WANGANUFS FEATURE EVENTS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 57, 4 September 1937, Page 22

WANGANUFS FEATURE EVENTS

NEXT WEEK A BIG ONE IN RACING WORLD

(By "Rangatira.")

With the Wanganoi Meeting next Thursday and Saturday, with the first classic and Juvenile events of the season, as well as Tattersall's Meeting in Australia,, at which nineteen years ago Gloaming made his sensational debut, and the St. Leger Stakes, last of the season's classics in England, there will be plenty to occupy the thoughts of racing enthusiasts during the coming week. There is also the Wellington Trotting Club's first fixture of the season at Hutt Park next Saturday. .

Next week's racing in the Dominion is the real beginning of the spriog session, to which other recent meetings have been the prelude. This period of the year is a risky one for the form follower, but doubtless, as in the past, the. advice will not be heeded.

The Wanganui Meetingl this season promises to be the most successful spring fixture the club has. held for many a year. On the good nominations received excellent acceptances are. practically assured cm Monday evening, and the quality of. the fields will also be of-a high standard. The u»~ usual early-spring spell erf dry weather .means that, the track is going to be in splendid order, unless; thereshould be an unexpected change last--ing throughout next week. The feature events at the meeting^ in particular the Wanganui Guineas and the Debutant Stakes (whose title the club's stewards persist in mixing up with those young ladies who> officially step out of social obscurity each* ■winter), are scheduled on the second day next Saturday; but a good card is nevertheless provided for Thursday, with the form at the Combined Hunts Meeting to afford a guide, qualified as already mentioned. LOST W.F.A. EVENTS. It is something of a pity that the Wanganui Club has not yet been able to restore its two w.f.a. events, the Eclipse and the Jackson Stakes. It, is to be hoped that, if this season is> as successful as everything at present augurs, one at least of the races will be reinstated next season. The Eclipse; Stakes, run over varying distances from a mile and a distance to seven furlongs, was a feature of the Spring Meeting from 1920 till 1930, but it was then dropped, either because, of the impending depression, or because Laughing Prince had just won it, four times in succession. Up till that time the Guineas was decided on the first day in the spring and the Eclipse Stakes and the Debutant Stakes on the second day. There is a happy present trend torwards the restoration of the lost, wJf.a, races. During the "bad times'* many clubs decided on an £s.d. basis that. they did not pay. But, lor instance, what* different status such meetings as the Wanganui and Hawke's Bay took When they let their classics, got No longer could horses of the calibre of Gloaming. The Hawk, Biplane, Reremoana, Sasanof, Mermin,. etc.,, be attracted to those clubs' meetings;, as previously.. '

The w.f.a. races are oa a programme to draw the champions, andS consequently also the public. It is beside the point that one waggish critic has so defined them: "Weight-for-age races are simply those in which the burden is carried by those best fitted to bear it. It is the class of race that originally gave Beelzebub the idea of Income Tax.",.

There are no classics or w.f.a. events,' on the first day's card at Wanganui' next week, but this year there are eight events again, instead of seven, as for several years past; the additional item being a hunters* steeplechase, ■which has drawn a rather temarkable entry of twenty-five. With the threat more than once recently expressed that the Dominion might some dayi andrperhaps' "much; sooner than you thinly," as the Prime Minister told, a deputation this week, be cut off from its petrol supplies, the hunting horse deserves ■particular consideration .by racing bodies^ at present, not only because they;.are more easily convertible to utility horses, if they are not already so, than the high-spirited racehorse, ibijt also because they encourage the development' of the equestrian sense among the young people .f the country districts, a sense that in recent years became dormant, if not very nearly extinct, until the lure of the car waned as it was realised that mechanical propulsion tended to bring about a certain unwelcome degeneration of the physique..'

JHORK LOGICAL ORDER. The remainder of the opening day's card at Wanganui is the same as last year, .except that the open Marangai Handicap, 1J miles, has been more logically reserved till the final day, and the Higgie Handicap, I mile and a distance, brought forward from the concluding day to replace it. There will be three open events on the flat, run respectively over 1 mile and a distance, 7J furlongs, and 6 furlongs. The'fields in the two first races overlap a little, horses with the double engagement being Taitoru, Lowenberg, and Fersen. who may prefer the longer distance,.but, whether or not they split, the fields for all three races should be of good size and quality. Among horses ■who will be making a reappearance are Hunting Gat, Entail, Maine, Cerne Abbas, Grand Jury, and Might in the longer events, and Laughing Lass, Ben Braggie, Debham, and the three-year-olds Hoyal Chief, Haughty Winner v Greenwich, and Icing in the sprint. The remaining four events on Thursday's card are a hack hurdles, with Donegal heading, the handicap, hack flat races over 6 furlongs and 8£ furlongs respectively, and a maiden race over six furlongs. All these events have attracted large entries, so that ibig fields are fairly certain. The Wanganui course is a turning mile circuit •with a. smaller straight than most metropolitan courses, but the track is roomy and well grassed, and quite often horses are able to overcome the obstacle of a bad draw at meetings there. At the winter, fixture in June, for instance. Brazen King won on the flat from No. 15 marble in the draw, and Tajtoru was another who succeeded front: the outside of the line.

