COALITION ONCE CARRIED 12.11 TO VICTORY

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 148, 25 June 1938, Page 22

COALITION ONCE CARRIED 12.11 TO VICTORY

(By «Rangatira.")

With the handicaps for the Wellington Steeplechase and the Winter Hurdles due to make their appearance on Monday, and with the opening day now only ten days off, the Wellington Racing Club's Winter Meeting, to be held on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday week, will be the focus of interest in Dominion racing circles for the next fortnight. Winter race week at Trentham sees the last of the more important meetings of the season, and it is also the occasion for the annual conference of both the racing and trotting delegates. Wellington may not make fete, as Christchurch does in NatipnaTWeek, but patronage at Trentham in the winter is now just as large as that which Riccarton enjoys.

The Wellington Steeplechase and the off the Grand National again under the winter Hurdles are not names to cpn- maximum of 12.7. ', be tatoS so in the B ame - Every winner of the Grand Yet ftev are con- National, Great Northern, and Wellington Steeplechase was carrying a big the policy of the Wellington Club, • weigmVlf a horse did not.have weight, which is now being happily strengthen- he could almost ruled out as a ed by continually improving turnovers, possibility. How different it has been may before long set them on a plane in recent years! with their Ellerslie and Riccarton counterparts when measured by valtfe The Wellington Steeplechase this year carries a prize of £1000 and the Winter Hurdles has a stake of £750, the two amounts being the same as last year. The recent Great Northerns were worth £1500 and £1250 respectively, each an increase of £250 on last year's prize; and the coming Grand Nationals are endowed with £1500 and £1025 respectively, the former prize being an increase of £225 but the latter remaining at its previous value. It should be Wellington's chance, with a further satisfactory meeting this year, to approach the rival figures next year. There is naturally a little disappointment that the nominations for the Wellington Steeplechase this year were not more representative than they are. However, it is unusual for the Great Northern winner to pass by Trentham, and-also for the best of the Dunedin form to. be missing, so that what has happened on this occasion may not occur again for many years. The stake is certainly large enough to attract the best, but other circumstances have interyened this year. JA DIFFICULT HANDICAP. A glance at the nomination of nineteen indicates that the handicap for this gear's Wellington Steeplechase will be more difficult than usual to frame. ;For one thing some horses

MAXIMUM WEIGHT ADOPTED. Despite the fact that Coalition won under the highest weight ever given in a Wellington Steeplechase at Trentham, the Wellington Club decided next year to set the same maximum of 12.7 to the race as operated in the Grand National Steeplechase. So in 1922 Coalition had only the maximum, with a drop of a stone to the next on the list, Ngata. Of course he was sent out favourite, but he fell. It was the occasion of Master Strowan's comeback when very leniently treated, apparently as a back number, with only 10.10. Master Strowan did not , live long to enjoy his new fame, as he met fatal injury in his. next start, the Grand National, a month later.

The 'maximum restriction of 12.7 operated from 1922 till 1928. But Mr. Coyle never went up to even the 12.0 mark again, though he gave both Oakleigh and Beau Cavalier 11.13 in the year following their success in the race. Nukumal declined to run with 11.12 in 1926, but two years later he stepped out on the, track to win his famous treble—the Whyte Handicap, Parliamentary Handicap, and Winter Hurdles. Nukumai ran in the Steeplechase the next four years, under a declining scale of 11.7, 10.9, and 9.9, then back to 10.2, and under 9.9 in 1931 he beat everything except Paris, off the Minimum.

who would have served as important "keys" are absent; 'and, in addition, several fresh horses, such as last year s winner, Santolt, : the last Grand National winner, Nocturnus, the Beauiort and Lincoln Steeples winner Manawatu, and recent provincial winners in Red Sun and John Charles, who were class hurdlers, lems as to how they shall be fitted in among the season's form disclosed in fRe more important events. , • There is now a restriction of 12.0 to the weight that may be given in the Wellington Steeplechase. It is fairly safe to assume that the topweight in the list* when it appears on Monday will be considerably below that mark. Only on three occasions has Mr. M. Coyle given a horse the maximum in the Wellington Steeplechase. Mr. Coyle has compiled the handicaps for the Wellington Racing Club Since 1914 In 1912 andl9l3 the clubs previous handicapper (Mr. J. H. Pollock) started the weights for the WelUngton Steeplechase at 11.13 (Continuant) and .at 11.9 (Paritutu) respectively. There was then no maximum restriction. In .issuing his first compilation'in 1914, Mr. Coyle began with 11.13, a weight he required Peary and' The Spaniard to share. Those were times when it would almost have been heresy to Start an important steeplechase list at much below 12.0. That June, 1914,.was a most momentous month. On June 11 famous Carj bine, after four years of idleness at Wellbeck Abbey and come to a decrepit state, was destroyed at the order of his owner,- the Duke ,oi Portland. Only two days after Mr. Coyle had released his first list of weights for a Wellington Winter Meeting, on June 28 to be exact the Austrian heir to the throne, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, was assassinated by Bosnian students at Serajtfvtf, and five weeks later the result was the outbreak of the World War.

