meeting. “We will see if we can win some of that money that Kiwi took off us in the Melbourne Cup on Tuesday,” said the quietly spoken Lang. Scotch Notch, which won the Inter-Dominion Trotters’ Grand Final by six lengths in New Zealand record time for 2700 m at Auckland in

March, will not now run in Tuesday’s $lOO,OOO New Zealand Cup, but will instead contest the No Response Handicap for open-class trotters, in which she will start from 45m behind.

The six-year-old mare’s trip to New Zealand was in doubt after she stepped on a thorn earlier this week. However, she appears to have come to no harm.

“It is the sort of thing that can flare up after a few days, like a poison, but we would not be here if I did not think she would be all right,” Lang said. Lang is not keen to give her a hard run against the pacers on Tuesday in view of this week’s incident, and her big mission will now be the $50,000 Dominion Handicap onjthe final night of the meetin&on November 19. Steer Jaw, which has won 15 races, all since May, and

Willadios, the winner of 31 races and $159,701 in stakes, will add interest to next Tuesday’s New Zealand Cup. Willadios is a “brilliant beginner, and, although not all that brave, is hard to beat given the right run,” according to his groom. The standing start in Tuesday’s Cup will be a new experience for the tall, rawboned Steel Jaw.

“He has never had a standing start in his career of 29 starts,” his trainer, Lang, said yesterday.

“It is a little bit of a concern, but he is the sort of horse that should go away reasonably well.”

Lang has given Steel Jaw barrier practice leading up to coming to New Zealand and he performed torily at a Sunday g/m--khana recently.