EASTER AND AUTUMN

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 76, 31 March 1934, Page 19

EASTER AND AUTUMN

RICCARTON'S BfC DOUBLE

. The .Great./ Easter .and Great Autumn Handicaps take.a place in the New Zealand racing calendar as two o£ the greatest tests of speed and: stamina, and for very many-years it has-been--the'ambi-tion of owners to'win the two races with the one. horse. ' This ambition has been realised on very few occasions, but a record', is held by Lady Zetland, who won both, races in 1594, and afterwards, left Lady Lilian, who repeated her dani'a performance,, in 1203. _The only other double winner m the history of the two races is Graha Knight,.- who carried 9.3 'in 4he Griatr Easter^ind ■ 9.4 in:- th6 rt"Greit' Autumn^ (writes "The Marquis").' ■' » The dig difficulty in winning the double arises-thrdughthe substantial penalties imposed -in the' Great Autumn-Handicap for a win in; the.: seven furlongs race; When Lady*rZetland won., the. Great AutumnHandicap, she carried a lOlbj penalty for her earlier win, and for {fie. same' performance her. daughter, Ladj^'LiJian, carried 141b extra. The maximum., rehandicap h.as now been reduced to 71b. ■ '

Since the Great Easter was! first run in 1892 the lowest iveighfi^cajpried was 6.13, byFireiron in IQOT?' ' Two years earlier Machine Gun; one o£ -the most brilliant horses and one of the i greatest weight-carriers New Zealand^ Has known, carried 10.4...t0 victory, tie"''""Eiecarton trainer,. KD. Jones, having.'tW mount. '■'

. The. Great Autumn Handicap' goes back to',a",inuch earlier date than the Great Eister'jindeed it is the longest-established race on the Canterbury Jockey Chib'si programme, for it was first run in 1874 f when Mr. H. Redwood's Kakapo won in the hands .'of R. Derrett, who won again on Rubina'in- ISSS and Vladimir in 1905. The lowest, "weight carried was 5.13, under which: luxurious impost Lady Emma won in- 1881. The weights to be carried in races have been revised considerably since then and the greatest weight-carrying performance goes to the credit o£ • Sasanof, who," ridden by H. Gray* carried 9.13 to a great win in 1920. Many- good horses* have won the Great Autumn Handicap, and a glance through the list'shows the names' of Lady Zetland, Vanguard, Warstep, I?oo Chow, Sasanof, and Nightmareh, all -winners of the New Zealand Cup, and the last pair also winners of the Melbourne Cup; besides Zimmerman, Boniform, Los- Angelos, Bon Ton, and Red Wink, air good horses* in their respective days. The comparison of horses of different periods is* a big and perhaps profitless task, but probably Sasanof is the best of those figuring in the winning -list of the mile and a half race. Hid Great Antumn Handicap victory was a notable perforinance> but Sasanof in many,, ways was an ideal racehorse, a great stayer, and a noted weight-carrier. There may not t>e a horse of the calibre of Sasanof in next Tuesday's race, for this type of. horse comes only once in a generation. Still the field is a very solid one nevertheless, and Silver Ring; if he ii started, might conceivably show that he;is'not much, beneath the highest standard -of-the Dominion's champions of other years. . •