Manchu earns trip to Riccarton

Press, 23 October 1984, Page 40

Manchu earns trip to Riccarton

Special correspondent Wellington The tough little grey, Manchu, booked his passage to Riccarton with a win in yesterday’s Wellington Handicap, the first leg of the Wellington Racing Club’s T.A.B. double. But while Manchu was splendid in winning, the Melbourne Cup hopes of the Levin horses, Imaprince and Rose and Thistle, received setbacks. Rose and Thistle was tenth and Imaprince fifteenth. While the former will still go to Melbourne, the trainer, Mick Preston, yesterday all but ruled out a cup run for the four-year-old, Imaprince. Imaprince raced toward the tail of the field as usual but after a promising move early his run fell into a heap. “I couldn’t take him on that,” Preston said. Before Imaprince had been booked to go and in spite of langishing in the lower order, forty-second,

inquiries showed that he had every chance of getting in the cup field. Yesterday’s efforts changed that. “I’ll ring the owner (John Bell, in California) but the horse couldn’t go now. I like to space his races a fortnight apart,” said Preston. If Mr Bell agrees, Imaprince will stay home and be spelled for a short time. He will then be set for New Year racing with the Auckland and Wellington Cups as long term objectives. Rose and Thistle is still booked in spite of a shocker for him. He was given every chance in the trail, but was under pressure before the turn when the gaps opened. “If he made a habit of it I suppose we would hfive to be concerned, but one failure is not enough to get worried about,” the trainer, Errol Skelton, said. The rider, Bill Skelton, felt, the horse. may have struck .himself but there is no visible sign of any dam-

age.. The minor placegetters, Third Degree and Sirtain, also seem likely to go to Riccarton. Manchu is trained by Noel Eales, who plans to take a team of at least four, Manchu, Commissionare, Silver Elm, and Wellson. Manchu will tackle the Benson and Hedges Cup before the New Zealand Cup. He has won eight races, all for Eales, in two separate campaigns. He was sold after a Derby placing, and sent to the Sydney stable of Paul Sutherland. That he did not do well was a surprise to Eales. Manchu has settled in well since coming back to New Zealand and he was helped a good deal yesterday by his rider, Noel Harris. Third Degree, a former South Islander now with Bob McSeveny, was second, while a previous New Zealand Cup winner, Sirtain, was third. He will attempt the Benson and Hedges-New Zealand Cup double.