NEW ZEALAND BLOOD

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 86, 8 October 1935, Page 6

NEW ZEALAND BLOOD

SUCCESSES IN AUSTRALIA

K. VOITRE'S FINE TREBLE

■ Although Dominion blood was well '■"' to the forefront in the leading events, both classics and handicaps; in Australia during the past weekend, the - 'actual New Zealand visitors had to be . content with a single third placing (by | Silver Jubilee) last Saturday. The ; contingent that left, to do the spring meetings in Sydney and Melbourne this :- season was one of the strongest on .- paper for some years, but the horses „; nave had misfortunes ever since they departed, and it may already be estimated that the aggregate cost to ■ owners. is going to be well into five • figures, unless an unexpected sequence of success should come their way lata in the session. This year's invasion ,:.... certainly at present looks like being a V fairly complete rout at the hands of ■ the Australian defenders, among whom, ~. of course, must be numbered New Zea-land-bred horses now quartered permanently in the Commonwealth. A feature pf Saturday's" racing at ■, Randwick was the continued success of the former New Zealand jockey Keith Voitre, who appears to have a . complex for the big handicaps. In winning the Epsom Handicap on Synagogue voitre was completing a rather remarkable treble. Shortly alter his permanent transfer to Australia last February Voitre brought home the - winner (Count Ito) of the V.E.C. Newmarket Handicap, and six weeks later .■ he also rode the winner (Hall Mark) of the A.J.C. Doncaster Handicap. Outside of the Cups these are the prin- .. cipal handicaps of the autumn in the Commonwealth. A somewhat lean time followed during the winter, but Voitre. has lately been riding with full measure of success again. Besides his win on Synagogue on Saturday, he was also on Great Legend in the Kensington Handicap, thus completing what must have been a very profit-./able-double for the young Melbourne bookmaker Mr. J. A. Phillips, who owns both horses. The only offset to a perfect day's racing was the failure of his Derby mount The Chanter, who is apparently,not so good a colt as he • promised to develop. •■ SYNAGOGUE FULFILS HOPES. . The praises of Synagogue have been sung so often that it would serve no . purpose to, go over the details'note by. note again. He is a beautiful cut of a horse, and at the time he was sold ■•• it was prophesied that he might turn out the best purchase that his lucky ; young owner had yet made, though .-■■■ Game Carrington was among the number. It is a coincidence that his former ; trainer, T. R. George, who was re- '■'.- sponsible for his development, had to i look on at the Epsom on Saturday . without representation, though pro--I'' • bably he profited a little from the success. ' • . '■'■..'.• The only classic honour that Syna- • gogue gained in the Dominion was the ■■■- Trentham Stakes, one mile, at the Wellington Royal Welcome Meeting last -~ December, when he very thoroughly accounted for his New Zealand Derby ' victor Sporting Blood, but he might . well have won both Derbies. When beaten a neck at Riccarton he was not ■ Dnly meeting Sporting Blood slightly better attuned to fitness, but he was „.• also suffering from the disability of a mouth abscess that had been lanced, only the same morning. And ■when beaten by Gay Blonde and Kelly in the Great Northern Derby he .was on the only sort of track that he cannot «• handle, a firm surface made greasy by showers. His defeat in the Tramway Handicap at the TattersalPs Meeting last month, after he had brilliantly won the Campbelltown Handicap at Warwick Farm a fortnight earlier, as on just such a track again. Synagogue is too brililant for greasy going, though he can act in heavy going. After the Great Northern Derby his rider (A. E. Ellis) stated that the colt had moved about on the track slightly when he asked him to •. go along, and after that he refused to try again. His Derby failures ed many to question his stamina, but it is ■'■: still believed that he will go a sound .1J miles at least, as one would expect from his conformation and from his breeding. He has now won four races ;in Australia in seven starts for Mr. Phillips, on whose behalf he was "bought-after his success in the' Trent--1 ham Stakes for an undisclosed price, ■ but understood to have been in the , vicinity of £1500. DERBY DEAD-UEAXERS. • ■■. New Zealand blood was to the fore in both the A.J.C. and the S.A.J.C. . ■'Derbies.'". Homier, one of. the deadheaters at Randwick, was bred" m-the ; Dominion, and Roseglow, the dam o£ '" Beamish Boy, the winner at Adelaide, ■-. was'also bred in New Zealand. The "second horse in the Adelaide classic, The Riff, a stablemate of the winner, • ; was also bred in the Dominion. Homer, The Riff, and Roseglow were all sold at the annual yearling: sales in New Zealand. ■ The- dead heat in the' A.J.C. Derby was not without precedent, for Artilleryman and Richmond Main were also bracketed as- winners in 1919. The Homer-AUunga battle down the straight reads from the reports to have been similar to the titanic struggle be- ■■. tween Artilleryman (the favourite) and Richmond Main sixteen years ago. Artilleryman was the more distressed at the end of that thrilling fight, but it did not hurt him, as he went on a month'later fairly easily to win the Melbourne Cup from Richmond Main, t the two three-year-olds having the same weight, 7.6 (weight-for-age). There was never much between these two fine 'colts, however, as three days prior to the Cup Richmond Main had beaten Artilleryman by half a length in the V.R.C. Derby. Allunga and Homer will each have his opportunity of shaping against the other again in the V.R.C. Derby and Melbourne Cup, if all goes well with each meanwhile. Homer's shared success in the Derby •had several interesting points about it. The most important is that he has given his sire Iliad a leading classic . winner out of his first crop. Iliad, who ran second to Blenheim in the 1930 : Epsom Derby, was naturally -provided with some of the best mares available when he came out to stand his first seasons at the stud in the Dominion, and the colt who was to be named - Homer was conceded at the sales last year to be the best of his first fairly extensive offering. The colt wa; bought ,for 550 guineas by Mr. J. Spencer ' Brunton, of Sydney, who had previously successfully raced his half:sister Quarto, and he has now, somewhat'un- ■ expectedly, become a cheap buy. Generally Iliad's first crop did not <£ate fulfil hopes, as many were on the small side, but they seem to be doing better as three-year-olds. Homer was a winner of three races in sequence last season, but after that his form lapsed, and Saturday's was his ■ first decent showing in a race for a , considerable tune. This puzzled his connections, as he is one of the best track workers in the stable. In the Hobartville Stakes six weeks ago: he -' finished second last As a result the : stable mainly relied on Loud Applause ■in the Darby, but the anticipation ! proved very much astray, a happening of rip rare occurrence in classic events iof the past. . ' : Allunga, the other dead-heater on ; Saturday, had ruled as a likely classic ". colt for some time past, and it was '■ generally agreed that he promised to ;be the main danger for Young Idea, who ran badly in the race, evidently " pulling himself to pieces. Allunga ' was bred in South Australia, and, the .■'fina* offering-in last years-Sydney sales catalogue, he was acquired cheaply for 1 120.guineas by H. Oaks, who ; was a> . parently acting on behalf, of .his. present ■ owners, Messrs. M.- Mulligaft • arid •J. ! Williamson. He is-a brown colt by im-

ported Inchaquire, an Irish-bred grandson of Marco who is closely related to Hot Weed (winner of the French Derby), and his dam is an imported mare, Heliope, a granddaughter of Marco, so that he doubles stout blood close up in his pedigree. His only win last season was in the Fernhill Handicap at Randwick at Easter, but he quickly revealed that he was a better colt this season, and a fortnight ago he beat everything except the allconquering Hadrian (who had been ,lE *e" °. ut of the Derby) in the .Kosehill Guineas.