Avana could test colts in Guineas today

Press, 19 September 1984, Page 37

Avana could test colts in Guineas today

Special correspondent Wellington The Okawa-Paramount Hawke’s Bay Guineas, worth $30,000 this year, and the new placement of the Ormond Memorial will be features of the racing at Hastings today.

These two races make up the T.A.B. double, and although both fields are relatively light numerically the quality should compensate for the lack of numbers. There has been rain these last few days and track conditions seem likely to be 3, although the foreis for some clearing. The Guineas is the second leg of the double. It will attract real attention and seems dominated by the filly Avana, which beat Frothers and Great Chevalier with ease in the Wanganui Guineas. It is an important race for the Avaray filly. A win today will give her two legs of a triple crown worth $lOO,OOO. The third leg of the series is the Innsbrook Wellington Guineas, which will be decided at Trentham on October 13.

Last season Avana won one of her eight races. Her two starts this season have yielded a third at Matamata and her Wanganui Guineas victory. Great Chevalier, Kingdom Bay, Our Buddy and Fogelberg look the main threats to Avana. Great Chevalier won four, including the Ryder Stakes last season. He started this term with a victory in the Foxbridge Plate and since his Wanganui Guineas third finished sixth in the weight-for-age Tim Rogers Stakes, won by Frothers, on the same course. Kingdom Bay was the second best rated two-year-old last season. He won the Evergreen Stakes at Trentham and in his last juvenile race went under by a shorthead to Vin d’Amour in the Sires’ Produce Stakes at Awapuni. Since his fifth in the Wan-

ganui Guineas, Kingdom Bay recorded a victory over Our Buddy on a rain affected track at Feilding. Our Buddy, which won at Foxton before his defeat by Kingdom Bay at Feilding, will be at peak in an attempt to give Jim Cassidy his first winning ride in the event. Fogelberg, although lightly raced, won two lower-grade races this season before finishing fourth at Feilding last time out. The Ormond Memorial will have its second running this year. The last contest was won by Commissionaire in April. Commissionaire, which has won the race in the last two years, is, according to his trainer, Noel Harris, far from a certain starter today unless the track dries out quickly.

Koiro Corrie May, which has been re-branded recently, will miss this one. Her next race will be the Whakatane Cup at Tauranga on Saturday.

Kiwi is not known for his deeds at weight-for-age, but a strong showing in this one will see him on the road to Melbourne. Fountaincourt, Prince of Wales, Suttle Knight and Tippler are the other Melbourne hopefuls and the best among them might be Fountaincourt, which has recorded a weight-for-age win over McGinty. Decanka and Walksfar, both mares, are the “form” runners jn the field. Decanka won under weight-for-age conditions at Avondale last time out while Walksfar was second in the Foxbridge Plate and third in the Tim Rogers Stakes in her only two starts this season.