GUINEAS RACES

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 281, 24 August 1944, Page 7

GUINEAS RACES

First Of The Season Next Week

(By

St. Simon.)

The first Guineas events for the new season will be decided at Ellerslie next week when the Avondale Club runs its spring meeting, and the Wanganui Guineas follows on the next Saturday. On two-year-old form the Avondale race contains more class than the Wanganui Guineas, but the last-named event will be awaited with interest, for the field contains last season’s champion two-year-old, Subdued, who was unbeaten In five starts and wag the biggest stake-earner of her age. How far Subdued will be able to maintain her speed has yet to bo shown, but there is little doubt that for sheer pace she was one of the fastest two-year-olds the dominion has seen for several years. Being by Ringmaster from a Llmond mare, slit comes frorti a family that has produced a host of classic winners, and the majority of them found no difficulty in running a middle distance. Dropped Out. A surprise defection from the Wanganui Guineas was Matador, another Ringmaster, whose two-year-old form suggested possb bilities in his second season and about whose progress good reports have been received. He is trained at Hastings for his Wellington owner and has wintered welt. He has been entered for hack races each dav at Wanganui, and evidently his trainer desires to take him along .quietly in the eariv spring. Matador appears among those remaining in the Avondale Guineas after first forfeits, but he was left in that event by error and will not be there.

D Flying °Spy? who has achieved fame as the first mare to win the Grand National Hurdles, was practically forced into the jumping branch of racing. She always showed speed on the flat, but about thia time last year she became very erratic at the barrier and was placed on the schooling list in August, 1943, which automatically debarred her from contesting flat races. In the spring of the previous season she had been given a few races over hurdles, but shaped poorly, and it TO not till she became eligible for hurdle racing only that she began to show Improvement.

This Week’s Meetings. e t 5 Meetings scheduled for this week are the Taranaki and Egmont-Wanganui _ Hunt Clubs’ combined race meeting at Hau era and the concluding day of the New Zealand Metropolitan'Trotting Clubs National meeting at Addington.

Won at First Start. Peterhead, winner of the Bullock Webster Handicap for amateur riders at the Pakuranga Hunt meeting is a four-year-old geldingjby. Surview . v gls of Milo and was having his first start. His sire is an 11-year-old full-brother to Sur mount (Surveyor—Cometary) ' brother to Nuna, Bright Eox and Observatory, and his darn is a The Ace from Felspar by Quin Abney from a Marble Arch mare. Peterhead ia owned and trained by J. J- Goodwin, who also prepares Tweedsmulr, and is expected to hold his own in better company than that which opposed him on Saturday.

Remaining In the North. rrnrrU Travancoro, easy winner of the Hams Hurdles at tho Fakuranga Hunt Club a meeting at Ellerslie, may revert to flat racing/and his next start probably ulll ho in the Avondale Cup at Ellerslie on September 9. Ho is still trained by his pa?t-owner, Mr. A. W. Melkle, at Hastings, but is to remain in Auckland for the snrinc racing. Travancore was not too reliable when raced on the flat, but has done well with wins at his last two starts over hurdles. He traces to the Kingfisher mare Winnie, dam of -St. Simon, wlnner of tho Great Northern Hurdles in 1897 with 12.12, and Record Reign, the Grand National Hurdles in 1900 with 12.12.

Juveniles Parade. Interest was taken In a P“ Iles 'before the first race at Pakuranga, the youngsters sprinting about two furlongs and a bait. Those to take part were Kanga, a bay filly by Ghrlstopherßoliin from Evasion; Dlatomous Girl. br. . t. by Dlatomous—Ross' Gift; lake-a-Lot, br. c , by Defaulter— Spinalot; Balmoro, b. e., by Coronach—Canvasser; Gay Rua, ib. a Ruapapa eolt—dam unknown; rel 1meet ch. f. by Vermeer—Pelisse; Celestine. 'b. f., by iFoxbrldge—Lady Whirlwind; and Ghazlpur, blk. f., by Bulandshar—Rose of Woodville. The winner wis Ghazlpur, who had an advantage of naif a length from Pellmeer at the Kanga being three lengths Xurtlier back, with Dlatomous Girl fourth and Celestine fifth. The winner, owned by Mr. Charlton Dawson, Is a well-developed Ally, an*} has an exceptionally smooth style or galloping. Good Armour’s Form. , , , , . ? . Good Armour disappointed Ina many admirers when he failed to finish closer than fourth in the Harris Memorial Hack and Hunters’ Hurdles at the Pakuranga Hunt meeting at Ellerslie. After hie very easy win at his previous start in the Panmure Hack Hurdles In June his prospects appeared good, but he did not reproduce the same dash, though he finished strongly and made up a lot of ground In the last few furlongs. Good Armour, a five-year-old gelding bv Dink from Armutum, Is only a i'oung hurdler, and he may make early amends for the defeat.

Waikato Club’s Profit. The Waikato Racing Club made a net profit of £1857 on last season’s operations. The club paid Government taxation amounting to £22,750, nearly twice the sum given in for tho season.

Plans Changed. Tomahawk (Coronach—Brown Pearl) ran so promisingly at Riccarton that the plans to send him home to Martinborough to spell have been changed and ho is being prepared to race at the Ashburton spring meeting.

Longer Distances Probable, Irish Note, whose fourth in the August Handicap at Riccarton was indicative of early success, may be tried out over 10 furlongs at the Ashburton meeting. Irish Note won over a mile as a hack at Riccarton last spring and is bred to bo something more than a sprinter.

Delayed Preliminaries. Delayed preliminaries will operate at the combined hunt club meeting at Hawera this week. The clubs also announce that complimentary tickets are being dispensed with.

Hurdler by J,o Zingaro. ' Benghazi, second in the V.R.C. Grand National Hurdles, and winner of the Australian Hurdle Race, is by Lo Zingarl (Solario —Love in Idleness), a horse imported to Victoria by Mr. S. Green and now owned by Mr. A. Chisholm, Otautau. Speed In Abundance. Few of the hacks racing at Riccarton showed greater speed than Pensacola, a three-year-old by Golden Eagle from Amyril. Top weight in the Woolston Handicap and drawn 24 at the post, he quickly raced through to tho front and set a strong pace to the distance, where lack of racing told against him, but he ran on for a handy fifth, a performance on which he should soon improve as thlfi was hie first race since Easter. Pensacola comes from a family noted for its speed, among its bevst performers being Bathos, Grotesque and Beau Vaals.

Valuable Hunch. , The customary crop of hard-luck stories has been circulated by people who “just missed” being on the near century and a half dividend returned by Stavros in the Avonhead Handicap at Riccarton. A true incident which came under the writers notice concerned a patron who backed Bashful Lady, ridden by -Mackie into third place in the preceding race, the Winter Cup. Unable to make up his mind among several fancies in the big field for the next race, he decided to back Mackie again. The result was that he invested £1 to win on Stavros, and it was not till he read the s-ports edition that night that he learned that R. •!. Mackie rode Bashful Lady and that C. H. Mackie was on Stavros.