Pall over Cup triumph

Press, 9 November 1983, Page 1

Pall over Cup triumph

By

G. K. YULE

The exhilaration which accompanied the recordbreaking run by the New South Wales horse, Steel Jaw, in the New Zealand Cup at Addington Raceway yesterday turned to sadness for the crowd, and in particular for the many Australians on the course, when Mr Ossie Marr, of Sydney, a part-owner of the horse, collapsed in the birdcage. Mr Marr, who was celebrating his seventieth birthday, had received the trophy attached to the race a few minutes earlier and then spoken to reporters before collapsing. He was given immediate medical attention before being taken to Christchurch Hospital. Mr Marr was last evening reported to be seriously ill in intensive care.

When receiving the

trophy from Mrs Rana Taylor, wife of the president of the Metropolitan Club, Mr Marr, a retired grocer, said, “You came over and pinched our Cup last week,” referring to Kiwi’s success in the Melbourne Cup, “and we’ve come over and pinched yours.” In the most outstanding display of front-running seen in a New Zealand Cup since Gold Bar’s victory in 1945, Steel Jaw, driven by his trainer, Norman Lang, of Mittagong, some 100 km south-west of Sydney, powered along in the lead and was still under restraint some 800 m out. From then on he was complete master of the race and was out by 9¥z lengths at the winning post after pacing the 3200 m in 4min 5.35, well inside the previous best for the race of 4min

7.25, set by Hands Down in 1980. His win was the first by an Australian-owned and trained horse since Sheik in 1924. His time also bettered the New Zealand record of 4min 5.85, set by Delightful Lady at Alexandra Park in 1980. Mr Stan Everett, of Sydney, the other part-owner, did not travel to Christchurch to see his horse race. Steel Jaw has had a meteoric rise to prominence. He was originally owned and trained in Melbourne where he was twice placed from 11 starts. He was bought by the partners last March and started on a winning sequence of 15 at the end of May. He has been placed in two of his other three starts for them. None of his other races had been beyond 2400 m, but Lang was not concerned

about his ability to master the 3200 m. “I always worked him over that distance and it was just a case of seeing if he could go fast enough,” he said. The New Zealand contenders were completely humbled, Camelot overcoming a poor beginning to beat Bonnie’s Chance for second, with Ben, the lone Auckland horse in the race, fourth.

The other New South Wales candidate, Willadios, finished last after racing three back on the rails for most of the way. “He just had no gas left turning for home,” said his driver, Brian Hancock, who will return to Sydney today.

The crowd of 17,597 was down slightly on last year’s 18,240. Almost $4 million, by far the biggest amount bet on a trotting meeting, was invested on and off-course.

On-course betting amounted to $1,634,180, an increase of $120,147. This is the biggest amount handled at a trotting meeting and has been surpassed only by the Auckland Racing Club, which had a turnover of $1,705,783 last January. Off-course betting, including $276,186 on the treble, amounted to $2,315,248, an increase of $332,933. This was also a record for a trotting meeting and brought the total turnover for the day to $3,949,428. Yesterday marked the first Cup day on which the new jetbet system operated. There were no delays of consequence, and club officials were delighted with the results. The only section in which there appeared to be much congestion was on the members’ stand.