Peake has reason to respect judgment

Press, 1 March 1984, Page 25

Peake has reason to respect judgment

By

J. J. BOYLE

The Takanini jockey, David Peake, has been engaged to ride Noble Boa in the U.D.C. Finance Handicap at Trentham on Saturday. Peake probably jumped at the chance to ride any horse who bears the conditioning skills of the veteran Wingatui trainer, Arthur Didham. In 1977, Didham approached Peake with the offer of a ride on another member of his team at a Trentham carnival. Didham was a stranger to Peake, but the Aucklander made some discreet inquiries about the Wingatui trainer’s track record. On learning from an experienced Trentham regular that Didham would bow to few if any for ability to

place a horse to the best advantage, Peake took the mount on a four-year-old he had never seen in action. The horse he was engaged for was Art World, a four-year-old by the top sire, Mellay. In Peake’s hands, Art World brilliantly won the Douro Handicap and, five days later, the City Handicap. Noble Boa will be flown north from Christchurch today with Miles Better, Dig In, and The Dimple. Miles Better and The Dimple will be two of Noble Boa’s rivals in the first leg of the T.A.B. double on Saturday. Dig In will try for a richer prize, the $40,000 2ZB Golden Mile. Dig In will be without the services of his regular rider, Jim Collett, on Saturday.

Collett would have been unable to make the weight of 50.5 kg and instead, will ride at Cromwell. His replacement on Dig In will be the experienced North Island horseman, Jim Walker.

Seven years ago Walker partnered the Riccartontrained Nuriootpa to win the Thompson Handicap, the 1600 m race that preceded the 2ZB Golden Mile on the opening day of the Wellington autumn meeting. Nuriootpa was owned by Mr Don Cameron and trained by George Humphries, who is now living in retirement in Blenheim. Mr Cameron also owns Clansman, one of the stronger South Island hopes in the first leg of Saturday’s T.A.B. double at Trentham. The mount on Clansman has also gone to Walker.