Greenback comes up trumps

Press, 26 January 1988, Page 36

Greenback comes up trumps

From

J. J. BOYLE

in Wellington

“We laid it on the line for him today — now he’s off to Sydney,” Greenback’s Takanini trainer, Colin Jillings, said after the two-year-old chestnut son of McGinty won the $60,000 Evergreen Lodge Stakes at Trentham yesterday. Greenback, a commanding favourite, won running away by three and a half lengths. It was

one of the easiest wins in the race since his sire, McGinty, triumphed for the stable and he will be one of the more interesting of the New Zealand invaders in Australia for rich autumn events.

Bought by Mr Ken McLeod, of Pukekohe, for $60,000 as a yearling, Greenback is now the winner of three races from four attempts. His next race will be the $lOO,OOO Skyline Stakes at

Canterbury in Sydney on March 5, and he will run in the $150,000 Brambles Classic at Kembla Grange ten days later. “Then, all going well, we’ll have a crack at the Golden Slipper,” Colin Jillings said yesterday. Before the Sydney trip Jillings stands to complete an unusual double with another smart two-year-old in his team.

He has Come Racing pointed for the Auckland

Racing Club’s $BO,OOO two-year-old race, also sponsored by Evergreen Lodge, at Ellerslie next Monday. "They are two different types, but both are brilliant horses,” Jillings said yesterday. His decision to bring Greenback from Auckland for yesterday’s race was partly for educational reasons.

Jillings had to be sure the youngster would thrive when away from

his home stable on his own. He did. Now he will return to Takanini, and his stablemate Romantic Lover will be brought to Trentham for the NewZealand Oaks next Saturday.

Star Dream was clearly the best of Greenback’s rivals yesterday, but it was a close-run for third, with Pacelli edging out Cidermite, which had been responsible for the pace.