One will hot be privileged this year to witness the parade of juveniles on the opening day, as in recent years, but such a parade will be held on Friday afternoon in between days. As lew racegoers will be able to attend on the Friday it might have been much better if the club had arranged the parade.'say; between the first two events on Thursday. The C.J.C. was able to do this at the Grand National Meeting last:month, also with .a- card of eight race events, and there is not so much daylight early in August as there Is in September. Moreover, the new practice, if continued, will tie down owners and trainers, who might prefer the time for other business •while visiting "WanganUi for the meetThe final day's card on. Saturday is arranged to provide varied and most interesting sport.. There will be no steeplechase, but practically all other classes are' on the schedule. The Marangai Handicap and the six furlongs Owen Handicap will cater for the open-class performers, the Guineas for the three-year-olds, and the Debutant Stakes for the two-year-olds. "QUITE BABIES STILL." The Debutant Stakes,, for which the youngsters engaged will mostly, have had a preliminary in the parade the day previous, will as usual be the day's opening event, so that the horses I may not be too long on the course and thus become over-excited, as the early juvenile fields of the season generally do. Ey the amount of whinnying and neighing that characterises the birdcage parades for these events one can have little doubt about what the type of race is. After a few races most of the youngsters become "hardened citizens," though there remain some with more corners than the others to be knocked off, or subject to temperamental derangements that have to be taken sharply n\ hand and controlled.

Says the critic quoted earlier: "The horse at this age is still quite a baby

and has not yet learned to think. The deluded little creature has no more sense in its first few races than to do its best, and so will run just as fast in one race as it did in the last. By ithe time, however, that its teeth have grown a little more, its dawning inttelli«ence will begin to convince it iof the futility of effort, and thence- • forth it will, like ourselves, produce iits maximum velocity only when it ; feels inclined, or at least is made by various man-contnved agencies to oo ■ so." This is the reason for the dictum abouttwo-year-oldform being the only (true form that can be followed with t anything like precision. So it may be .worth while looking for the. likely cracks-to-be in next week's juvenile struggle—-though this race actually is 'usually more Tike an equine game of follow^ the, leader than any true '< The Debutant Stakes was instituted back in 1920: Many stars have first beamed over the horizon in this race, though, only a few of the winners have ever token more than average measure of. renown afterwards. The winners [have wore often than not been horses !wh» later did their best racing over gpwat courses, but Korokio was an eweption who went on to win tne lC*ks. ' ■ The Wanganui Guineas,. whose continuity was broken only in 1932, has -•a. history extending back to 1898, prior !to which there had been a Wanganui Derby,1 over the usual Derby distance •ot Ik miles, from 1877 on. These WaInsanui classics have always been populaxvwtth, the veteran Woodville trainer F. W. Davis, who rode the last Derby ] winner in 1897 (the Hon. J. D. Or'mond's Daunt) and three early Guineas winners (St Mark, Renown, and King Billy), and more recently has trained winners of the Guineas in BJoxneborg, Estland, Highland, Red Manfred, and Pin Money. Now Davis, ! who has left for Australia, will be without a representative on this occasion, the first time in several years; but Relative, wh.o figures in the field, was a member of Davis's team until I his departure this week, and she might vicariously assist, the veteran's unique record in the classic.

A good field is again likely for the Guineas, including Royal Chief and Haughty Winner, among the best of last season's two-year-olds (Royal Chief was the leading stake-winner of the term); also very probable improvers in The Crooner, Lickem, and Sigurd, and a promising filly in Icing /(winner of last year's Debutant Stakes ; from Sigurd). On actual deeds it looks like Royal Chief, but Haut Monde and Gallio have been two "good things" beaten the last two years, when the less-fancied Alchemic and Deficit were the respective winners, and what has happened the last two years might happen again this year. The first day's form is liable to Rive a clue, as it did with Alchemic, but it practically ruled | Deficit out of last year's race. In | weighting Royal Chief 41b above Haughty Winner in the open sprint on the first day Mr*.-H< Coyle tells all who can read what he thinks the result should be.