PANGO'S HANDICAP

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 138, 8 December 1936, Page 15

PANGO'S HANDICAP

CORRESPONDENT SURPRISED

Surprise at the apparent lenience lof Pango's weight at Woodville is ex- | pressed by a correspondent ("Mug Punter"). Measured through the last two starts Pango had on the flat, at Te Aroha nearly two years ago, when he was six years old and carried 8.7 in the Champion Hack Handicap, H miles, and 8.6 over the same distance on the second day, each time unplaced, there is some justification for the surprise, though the Woodville distance on Thursday is only 6 furlongs. Since those Te,Aroha races Pango has run only three times, in the same season and over hurdles, and twice he was in the money. "Mug Punter's" argument-is:— ' "How Pango ever got in the Mangarawn Hack Handicap at Woodville on the same mark as Patagonia, winner of a maiden race and a hack race, is a mystery to me. He also receives weight from Prevail, Huntette, ■ Etiquette, Bly Gain, and Kindheart (I omit Peter Beckford and Sansfoy because I think Pango should be weighted round about them). His receiving weight from such horses seems to me absurd, for, if I remember rightly, he was started in races like the Marton and Ashhurst Cups two seasons ago. "In weighting a horse I thought the handicappers generally stuck to their routine—that is, when a horse of ordinary performances comes in from a spell it is generally weighted up to its previously shown ability. Pango may not win at Woodville, but still it would not mean that he had not been leniently treated. When a horse such as he is gets in at 7.11 it means that he can go on winning two or three races once he strikes form before he reaches his right position in the weights."