THE HARCOURT CUP

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 96, 20 October 1934, Page 23

THE HARCOURT CUP

MONDAY'S LEADING EVENT

CAN THREE-YEAR-OLD WIN ?

The Wellington Racing Club's Spring Meeting, which opened at Trentham today, will be concluded on Monday, and a well-balanced card will be provided for the club's holiday patrons. The open handicap events will be the Pearce Handicap, run over a mile, and the Naiuai Handicap, which this year has been extended from sis to seven furlongs, but the item ot principal attraction wfll be the weight-for-age Harcourt Cup, 1% miles, for which a really good field promises to goto the post. The Harcourt Cup was inaugurated as the Champion Plate in 1009, the name being changed to its present title in 1028. Many illustrious performers have succeeded in this race, and in earlier years, though not since 1918, it has been an accurate line to the New Zealand Derby result a fortnight or so later. The first two winners, Elysian and, Danube, both went on to Riccarton to score in the Derby, and other three-year-old winners who also succeeded in the Derby were Desert Gold (1915) and Gloaming (1918). The 1929 winner Pink Coat must also have been a hard horse to beat had he taken his place in Honour's Derby field, but in his plucky performance at Trentham, in which he finished on three legs decisively to beat Seatown and Concentrate, he broke down completely, and was destined never to race again. Other three-year-olds to have won the Trentham weight-for-age event were Byron (unplaced'in the Derby), Merry Roe (who was not engaged in the Riccarton classics1} but ran second in the Stead Gold Cup), Reputation (who ran second to Balboa in the Derby, Balboa having missed a place at Trentham), Croupier (who was not nominated for the Derby), and Red Manfred (who was beaten in the Derby by Nightly, n starter at Trentham but not himself on the day). In this year's field as it stood at last ■ week's acceptance there are still four three- ' year-olds—Pin Money, Sporting Blood, Top Coat, and Mother Superior—and it will be of interest, in view of their coming engagements, to note how this quartet, fare. Sporting Blood particularly impresses as a colt who may be up to the right standard, especially if he has performed creditably in his race today. Mother Superior is a filly too who may make a good showing in such .a contest, but on what they have done to date the other pair do not seem quite up to weight-for-age class at VA miles. The field for Monday's Cup is:— HARCOURT CUP, £400; wclght-for-age; VA miles. Aesculus 9 4 Spiral 9 0 Arlklra 9 i Gold Trail .. 8 13 Autopay .... 9 4 Polydora .... 813 ' Vintage .... 9 i Pin Money 7 11 Catalogue ... 9 0 Sporting Blood 711 Davolo 9 0 Top Coat .... 7 11 Rod Manfred . 9 0 Mother Superior I 0 The four-year-old group, comprising last year's winner Red Manfred, Spiral (fourth last year), Davolo, and Catalogue, are likely to offer solid opposition to the younger horses this year, especially Red Manfred and Davolo. It is interesting in this connection to observe that although Red Manfred has the classic performances to back up his claims, Davolo, n fine handicapper to date, was weighted 21b above Red Manfred in today's Wellington Handicap, so that the Wellington hundicapper has most clearly been impressed with his past achievements. Four-year-olds have not been particularly successful in the race to date, the only victors of the age having been Desert Gold, Gloaming, Beacon Light, and Limerick; the lastnamed a day or two after landing back in the Dominion from one of his Australian trips. » The likeliest candidates front the older section for Monday's mile and a. quarter appear to be Polydora and Vintage, but Autopay has an Awapuni ;Cup to his credit, so he will also claim 5 attention, despite his several failures beyond a mile, including the last day recently at Randwick.

The record shows that four horses have won this'race more than pnee, so that Red Manfred; who may be the'favourite if he has made any sort of a showing today, has ample precedent on his side. Desert Gold, thrice in succession, and Gloaming, twice in succession and a third time three years afterwards, have the best record of success in the race. Amythas (in succession) and Historic (after an interval of a year) both won the race on two occasions.

Times for a mile and a quarter in the spring at Trentham are naturally usually klow> and the race once took 2min 25 2-5 sec to run, the occasion being the iirst Champion Plate easily won by JSlyaian in a field of four. Historic's two times, 2min 22 1/isee in 1930 and 2min 17% sec in 1932, were also very, slow, but both his victories were achieved on yery heavy tracks. The best time yet registered was Croupier's 2mm 6sec three years ago, which Was just a tick 'faster than Gloaming's time as a seven-year-old in 1922. Red Manfred's time on a dead track last year was femin. B%sec, a good performance;