ROYAL ASCOT MEETING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20017, 6 August 1928, Page 15

ROYAL ASCOT MEETING.

SURPRISE IN GOLD CUP. PRIORY PARK'S VICTORY. SUM OF £72.000 IN STAKES. [FROM OOIt OWN CORRESPONDENT.] LONDON, June 27. Ascot would not be Ascot without some surprise results, yet. though there were surprises and disappointments more favourites than usual—ls to be exact out of 23 events _got home, so that the bookmakers did not have everything their own way this time. This annual racing fixture, covering four (lays. * vaß attain characterised by the high standard of the entries, and by the alljound excellence of the arrangements. The going was the best that has been experienced on any course for years, and the festival has never been eaualled since the war. At this important racing fixture the eum o! over £ 72,000 was divided in stakes. On (he first day Mrs. George Drumrnond ■won the Gold Vase, a two-mile event worth £ 1950, with her beautiful mare, Maid of Perth (Tetrameter—White Tor). There were 12 runners and the winner justified her favouritism by winning by six lengths. Colonel Giles Loder took the Queen Mary fitakes (£3270).) five furlongs, for two-year-old fillies, with Arabella (Buchan—Polly Flinders), who is unanimously regarded as the best two-year-old filly of tho year. Indeed, racing critics think she is the best two-year-old of either sex. for nothing more impressive could be seen than the manner of her win. She came cantering in by two lengths from a beautiful Lembere filly called Necklace 11., in a field of 25. Necklace 11. happens to be the first foal of tho Oaks winner. Straitlace, for whom, when carrying Hecklace 11. to Lemberg, M. Edward Esmond (who has a breeding establishment in France) gave 17,000 guineas. She is, therefore, a daughter of a Derby winner from an Oaks winner, and, of course, essentially British bred, though actually foaled in France. The Hunt Club Cup. The most important event of the second gay was the Royal Hunt Cup (£2015), handicap, seven furlongs 166 yds. The winner was Priory Park, belonging to Mr. J. B. Joel, and the victory was the fourth important handicap since ho passed into his present owner's possession—a Lincolnshire Handicap, a Stewards' Cud and a City and Suburban. Naturally, the success was most popular. Besides being a public favourite, priory Park was one of tho best-backed horses in the race. He won in a common canter, always travelling with the utmost smoothness. • Priory Park's rise to fame has been one of the romances of the turf, for ho is from <juite common stock. His sire. Kocksavage, •was a handicapper. and nothing more. His dam, Chatham 11., ran at "flapping" meetings, and once changed hands for 18 guineas. She cost Mr. C. Howard (a Chichester butcher) less than £2OO. Mr. Joel purchased Priory Park for £3OOO He has since done hi 3 bit toward the making of turf history. Eis jockey was tho Australian. B. Carslake, who later registered other wins at the meeting. This is the able jockey's last season in the saddle. He is retiring, but intends to take up training. , In the Hunt Cup there was the very promising young horse, Dark Lantern 11., Owned by Mr. Boyd Davis. To his ownertrainer it Was a great disappointment that Dark Lantern did not get nearer the leaders, but he wap the most severely handicapped horse in the race (3yrs.. carrying 8.11), and the course is one of the most gruelling in the country. By the way, the true story of the colt's success at Lincoln ias never been told. It has been stated that the owner won something "like £30,000, but 1 can say that only a very small sum ■was netted. It is true that a coup was planned, but something happened—l think the colt did not feed up—to cause an alteration in plans, and what was won over him that day was lost when he was beaten at Kemptun. King Edward VII. Stakes. There was further interest for New Zealanuers, too. in the King Edward VII. Stakes Hi miles, three-year-olds, £2475), for Mr. J. B. Reid's Black Watch (Black Gauntlet—Punka ill. > was one of the 11 runners, with C. Smirke up. In the words Of the Times racing .expert : "The Ascot meeting is invariably the grave of reputations. Horses who have won the Derby or have run very well in that race continually fail at this meeting, perhaps because they have not recovered from their exertions on the Epsom Downs. There was an example of this when Black Watch, who had finished third m the Derby, failed to finish first or second in the li.in2 Edward VII. Stakes behind Cyclonic, who won rather cleverly from Sunny Trace. with Black Watch four lengths away third. t Black Watch had every chance as the race wa3 run and was always well placed. If ho was not actually in front when the straight was reached, he was at any rate sufficiently near the front to have won if ho had been good enough, but he was quite unable to resist the challenge first of Cyclonic and then of Sunny Trace, of which pair the former was always going the better." The Gold Cup.. The jockey (B. CarolaJje). on Lnvershin. rode according to the instructions of his owner (Mr. Reid Walker), and brought about a surprise victory. the jockey of the favourite (C. Elliott, on Finglas) also rode according to instructions from Mons. E. de St. Alary, and rumour says this was why his horse was defeated in the last hundred yards. But critical judgment considers tht Finglas was fairly boaten on his merits, the bigger and longer-stridinc horso wearing him down. lnvershm's trainer, C. Digby, Stanton, Salo£>, had ridden over a thousand winners in Egypt, and when he retired from the saddle aijd took up training there he turned out 7b winners in two seasons. Mr. Reid Walker has owned horses for nearly half a century and ban yet to v/in a "classic," but, as he remarked to a Sporting Life representative after the race, "I think I would almost as soon win tlue Gold Cup at Ascot as I would the Derby-' A Two-year-old Smasher. The New Stakes (£2770) went tc Major D. McCalmont's Mr. Jinks, a splendid Tetratenui—i'alae Piety youngster trains.. by H. S. Pcrsse, at Stockbnoge. ivu. J inns had been "noised abroad'' for weeks as the best two-year-old trained there, and there was an eager crowd to see him in the paddock. Those who looked over the pjwertu' strong quartered, big-limbed coit were immensely impressed with him, and he quickly became »< good favourite for tho race. Hlb trainer has had such smashing two-year-old? tc train in the past that his standard oi a Kood juvenile must be a very high one He expected Mr. Jinks to run well, but the colt did more than that, for he overcame a slow beginning, and .von ir the stylo of an exceedingly useful colt. Ho is an ownbrother to Stadacona, who is by The Tetrijrch or Tetratema. Twelve months ago Stadacona won the Queen Mary Stakes fur iiajor McCalmorit. Tetratema will now, it is anticipated, fill the place at tho stud that has been so unfortunately vacated by The Tetrarch. A Last Day Surprise. Mr. C. Howard, of Chichester, the former owner of Priory Park, took the Kind's Stand fc>ta ; ;es (5 furlongs) with Chichester Crosß (Abbott's Trace—Chatham 11.). This absolute outsider beat by five lengths a field of 17, which included well-known horses such fts Can field, Dark Lantern LI. (running for tho second time at the meeting! and JUoch-iin-Doris. Chichester Cross had never been iriven a thought; certainly, no one appeared to take seriously the candidature of a four-year-old that had never won a race. His Part in the race was scarcely considered until he was seen out in front, streaming sway from the rest as if the starter had allowed his jockoy to help himself to a tood start. On the last day Finglas ran again, and did something to redeem 'his reputation ■when he won the Alexandra Stakes of close «n three miles, just as he had done a year ago. Beyond a doubt, his tank was (jver so niuch lighter than it had been on the previous day for the Gold Cup. and had ho been fresh tho odds on -would have been *ocsiderably more than tho actual return.