S.I. horses perform well at cup meeting

Press, 17 November 1987, Page 47

S.I. horses perform well at cup meeting

By

DAVID MCCARTHY

South Island stables put up one of their best performances for some years in terms of races won at the Canterbury Jockey 'Club’s New Zealand Cup carnival which concluded ‘ at Riccarton on Saturday. Southern stables won ’ seventeen of the thirty ’ races, a vast improvement on last year, when they won eleven, and the best performance put up by ’“the home side” since , 1982 when North Island visitors won just eight of the thirty events. Three South Island horses won on the first . day, seven on the second and six on Saturday. The Queenspark Canterbury Gold Cup (Random Chance) the Churchill Stakes (Camallino Star) and the Jockey Club Handicap (Beks) were the biggest wins for Canterbury stables, the latter two being trained at Riccarton. Altogether horses trained in the South Island won just under $250,000 at the meeting. As usual the northerners struck hardest in the races with the highest stakes meaning their thirteen wins aggregated just over $700,000 in prize money. Laurie Laxon, whose three starters earned $250,000 among them, was easily the biggest moneywinning trainer of the meeting. Garth Jackson, whose team earned just over $30,000 with a win and seven placings, was the leading Riccarton trainer in terms of stakes won,

while Random Chance ensured Brian Anderton the leading role among South Island stables with just under $35,000 in stakes. Of the South Island trainers Michael Pitman’s team won the most races with Beks, Dark Turbo and Dester, all successful. The stable of Dave and Jan Kerr produced one of the more appropriate wins when Donatella won the Cup Day maiden on Saturday. Donatella is raced by the C.J.C. chairman, Mr John Austin, and his wife, Liz, and it was fitting that the mare should win not only on New Zealand Cup day but on a day when a record on-course turnover was set.

Donatella is by Beaufort Sea, a tribe the Kerr stable has had considerable success with. Dave and Jan Kerr trained his best staying son (Charles Beaufort), his brilliant daughter Canterbury Belle, and others. Donatella’s win was particularly rewarding for the Austins, who took a calculated risk buying her grand-dam, Olgiata, about ten years ago. The problem was that Olgiata was sixteen years old and had left only two live foals. She had missed seven times and slipped a foal once after being imported from England as a six-year-old by Mr Jack Alexander of Cranleigh Stud.

The attraction however was that one of her live foals, La Balsa, had left the great race mare La Mer.

As it happened the gamble turned out a winning one, Olgiata foaling

Donatella’s dam, La Figlia, to Taipan in 1977. La Figlia in turn foaled Donatella in 1983 after slipping twins the previous year.

Olgiata was by Acropolis a full brother to the great Alycidon, by Donatello 11. Beaufort Sea’s dam, Homeward Bound, was by Alycidon.

Donatella is a mare of scope and took some time to develop but had put up a smart performance on the first day, holding second at long odds after being trapped wide throughout. Grant Cooksley sent her straight to the front on Saturday and she didn’t look like surrendering her advantage in the straight. It may have only been a maiden win for Cooksley but it added to an illustrious record at Riccarton where he has an especially high strike rate. On the first day of the meeting he won with Prince Avila in the Benson and Hedges Gold Cup, a race in which he had ridden Del’s Delight into second place last year. At that meeting he had also won the New Zealand Cup (Oak Vue) and the One Thousand Guineas (Cure) while on Saturday he had also posted a second placing in the N.Z. Cup won by Empire Rose. Cooksley won the Benson and Hedges Cup in 1981 on El Questro and rode Gaffa to victory in the Two Thousand Guineas for the Kerr stable in 1983. He was, of course, also associated with Canterbury Belle in her Elders triumph in 1985.