Rogerson all out to win premiership

Press, 1 March 1989, Page 45

Rogerson all out to win premiership

By

DAVID McCARTHY

Graham Rogerson, desperately seeking the trainers’ premiership he has backed himself to win, hopes to* make more inroads into the sevenstrong lead Paddy Busuttin has over Rogerson and the O’Sullivan stable with a big Canterbury-based team in the next few weeks.

The Rogerson team, at least fifteen slTong, will be based at Riccarton until the end of April and Rogerson is predicting top results from them. The team sent to Westport will be strengthened this week and the South Island campaign vail end with the MarlboroughNelson circuit after Easter. Rogerson feels that some of the 'Westport runners will match up at Canterbury meetings without trouble including The Highground foir which 5150,000 was refused at the Trentham sales in 1987. Dashing King, Regent Diamond, Victor Bruton, Enticing Lady, Hong Kong Star, Kimberley Star and Fiery Type are among those slated for the Hororata and Riccarton Turf Club meetings in the next nine days. Dashing King, a winner

over 1200 m at Trentham in October, is headed for open sprints while Regent Diamond was a recent double winner at Wairoa while Victor Bruton was also a winner at that meeting and has stayed up to 1600 m. Enticing Lady is aimed at the remaining races in the Southern “Filly Of The Year” Series but will run in handicaps before then while Hong Kong Star could be Centaine’s next winner, the two-year-old having been placed at its only start. Kimberley Star is a three-year-old filly with placed form while Fiery Type has shown up over ground on northern provincial circuits. The O’Sullivan stable, a thorn in Rogerson’s side when it comes to trainers’ premierships in recent years, had made rapid progress in recent weeks but Dave O’Sullivan is not

optimistic winning another premiership will be easy.

“We are rebuilding our team. I think we’ve won 18 maiden races this season out of 39 wins and that is the sort of horses we have. But it is building up well,” said O’Sullivan on Saturday. The stable will shortly resume work with Banderol which was eased after a spring campaign. Paddy Busuttin is unlikely to take the latest Rogerson challenge lightly. Losing the premiership to Rogerson by one win in 1985-86 was one of the biggest disappointments of Busuttin’s career and his greatest current ambition is to win the title. He has 49 wins and a comfortable lead over the other two stables at this stage and is likely to strengthen his Riccarton team for the upcoming circuit.