GRAND NATIONAL TIMES

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 35, 10 August 1934, Page 6

GRAND NATIONAL TIMES

The time record for the Grand JSational Steeplechase is the 6mm 53 3 s?ec, 10 corded by Peter 51 i\wcll in vnnnm,, und< i S.l" in 1026. Snowfall, in doing the tup in 6min 58 l-ssee undex 9 3 in 1031 i<- flic only other horso to hate lcgistcicd undei 7min.

When Lochella reduced the race record to 7inin lOaec iv hie year (1019) (writes a Dunedin critic), he put up a better performance than suggested, by., the time. He- was taken wide out on the course all thr> wny to reduce the risk of running oil and '■till he went 60 well that the result Ira ifident. was never in doubt Oakleigh won hi-, frteond Nt tional in 1923 with 12 0 m 7mm 10 2^ec and the following jen Sturdee with 0.4 reduced the record to 7min 4nec Two vems later Peter Maxwell set up the figinel: that still stand as the recnul Sine™ then Bean Cavalier has recorded 7mm Iseo nnd Wiltshire 7min 3 4-ssec in hia fiif.t Ni tional.

The winners of the last two years nre both engaped again next Tuesday: ,Billy Boy won under 11.13 two years ago in 7min llsec. and Thurina was successful fast year under 9.10 in 7miu 2 l-3see Both these horses are capable of rediicing their figures this year if the goincr is at all good.

A South Island writer recalls that the late Mr. W. H. Ballingcr, when racing under the assumed uaine of "Mr. If. Whitjicy," won the'first D.J.C. "SliiLimn Stakes in 190S with the Stepniak filly Aenui. Tiight years later in 1016 ho won (ho s.-mie face: wit)) Trentharn K.o«e.