AERO QUEEN BACK

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 3, 4 July 1939, Page 13

AERO QUEEN BACK

MELVANUI AS JUMPER

(Special from ''Early'■'Bird.'') • AUCKLAND, July 3. "| Melvanui, who is still a hack after a few seasons' racing, is being kept going at Ellerslie. He is a fair sort hr the minor gi-ade and has had several opportunities to leave it, but his best day maybe ahead if put to hurdling.! Aero Queen has not done much of i note since she started racing, but she ' is in work and will probably be given a run at the Pakuranga .Hunt Meeting at Ellerslie next month. She has stamina and it would not be surprising if she was tried over a middle distance in the coming season. A likely candidate for the second and third days of the Wellington Meeting is Devon, who is expected to be on hand." At Te Rapa six weeks ago, when having his first run over fences, he finished second to Agog and Royal Dance, and as he failed next time at Ellerslie it is possible he will favour the Trentham round. If started in the Highweight he would have a chance, for he stays well. There is a highweight event on. the second day's card at Trentham, and there are a couple of prospective runners in Hessketoon and Loombination in this race from the north that will haVe more than mere starters' chances. The former went a long time before winning a race and then it was in a congest with amateur riders up, but subsequent efforts have indicated that he is better than the average hack when it comes to carrying weight over a middle distance. Loombination has run some good races against the best hacks when conceding plenty of weight, while in the best handicap class he has been placed, as,, for instance, his third in an Auckland Racing Club Handicap. '-...!*.■ -.''■■ The recent death of the well-known ex-jockey J. Beale recalls one of the most sensational classic races run in the Dominion. This was the Avondale Guineas of 1926, held at Ellerslie on account of the fact that the Avondale track was then being transformed. Speculation was rife as to who was the better three-year-old, Commendation or Ly sander. Beale was on the former and L. A. Pine on Lysander. It was a great duel between the pair- all the way, up the straight and finally they dead-heated, their time, lmin 37 sec, being the then fastest time for the Ellerslie mile. It was such a terrific struggle that both horses were distressed after the clash, and, Lysander was never quite so good subsequently; Prosy Boy ran a very poor-, race in the Dannevirke Hunt Cup last Saturday and it would seem as though his best days are behind him. Four yea:ps ago he proved capable of beating a useful field in the Pakuranga Hunt Cup at Ellez-slie. but he was never in .the picture on. Saturday.