Sydney Cup mission for Curved Air?

Press, 25 February 1986, Page 25

Sydney Cup mission for Curved Air?

PA Wellington The gallant mare, Curved Air, could be sent on a hit-and-run Sydney Cup mission, her trainer Laurie Laxon said yesterday. Laxon said the mare, consistently placed in top handicap company this season, had been nominated for the Randwick two-miler and there was a distinct possibility she would make the trip. “It would simply be an in-and-out mission,” the Maungatautiri (near Cambridge) trainer said.

Curved Air’s best efforts this season have been somewhat luckless second placings to Amloch in the Governor Generals Cup and Queen Elizabeth Handicap at Auckland and equally unlucky seconds in the Air New Zealand Handicap and Wellington Cup at Trentham last month.

The rangy, attractive Hasty Cloud mare, while yet to win, has shown consistency this season. A late developer, she claimed some fame with a nose second to the fiery veteran El Questro when he broke the two-minute

barrier for 2000 m at Te Rapa last February. “She’s due a good stake,” Laxon said. Laxon said his other prime charge, the beautifully bred Empire Rose, may race next in the Manawatu Breeders’ Stakes — the penultimate race in the Wrightson Filly of the Year series. The filly ruined any chance she had in the series, for which she had been primed since the spring, when she failed to overhaul Royal Heights and hold second place in the Royal Stakes at Ellerslie on Saturday. The powerful Sir Tristram filly veered sharply when prompted to challenge the leader in the straight, taking the line of the fourth-placed The Thief and was subsequently relegated to the back of the field.

“That wiped her chances in the Filly of the Year series,” Laxon said. “She’s still probabaly the second-best three-year-old filly in the country.”

The trainer Indicated that the Breeder’s Stakes would be considered in discussions with her

owners, but the Great Northern Oaks at Ellerslie would probably be missed. “She almost fell in her first run at Ellerslie (Ladies Mile) and after her exhibition on Saturday I don’t know if they’d want her back.”

Owned by the famed Whakanui Stud, which bred her granddam Summerosa and raced her dam, the well-performed Summer Fleur (by Sovereign Edition), from Geoff Murphy’s stable, Empire Rose showed the class and courage befitting her frame when a gallant second to Royal Heights in the New Zealand Oaks at Trentham.

The filly raced three or four wide for much of the journey, went to the lead on the turn and battled dourly down the straight to hold second by a neck.

“Her future lies as a four and five-year-old,” Laxon said. “The spring racing in Melbourne would be ideal for her. “I could even see her in the Melbourne Cup.”