‘John’ has last bark

Press, 11 September 1989, Page 32

‘John’ has last bark

By

JEFF SCOTT

Twinkle John avoided serious injury while being chased by a dog past a set of harrows 48 hours before his dashing fourlength victory in the C2 Creditcorp Mobile pace at Addington Raceway on Saturday. “It was quite a worry. He got out of his box on Thursday night and it took half an hour to catch him,” said his Yaldhurst trainer, Robert Cameron, after Twinkle John’s exciting return to racing. The Transport Chip gelding, installed a firm $1.70 win favourite for his resumption after some impressive trial form, lost some skin off his near front and hind legs, but fortunately this was the full extent of his injuries during the escapade. “You never know if they have done more harm when this thing happens, but he worked okay this morning (Saturday) so it was all systems go,” said Cameron, who was credited with his first training success from his newly-acquired 40-hectare property at Yaldhurst, formerly occupied by Allan Holmes. Twinkle John, a five-year-old gelded son of Transport Chip and Twin-

kle Estella, .looked highlypromising with back-to-back wins at the outset of his career, • then ran a couple of sevenths after showing greenness. Trained last season at Ashburton by John Lischner, Twinkle John was sidelined with the virus that went through the stable when preparing for the Anngow Four-Year-Old Championship at Forbury in the New Year and was given several months to recover. . Raced by Bernie Wilks and Sandra Wilkinson, of Christchurch, Twinkle John showed plenty of sparkle on Saturday, reeling off a sharp quarter of 27.5 seconds between the 2000 m and mile pegs to head off El Red in the lead. Cameron slowed the field over the next 800 m in 1:7.8 before sprinting in over his last 800 m in 58.1 and last 400 m in 29.3 easily. The full mobile 2600 m took 3:20.9, a mile rate of 2:4.3. “It is the sign of a good horse when they can use a bit of petrol like that and come on again at the finish. It is also nice to breed one that has gone on and is doing the job,” added Cameron.

Cameron, on behalf of the owners, offered Twinkle John for sale to a Sydney contact for $40,000 while still unqualified last season. “I told him he was one of the best maidens I’ve ever had, but I never heard back from him,” said Cameron. “I then offered him to a New Zealand buyer, but the same thing happened. But they have done me a favour because the price has gone up since then,” he added.