No Bugles ends N.Z. career on high note

Press, 26 June 1989, Page 32

No Bugles ends N.Z. career on high note

By

DAVID McCARTHY

No Bugles ended his New Zealand career on a high note in the Canterbury Handicap at Riccarton on Saturday, handing out a four-length thrashing to his rivals which clinched a six-figure sale to Australian interests.

While the chestnut had to win the race for the contract to be sealed, so easily did he do so his connections were probably in greater suspense six hours previously when the Randwick trainer, Les Bridge, kept close watch as rider John Dowling exercised No Bugles on the inside grass at Riccarton.

Bridge, who experienced success with two earlier South Island purchases, Orb and Row Of Waves, liked what he saw. He was high above the Tasman on a flight home when No Bugles strutted his stuff in the Canterbury Handicap but he must have rated his decision to buy a wise one indeed, had he watched the race.

Kuz got away to a handy lead but a lack of a genuine pace until about 700 m from home counted against the stayers in the field. Dowling made sure No Bugles would not be caught napping by moving the Palatable four-year-old up alongside Diamond Annie, which led the chase after the pacemaker, and from the top of the straight the race was a mere procession. No Bugles’ breeder and part-owner, Bruce Francis, had mixed feelings after the race.

“The partnership (he owned the horse with Jim Mee and John Watts) decided to sell but I am not usually a keen seller and would have been just as happy to keep him,” said Francis who operates the Ashmorven standardbred stud at Winchmore where a former world champion

pacer, Save Fuel, will stand this season. “We have had a tremendous thrill out of racing him (No Bugles).”

Mr Francis bought No Bugles’ grand-dam, Top Class, from Robert McCardle and bred the smart galloper, Givenchy, from her. Tocopilla, No Bugles’ dam, has young-

sters by State Of Kings and the recently deceased Euphronius and is in foal to the latter. Mr Francis has wasted no time booking the Battle Waggon mare back to Palatable for the coming season.

No Bugles built up an excellent record under the guidance of Ross Beckett, a young Riverton trainer who has been

based at Riccarton since late in May. No Bugles has won five of 14 races for Beckett who also has the Invercargill Gold Cup winner, Sovereign Court, at Riccarton. Another chestnut, Sovereign Court attracted interest from Les Bridge also and he will be following his progress closely when the Sovereign Red stallion resumes racing in the spring. The second favourite, All Counted, was a fair fourth and not suited by the slow early pace over a distance short of his best. The keenest of No Bugles’ rivals, Diamond Annie, may be headed for the Whyte Handicap at Trentham all going well in the interim. Red Hawk made ground stoutly after a slow start for third. Diamond Annie’s connections had better luck earlier in the day when Lord Bentley gave Shane McCann his twenty-sixth riding success for the season and John Parsons his thirty-second training win in the Latimer Maiden.

Twenty-two of McCann’s winners have been on Parsons-trained horses, making his decision to shift north from Wingatui earlier this season one he can hardly regret.

Lord Bentley which “won” a maiden at Invercargill in May only to be relegated, is a brother to Brigadier Noble also a winner for Parsons and the first of the stock of Noble Car to greet the judge.