Lou Morton sets rivals impossible task in Guineas

Press, 19 December 1988, Page 32

Lou Morton sets rivals impossible task in Guineas

Special correspondent Auckland Lou Morton’s 2000 metres at the Avondale Jockey Club’s meeting at Avondale on Saturday night might well- have been one of the fastest ever run by a three-year-old.

His 2:0.76 broke by nearly three-quarters of a second the record for the Avondale Guineas, nowadays sponsored by West Park Properties. The immensity of the task he set the back runners can be gauged by his time for the last 800 m — a scorching 46.93. And that was after he had led, out on his own, through all the previous 1200 m.

Once in front, and that was even before the first turn, Lou Morton had no great need to exert him-

self much in staying there. His rider, Tony Allan, did no more than hold him together. When Allan asked him to do a bit more, as they came around the home turn, there was an immediate and generous response. Within seconds Lou Morton had dashed right away. Close to home Allan glanced behind to see a possible challenge . but there were no threats, his mount was by then six lengths in front. In a tight finish for second The Gentry edged out Yukon Gold and Krona, with Regal Echo and Espiare next.

Lou Morton has now won seven of his 17 races. In the race before the Avondale Guineas a 2000 m event at Te Rapa

he was an easy all-the-way winner but by a smaller margin. He must surely be favourite now for the $400,000 “New Zealand Herald” Derby.

Whether Lou Morton will stay the extra 400 metres of the big race at Ellerslie on Boxing Day is an inevitable question. But the same has been asked of every winner since the Avondale race, with its distance lengthened from 1600 metres in 1976, became such an important trial for Ellerslie’s Derby.

Of the 12 winners, none more impressive than Lou Morton, 11 went on to the Derby and eight won the big race. Another, Altitude, suffered a tragic bleeding attack in the Ellerslie race, while another, Owens, finished fourth in 1979 and the other two, Mr Million and Suttle Knight, both finished sixth.

Weston Lea, the Avondale winner last year would have been a certain favourite in the Derby but he fatally injured himself just a few days beforehand. Allan rode him, as well, in the Avondale Guineas, and he was to have been the Cambridge rider’s first Derby mount. After winning at Te Rapa early in the month,

Lou Morton, which is trained by Garth and Craig Ivil at Foxton, stayed on at Laurie Laxon’s Cambridge stables so Allan has got to know the horse well, as his confident handling of him on Saturday showed. A bay by Truly Vain (by Vain), which stands at Maurice Campbell’s Kentucky Downs Stud, Lou Morton was bred from a Jester mare, Red Return, by Keith Plier, who shares the racing ownership with a group of friends, all members of a Palmerston North social and sporting club. The Gentry went sufficiently well to suggest a try for the Derby worthwhile. He was back with Espiare in the early running, then wide as he improved from around the 600 m. There was merit, too, in the performance of Yukon Gold.

Krona, whether tiring after some pretty hard racing, did not have quite his usual spirit and it was clear from a fair way out that Espiare could not win.

Krona will probably contest the Derby nevertheless. A decision on Espiare is being delayed. Her trainer, Jim Gibbs, said he would be having her checked out today.