Aust, pacers may run in Auckland Cup

Press, 28 January 1986, Page 30

Aust, pacers may run in Auckland Cup

Special correspondent Auckland

There is a strong possibility that two of Australia’s top pacers, Quite Famous and Gosh, will travel to New Zealand early next month to contest the $250,000 Auckland Trotting Cup at Alexandra Park on February 8. Quite Famous, a leading candidate for the sAustlss,ooo Miracle Mile at Harold Park, in Sydney, tonight, is trained in Melbourne by Jim O’Sullivan.

His connections have decided to remain in Sydney after the Miracle Mile for a tilt at the Lord Mayor’s Cup, which will be run at Harold Park a week later. A final decision on whether Quite Famous will travel to New Zealand will not be made until it is seen how the horse travels from Melbourne to Sydney. Quite Famous will leave Melbourne by air but his connections are somewhat concerned as to whether

the horse, a masculine entire, will come through the trip safely. Despite having travelled countless miles by road to contest many major events, Quite Famous has never before travelled in a plane. Speaking from Melbourne, Mr John Devlin, of Auckland, a close associate of O'Sullivan, said that the horse was in great order and would have no worries about handling the right-handed track at Alexandra Park.

"Jim (O’Sullivan) worked him right handed this morning,” he said, “and he did the job in fine style, running his last 800 metres easily in 57.45. “Quite Famous has never been on a plane before and, providing he travels well to Sydney, he will come across to New Zealand.”

Gosh, a heat winner on the opening night of the Inter-Dominion carnival at Moonee Valley, Melbourne, last year is also a for the Auckland’ Cup.

After finishing sixth in the final, which was won by Preux Chevalier, Gosh continued to show fine form.

More recently, however, he has performed very creditably. His recently efforts to win the sAust9o,ooo Winfield Cup, at Harold Park, and his second to Jack Brandon in the Australian Pacing Championships at Moonee Valley, have stamped him as a worthy aspirant to an Auckland Cup start. Quite Famous finished third in the Australian Pacing Championship, which was won in track record time — Jack Brandon returning a grand mile rate of 1:59.6 for the mobile 2380 m. Mr Ron Bisman, the public relations officer for the Auckland Trotting Club, said yesterday that if all went according to plan Quite Famous and Gosh would arrive in Auckland from Sydney on February 5. A return flight to Sydney coukLreturn the duo on February 12.