Stars travelling north

Press, 3 December 1987, Page 48

Stars travelling north

By

JEFF SCOTT

The Ashburton trainer, Pat O’Reilly jun. (above), with his star pacers, Robbie (Skipper Dale) on his left, and Ross (Rostriever Hanover), who along with the stable’s top trotter, Tyron Scottie, will travel north to race at the Auckland Trotting Club’s Cup meeting. “Skipper Dale and Tyron Scottie will race three nights there, but I don’t know about Rostriever Hanover,” said O’Reilly. “Rostriever Hanover is inclined to touch a knee that way around, so he’s going up there as a bit of an experiment to see if he’ll handle the track for the Messenger in February.” “Last season he was working the opposite way with Skipper Dale before the Auckland Cup when he nicked a knee and an infection set in, making him miss the Derbys.” O’Reilly is very pleased with the way Skipper Dale has thrived since racing at the New Zealand Cup meeting. “He always seems to come right after the cup meeting,” he said. “He’s done it the last three years.”

Tyron Scottie, like Rostriever Hanover, will also be getting a look at the Alexandra Park track before spelling and being recommissioned for the Rowe Cup in May.

Tyron Scottie has surprised O’Reilly with how well he has raced in the top grade this term. “We haven’t really trained him up yet,” said O’Reilly of the Dominion Handicap runner-up. The trio will be guests of lan Hilliard’s stable at Patumahoe in South Auckland. Hilliard’s wife, Kate, is a cousin of O’Reilly. Microscopic, an impressive 3299 m winner in 4:11.79 on the last night of the New Zealand Cup meeting after being parked out in the running, is likely to race next in the C 7 and faster Ashburton Cup over 3200 m on Boxing Day. The C 8 pacer, a “day-to-day” proposition, according to O’Reilly, has a similar race scheduled for the first night of the Canterbury Park New Year meeting. O’Reilly treks south to Winton on Saturday, where he has Bojodine and a three-year-old filly part-owned by his wife, Lyn, named Kelly’s Idol, scheduled to race. Kelly’s Idol, a daughter of Majestic Chance, makes her debut in the first heat of the Southland Oaks, while she could also stay on for the second heat at the Riverton on-course meeting next Thursday.