“CERNE ABBAS LET. IN?”

Southland Times, Issue 23376, 7 December 1937, Page 10

“CERNE ABBAS LET. IN?”

BELOW STANDARD OF BEST STAYERS AUCKLAND CUP WEIGHTS UNDER FIRE There are many surprising features about the list of weights issued for the Auckland Cup; but none is more astonishing than the weight that Cerne Abbas has been allotted, states The Evening Post, Wellington. The New Zealand Cup winner has been let in the only other two-mile race in the Dominion, run less than two months later, with 8.1, which is only 51b more than she triumphed under at Riccarton, and still 81b from w.f.a., to which her classic performances last Easter on the Ellerslie track, almost in themselves, it is believed, entitled her to receive.

Just take this comparison. Two years ago Cuddle won the New Zealand Cup under 7.13. A month later she was weighed 9.0 for the Auckland Cup, and won again. This year Cerne Abbas won the New Zealand Cup with 7.10. A month later she has been weighted 8.1 for the Auckland Cup, and—well, the public will be able to decide on Boxing Day what they think. It is difficult to find the rule of adjustment under which such a very considerable difference might be explained, even conceding that the quality of the Auckland Cup field this year is better than the average of recent years. Cerne Abbas seems to have gained many points through her third in the Metropolitan Handicap, one and a-half miles, on the final day at Riccarton. In that race she was weighted 8.8, whereas Cuddle, in the year she won the New Zealand Cup, was lifted from 7.13 to 9.4 and then went under only to a fresh horse in Silver Ring. Cerne Abbas admittedly failed to do better than fill third place, despite her apparently favourable impost, but she did not come along till late, and if the race had been a two-mile affair the result would without much doubt have been different.

That Metropolitan form appears in the Auckland handicap to have been given more consideration than the New Zealand Cup form, though the distance is half a mile short of the Auckland journey. For instance, Argentic, the Metropolitan winner, has been raised 21b to 8.11 in the Auckland Cup; which may perhaps be explained on the assumption that the Auckland handicapper has also taken into account the fact that Argentic was second last year under 8.9. But whereas Argentic is lifted 21b, Cerne Abbas is dropped from 8.8 to 8.1; and so she is enabled to come in at Auckland on only 51b worse terms than in the New Zealand Cup, in which her superiority over Argentic was fully a stone, or even more, as Argentic finished eight places back. NOT UP TO STANDARD? It seems fairly obvious that Mr McManemin, who saw Cerne Abb;s at the recent Avondale and Auckland Spring Meetings, does not consider the mare up to the standard of past New Zealand Cup winners. But no one who was at Riccarton could harbour such an opinion. Cerne Abbas impressed herself on most last month as one of the best stayers to have won the Cup in recent years, and there is no need to exclude Cuddle. Cerne Abbas’s best performance is her victory in the New Zealand Cup. For two-mile races that performance should dominate all others. Her lapses, whatever their cause, should, in the interests of other owners with horses entered for Auckland, be absolutely and compjetely overlooked. With a rise of 51b Cerne Abbas has not been anywhere near as seriously regarded as one would expect a New Zealand Cup winner to be. For winning only a mile and a-.iuar-ter race at Trentham, Cerne Abbas was rehandicapped 51b for the New Zealand Cup, arjd made light of that small rise, which, on her previous performances, might have been made even more substantial than it was. Now she is lifted just the same small amount again.

From whatever angle the Auckland Cup list is viewed, there are aspects that are difficult to reconcile with form and performances. One other point that may be noted is the actual weight that was allotted Cuddle, who was scratched at once. Twelve months ago Mr McManemin raised Cuddle only three pounds after having won the Auckland Cup the previous year. At the time it was considered that this was rather more leniency than was due to the mare, and the result of the race bore out this view. In raising the mare a further 51b this year the handicapper has made a tacit admission that the weight he gave erred on the side of leniency last year. But despite this, it is probably not the absolute weight she received, but a particular comparative factor, that led to the hasty decision of Cuddle’s connections to abandon their hope of equalling the performance of Nelson in winning the Auckland Cup three times in succession.

OTAKI WINNER GAY HUNTER’S ANCIENT LINE (By SIR MODRED) The winner of the principal event, Rere Neketini Memorial Stakes (Llm.) at the Otaki-Maori meeting on Saturday, Gay Hunter, comes from New Zealand’s leading sire line, while his maternal strains are of ancient and successful lineage. It is hardly necessary to point out that his sire, Hunting Song (imp. and son of Hurry On) has been at the head of the list of winning stallions in the Dominion for several seasons. Gay Hunter’s dam, Full o’ the Year, was by Autumn (son of Autumnus, by Treadmill, by Bill of Portland, by St. Simon) from Serbia, by Multifid (son of Multiform) from Lady Cuisine, by Cuirassier (brother to Trenton, by Musket from Frailty) from Ladybird, by Feve (sire of a noted Southland performer of the olden days in Victory) from Polish, by Day and Martin from Marchioness, by Herald from Blink Bonny, by Porus from Dudu (bred in New South Wales from imported parents and not the mare of similar name returned as the winner of a number of good races in New Zealand). The Otaki winner is therefore a racehorse of approved breeding, and it may be pointed out that Autumn and Multifid, whose names figure close up in his dams’ strains, are horses credited with leaving many useful performers in the North Island.