Horlicks determined in Dulcie Stakes

Press, 2 December 1987, Page 49

Horlicks determined in Dulcie Stakes

Special correspondent Auckland

A late and determined run brought Horlicks a thoroughly-deserved win in the Dulcie Stakes at the Cambridge Jockey Club’s meeting at Te Rapa yesterday. In the last 200 m of the 1600 m race, Savana City, after wresting the lead from Classic March, looked the winner, then Kosha. But Horlicks grabbed them just short of the finish and won by half a length. Kosha edged Savana City from second and they were just ahead of Pell Mell (fourth), making it a packed finish. There was a short gap to Royal Heights, foremost of the others and, in her first race since back from Melbourne, showing something again of her real worth. Limitless came sixth, a thoroughly satisfactory placing from near last around the home turn and in view of her coming engagements in the big staying races of the summer.

Horlicks, a four-year-old mare, has won six times from 12 starts so

she has done very well indeed for her owner, Mr Graham de Gruchy. She would have raced more often except that she has had a back problem and it was not until midway through last season that she began. A Hawke’s Bay farmer, Mr de Gruchy bred Horlicks from Malt, a filly he bought at the 1980 Trentham yearling sales for $27,000, an amount modest enough by today’s standards but well above the then average. Mr de Gruchy liked the fact that Malt (by Moss Trooper) is a granddaughter of the fine Hawke’s Bay galloper, Froth. Malt did not race. Horlicks, by Three Legs, was her first foal. Lager Lady (by Three Legs) came next after which Mr de Gruchy sold the mare, in foal to Three Legs, to Allegra Park Stud for $130,000. Just where Horlicks will go next her trainers, Dave and Paul O’Sullivan, had not yet decided. "In some respects,” Dave O’Sullivan said, "this was not a good race to win,” a reference to the mare’s future weighting.

It brought her, though, a listed race success and a worthwhile $26,000 stake.

The beaten lot in yesterday’s big race included Empire Rose (eleventh) and Tri Belle (seventh). Not that their failures were of much account, Empire Rose needed much more distance, Tri Belle the benefit of the race.

Sir Zeus, a four-year-old gelding from New Plymouth, wore down Cardonagh to take a narrow victory in the second leg of the T.A.B. double, the 2100 m Hamilton Caterers’ Handicap.

One of the more prominent three-year-olds, with his three wins and any number of minor placings, Sir Zeus has had five wins this time in for two wins so he is already in very good form again. Coshking came in a close third followed by Count Gold and Mattie Dee which turned in eyecatching runs for fourth and fifth. Mattie Dee came from the tail end at the 600 m; Count Gold looked on the way back to the good form he showed last season.