WELL-WEIGHTED PAIR

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 112, 7 November 1935, Page 6

WELL-WEIGHTED PAIR

kiltowyn and cuddle

In all discussio.is on the New Zealand ? Cup problem for Saturday one of the i points that is usually mentioned is that, on weights alone, the pick of the | a field are Kiltowyn and Cuddle, i F Whether the figures will be borne out i by the result is, of course, another ■ matter, for there is a doubt about 1 whether either has the requisite q stamina, but this is a doubt that attaches to the majority of the field, as > there are so few distance races in the ' Dominion to serve as tests. It may, ; however, be taken .as granted that * these two horses- are the natural * choices on figures purely, and it may . therefore be of some, interest to consider their actual credentials. • . Kiltowyn will be-taken first, as he ' has been among the higher weights for . over twelve months now, whereas J Cuddle has climbed ■ from the seven ~ stones in hack company during the, ; same period. In the New Zealand Cup j weights they have been set together on , 7.13. When the weights were issued \ for the Wellington Handicap last month Kiltowyn was given 9.2 and , Cuddle 9.0, but a rehandicap for her ' win at Masterton lifted Cuddle to 9.3. . Kiltowyn did not accept, and Cuddle ] was unplaced, but it was a false race , that told nothing. v '. BEST YET IN FAMILY. Kiltowyn has already had a race over two miles, in the last Auckland Cup, for which under 7.13 he was ; third favourite to the King March-Gay Marigold bracket and Vintage, but that proved no trial, as he was one of the horses to suffer serious interference. It was possibly that knock which prevented his justifying his favouritism for the Summer Cup, 1| miles, on the second day better than with a third, though he was only two necks away from the. winner (King March), who was conceding 41b. He did not run again at the meeting, but at his next two appearances he won a double at the Takapuna Meeting at Ellerslie a month later, carrying 8.13 and 9.9 respectively, each time over Ii miles. He has not succeeded since then, but he has gone good races at every start this season, and was finishing on well , at,the end of the 1£ miles Mitchelson Cup, in Which he had 9.0. His owner is satisfied that he is now in better order than he has been at any previous stage this term. There may be one factor that will tell against Kiltowyn, and that is that he is not accustomed to the usual way of going. All his important achieve- , ments have been recorded on north- ; crn courses, where the going is the ' reverse way. Sometimes a change from the right-handed to the left- ; handed way has- troubled good horses, and old David, hero of many Randwick ■ battles, was one of them. As to his breeding, Kiltowyn has 1 ample in his pedigree to encourage the I belief that he will stay the Cup distance. First he is a six-year-old son lof Kilbroney, and the Kilbroneys, 1 with age, have proved among the Do- > minion's best stayers 'during the last fifteen years. One has only to name such of this sire's progeny as Razzle , Dazzle, Insurrection, Affectation, I Loughrea. Suggestion, The Banker t (New Zealand Cup), Oratrix (New Zeat land Cup), Piuthair, Concentrate, Kil- , boy (A.J.C. Derby), Killiecrankie " (W.A. Derby), etc., to realise this. . And' Kiltowyn's dam (Towyn) is a '' daughter of Lucullus, another great , sire of stayers, from Congress, by : Hierarch (son of Cyrenian) ■ from Te Huinga. by Hotchkiss (son of Musket) from Sunningdale, a mare by Hampj" ton imported from England in the l' nineties. The female line, though now L strongly fortified in the descent to '} Towyn, has so far held on very slen- ,• derly here, its two best performers -• outside of Kiltowyn being probably a Dave and Maorilander -(in South Australia), but it is often such families a that revive unexpectedly after a period of quiescence to produce high-class »- horses. On such pedigree as Kiltori wyn's one might reasonably hope for '- a horse who could' stay Saturday's c journey. .. CUDDLE'S ENGLISH LINES. h Cuddle, in contrast to Kiltowyn, has r worked her way into prominence in a is comparatively short space of time, but c had she been t sound earlier in her ,f career she would probably have c achieved high success well before she n did. She is even now not a mare s- with whom any risks can be taken. Sj but since she has been at Trentham ;e she has given her connections no n cause for concern. Her party are very a hopeful about her prospects, especia . ally after her fine display in the Harr . court Stakes, and the only doubt at , all they have is whether the two miles r might not be just too far. Her longest , 0 " trip yet has been the last Wellington lf Cup. H miles, but, after all, she-was in a front in that race till Vintage caught her, and she had everything else foui g lengths or more in her wake. 1 '■ Like Kiltowyn. Cuddle is six years old. She is a brown daughter of" Psy- ; chology (a son of Tracery), and her , dam is the Martian mare Caress, a win- •?• ncr of the W.R.C. Taita Handicap as \ a juvenile and a full-sister to Quest, s . good but somewhat unlucky performer ": Caress was from the imported Thrusli " mare Trichas, who i» turn was c \ daughter of the St. Simon mare Cremc „ Simon. Cuddle's breeding is. in effect a along purely English lines, for all hei 1 ancestors are imported horses. Tricha< io herself did not race, but her close > relative Circerole was a good winnei ■■ IS England, and ran second in Cinna'i ■ Oaks. c- There are some weaknesses tha ir- might be noted in Cuddle's pedigree "s, from a stamina point of view, but it i' ir- well marked by the lines for brilli m ance, for Thrush has always connotet this quality, and Trichas traces bad \s| to a Touchstone mare, Terrific, wh< i.B figures in the ancestry of a Derbi 'if <Tagalie), two Oaks, and two Onl ht Thousand Guineas winners. Descen from Touchstone is now widely re i's yarded as a very desirable attribute ii na a racehorse, particularly as combinini ed ..lost of the qualities required for win i's ning races. Cuddle has always im in- pressed with her brilliance: the onl' nd other requisite that is now needed fo up I her .to win on Saturday is the stamin lid and condition to go the two miles