Brilliant chestnuts liven Trentham

Press, 25 January 1988, Page 30

Brilliant chestnuts liven Trentham

From

J. J. BOYLE

Wellington Rich Australian races beckon connections of Courier Bay and Golden King, those brilliant chestnuts which brought Trentham to life with victories as short-priced favourites on Saturday. Courier Bay made something of a romp of the Wrightson Handicap under top weight of 58kg, and Golden King showed his blazing front-running powers to beat the other three-year-olds in the Trentham Stakes, a race Courier Bay won two years ago. Courier Bay will now be pointed at the $lOO,OOO Jarden Mile at Trentham next Saturday, and he could be at Flemington on March 12 to tilt against Australia’s speedsters in the $400,000 Newmarket Handicap. He missed a place in the Jarden Mile last year, but that race was run on a rain-affected track. Courier Bay’s regular rider David Walsh believes that the Taranaki chestnut would, with a shade' more luck, have won two Auckland Rail-

way Handicaps, but also believes the speedster is still three lengths better “going the Trentham and Riccarton way.” Courier Bay’s ownertrainer Mr Geoff White agrees, and that could encourage him to proceed with plans to prepare him for the big sprint at Flemington in March rather than look at big races in Sydney. Courier Bay has already had two campaigns in Australia, but was the victim of severe interference in a Sydney race last autumn.

“He’s getting stronger all the time — a dream horse to ride and he never knows when he is beaten," David Walsh said after he landed the even-money favourite a winner by four lengths over Sirstaci in the richest race on Saturday’s programme.

Golden King, which extended a winning sequence to five and his complete record to six wins from 10 starts on Saturday, shows all the qualities looked for in a high-class metric miler, but his trainer, Garth

Ivil, is confident the star of his Levin stable will also excel at middle distances.

As a measure of that confidence he will run the big Imposing gelding in the weight-for-age Wrightson Bloodstock Plate (2100 m at Ellerslie next Monday and might then look to a valuable weight-for-age event over the Cox Plate distance of 2040 m at Moonee Valley in March.

Ivil races Golden King in partnership with Messrs Brent O’Donnell and I. A. (Jumbo) Symes. Golden King, a big rangy fellow with a ground-devouring stride, is from Kyaenta, a mare bred by Mr Nelson Bunker Hunt and a daughter of the Princely Gift horse, My Heart.

The best of Golden King’s rivals on Saturday was Windsor’s Pal, one of only two South Island three-year-olds in the $50,000 race. Owned by the radio personality Mr John Howson, and trained in South Canterbury by Graeme Jackson, Windsor’s Pal

had won at Greymouth a week earlier, but scant regard was held for his chances against some big winners on a firm track on Saturday. One of Palatable’s many winners this season, Windsor’s Pal showed , plenty of determination in

a sustained chase after the brilliant Golden King and picked up $lO,OOO for his second.

Riccarton’s representative, the Double Nearco filly Dancer’s Rhythm, was handy enough on the turn, then faded to ninth.