YET TO BE ACHIEVED

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 25, 29 July 1933, Page 7

YET TO BE ACHIEVED

GRAND NATIONAL DOUBLE

BOTH RACES IN ONE YEAR

There are two horses that have made the first acceptance this j'ear for both the Grand National Steeplechase and the Grand Natioual Hurdles, but the record of the races is completely against their being successful in the two events. The horses referred to are Makeup and High Commissioner. No horse has yet. won this double in the one year. Indeed only two horses, (Dummy and Haydn) have won the two races in different years. The record of the Great Northerns shows that the same horse has on occasions won this double in the same year, but the hurdles precedes the steeples at Ellerslie, whereas at Kiccarton the steeples is the first race. Still one horse, that gallant mare Aurora Borealis, just failed to create the precedent at , Riecarton. A couple of months earlier Aurora Borealis had run third in the Great Northern Hurdles and had won the Great Northern Steeples at Ellerslie. Of course since the Grand National Hurdles was first added to the C.J.C. Steeplechase Meeting in 1890 there have been many attempts to capture the double, but it has yet to be achieved. SOME EARLY ATTEMPTS. In the first two years (1890 and 1891) the races were run on the same day, and as might be expected no horse then contested the two events. In 1917 and 1918 the races were again run on the same day, but the next year the club reverted to its old practice of holding the steeples on the first day and the hurdles on the second day (after a day'? interval), and there lias been no change since. There will again be a day's interval between the two events this year. ■ In 1892, the first time that the events were run on different days, two horses (Kaimanawa and Coiiranto) stepped out in both, but they were unplaced. Couranto had won the hurdles the previous year. A year later Mutiny, who was destined to win the steeples in 1895 and 1896, ran third in the steeples and was unplaced in the hurdles. Empire, Despised, and Victrix also rah in both events. In 1894 no horse contested the double, but Liberator and Despised unsuccessfully made the attempt in 1895. The next year (1896) Liberator (who had won the hurdles in 1893 and 1894) ran unplaced in the steeples and finished third in the hurdles. Narrate was another dual runner that year. The first Grand National Steeplechase winner to be saddled up for the hurdles two days later was Levanter in 1897, but he failed to repeat his first day's triumph. Flirt and Ulster also ran in the two events that year. In 1898 there was no dual essay, but in the next four years Dummy, Dundee, Kaimate, Moifaa, Cavaliero, and Huku all failed to gain places in either event when attempting the double. In 1903 Awahuri won the steeples and vrjaa unplaced in the hurdles, and a year later Slow Tom registered the same performance. In the following few years the only horses to run in the two races were Catherine Gordon and Kanana, both without gaining places. ■ '■ ' . Then in 1911, after a lapse of four years in which no horse had turned out in the two races, Paritutu repeated the feat previously achieved by Levanter, Awahuri, • and Slow Tom, and two years later'Bercola was similarly successful. After 1913 the next horse to try for the elugive double honours was Lochella iil 1920, but; altlio'ugh he was' favourite in the steeples and second favourite in the hurdles, he failed to run into a place in either event. Lochella had won the steeples the previous year. c THE LAST DECADE. Another interval followed, broken only by futile ventures from Omahu (1923) and Sir Roseberry (1925), but in 1927 Beau Cavalier, who had won the Great Northern Steeples two months earlier and was destined to win the Great Northern Hurdles the next j"ear, followed in the steps of precedent by •winning the steeples and running unplaced in the>hurdles. Kawini also contested both races that year. The next year Pouri ran second in the steeples and nowhere in the hurdles, and Beau Cavalier was unplaced in both. King's Guard was a dual runner in 1929. Then came Aurora Borealis's best accomplishment to date at Riccartdn, for after winning" the 1930 Grand National Steeples she was beaten only a length and a half by Carinthia in the hurdles. That same year Omeo ran third in the steeples and was unplaced in the hurdles. ' Since then Wiltshire and Wako King (1931) and High Pitch (last year) have run in both events without gaining) a place in either. ' An interesting commentary on the record of dual performances given here is that seven horses who have aimed at earning double honours in the one year have won the steeples but have missed in the hurdle's. The seven are Levanter, Awahuri, Slow Tom, Paritutu, Bercdla, Beau Cavalier, and Aurora Borealis. The lastnamed is the only one of them to have been placed in the hurdles. Another point of note is that no horse that has failed in the steeples has gone on to win the hurdles two days later. Indeed only one of such horses has filled a place in the hurdles, that being Liberator, who ran third in the 1896 hurdles, after completing the course and being unplaced in the steeples. *It will therefore be seen that the path in front of Makeup and High Commissioner this year is one that has yet to be successfully trodden. Still the achievement of Aurora Borcalia would tend to show that it is by no means an impossible one, and the owner of one at least of this year's two contenders is quite optimistic about the prospects. '