Riccarton jockey boosts stong record in doubles races

Press, 14 May 1984, Page 30

Riccarton jockey boosts stong record in doubles races

By J.

J. BOYLE

The Riccarton jockey, Grant Davison, took sure aim on the Amberley Racing Club’s T.A.B. double on Saturday, kicking Handsome Heir and Super Comet home to easy wins.

Then he gave himself another confidence booster before his departure for Queensland on May 24 by cleverly guiding Durack to a narrow win in the last race on the programme. It was not a break through for Davison in landing a T.A.B. double. Nor was it his best tally for a day’s riding. He rode four winners at Ashburton September 4, 1982, and the winners of the T.A.B. double, Firefly and Bilberry, figured prominently in that tally. This year Davison started on a golden autumn day at Trentham on March 10 when he won the Chalmers Stakes on Miles Better. Before March ended he won another feature race and first leg on Julie’s Boy

at Oamaru. On April 2 he won the Waimate Cup on Anticipate, on April 16 the Rangiora Handicap on Handsome Heir, on April 23 the Canterbury Jockey Club’s 3ZB Easter Classic on Miles Better, his hopeful now for big staying races on a winter campaign in Brisbane. A Queensland campaign was also being considered for Handsome Heir until he bruised a leg and missed a start in the 3ZB Classic on Easter Monday. His Riccarton trainer, John Bourne, will now plan a South Island winter campaign for his five-year-old, but he might have some regrets about leaving the Heir Apparent gelding behind when there are rewarding opportunities in Queensland for horses cap-

able of getting a bit of ground.

Bourne will take Noble Note to Australia for rich sprint races at the Queensland carnival and he, like Miles Better, will be ridden by Davison. On Saturday Davison took heart from Handsome Heir’s free preliminary, and never had a worrying moment in the race. He had the favourite Charles Beaufort in his sights from the time they took position early.

Charles Beaufort had filled the inside trailing position, running a bit too keenly for comfort, and he could find nothing extra when Handsome Heir was brought forward for his challenge from the next line.

Handsome Heir achieved this, his seventh win, by two

comfortable lengths, but Charles Beaufort only just lasted for second from the faster-finishing Steel King.

Dreamville came from second to last for fourth only a neck away, then there was a short length to Top Blend, which, as usual, had tried to do it all in front. The former North Islander, Super Comet, also recorded his seventh victory in beating the sprinters hands down in the second leg of the T.A.B. double. But this was his first win from the Riccarton stable of Bevan Laming, who purchased the six-year-old when he was campaigning Natural Star in the Auckland district last summer.

Super Comet rallied brilliantly after being checked

at about half way in Saturday’s race, and won running away by two lengths from Sharleta, the outsider of the field of 10.

Super Comet is owned by Messrs Roy Campbell, Jim Craig, Brian Dorgan, and Bernie O’Driscoll.

They had hoped to race him on the third day of the Marlborough meeting last week, but the planned hit-and-run campaign was aborted because the footing at Waterlea was not expected to suit him.

Sharleta, Ruby’s Boy, and Soaring High were strong finishers in the next three positions behind Super Comet on Saturday, Soaring High possibly losing a divi-dend-bearing chance by losing a length at the start.