RACING THRILLS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIV, Issue 236, 18 September 1934, Page 2

RACING THRILLS

Incidents at Durban Meeting

JULY HANDICAP EVENT

l or a series ol' thrills and sensational incidents, the July Handicap meeting ot the Durban Turf Club, the biggest fixture of the year in the South African Union, must have taken some beating. It was expected that the meeting would establish fresh records, and it certainly did, in more than one connection. The big race of the year, the £6OOO July Handicap, run over a mile and a quarter, was witnessed by a crowd ol 30,000. Reporters on the search lor figures agreed that a cool £1,000,000 was wagered on the result of the big race. On the totalisator there was invested on the event £19,242, while lor the day’s programme of nine races the investments totalled £70,972, both South African records. A popular institution in the Union is the double totalisator. On July Handicap day this was run on the seventh and eighth races, and here too the investments, £7,640, were a record, the dividend being £835, with only eight lucky backers to line up at the pay-out windows. LONG ODDS WINNERS. In South Africa the bookmakers also operate on the course, but they must have been delighted with the day's sport, for no favourite won, the smallest win dividend being £8 10/-, and the largest £42 and £3B, while the bookmakers' starting prices worked out 9 to 2 to 29 to 1 The latter was on the £3B dividend winner, while the £42 dividend winner was only quoted at 20 to 1. So that the totalisator won practically all along the line so far as the prices obtainable about the winners were concerned. The field lor the July Handicap numbered 29, the second largest in the history of the contest. Boveney and Candican were equal topweights with 9.2, while the ex-Australian performer Pretzel had 9.1. The starting price was 7 to 1 against the field, with Pretzel the second favourite at a shade longer odds GETTING A KICK OUT OF IT. The first thrill in the July Handicap came belore the start, when one horse bolted a circuit ot the course. The field moved mto the barrier well, but m an instant there was chaos, belore the starter could snap them. Then Quaich kicked Clove Hitch, who promptly retaliated and there was a •scramble of horses anil jockeys to get away from this pair. The field came in again, but once more Quaich and Clove Hitch set their flying heels at each other. Then Clove Hitch made for the diminutive C. King, rider of Quaich, and seized him by the leg. pulling the jockey off and shaking him before letting him drop to the turf. Oi course there was tremendous excitement among all the other horsemen in the race, and also among the big crowd gathered at the starting point. King was unable to ride and Quaich was ordered out of the held, but having come under the starter s orders his backers did not get a run lor their money. Fortunately the horse was one oi the outsiders of the field. The starter then placed Clove Hitch on the outside. Fortunately King was nut seriously hurt when he was savaged by Clove Hitch, the leather of his riding boot having protected his leg. A FIRE STARTS. Just before the race started, after a delay of ten minutes, a tire broke out in the gruss along the edge of the race track, but this was subdued belore the actual start. The field got away, witn lour horses badly left, these being shown veering away from the barrier ns the tapes went up. Round the first turn, the scene ol much trouble in races, there was the usual scrimmage and one horse lost its rider. Legacy, last year's winner, tried to win from end to end, and a photograph of the race just after the home stretch was reached showed him a couple of lengths ahead. Eccentric collared Legacy passing the stands and just as the former was being hailed as the winner Sun Tor, continuing a long run, got up in the last stride to snatch a short head victory, with Legacy only three patrs of a length away, Freebooter a neck back and Pretzel, very wide out, right up fifth. The ex-Australian gelding turned into the long straight with a lot of leeway to make up and he passed horse after horse to finish strongly under the judge’s box. CRASHED OVER THE RAILS, The winner, Sun Tor, was at double figures and he carried 6.9, the apprentice A. Rugg being his jockey. This lad also won two other races on the day, so it was a successful run for him. Rugg was well on the way to victory in the final event, on Stormy Weather, this horse having a commanding lead with only a short way to go, when he fell over the rails opposite tho members’ stand. Photographs of the course show the rails to be very low, not much more than three feet off the ground, so it is not surprising that there was one accident. Another incident during the day was when one horse ducked under the barrier and bolted, and then when being taken back to the starting point he flung his jockey and the horse did not take part in the race. In another race a horse was squeezed and dropped its jockey. Sun Tor won the July Handicap m 2.4 4-5. He is a four-year-old by the English bred horse Sunstone, who was a good two-year-o'd when raced there. Sunstone is by the Sundridge horse Sunstar from Stony Ford, excellent breeding indeed, and that Sunstone has succeeded in imparting some of his speed and courage to his progeny is proved by Sun Tor’s success in the £6OOO July Handicap, while on the same day two other sons of his also won their races. DISQUALIFIED OAKS WINNER. Stony Ford was a good performer at two and three years old for Lord Derby, after which she was retired to the stud. In the Oaks at Epsom in 1918 Stony Ford won from Mv Dear, Ferry (a stable-mate of Stony Ford) and Silver Bullet, but there was some interference in the running and Stony Ford was disqualified, the other three

horses moving up into fit st, second and third places. My Dear was then one of the powerful Manton stables representative and she was owned by the ex-Australian sportsman, Mr A. W. Cox, who at that time was racing under the nom-de-plume of “Mr Fairie.’’

This sportsman also won the triple crown in 1917 with Gay Crusader, but he was not so lucky the next term, when his filly My Dear succumbed to a good horse in Gainsborough. When My Dear won the Oaks through the disqualification of Stony Ford she was ridden by Steve Donoghue. The second horse. Ferry, had previously won the One Thousand Guineas. Stony Ford was got by the successful sire Swynford from Gneiss.