‘Telephone numbers’ but no business

Press, 20 October 1986, Page 33

‘Telephone numbers’ but no business

By

J. J. BOYLE

“We have had a few calls from people talking telephone numbers, but we haven’t seen the colour of their money,” said Palatable Prince’s Ashburton owner-trainer after his four-year-old recorded his fifth straight win on Saturday. Mr Kirk said one of the more recent offers came last Thursday, and the talk concerned a sixfigure price, but that is apparently where it ended.

“We’ll soldier on and take each race as it comes — perhaps Banks Peninsula next,” Mr Kirk said on Saturday. .i One of Mr Kirk’s big regrets is that Palatable Prince’s dam Percolette foaled a dead filly to a more recent mating with Palatable. The mare has a yearling colt by States of Kings and will return to Palatable this spring.

Count Nicolai unbeaten

“We must have won 50 races with that family,” the Washdyke trainer Pat Corboy said after his col-our-bearer Count Nicolai beat the other two-year-olds at Riccarton on Saturday. Count Nicolai is now unbeaten in two starts, and has already overshadowed his dam Provencal, which was found to be of little account when tried on the race track after she failed to conceive to a mating with a quarter horse. Provencal is by Country Dance from Petite Arnie, the grandam of Soaring High, winner of several races in the Corboy colours.

Marche Noir

surprise winner

Marche Noir, surprise winner of the Tawfiq Handicap at the expense of the favourite, Eye Full, at Riccarton on Saturday, was on show in the equine swimming pool on the course last Thursday. He made his guest appear-

ance before members of the Riccarton apprentices’ school who were on a field study under the eye of- their director Mr Neville Burnell.

“He is no champion swimmer, but he handled himself well in the wet today,” Mr Burnell observed after Marche Noir won on Saturday.

Marche Noir is trained by his part-owner Denis Cusdin, a member of the track staff of the Canterbury Jockey Club. One of

Cusdin’s race-day exercises is to man the birdcage gate, and he sought no temporary leave of absence after his six-year-old won on Saturday. “He’s had heart trouble, leg trouble, feet trouble, but all is going smoothly at the moment,” Cusdin said on Saturday. “We had no end of trouble with his soft feet until we tried a new American product like aircraft glue about a month ago. It’s expensive, but it works.”