Ropiha has made some famous Riccarton raids

Press, 1 August 1987, Page 32

Ropiha has made some famous Riccarton raids

By •

J. J. BOYLE

Eric Ropiha’s horses get time and more time to grow and develop into performers of real potential.

"I never hesitate over scratching horses and waiting for another day,” the famous Woodville trainer said at Riccarton yesterday. An exercise of the Ropiha patience was unavoidable with Chimeric, which will run in the Trials Hurdles today and could go after one of the big prizes later at the Grand National meeting. Chimeric was out of action for a season with what is commonly known as dandelion poisoning, but has been patiently steered towards a ’chasing career — an exercise rewarded when the Makor gelding won twice at Trentham last month.

’ Chimeric’s programme for later at the meeting is not certain, but he might be switched to ’chasing on the second day. “He’s a stayer, and he made me think he was a heavy track horse for a time, but I learned he is a better horse on the kind of ground you usually get at Riccarton,” Ropiha said yesterday. "■ The Grand National Steeplechase has eluded Ropiha, but he won the big hurdles with Judge in 1957, and with better luck would have won it twice more, with Bulla and Fans.

“Bulla was a lazy horse, and he ran second after his rider dropped the stick at the half mile.

“Fans got squeezed up against the rail and went out at the last when going like a winner,” Ropiha recalled yesterday. That was in 1970 two years after Fans ran third in the Melbourne Cup.

Riccarton never saw the best horse Ropiha ever trained. “Ilumquh was twice the horse a lot of people thought,” the friendly Woodville trainer recalled yesterday. Ropiha set Ilumquh for the CaulfieldMelbourne Cups double in 1960. The Caulfield Cup was easy for him, but an ill-judged ride by Bill Williamson appeared to spell the difference between first and third in the Centenary Melbourne Cup. At his second attempt on the Melbourne Cup, when he was in the veteran stage, Ilumquh beat all but Gatum Gatum.

Grand National Riccarton ’B7

Eric Ropiha’s first major success at Riccarton came close to 35 years ago. He won the 1952 New Zealand Cup with the Canterbury-bred Conclusion, which had done his early racing and prospered as a mudlark from the Riccarton stable of Ernie Rosewarne.

In 1958 the year after he won the Grand National Hurdles with Judge, Ropiha was back with a sprinter for his first of four Stewards’ Handicap victories. His first was Happy Warrior, a superb weight carrier owned by Mr C. T. Keeble, one of Ropiha’s first patrons.

Others to win The Stewards for the stable were Baraboo (1965), Ajasco (1971), and Ajasco’s daughter, Silver Liner (1977).

Baraboo had won the NewmarketRailway Handicaps double at Ellerslie as a three-year-old the season before — “the best sprinter I’ve trained,” Ropiha said yesterday. Both Ajasco and Silver Liner went on to Ellerslie for Railway Handicap victories after their successes in the Canterbury Jockey Club’s historic sprint. With Baraboo’s half-brother Baloo, Ropiha won two Canterbury Cups. Earlier in the 1960 s he captured the Winter Cup with Lei, and later in that decade he made one of his infrequent autumn visits to land a Great Easter with Pasa Doble.

The highest compliment Eric Ropiha pays is to call a horse a “good” horse. He made no such assessment of Chimeric yesterday, but he has taken dead aim on so many Riccarton races in a distinguished career that his hopeful for this year's carnival is or should capture much attention.

“Whatever happens, it’s nice to be back,” Ropiha said yesterday morning as he started on a walking tour of inspection of the track environs leading a horse with show horse demeanour.