Ultra Sound justifies favouritism at Wingatui

Press, 26 April 1988, Page 47

Ultra Sound justifies favouritism at Wingatui

By DAVID MCCARTHY , Ultra Sound justified her odds-on favouritism to win by a mere head over the I Riccarton three-year-old,| Grandee, in the Coitntdown Foodmarkets Stakes at the Otago Racingjciub's meeting at Wirigatui [yesterday. However the margin maV (have been a little misleading as the. durable Sot nd Reason filly chalked up win number eight i for the season and completed a virtual cledn sweep of South Island thriee-year-old titles. i

. Ultra! Sound sat outside Grhndee after the latter wdrked to the front from a wide draw after 400 metres] i The Southland filly attacked soon after the turn for . home and while [ finishing strongly again tended to run [in toward; the rail.

!"I was worried about

touching trie other horse though I didn't feel Grandee was going to beat us." said Grant! Davison after the: race. ; Grandee; lunged again short of thq finish post but was held, [with Admiral’s Flight appreciating the firm track by [running home well! fo.r third.

Wreck [the Tote, a surprise second favourite, held fourth after enjoying the run of| the rate while Ambrosia Pal, which got a little out of his ground in what was a sharp sprint home, battled on for fifth.;

Ultra Sound is now due to: return :o the property of! her owner. Graham Robertson, for whom she has won 5101,000 this season after earning over $20,000 als a two-year-old.. /Some consideration has been given to a Queensland . campaign with the.

filly which continues to thrive in spite of a well spread : season of 17 starts.

However it seems more likely that [ a deserved spell will be her lot in preparation ! for a spring [campaign. 1

[ Ultra Sound had already won the Wrightson Southern ‘‘.Filly’ of the Year” Series before yesterday's race which was the final of the Three-Year-Old Championship Tor both sexes. Paul Richards tried to steal the race with Grandee after reaching the front by slowing the field and sprinting home the last 600 m. ,

Had anything else but Ultra Sound been so handy to him it would have been a race-winning recipe and, the much-im-proved So Vain gelding fought with everything he

had for his placing. There were! no excuses for the beaten division, several of which will also enjoy winter spells, among them Impasha and Taciturn. I| Ultra Sound’s win gave Ted Winsloe his 997th win as a trainer and took Grant Davison further along the road toward repeating his I feat of riding 100 winners in a season for the second time in three seasons. If Davison was close to the inquiry' room over Ultra Sound’s: tendency to run greenly hie and ShortyBijou had to survive a protest to> complete [ the double after bringing about the[ failure of the hot favourite] Prince Kumai. in the second leg. the NCR Handicap. Prince [ Kumai settled middle on the rail and was desperately looking

for racing room between Shorty Bijou and Imperial Guy in the last 100 metres but was held to third wtith Shorty Bijou beating Imperial G[uy by a head.] Shorty Bijou is trained by John Phillips at Winton and has shown marked improvement since; being tried in blinkers. Davison had him ‘handy Enough and was in a challenging position 300 m out. The subsequent inquiry! found that Shorty Bijou only held his line in the!run to the judge and did npt take that of the favourite which was far from disgraced. . { “The! gap was] there close to the finish 'but he takes a bit of time to wind up again,” said rider Paul Richards.! Prinqe j Kumai is [still likely to tie spelled!now in preparation for New Zealand Cup campaign.