King's Ransom Has Now Won About £17,000

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22868, 11 February 1949, Page 4 (Supplement)

King's Ransom Has Now Won About £17,000

(Herald Special Service.) King’s Kansom’s success last Saturday was the first time the Wanganui Cup had been won by a Gisborne owner. Very few horses from here have contested this race because the Wanganui and P.B. clubs race at practically the same time of the year. King's Ransom after striking his best form to beat the season’s champion three-year old Tauloch, at weight-for-age in the Trentham Stakes looked the best of good things in the Wanganui Cup, in which he carried less weight than when he accounted for Mr. S. Goosman’s Balloch colt. For that w.f.a. success under the rules of racing King’s Ransom could not be re-handicapped. The wisdom of this rule may have its points, but on the surface it certainly has bad ones, too This 17 hands odd Lang Bian gelding at Wanganui collected £IOOO and a Gold Cup to the value of £IOO. Mr. H. V. Lunkin was unfortunate last autumn when he missed the Awapuni Gold Cup.

Sixteen Different Riders On Saturday King’s Ransom was ridden by W. L. Aitken. who was having his first ride on the Gisborne champion. King’s Ransom has put up something of a record in the number of different riders that have piloted him —16. No other horse of his class in the same period can boast of as many. This big fellow had his first race as a two-year-old in a five-furlong Maiden Scurry at Napier Park, when he was ridden by W. D. Smith, and since then the jockeys have been H. J. Pearce, R. Kerr. C. H. Mackie, H. N. Wiggins, N. McKenzie. C. White. W. J. Broughton, T. Webster. J. Williamson. J. Campbell, W. Connor. J. Winder, A. E. Didham, Colin T. Wilson, and W. L Aitken. This season King’s Ransom has won £3580 in stakes, which brings his earnings to date to about £17,000. As he has at least another two seasons of first-class racing ahead of him he should go close to establishing a prizemoney record for New Zealand. The Balloch-Prudent four-year-old horse Avenger ran a very creditable second to King’s Ransom and gives every indication of developing into a good class handicap performer as he has only recently graduated from ‘hack” ranks. He is the property of Mr. D. W. Debrencv and as a yearling only cost 260gns. His dam. Prudent (a mare that did not win a race in her few efforts), bv Martian from the imported No. 4 mare Torquato, by Sir Archibald. This family has met with fair success in the Dominion, the best being Nightbeam. who was a good two-year-old and when taken to Australia won among other races the A.J.C. Metropolitan. Another member. Demost. won races in Australia and also ran third in a Melbourne Cup. while Callamatt won a New Zealand Grand National Hurdles. Barrage, by the New Zealand-bred Spiral, ran a good race for third and, as pointed out last week, was nicely placed in the weights at 7.11. To be beaten by King’s Ransom and Avenger (on the minimum) shows that Barrage is a very useful sort. He has more than paid his way. Of the beaten candidates in the Wanganui Cup Gay Stroller may be classed as the biggest disappointment. Maybe he will make amends next Saturday.