Noble Heritage Riccarton candidate

Press, 27 June 1989, Page 30

Noble Heritage Riccarton candidate

By

DAVID MCCARTHY

Noble Heritage, winner of the Tanalith Great Northern and the Awapuni Hurdles in recent weeks will have his next New Zealand start in the Couplands Grand National Hurdles at Riccarton on August 9. He will spearhead another southern campaign by his Tuhikaramea (Waikato) trainer, Graeme Rogerson, which could see up to thirty Rogersontrained horses based in Canterbury later in the spring. Noble Heritage left yesterday for a tilt at the sAustls2,ooo Grand National Steeplechase at Flemington on July 8. Rogerson hopes to have the horse back in this country soon after that race, and at the latest, by July 17. He set a similar assignment for Jean Rapier in 1983 without problems. Jean Rapier, the last horse to win the Tanalith-Grand National double in the same year, won the Riccarton feature

by nearly eight lengths in the hands of Stephen Jenkins, after returning from Australia in July. Rogerson foresees no problems for Noble Heritage in running over steeplechase fences at Flemington and then hurdles at Riccarton. “He’s pretty versatile and the steeplechase fences there are not like ours,” he said. Rogerson, who hopes to train his ninetieth winner for the season at the Bay of Plenty meeting today, has high hopes for the new season and will be relying on South Island results to help him achieve his goals. “I want to win 150 races next season,” said the man who backed himself to win this year’s premiership and who has set a season’s record in New Zealand with 89 successes. “We will have a team of eight or nine for the national meeting at Riccarton including Regent Diamond, Strike Oil and some youngsters but I’m

considering basing a much larger team there on a semi-permanent basis later on. We have over 50 rising three-year-olds in work and over 40 two-year-olds and they have to race somewhere.” Rogerson intends to discuss his plans further with Canterbury racing officials but has stopped short of announcing a permanent South Island stable, such as that operated by Paddy Busuttin, at this stage, though it is a distinct possibility.

The team would be under the direction of Keith Hawtin who supervised the Rogerson team during its autumn campaign in Canterbury. Rogerson won eighteen races on that trip and twenty altogether in the South Island this season. It seems likely Grant Davison could again be the first horseman for the southern Rogerson team though that is not yet confirmed. Davison has been offered an

overseas riding contract but has yet to consider a full proposal.

In the meantime he has been selected as a reserve for an international riding series in Japan later this year which Lance O’Sullivan has been chosen to attend. The Great Northern and National hurdles double has been relatively rare in recent years but there have been some close ones since Jean Rapier’s achievement. Gun For Fun ran third at Ellerslie before winning the 1985 National in which Lord Venture, second at Auckland, was again the runner-up. Lord Venture won the Grand National Hurdles the next year.

Rogerson, confident though he is that he can win several trainers’ awards next season does not rate himself highly to reach 100 winners this term.

“A few have trained off and a few have gone wrong. Around 93 or 94 wins will be a good result for us,” he said.