RAILWAY HANDICAP

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 135, 5 December 1930, Page 6

RAILWAY HANDICAP

! ISSUE EXTREMELY OPEN

CHROMADYNE'S GOOD CHANCE

There are many more good sprinters about than stayers, and for this reason the search for winners of the Dominion's principal sprint handicaps is a much more difficult task than the search for Cup winners.- Over and above the factor of small i difference in the merit of many of the [ contestants, there is added the element of luck in the running, which plays a main part in sprint races, but is comparatively j negligible in distance races, where the best horse will generally win through. The A.R.C. Railway Handicap, therefore, is never an easy race to analyse, and in the list of- weights published this week the club's handieapper (Mr. F. J. M'Mauemin) has set'students of form one of the trickiest problems they have- been faced with for some time. The weights are formed within slightly narrower limits | than those' for the Stewards' Handicap, but this serves only to enhance the difti- | culty of the puzzle, and a possible solution does not appear until the list is carefully winnowed, and what is left is twisted and turned and looked at from many angles. AT BOTTOM OF LIST. A feature of the race over the past twelve years has been the success of the division weighted under Ssfc. On only two .occasions has Sst or over been carried successfully in the last thirteen contests (there were two races in 1925), Silver Link (9.0) supplying the winner in 1921, and Reremoana (9.7) the winner of one |of the heats in 1925. All the other winj hers in the period have been near the foot iof the handicap. This year there are several good prospects under Sst, the best of these being. Karapoti (7.12), Autopay (7.12), Great Star (7.5), Refresher (7.4), Staghunter (7.3), and Tenterden (7.0). Karapoti followed up his defeat of Cylinder, in the Great Northern Guineas by winning an open sprint at Te Rapa at his one start since, and this is excellent form. Three-year-olds have not often succeeded in the race, but one in Hunting Cry (7.5) won last year, and if another scores this year Karapoti is a likely one among the 7 stones to achieve the honour. There are, however, a couple of others of his age in this division who will be worthy rivals for him—Autopay aud Tenterden. Autopay's claim rests on the fact that he won the last Stewards' Handicap decisively, and then put up an excellent performance in carrying top weight to short head defeat in the open sprint at Feilding on Monday. Tenterden was the horse that,beat him, and in" being placed oil the minimum in the Railway alter that success he appears to have lain overnight on the lap of his guardian angel. Of the three-year-olds on which, a line is obtainable, omitting Gesture, Tenterden, who is improving fast, reads the best, but Karapoti, wonting through Cylinder, may be quite capable of beating him even at the 121b difference in the weights. Of the others under Sst already mentioned, Great, Star, who was second last year with 21b more than he lias this year, makes the most appeal. He showed evidence of returning to his best form "at Riccarton, and if he wins at Ashburton to-morrow he will gain many friends for the northern race. Refresher aud Staghunter have won in good company, and, caught in the mood, they may also offer serious opposition under their favourable* weights. WHERE POSSIBILITIES LIE. The eight-stone division has not had a success since 1917,.when King Lupin (8.12) Jind Hymestra (S.ti) dead-heated, but prior t that date it provided the; winner more often than any other division, and on the law of averages it is time another winner appeared from among the eight-stoners. It is. here.,,that the strength of this year's field' lies, for, this division contains such crack speed merchants as Hunting Cry (8.12),. Lady QueS (8.10), Supremacy (8.8), Silvermihe. (8.8), Consent (8.6), Chromadyne / (8,4), Hunting Day (8.2), and Gesture (8.1). Among-such a,galaxy of stars one hardly feels inclined to search further for the probable winner. Hunting Cry won last year, but he Bad only 7.5. on that occasion. Nevertheless he followed up the success with a Derby victory, and only quite recently he pulled off one of the easiest wins registered at the Randwick Spring Carnival. He is j working well at Hastings, and he is en^ i titled to be accorded the highest respect. He is likeliest among the topweights. Lady Ques meets Supremacy at Gib worse terms than when she beat him in the Feilding Stakes last week, and so there is little to choose between them here. Silvermine, on the same mark, hardly reads as well as either, for, although he is in great heart and has a Stewards' Handicap to his credit, he has been doing his best recent racing over longer distances and appears to have forfeited a little of his sprinting brilliance. Consent's prospects hinge mainly on his good third-; in; the Stewards', but he does not read to have any the best of the handicap in being allotted more weight than he had in the Southern race, and those immedi-1 ately above hmi should account for him. ' PICK OF HANDICAP. Below Consent lies what would appear to: be the pick of the handicap—this is Chromadyne. ' Few will wish to dispute Chromadyne's claim to be considered the most phenomenally improved galloper of the year. It yas only in January that he began racing, and he attracted immediate attention by running second at his first start. He Has never run a bad race, and his record of seven wins in fourteen starts is wound up with five wins at his last five starts. His most recent success was in the Shorts Handicap ai the Auckland Spring Meeting, when, carrying 8.0, lie beat a smart field of sprinters by four lengths. It is difficult to' know just how good Chromadyne is, but he has done all that lias been asked of him so convincingly that his prospects demand to be treated with the utmost circumspection. Nothing at the weights reads so well as he. The two next below him, Hunting Day and Gesture, are Both, possibilities. The ■former disappointed at Riccarton, but Gesture ran a really good fourth in the Stewards' Handicap, and, with the improvement she iB steadily making, she will be a very fit filly on the day. Compared with her Stewards' weight, slie is not badly handicapped, in spite of the fact that she is rated first three-year-old in the field. Those among the nine stoners—Toxeuma (9.6), Pegaway (9.6), and Cimabue (9.4)— do not make much appeal this year, for there appears to be too much strength j lower down the list. In . addition, none of them are certain starters, though Pegaway at least will probably take his place in the field. In a race of so many prospects it is no easy matter to reduce the issue. A half-dozen who will claim plenty of support in early discussions are Chromadyne, Hunting Cry, Supremacy, Gesture, Karapoti, and Tenterden.