FIRST IN NORTH

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 40, 16 August 1944, Page 8

FIRST IN NORTH

THE PAKURANGA FIXTURE

(Special to "The Post.") AUCKLAND, This Day. The,first race meeting of the new season in the Auckland district is that of the Pakuranga Hunt Club at Ellerslie on Saturday. Considering the wet weather experienced for the past three months and the sodden state of the tracks, the fields are excellent, although a -notable. feature is the absence of good three-year-olds. This is an unusual state of affairs, for in the past owners were eager to give their young horses a run at this meeting as a prelude to the more serious events ahead. The horses well beyond the city area had previously been catered for at the Thames Meeting in the first week in August, but now this fixture will not be held until I towards the end of next month. | Of the three-year-olds handicapped, 1 pride of place is definitely held by the filly My Bonnie, who has been j weighted at a stone above the 8.0 minimum, in the open sprint. Navroze has 1 the same impost, but as a colt he would have to concede My Bonnie the full sex allowance of 51b under the' scale weight. Promising youngsters in Verdant and Phaleron Sign figure on ■ the minimum in the same race. My Bonnie had five runs last season for three wins and a second. At her last start, on Easter Saturday, she was beaten a length by Gay Chat, with Navroze third, in the Champagne Stakes at Ellerslie, the track being very wet. _ . , Previous to that My Bonnie had made her debut at Trentham in October, running unplaced but revealing promise. Her winning run started at the Auckland Summer Meeting when 1 she won two handicap events. On the, same track a month later she won the 1 Calliope Handicap, her final outing being the Champagne Stakes. She is a ve?y useful sort of galloper and if she has developed to any extent she !may be one of the best of'her age this ! season, although there may not be much between her and Navroze. My Bonnie is by the English Derby winner Coronach, from La Poupee, a successful galloper when raced in the lower part of the North Island some years back, and is trained at Takanini by P Smith. He also has the best three-year-old among the hacks entered at Ellerslie, for Coronaire was awarded 812 in the hack seven furlongs. The only other three-year-old given a handicap above the 8.0 minimum is Bueno, who won at Te Rapa in the late autumn and, like Coronaire, runs in the interests of Mr. W. S. Goosman, M.P. Coronaire was easily the biggest of the Auckland two-year.-olds last term, and he was not overdone. He was unplaced in his first outing, and then ir> succession ran a second, a third, and another second and third. Time will do a lot for this big son of Coronach, for he appeared quite sound last season, and was able to stand up well for such an overgrown youngster. Plenty Of improvement can be made by Coronaire; he is so big that jt is possible that he may not be' at his peak until next season. This term, however, he