First winners for sires

Press, 18 February 1988, Page 33

First winners for sires

By

david McCarthy

Two stallions were credited with their first winners in successive races at the Otago Racing Club’s meeting yesterday. Haaji, a son of Vain based in the Central Districts, is the sire of Gay Ribbon, the two-year-old winner, while Penstrip became the first son of Down the Aisle to greet the judge after surviving a narrow decision over Imperial Audi in the Fitzroy Maiden.

There was a family reunion air about Gay Ribbon’s win, an impressive effort in the hands of Grant Davison. Gay Rib-

bon, placed in her two previous outings from the stable of Jim Lalor, cruised to the favourite Lara Pinta at the 200 m and won with plenty in hand.

She is the first foal from Ocean Ribbon, which won . five races from the Lalor stable for Brian and Con Newman, of Blenheim, who bred and race Gay Ribbon. Davison, who was apprenticed to Jim Lalor at the outset of his career and rode his first winner from the stable in Sharebroker, also won on Ocean Ribbon, which won three races at two, two of them at Riccarton. The Newman-Lalor

combination have had considerable success with the family, which is adept in soft going.

Riccarton stables made a bright start to the day when Comparable stuck grimly to his task in the Mornington Highweight after being trapped wide early and leading for the last- 900 m. A consistent campaigner over the summer, Comparable will now be put aside, according to his trainer, Michael Pitman, who prepares him for Bill and Pam Best. The Bests are long-time stable patrons, one of Pitman’s early winners, Tipsy Too, being owned by them.