Outsider snatches Oakleigh Plate

Press, 29 February 1984, Page 39

Outsider snatches Oakleigh Plate

NZPA staff correspondent Melbourne Reputations took a tumble at Caulfield on Saturday when the unfancied Mighty Avalanche roared home and snatched a laststrike win in the $lOO,OOO Oakleigh Plate. The five-year-old with only a last start sixth to recommend him, turned on a brilliant 200 m burst to take the 1100 m sprint by a nose from Harpagus, with the Tasmanian mare, Bow Mistress, a nose away third. Among the also-rans was top sprinter, Ideal Planet, which was fourth, the New Zealand-bred Feeling Fit, Sculptor, Razor Sharp and Top Post. The measure of Mighty Avalanche’s victory is that

the Kaoru Star five-year-old entire completed the distance in 63.35, only 0.2 s outside Zephyr Bay’s record for the 1100 m. His jockey, Stephen Burridge, waved his whip in triumph going past the post for his first big-race win, and the gesture cost him a $lOO fine from the stewards. One horse that was originally intended for the Oakleigh was the New Zealander, Mr Illusion, but after his failure a few days earlier in the Lightning Stakes at Flemington, his trainer, Bruce Marsh, switched him to the $35,000 St Georges Stakes instead. The New Zealand 1000 m record-holder had never raced over the 1600 m distance before and was not disgraced in coming home

fifth, but Marsh is now understood to be reconsidering plans to start the Sovereign Edition entire in his main mission, the Newmarket. The St Georges was won by another Sovereign Edition son, Penny Edition, which has now made it two in a row after taking out the Blarney Stakes the previous week. Second home was the 1982 Meibourne-Caulfield Cups double winner, Gurner’s Lane, with the former top New Zealand colt, Beechcraft, boosting his stocks for his coming Sydney campaign with a solid third. The former New Zealand rider, Brent Thomson, had a successful day at Caulfield with two wins, two seconds, and a third.