Regal City earns top rank

Press, 15 February 1989, Page 48

Regal City earns top rank

Special correspondent Auckland

Already one of the greatest racing finds this season, Regal City carried on his remarkable way when he won again at the Waikato Racing Club’s meeting at Te Rapa yesterday. Useful, but hard to describe as much better until well into this season, Regal City has since secured his place as one of the best New Zealand gallopers. It was at the beginning of the present season that Regal City joined Jim Gibbs* stable at Matamata. Whether this was the cause of his transformation has been a matter for wonderment

The Cambridge Stud International Stakes yesterday was his twelth start since Gibbs took him over and the twelve outings have brought seven wins, four other placings and for his veteran owner-breeder, Alan Schaare, of Matamata, a tidy $300,000 in stakes. His wins for Gibbs include the weight-for-age Lion Red Stakes and Wrightson Plate, both at Ellerslie, and the D.B. Counties Cup, as well as this one, and he finished fourth in the D.B. Avondale Cup, ridden each time by Debbie Healey, who handled him so confidently again yesterday. Not even the game bid by Horlicks, and she was the only other possibility through the last 200 metres, could lessen the merit of Regal City’s latest win. Westminster, which had settled nicely on the inside, trailing the leaders by two or three lengths, seemed the main threat but he too faded before the finish. Horlicks came hard but Regal City kept her out by a short neck. Westminster was three lengths away, holding third by a length and a quarter from Spyglass and Bonecrusher.