Fuego could make history for Maree Lyndon tomorrow

Press, 9 August 1985, Page 21

Fuego could make history for Maree Lyndon tomorrow

By

J. J. BOYLE

With the sturdy competent assistance of Fuego, Maree Lyndon could write a new chapter into the records of the historic Winter Cup at Riccarton tomorrow.

The Canterbury Jockey Club’s metric mile has been exclusively a male preserve for jockeys so far, but Maree Lyndon could have hardly wished for more promising material to achieve the breakthrough. Fuego emerged with many of the honours when fourth in the Christchurch Hunt’s Brabazon Handicap (1400 m last Saturday week. In his North Island racing earlier in the year he shewed impressive powers at the Winter Cup distance.

One such performance over the trip yielded a win in 1:36.91 at Matamata on May 14.

The Woodville-trained Catus gelding did not appear again until the Brabazon Handicap, so improvement from that run can reasonably be expected. Fuego has 52kg in a race, dominated last year by Central Districts representatives.

He is skg below the top weight, Noble Note, and will receive 4kg from another Woodville-trained form runner, Kerykeion, which goes into the race without a lead-up run on Riccarton but won at two of his last three starts in the old season, and was runner-up

in the other. Always Summer, from Feilding, weaves another tangled skein of form into the race. She is another newcomer at the meeting, but earned a start for this one when she won the Whyte Handicap at Trentham last month.

Bronze Valley, the Whyte Handicap fourth, was unable to trouble In the Glen when he was brought south for the Paparua Handicap on the first day of the Grand National meeting, but this Awapuni-trained grey must be high on the fancied list of North Islanders for a race he went very close to winning last year.

In the Glen has failed in two previous attempts on

the race but her lead-up for those ones did not reach the plateau she has climbed to for her victories in the Brabazon and Paparua Handicaps this time up. Each of those performances was distinguished by powerful finish and easy mastery of different sets of track conditions.

Flying Tui should be a worthy runner for the powerful stable of Eric Temperton. Temperton has had notable successes with jumpers at Grand National carnivals in the last 40 years. This year Nalu has won two races for the stable on the flat, and Flying Tui could not surprise anyone if he put the* icing on the cake.

He was the Paparua Handicap fourth last week, and in his final race for the old season he won in style over 1600 m on his home track.

Hide the Loot could be one of the youthful improvers in the field.

He was third behind In the Glen in the Paparua Handicap and appears to have taken enough improvement from that race to pose problems for most if not all his elders tomorrow. Hide the Loot runs for the Riccarton stable of Peter Jones, who seeks a second win in the race. Jones was training at Wanganui when he saddled His Lordship for a surprise Winter cup win 15 years ago.