Australian ’chaser in Northern

Press, 29 May 1985, Page 45

Australian ’chaser in Northern

PA Auckland An Australian jumper will compete in Monday’s 5120,000 Nescafe Great Northern Steeplechase for the first time in the 100-year history of the race. The Melbourne 'chaser Battle So Big, which at less than 15.2 hands will be dwarfed by many of his rivals, is in Sydney awaiting a flight to Auckland. However, his part-owner and trainer, Lindsay Morris, does not yet know whether the plane will arrive tomorrow or Friday. “We would have liked to run him in a lead-up race on Saturday,” said Morris’s wife, Dell, “but he might not get there in time.” Morris is anxious to school Battle So Big at Ellerslie to teach him how to brush through fences. “The fences here are not as big, so Lindsay is hoping to school him almost as soon as he arrives.”

However, Ellerslie’s famed hill is not expected to trouble the stout little gelding.

“The two courses that he races best on. Oakbank and Warrnambool, both have hills.

“He should handle the hill all right, the only problem will be the state of the going.” Morris said Battle So Big was better on top the ground and did not like it shifty. “He has won in very heavy ground, but it was only a point-to-point and there was not a lot of opposition.” New Zealanders first heard of Battle So Big when he won the Great Eastern Steeples at Oakbank after the two New Zealand representatives, Region and Fly North, crashed at the last when well clear.

That, according to Morris, was his first steeples win.

“He is far too slow for two mile races; he definitely gets better the further they go.”

Battle So Big again showed he had a big heart when he ran third behind Brigade in the Grand Annual Steeple at Warrnambool after a mid-race mishap cost him valuable ground. It was there that the New Zealanders, Ken Browne and Kevin Myers, suggested to Morris the horse would be ideally suited to the Ellerslie feature. The former Rotorua rider, Dennis Williams, will partner Battle So Big for only the second time on Monday. Both his regular riders have been sidelined with injury.

The other Australian nomination for the Nescafe Great Northern, Fast Food, will not be coming, the assistant secretary, Ross Hawthorne, confirmed yesterday.