Repeat of Waikato hurdles likely today

Press, 2 June 1984, Page 27

Repeat of Waikato hurdles likely today

Special correspondent Auckland While it is hard to believe they could again have the finish as much to themselves, Outright and Cozi Kid were so dominant last time, in the Waikato Hurdles, that they command the greatest respect for the Tanalith Great Northern Hurdles at the Auckland Racing Club’s meeting at Ellerslie today. There was not much between Outright and Cozi Kid at Te Rapa, so little in fact that it was only the better jump by Outright at the last hurdle that brought him home first. The winning in the same year of the Waikato Hurdles and the Great Northern, though not without precedent is unusual. Success again for Outright, a six-year-old

gelding from Hawera, would be specially notable on that account. Cobland, in 1974, became one of the few horses of the last 30 years or more to complete the hurdles double. Last year Jean Rapier came second at Te Rapa, behind Floodlight, before winning at Ellerslie. It has to be said, however, that only two of the Great Northern Hurdles winners between Cobland and Jean Rapier had tackled the Waikato Hurdles, one of them Execute, which finished fourth in the Te Rapa race, and Leyland, the Waikato Hurdles runner-up. Of the 17 horses in today’s Great Northern, six, besides Outright and Cozi Kid, ran in the Waikato Hurdles and judged by that form all will be held safely again by the other two. The best of them at Te

Rapa was Gogong, in third place. The other five finished fourth (Isotope), fifth (Tun Doon), ninth (Kanamint), tenth (Floodlight), and thirteenth (Mondo Mel). The latest showings of Floodlight have been distinctly moderate, certainly nothing like those he put on last winter when, in six successive starts over hudles he gathered three wins, a second and a third. Stipulation, the cotopweight for today with Floodlight, and 10 years old, is in good form again, though, with a win in a jumpers’ flat at Rotorua last Saturday.. Stipulation finished fourth in the Great Northern Hurdles last year. Whether, at this age, he can improve sufficiently to take the big race, must be doubtful. With his owner-trainer, Ken Browne, doing so well,

Stipulation will have a good following nevertheless. He is a fine, bold jumper when in top form. One of his displays the season before last, to win at Ellerslie, was quite outstanding. Seeyoulater, when he finished third over hurdles on the first day of the Waikato meeting last month, looked on the way back to winning form. When he went so impressively at the Great Northern Trials at Ellerslie on Tuesday he became another to enter discussions on the Great Northern. Now, six years old, Seeyouiater scored a hat-trick of hurdling wins, at Ellerslie (twice) and Paeroa. He may be found lacking a bit of recent racing for this one but if the conditions are less testing than they can be, the going not too" heavy, he could well finish in the money.