Jurango gets his chance in St Leger today

Press, 10 March 1984, Page 26

Jurango gets his chance in St Leger today

By

J. J. BOYLE

It’s New Zealand St Leger day at Trentham today, but two of the leading three-year-olds will be missing from that staying classic, and instead will run for a richer prize in the $60,000' Double Brown 1600. Connections of Abit Leica have resisted the temptation to subject their exciting young galloper to the demands of the longer races for three-year-olds. Riccarton's Gaffa tried for Wellington Derby hon-

ours, and ran down the track, but an unsettling experience in the starting gate could have contributed to the failure. i In the meantime this/ season’s New Zealand Two/ Thousand Guineas winner has extended his strong record at 1600 m, and on a track expected to suit him his second meeting with Abit Leica today will eingage lively interest. I Abit Leica was an impressive first and fading slightly from the

front end, a game fourth in the Wellington Stakes in January. ■ /Slight easing in the track /this week will jk) Gaffa’s cause no harm, but it will not put anw'gloom into the Abit Leica /camp. The Strat-ford-trained chestnut was performing on an easy track when he made his first show of public form-he was third—(at Awapuni in December. / Before Abit Leica and . /Gaffa clash with their elders in today’s trifecta race

and second leg of the Wellington Racing Club’s T.A.B. double, Jurango will be trying to justify firm favouritism for the New Zealand St Leger. I’m Henry, winner of the New Zealand and Wellington Derbys, is in the spelling paddock, giving Jurango a bright chance of improving on his seconds in both classics. Jurango showed frontrunning powers last time out to win the Avondale club’s Vineyards Plate

(2000 m This was his first race for six weeks, and it ■ will be surprising if he does not come up even better for today’s classic. It will be surprising, also, if connections of Jurango do not give earnest thought to a Sydney campaign—provided, of course, their good galloper wins or goes close today. At this stage they are considering a programme which would include the A.J.C. Derby and the Sydney Cup.