Miles Better clinches Aust. trip with handsome win

Press, 24 April 1984, Page 32

Miles Better clinches Aust. trip with handsome win

By

J. J. BOYLE

Miles Better, 10 years young, yesterday clinched a trip to Queensland major Brisbane winter carnivals.

“It’s getting cold these mornings — a Brisbane trip has something going for it,” said Myles Johnson, the owner-trainer of one of New Zealand’s most remarkable veterans, after a dashing top weight’s win in the Canterbury Jockey Club’s 3ZB Easter Classic at Riccarton yesterday. Mr Johnson, an Addington baker, campaigned his home-bred Bellborough gelding in Brisbane in 1982, and the best individual return was a second at Eagle Farm.

“Things did not work out too well on that trip, but I’ll have the feel of the place

when we go back this time,” Mr Johnson said yesterday.

Miles Better is now the winner of 21 races and about $150,000 in stakes.

His golden patch of form this season has been a handsome return for the patience and skills shown with him when he was recovering from leg surgery last year.

Miles Better made easy work of mastering his 58kg yesterday. In the hands of Grant Davison, who will also ride him in Brisbane, he came storming home and won by a length and a quarter from Charles Beaufort.

The Wingatui-trained Kade outfinished the favourite, Page Boy, for third, and Top Blend, which had been responsible for a strong pace, was close by fifth. "I was confident he would win that one the way he acted when we took him to the beach last week,” Grant Davison said after yesterday’s race.

Davison said he planned the race to get away from the inside rail as soon as possible. “With no false rail up I made sure I was going to be one possie away from the fence so I could go either way if necessary,” said Davison, whose autumn

record on “first leg” winners was a formidable one even before yesterday. Noble Note, which outclassed his rivals with an easy win in the Templeton Handicap for open sprinters, is another notable Riccarton-trained galloper to be campaigned in Queensland.

The Noble Bijou four-year-old also made light work of his topweight of 57.5 kg yesterday, cruising clear at the 200 m and winning untested by two and three-quarter lengths, returning a smart Imin 9.81 s for the 1200 m.

Noble Note is now likely

for racing at the to be the only horse that his trainer, John Bourne, will be taking across the Tasman. Handsome Heir, which was also being aimed at a Queensland campaign, was a late scratching from the 3ZB Easter Classic when it was discovered he was lame after being taken to the track yesterday morning. It is thought he lashed out and has fractured a small bone in a leg. Noble Note leaves Riccarton for Auckland on May 16, and is to be flown to Australia two days later. Grant Davison will also be his rider when he races in Australia.