Ruff makes successful return at Ashburton

Press, 3 September 1986, Page 38

Ruff makes successful return at Ashburton

By

alex McMillan

Ruff made an auspicious return to racing by winning the $lB,OOO D.B. A.L.T. John Grigg Classic (1410 m the main race on the second day of the Ashburton County Racing Club’s meeting at Ashburton yesterday.

The Peter Jones-trained filly had not raced since finishing a close second to Crystal Brook in the $25,000 South Island Two-Year-Old Championship Final at Riccarton in April, but had been given plenty of preparatory work and was paraded in splendid condition for yesterday’s feature for three-year-olds. After being settled in a mid-field position by Tane

Matthews, the daughter of Sound Reason and the Oncidium mare, Lyn’s Orchid, was manoeuvred into the clear early in the run home and her finishing burst proved too much for her rivals. The Riccar-ton-trained filly was one and a quarter lengths clear at the finish over Mitchell Sage, which ran an outstanding race considering he was having only his second race start yesterday. Tropical Blend (third) and Rakau Tiffany (fourth), which, with Ruff, were the only fillies in the event, made worth-while contributions to a ’*een finish with solid late runs, but the hot favourite, Sea War, after making the

pace, was “gone on the turn,” according to his cotrainer and rider, Les Didham. The Beaufort Sea gelding finished 10th. Ruff, the. winner of three of her seven outings last season, is raced by Judge Keith Frampton and Messrs Bob Nurse, Geoff Beadel and Bruce Howarth, all of Christchurch. Yesterday’s success advanced her stake earnings to $25,595, an excellent return for the $16,000 the partners outlayed for her at the Waikato sales in 1984. Jones, who was saddling his third Grigg winner yesterday — he had earlier prepared Little Brown Jug (1979) and

Row of Waves (1981) to win the event — said that Ruff would line up next in the 1200 m Canterbury Belle Stakes, for three-year-old fillies, at Riccarton on October 4, an event in which she will clash with her stablemate, Last Straw, an impressive maiden winner on the first day of the Ashburton meeting on Saturday. Tane Matthews, who has now had two rides on Ruff for as many wins, will partner the filly in all her engagements this season. Yesterday’s success provided Matthews, aged 21, with his most important win to date, his previous best being the Hazlett Stakes, on Steel King, at Wingatui.