RECORD AGAINST HIM

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 145, 16 December 1933, Page 25

RECORD AGAINST HIM

NIGHTLY'S CHANCE IN CUP

THREE-YEAR-OLD SUCCESSES

One feature of more than usual note about the first acceptance for this year's Auckland Cup is the inclusion in the list bf a three-year-old colt of classic triumphs, and perhaps at last, after an interval of B7 years, a three-year-old will once again feet the name oil one of his age to the Scroll of fame for Ellerslie's principal handicap item of the season. The colt is Nightly, a son of Night Raid, the sire of Phar Lap and Nightmarch, and he is to contest the Cup mainly because he was tiever entered for the Great Northern Derby. He has wcigUt-for-age, 7.9, and he will be ridden by the apprentice A. Russell, who handled- him in masterly style to win the N.Z. Derby and Canterbury Cup. ' . The definite decision to run Nightly in the Cup will lead to a general inquiry about how often a three-year-old has run in the race and how often a horse o£ the age has succeeded. In the early years of the race three-year-olds were fairly regularly represented in the field, but in late years not many three-year-olds have been called upon to contest the race. In.the 58 Cups, so far decided only five three-year-olds have won through the ordeal, and the last so, to succeed was Nestor back in 1806.' ' . FIRST OF FIVE WINNERS. The Cup had been run eight years before a three-year-old first triumphed. That was in 1882, when Welcome Jack won under 7.5. Those who were at Ellerslie on that bright summer day over half a century ago will remember this colt_ as one of the most bloodlike specimens of ■the thoroughbred that ever graced the northern testing-ground. He was a highclass son of "Traducev aiul the Peter^ Flat Di'are Miss Plat, and on the New Year's Day following he scored also in the Great Northern Derby. The next horse of the age to succeed Was Crackshot, who leH the 1890 field home with 8.3 on his back. Crackshot was one of the foals sired by the Musket horse Nordenfeldt in his first season, and he must have been a good colt, for, although lie was beaten in tho New Zealand Derby and Great Northern Derby by Medallion, he beat that rival decisively sii the 2%-mile Canterbury Cup and thus showed himself to be the better and truer stayer of the pair. Two. years later, St. Hippo, who had yon the New Zealand Cup the previous November, extended the three-year-old record in the Auckland Cnp, and in winning under the steadier of 8.9 (a stone over weight-for-age) he put up a performance that entitles him to rank as among the best staying thvee-year-olds that have ever raced on the New Zealand Turf. This son of St. Leger and the Robinson Crusoe mare Hippona had been beaten in the New Zealand Derby hy Stepniak (who had not started in the New Zealand Cup), "but ho subsequently won the Great Northern Derby, in which, however, Stepniak also did not compete. An interesting point about his Derby victory is that, with the permission of his owner, as could then be done, he waa barred on the totalisator, and the dividends (there were separate dividends for the inside and outside in those years) were paid out on the second horse. The following year Pegasus, a chestnut colt by Nelson from The Marquis innre Tinambra, carrying 7.5, was responsible for a surprise victory. He, appears to have been only a moderate, but those whom he defeated included Skirmisher, who had beaten him rather easily in the New Zealand Derby. He again accounted for Skirmisher in the Great Northern Derby, but Loyalty beat them both. Pegasus's subsequent form was entirely disappointing. The last occasion on which a three-year-old won the Auckland Cup was in 1896, Nestor's year. . That contest will long be remembered by reason of the fact that three horses of tho age were included among the starters, and that the summing-up of the knowing ones as among them went badly astray. St. Paul (8.2) and Day Star (7.11) ruled almost equal favourites, but Nestor (6.12, including 31b overweight) was very moderately supported; Nestor, however, answered all demands when it came to business. The other pair could not even reach the minor places. As Nestor, who was a chestnut colt by St. Leger from the Musket mare Tamova, subsequently , bent. St. Paul aud Day Star in the Great Northern Derby, it was clearly demonstrated that his rivals had been confronted with a somewhat hopelega task in being called on to concede him weight in the Cup. LAST THIRTY YEARS. From that year the older horses have taken and hfld a complete ascendancy, and the only Occasion since on which one of the few good three-year-olds that have contested the Cup has gone near breaking -the spell was the IDM Cup, when that game Martian colt Reputation, carrying 8.1, ran the New Zealand Cup dead-heater Warstep, from whom lie was in receipt of only 81b, to a head for first honours in the then record time of 3min 26 3-ssec. When it is borne in mind that Warstep subsequently won the Trentham Gold Cup in 3min 24sec the performance- of Pveputation must be allowed to have stamped him something of a wonder for his inches. Jn the New Zealand Derby Reputation ran third to Balboa and First Flight, and lie was awarded second place ahead of First Flight on the ground of interference. On New Year's Day he succeeded in turning the tables on Balboa in the Great Northern Derbjv One more recent yenr on which it was thought that a three-year-old had a great winning chance in the Cup was 1023, when Bailymena, who had won the A.J.C. Derby and Canterbury Cup, was in the field with 7.6, or 31b under weight-for-age. However, he failed to go more than iVz miles and was one of the last to finish. Ballyroena, though unexpectedly beaten once or twice, was'- a really good three-year-old. His failure to gain a place in the New Zealand Derby was probably due to a check in his work after his return from Australia and a kick in the ribs at the Btart, but he made some atonement by winning the Great Northern Derby five days after his gruelling Auckland Cup effort; ' Since Ballymena's unsuccessful essay the three-year-old 3 seem to have been generally frightened out .of the race, for in the ten years that have elapsed since only four horses of the ago have made an attempt to place a three-year-old back on the winning record. Battlement (7.2) faile<T in 3926 and Great Charter (7.0) in the following yenr. In 1331 Peter Jackson (7.0) ran a creditable fourth and was .finishing solidly. Last year the filly Gold Trail (7.0) represented the age, and, after not the best of passages, came homo well into sixth place. Now the question remains to be answered: Can Nightly at.last break the Bpell this yenr? There are some who say that ho can. .