DAYS OF THE GIANTS. Mr Coyie continued to handicap .for the Wellington Club during the war years, and in 1916 he found it necessary to give El'Gallo,- who had just, completed the Great Northern double for the second year in succession, 12.6. The following year El Gallo was sent out favourite for the Great Northern * under 12.10, but a fall spoiled his chance of making it a treble. When he was entered for Trentham again Mr. Coyle gave him' the same weight as he had hid at Ellerslie, 12.10, and the invitation was accepted, but El Gallo was among the casualties. El Gallo started a chain of very high Imposts. In 1918 Waimai was given 12.8 and Master Strowan 12.5. Both started and Master Strowan won. It is difficult to understand why a year later Waimai was set on 12.7 while Master Strowan was dropped to 12.4, for Waimai's only intervening win was in the Brighton Hurdles at Ellerslie at Easter. Each horse started again, and Master Strowan was the better fancied, but neither was placed. In 1920 Master Strowan and Lochella were each awarded 12.7, Lochella having won the Grand National and Great Northern that season, but neither ac-

cepted. The following year, 1921, was the last Wellington Steeplechase in which the handicapper was allowed a discretion as to what mark he should use to start off his list. Coalition had won the Grand National under 11.13 and the Great Northern under 12.5 that season, and Mr. Coyle gave him 12.11, the highest weight he had ever awarded in the event. The weight caused comment at the time, but Coalition justified the handicapper by being sent out favourite and carrying it to easy victory. A month later he also took

I In 1929 the maximum was further lowered to 12.0, and at that mark it has remained ever since. Only twice has I Mr. Coyle found it necessary to start I off with the 12.0 maximum. Billy Boy won the race in 1932 with 11.3, and the following year he was set on 12.0, a weight under which he could finish only a moderate fifth. The form was nevertheless deceptive, as twelve months later, dropped to 11.5, Billy Boy stepped out to win his second Wellington Steeplechase. Billy Boy was rather like Valpeen. When his handicappers decided that he was only a ghost of his" past self he regularly materialised. But he never received such a chance of .winning a second Grand National.

The other horse placed on 12.0 since 1929 was Tudor last year, and under that weight the Little England gelding finished on three legs into third place. Sound and well Tudor could win a Wellington Steeplechase with the maxi-. mum, and so could Valpeen. ■ From this review at Mr,' Coyle's handicapping for the Wellington Steeplechase over a period of nearly a quarter of a century it would seem clear that there is no horse in this year's field who could be weighted at the maximum. Tudor and Valpeen are inot among the entries. Even Tudor would probably have been given several pounds less this year if he had been- in the field. Valpeen's absence has saved Mr. Coyle from what would have been a real dilemma, though his weight, after his failure under 10.10 last year, could hardly have been the maximum. '

It is more than probable that the Steeplechase list on Monday will be found starting off somewhere round about, or at least not far above, the 11.0 mark. Jolly Beggar and Clarion Call still seem the likeliest top pair, despite their failures at Ellerslie. There are other horses who might be placed near them, but with so many ways of looking at this field it is a problem best left to the handicapper. The assessment should be one of the most interesting for years, and the list will be keenly scanned when it makes its appearance on Monday.

VOITRE OUT OF LUCK A very likeable young man is Keith Voitre, but he is not a lucky one, comments an Australian writer. He was in trouble again at Moonee Valley, which does not seem to be his lucky course. The trouble, however, was not of his own making. It was sheer bad luck.

While the horses were at the post for the start of the Travancore Trial Handicap, in which he was to have ridden Eastern Spot, one of the .other horses lashed out with its heels and kicked Voitre on the right foot. When Voitre was placed on a stretcher and conveyed in the ambulance to the casualty room everybody was much upset, as it was thought the injury might be to the leg that was broken when Valiant Chief fell with him at Moonee Valley in September, 1936. That injury kept him out of* the saddle for nearly a year. The left leg was the broken one, and the kick he received on this occasion was on the right foot, which was badly bruised. The start was delayed' for a few minutes while C. Oakey weighed out and replaced Voitre on Eastern Spot. Fortunately, the ex-New Zealander was able to return to the saddle at the V.A.T.C. Meeting last weekend.

Kinkle was scratched for the Park Steeplechase, run at the Waipa Meeting today, at 12.20 p.m. on Tuesday, and Hunting Blood was withdrawn from the Seddon Handicap at 4.10 p.m. on the same day. ■