All Glory should measure up

Press, 1 June 1985, Page 26

All Glory should measure up

NZPA staff correspondent Sydney The crack New Zealand youngster All Glory will get his chance to measure up against some of the best in the business when he tackles the sAust47,soo Q.T.C. Sires’ Produce Stakes over 1400 m in Brisbane today. The Australians are yet to be convinced that New Zealand can produce top two-year-old sprinters, and Tommy Smith — the doyen of Australian trainers — has already questioned how highly All Glory should be rated.

Racing writers consider All Glory the best New Zealand two-year-old since McGinty, but even the New Zealand camp agrees that he has yet to prove that. While accepting that All Glory beat most of the best two-year-olds at home when he won the Sires’ Produce Stakes at Ellerslie on April 13, a stable spokesman said yesterday that today’s race at Eagle Farm would provide the true measure.

“He’s got a lot of ability, but he hasn’t really proved himself in top company because his only real test so far was the Sires’ Produce in Auckland,” he said. “This race will give us our real guide.” The trainer, Ray Verner, has also been reluctant to climb on to the bandwag-

gon, and only grudgingly admitted the horse had beaten the best in New Zealand.

Another New Zealand youngster in the stakes today is the unbeaten filly Sierra Sand which has had five races in her brief career — four of them at Riccarton — and has won the lot.

Her trainer, Paddy Busuttin, New Zealand’s top trainer so far this year, is not selling his charge short. “The way All Glory won the Sires’ Produce Stakes at Ellerslie showed he was a very smart colt, but he has been beaten before,” he told journalists this week. “My filly has not been beaten yet and I think it will take a particularly good one to stop her.” What clinched the trip for Sierra Sand was her last start at Foxton a fortnight ago, when she lumped 59kg home to a length win over 1200 m.

Out to put a stop to both of the New Zealand youngsters will be the two horses with the best credentials to claim the mantle of the top Australian two-year-old. Wonga Prince took out the A.J.C. Sires’ Produce Stakes in Sydney in April and has kept his form for the trainer, Tommy Smith, by adding another win and a second in his two starts since.

Race 1 4.20 T.A.B. TRIFECTA QTC SIRES PRODUCE STAKES $47,000, 1400m. 1 1211 AII Glory 9 P. D. Johnson 55.5 2 7432 Beau Zephyr 23 N. G. Harris 55.5 3 1069 Bit of a Lark 17 55.5 4 4381 Dream Lodge 6 55.5 S. Jeffries 5 9711 For Papa 19 55.5 R. Quinton 6 1138 On Our Selection 12 M. Campbell 55.5 7 3399 Pasarda 18 55.5 M. Schumacher 8 511 Pharostan 1 55.5 B. Compton 9 2121 Rasa Flyer 16 55.5 R. Hardwicke 10 1814 Swift Cheval 7 55.5 P. Cook 11 4602 Swift Port 22 55.5 A. Erhart 12 2213 Swiftly Roman 5 55.5 G. Duffy 13 2415 Tristram’s Edition 15 55.5 14 1311 True Version 8 55.5 G. Hall 15 0112 Wonga Prince 24 55.5 L. Dittman 16 111 Abbojurrah 21 53.0 K. Russell 17 1414 Excitable Lady 3 53.0 M. Pelting 18 01 My Brown Princess 2 G. Watson 53.0 19 3224 Roman Fantasy 13 N. Williams 53.0 20 0111 Sierra Sand 11 53.0 G. Davidson Emergencies:— 21 2322 Benny’s Jet 4 55.5 22 1320 Rode Rouge 20 55.5 C. Small 23 9527 Ice Flake 14 53.0 . 24 0445 Detilace 10 53.0