Luxury Liner gives N.Z. top chance in Grand Final

Press, 13 March 1987, Page 24

Luxury Liner gives N.Z. top chance in Grand Final

By

G. K. YULE

Luxury Liner and Master Mood are expected to make bold bids to bring honour to New Zealand in the $350,000 Pacers* Grand Final of the Lion Brown InterDominion Championship meeting at Addington Raceway tomorrow.

Their form in the heats could hardly have been more impressive and with just average luck they should hold out a determined five-pronged attack from Australia, which has had a stranglehold on Grand Finals since Rondel capitalised on a dream run and beat Sapling and Miss Pert at Addington in 1979. Since then only the crumbs have come the way of New Zealand challengers, Locarno finishing second to Koala King in Sydney in 1980 and Delightful Lady third to Gammalite and Popular Alm in Auckland in

1983. With New Zealand horses having such a grim record in Grand Finals over the last seven years, there cannot be much confidence that they can withstand the expected aggressive attack, from five superbly fit and wellperformed horses from across the Tasman. Since he finished second to Master Mood in the Toyota New Zealand Cup last November, Luxury Liner has had 11 starts for seven wins and two second placings. One of his failures was in the Auckland Cup when he finished sixth from a bad

second line draw and after receiving a shocking run.

Two heat victories and a second to Master Mood in the qualifying heats of the current series point to Luxury Liner having a big say in proceedings tomorrow, especially as he will start from No. 3 at the barrier.

Barry Purdon, his cotrainer,has been looking after the five-year-old on the trip and he could not be more pleased with his condition. “He’s never stopped improving since he finished second in the Cup in November and I don’t think we could have

got him fitter. All he needs now is reasonable luck in the running. There won’t be any hard luck stories about his fitness if he gets beaten,” said Purdon.

The Addington favourite, Master Mood, will come in to start at No. 8 now that Bag Limit has been scratched. “It’s better than No. 9, but not much,” said his partowner and trainer, Kevin Williams. “Everything will depend on the run he receives. He couldn’t be in better condition for such a race,” he said.

Master Mood can accelerate sharply from the mobile barrier, but Williams is going to find it difficult to avoid covering extra ground in an endeavour to secure a reasonable position fairly close to the pace. And he cannot afford to drop to the rear as it is unlikely there will be much easing

in the pace at. any part of the contest. With a strong pace, few sitting far back in the field can be expected to make much progress over the final 300 m.

The Australian horse most likely to trouble the leading New Zealanders is Paleface Bubble, which like Luxury Liner, had two wins and a second in the heats. His finishing burst to catch Master Mood last Saturday was such that he could end up favourite on the night. Paleface Bubble has drawn No. 1 and his driver and trainer, Michael Ilsley, is hoping that he can drop into a trail. His problems could arise should he settle in behind the early leader and the role of pacemaker changes several times. If this happens he could be three or four back on the rails and experience great diffi-

culty getting a clear run when he wants to make his challenge. Even so, he is a rugged individual with great sprinting and staying powers. With reasonable luck, he should be running on more strongly than most over the final 200 m of what will undoubtedly be a strengthsapping 2600 m. Skipper Dale, another double heat winner, will start from No. 2 on the second line. In his present form, his chances look better than most.

Prince of Princes, Lord Louie, Our Mana and even the speedster, Lightning Blue, which re-entered the field on the scratching of Bag Limit, will have their supporters. Even one of the others, favoured with a suitable run, could add interest to proceedings, but they will find it hard to match Luxury Liner, Paleface Bubble and Master Mood.