Spry Joker well suited by heavy track

Press, 4 November 1986, Page 37

Spry Joker well suited by heavy track

By

G. K. YULE

Spry Joker, away from the winning list since the same event 12 months earlier, revelled in the extremely heavy track conditions and was a class above his five rivals in the D.B. Kaikoura Cup at the Kaikoura Trotting Club’s meeting yesterday. Overnight rain drenched the track and surroundings, with drivers describing the track as heavier than 12 months ago when the rains came. The conditions caused a

number of trainers to scratch their horses from the Kaikoura Cup. Skipper Dale, Master Mood and Hondo’s Dream fell into that category, while Borana and Premiership were scratched because of a bereavement. Mrs Nora Jones died yesterday after a long illness. She was the wife of Derek Jones, the trainer of Premiership, and mother of Peter Jones, trainer of Borana. Mrs Jones raced a number of horses, including Dupreez, a top-class trotter.

Spry Joker received a “flier” at the start and was in control throughout, revelling in the conditions. He was never at top and it was only on sufferance that Soxygen got within two lengths of him at the post. Spry Joker has now won 11 of his 55 starts for his Belfast owner, Mr Ray Winter, for whom he is prepared at Templeton by Jack Carmichael. He paced the 2400 m in the slow time of 3min 39.55, compared with 3min 28.5 s when he was successful 12

months earlier. Soxygen handled the shocking conditions better than the other four in the race and he took second by five lengths from Ruthless. Then there was a break of eight lengths to Lord Louie, which paced roughly 70m out when making ground. Mighty Me was four lengths further back with an even longer break to Smarty Pants, which raced in the open for much of the race and stopped badly in the conditions.