Silver Bayou impresses

Press, 22 June 1984, Page 19

Silver Bayou impresses

By

J. J. BOYLE

Silver Bayou will race on the flat at Ashburton next Tuesday, but a switch to hurdling might not be far distant.

He earned a qualifying ticket with a competent display over eight hurdles at Riccarton yesterday.

The Noble Bijou gelding from John Parsons’ stable was ridden by Danny Frye and accompanied by Fighting Chief (S. Waddell).

The pace was strong from the start of yesterday’s trial. Silver Bayou trailed his companion early, but ran up strongly near the end, and completed an encouraging display with a fast, clean leap at the eighth flight. Gary Phillips, who is having a tussle with David Walsh for the jockey’s premiership, will ride Silver Bayou in the Bayer Rintal Handicap, the second leg of

the T.A.B. double and T.A.B. treble, at Ashburton. Walsh will also be at Ashburton and will ride Silver Print in the Bayer Rintal Handicap. Walsh rode Soaring High, an expensive failure, on a firm track at Oamaru. He has now switched to Blyme for the Stewards’ Handicap, the feature flat race at Ashburton.

Phillips will now ride Soaring High, and might reasonably hope for something better now that some easing in the tracks seems likely.

Walsh’s other mounts at Ashburton include Irish Indian, Lezulea, and Bartsky. He had an engagement for Bartsky at Oamaru, but when that four-year-old was scratched because of the firmness of the track, Walsh was snapped up for Lezulea, and the combination proved successful.