Kosha could improve trainer’s strike rate

Press, 20 October 1987, Page 37

Kosha could improve trainer’s strike rate

By

J. J. BOYLE

The Levin trainer, Errol Skelton, who took sure aim on the Winter Cup with, Fairfield Lad in August, has another of the Canterbury Jockey Club’s historic races in his sights.

If everything goes to plan he will bring the brilliant race mare, Kosha, south for The Stewards at the New Zealand Cup meeting. "It will mean keeping her fresh for a sprint trip, but The Stewards can be something like a mile,” Skelton said at the weekend. Skelton produced Kosha fresh-up to win a 1200 m sprint at the Rangltikei meeting last spring. During last summer he

showed his skills at placing a horse when he brought out Kosha to win, at successive starts, a 1400 m feature sprint at Awapuni, and the $lOO,OOO Flag Inns Trophy at Ellerslie. Although she had that immediate background of winning form, Kosha won the Auckland Racing Club’s rich metric mile at odds of close to 20-to-one. And she never gave her backers cause for worries. She skipped clear on

the home turn and won by two lengths and a quarter in the brilliant time of 1:32.42. Fifteen days later Kosha came back to 1200 m and carried 57kg into second behind Courier Bay, to which she was conceding 2.5 kg, In the Wellington Racing Club’s Wrightson Handicap. Kosha was unable, under big weights, to improve her record in the autumn, but Errol Skelton

is encouraged by her progress since he brought her back into training. Kosha’s successful partner in her wins last season was the stable apprentice, Erin Jillings. The Skelton-Jillings combination prospered again at Trentham on Saturday, with Dorisko in the Hinemoa Handicap. Jillings did not hestitate to ride the top weight from the front end, and allowed the grey to steal away to a lead the others looked unlikely to bridge.