THE AUCKLAND CUP

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 132, 30 November 1935, Page 22

THE AUCKLAND CUP

". FORECAST OF. HANDICAPS

JONATHAN LIKELIEST TOP

Following the meetings of the next week or so the nominations will be taken for the Christmas and New Year holiday fixtures, but more interest meanwhile will be shown in the weights for the Auckland Cup and Railway Handicap, which are due to make their appearance on Tuesday morning. Mr. F. J. McMancmin is undoubtedly busy already on his list for these two star events of the holiday carnival, and this weekend's racing is unlikely to cause more than minor adjustments in his calculations. The I field for the Cup particularly offers wide scope for his judgment and discretion. It is of course impossible to know exactly where Mr. McManemin will make a start in his weights, but the marks of most of the field may now be a shade higher than they would have been had Vintage not been withdrawn from all his engagements at the meeting last weekend. With Vintage in the field the top weight was obvious. His weight might not have been above 9.5 or 9.6, but had he been placed there the next on the list would probably not have been 9.0. Now some horse among the others has to have at least . 9.0, and it will probably be nearer the weight with which Vintage would have, headed the handicap had he not been, taken out of the race. PRACTICE OF LATE YEARS. A reference to recent years shows that Mr. McManemin's practice has been to start off the handicap at' round about 9.3, 9.4, or 9.5, and he may not depart from the practice this year. In a race such as this he will undoubtedly set out to find first the horse or horses whom he shall set on top. Some handicappers prefer to take a key horse, that is one who has recently been racing a fair amount and proving his ability against various sets of the top-class'horses; but it looks easier: to work down on the Ellerslie list than.; to': work up and down from a ..key horse, such, for instance, as Cuddle might be. Scrutiny of the Cup nomination list, with; Vintage removed, and also Gay Blonde, reveals two horses who will probably dispute the honour of heading th*e list. They are Jonathan arid Sporting Blood, six years and four years old respectively. The problem' between this pair is not quite so easy as: it might look at first glance; for one of them (Jonathan) has, except for two recent starts over sprint courses, been off the scene for a lengthy period; and the other (Sport- ; ing. Blood) has been doing all his re-' cent racing in Australia, where he has' /run 'excellently several times in a ; chequered campaign and has . been 'once;successful, besides which he has irather ;better proved credentials than ■Jonathan as a stayer. It will probably, vise found son Tuesday that Jonathan,' .especially if he should have performed '.with credit during the weekend at the Takapuna Meeting, will be clear on top of the Cup list. As Jonathan may be haying two races before Tuesday one will leave the opinion, what the difference between him and Sporting Blood might be till after then. Some may still doubt if Jonathan should be assessed ahead of Sporting Blood, but, besides their difference in age, which would set 61b between them under the ,w,f.a. scale, Jonathan has shown himself a master of weight. His last start prior to!his recent reappearance was in comfortably winning the Foley Memorial Handicap, Ik miles, at Avondale twelve months ago last April under 9.12 and recording 2min 4 l-ssec for the distance. In his two previous starts he won the A.R.C. Easter, 1 mile, under 8.6 in the race record time of Imin 37 l-ssec (though Red Manfred has since bettered the time); and on the second day of that meeting he carried 9.4 in winning the open sprint in the track record time of lmiri 11 3-ssec. He was not a classic winner as a three-year-old, as Sporting Blood was, but he sensationally ran Silver Scorn to a neck in the G.N. St. Leger Stakes when that brilliant filly was having her last start in the Dominion. Sporting Blood, following his N.Z. Derby win last season, did not quite live up to that promise, but he has returned to very solid form this season in Australia, and he must have been a hard horse to beat in recent big handicaps if he had not had interruptions in his preparation. Even then, carrying 8.8, he finished seventh in the Melbourne Cup; and on the final day of that meeting, carrying 8.13 in the V.R.C. Handicap, 1| miles, he was in front half a furlong from the post, but was unable to withstand a great late run from Bunsby Gaze, to whom he was conceding 271b on the weights carried. COMPARISON OF WEIGHTS. It may be of interest to observe at this stage that in last year's Auckland Cup Jonathan was awarded 9.0, the same weight as Vintage, and a couple of months previously he had topped the N.Z. Cup list with 9.1, with a drop of 101b to Davolo, who was second top; he was, however, unable to race at all last season. The four top weights and the winner's weight in the last half-dozen Auckland Cup handicaps have been:— 1929.—Chide. 9.4; Star Stranger, 5.12; Jlistorlc, 8.12; Pegaway, 5.4. Winner, Concentrate, 4yrs, 7.10. 1930.—Nigbtmarch, 9.13; Star Stranger. 8.13; Concentrate,. 8.13; Historic, 8.0. Winner, Motere, 4yrs. T.O. . 1931.—Historic. 9.2: Gay Crest, 9.0; Hunting Cry, 8.12; Compris, S.B. Winner, Admiral Drake, syrs, T.B. 1932.—Concentrate, 9.3; Gay Crest, 9.2; Historic, 8.12; Fast Passage, 8.11. Winner, Fast Passage, 4yrs. • 1933.—Fast Passage, 9.4; Peter Jackson, R. 10; Star Stranger, 8.4; Admiral Drake, 8.1. Winner, Mluerval, 6yrs, 7.4. 1034.—Nightly, 9.5; Jonathan, H.O; image, n.O; Solarium and Mincrval, S.D. Winner, Gold Trail, syrs, 7.11. Nightly, a four-year-old, had 9.5 last year, but his record in Australia was definitely better than Sporting Blood's has been this year, for he won two w.f.a. races and also the Moonce Valley Gold Cup under 9.2, though he cut up badly under 9.4 in the Melbourne Cup, finishing second last. Through Nightly alone Sporting Blood would apparently have to receive weight from Jonathan, for NighUy's Australian form made him out a more than 51*0 better four-year-old than Sporting Blood, the difference the handicapper set between Nightly and Jonathan in the Auckland Cup twelve months ago. One other nominee for the Auckland Cup attracts notice in the weight she is likely to receive. That is Cuddle, easy winner of the N.Z. Cup. At Riccarton her weight was 7.13, which was exactly one stone less than Sporting Blood was awarded by Mr. J. E. Henrys in the same race. Her N.Z. Cup win, despite its ease, would not seem to have taken her up yet to Sporting Blood, unless the two handicappers hold a difference of opinion concerning the ability of these two horses. -After Fast Passage had won the N.Z. Cup under 8.0 in 1932 she was raised to 8.11 in the Auckland Cup, and went on to succeed again. On this line of reasoning Cuddle's Ellerslie weight would be 8.10 or 8.11, and though the removal of Vintage from the northern handicapper's list for weighting will probably have the result of lifting the other assessments slightly it may be found that Cuddle will not have more than the mentioned weight, for when Fast Passage was raised 111b in her year Concentrate was lifted 71b at Ellerslie for running Ihird in the N.Z. Cup, though he of j course was a previous winner of the j Auckland Cup, a fact that (lie handi- j capper was justified in taking into ; consideration. Concentrate, wild by coincidence carried the same colours ns Cuddle does now, ran in that Cup I and missed a place. j