Preferential draw at Auckland
Special correspondent Auckland The Auckland Trotting Club has announced that barrier positions for the final of the series for four-year-old pacers at Alexandra Park next month will be drawn under a preferential system.
The date of the race has also been changed, from Wednesday, March 12, to Saturday, March 15, to allow for live television coverage.
Semi-finals each worth $lO,OOO and restricted to 12 starters, will still be run on the first night of the meeting on March 8.
All fhces in the Lion Red-sponsored series will be one mile and the basic stake of $BO,OOO for the final could be increased substantially if time targets are achieved.
The race will be worth $240,000 if a semi-final winner returns better than Imin 57s and a semi-final winner gets inside Imin 565.
In the first six horses in each of the semi-finals will make up the field for the final.
The semi-final winners will be in a draw for the
No. 1 and No. 2 barrier positions, the runners-up for No. 3 and No. 4 and so oh down the finishing order in the lead-up races.
This could have an adverse effect on the betting. If the favourites won the semi-finals, their dominance in betting on the final would be even more pronounced. Horses which were fourth in the semifinals from possibly good draws are hardly likely to do any better from the worst positions (7 and 8) on the front row. The Lion Red Mile start has a short run to the first bend and No. 8 is the extreme outside. Four of the starters will be in the second line.
Theoretically, the horses which finished only fifth in the semifinals will have the third and fourth best draws. They are right behind the semi-final winners, which, logically, should more than hold their own round the first bend.
Frederick, a prominent contender, will go to Australia after the series and be trained in Melbourne by Jim O’Sullivan.
"But he will not be a
starter in the Brisbane Inter-Dominions,” Sandy Purdon, his trainer, said at Pukekohe.
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Press, 26 February 1986, Page 40
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349Preferential draw at Auckland Press, 26 February 1986, Page 40
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