IMPRESSIVE EFFORTS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 119, 16 November 1937, Page 13

IMPRESSIVE EFFORTS

COTTINGHAM'S WINS

CUP OPPORTUNITY PAST?

■'A feature of. the racing at the Canterbury Jockey Club's recent meeting that impressed itself upon one Wellington visitor \yas the manner of Cottingham's two victories. This correspondent : believes that if Cottingham had had niore than a single preparatory race he: might have been'at least in the money in the New Zealand Cup. ■ •> It is somewhat of a coincidence that another inquiry has been made about Cottingham's eligibility, for hack flat races prior to the recent meeting! It may be noted at once that -Cottingham was well within the hack margin. 'On the "flat before Cup: Day' he had won only lour, times (Longbeach Hack Handicap at Ashburton, Sandown Hack Handicap " at Hororata, Highweight Handicap a Reefton, and Stewards' Handicap at Dunediri), and the value of those four races to the winner aggregated only £350. Hi's Otaio Plate victory, . last ''■ Wednesday, however, ■ was. sufficient in itself (it was worth £350 to'the win- . .ner) to lift him, ou,t of hack flat class; BRILLIANT GALLOPING. Cottingham stripped for the New Zealand Cup looking in great order, but his galloping prior to the meeting indicated that much. On the Tuesday before the race he had easily beaten Queen of Song, over a mile and a quarter; and-on the Thursday he again ■finished in front in a trial in which his companions were Queen of Song and Small Boy. And in the Cup he was by no means disgraced, though he .failed to run on.' "; ', , •' If he had not pulled so hard in the • Cup hemight have been much handier at the -finish. After going half a mile he.was moving up sixth, and at trie ena of the next quarter-mile he was already third, with only Boomerang and Tauramai.in front of him. mere he remained till, the field was running -down-to tb\e, straight; but after that he weakened with the other two leaders • 'and finished''tenth, Argentic and Sunee just heading him off over the last portion. He beat both Boomerang and Tauramai to the judge. _ "■' The race in the Cup improved him 'appreciably and his connections were very confident about him when he made his next appearanoa at the meeting in the Otaio Plate, 1J miles. On Wednesday. ■. Beginning surprisingly well on the fence for such a big horse, he took up a handy position m the ■ early running, and then finished too stoutly for Night Dress, who had gone through to. the lead just inside the last two furlongs. Produced again in highweight class on Saturday, he was let in ■at what seemed a favourable impost'for a horse of his size .and record, and it was no race at all when he was asked to make his claim, as he swamped his opposition and had the race won a furlong from home.'. One was surprised to note when the horses paraded for the Otaio Plate on Thursday just how Cottineham dwarfed .his opponents, who included another ■oversize specimen in Siegmund. As a hurdler, he had not marked himself out as being.of such proportions; but this would be because he is rangy wjth :it!an>! tall rather than massive. : The first of the correspondents mentioned in this article refers to Cottingham as "a handsome big. horse whose ability on the flat has been well concealed. Handsome, however, may be hardly the word.''■• Striking seems to suit-r him better for he impresses, without posrsessing- the^ttr-ibufe /.of .qyali.ty..,., , ..:"'' '' : 7AN . EXCELLENT MIXER.- . ■ ;•' -■ ■'•■•.-It: is interesting to recall that; the "first-" race this son of Polazel ever contested'was a hurdle race, as a late '.five-year-old, and he won it.. A little ■later he was. turned to flat racing,, at :which he also soon acquitted himself ;with credit.: Then .came a day, after he-had won'the' D.J.C. Stewards Handicap, 1 mile, in the autumn of his seven-year-old career, when he went lamiss, and: he. was. off the scene for -nearly fifteen months, not reappearing till last May, when he returned.to "the role of hurdling and was third at his first outing. Month intervals came between his next two races, the nrsi of which he won; ; and then followec his close third in the C.J.C. Jumpers' , Flat (which he might have won if he r had ' not been . forced into a long .struggle out in front with Collision), ■ and his Grand National Hurdles •triumph two days later. • . Those mighty leaps that Cottingham "took in' the Grand National Hurdles a*e still fresh in mind. Sometimes he ,-was up in the air twice as high as the fence, and he covered immense spaces ■ from take-off to landing. Yet. though that is iiot considered the best kind of hurdling, he never made a blemish and he was still capable, with his weight concession, of outstaying Clarion Call, most menacing of his opponents. It is probable that Cottingham s chance of winning the New Zealand Cup is now past. To have succeeded at nine years old this year he would have equalled Lady Zetland's oldest- • age record, and she won as long ago as 1896: Sometimes a crack hurdler .can be brought back to win big handicaps, but it is generally while the same patch ■of exceptional form is being maintained. ' A Victorian Grand National Hurdles winner, Kealm, won the Australian Cup nine months later; and , Pooley Bridge all but repeated the performance last season, being beaten m the Cup- only by Mutable, to whom ■he was conceding a few pounds. There ■ cart be recalled no parallel in New 'Zealand,'though quite a number of ..horses have been able, to mix it well, as Nukumai did some years ago. It will now be interesting to observe : what future plans will be mapped out for Cottingham. He has always been inclined to unsoundness, but there has ,been no evidence of any trouble in any of his racing since his resumption, even on last week's hard tracks. He is not in the Auckland Cup, but he might be raced in some other big handicap over the • Christmas and New Year holidays. Whatever his immediate career may be, however, it is likely that nothing will be seen of him in the late summer and autumn. Then he would be brought back for the Winter session, with perhaps the Grand : National double as his objective. The biggest timber- will not worry him. and he is liable to turn out an even ■ more spectacular steeplechaser than he •has shewn himself as hurdler. No horse has ever yet gained the Grand National double distinction in the one year. But a game little one in Aurora Borealis was not so long ago frustrated .in the achievement only by Carmthia : in the hurdles, so. the task, though formidable, is not an impossible one.