STAYING ABILITY OF ORATORY

Southland Times, Issue 23377, 8 December 1937, Page 10

STAYING ABILITY OF ORATORY

GOOD PERFORMANCE EXPECTED

EXPECTATIONS FOR THIS SEASON

(By SIR MODRED) A correspondent asks whether Oratory is bred to stay and he asks her future prospects based on past performances. The New Zealand Stud Book and the Turf Registers of the Dominion and Australia show that Oratory is descended from a very strong family, while her own performances suggest that she might race well over the longer distances, say at 10 furlongs, one mile and a-half or two miles before retiring from the turf. She is racing this season as a five-year-old. It is possible that Oratory has been nursed for major tests during the 193738 season or later, as she was not overraced as a youngster, and she was not overtaxed as a juvenile. These are facts definitely in her favour today. She ran once as a two-year-old and won a minor event. On reaching the juvenile stage she had six starts with the attractive record of four wins and two seconds. At the Wanganui Jockey Club’s meeting she won the Trial Handicap of six furlongs by three lengths from a big field in lmin 14 3-ssec. At the Otaki meeting she was beaten into second place in the Ngamotu Juvenile

- Handicap of five furlongs. At the (| Egmont Racing Club’s meeting Oratory » won the Juvenile Handicap of five fur- \ longs by three lengths in lmin 3sec. In 1 the Lockwood Hack Handicap of six I furlongs Flammarion (7.2) beat Oratory . (9.13) by one length, the pair being ! followed home by a big field in lmin , 13 4-ssec. Then came a classic en- ’ gagement for which she had been 1 gradually worked up. She won the . Auckland Racing Club’s Great Nor- ; them Oaks of one and a-half miles by ’ three lengths carrying 8.10 in 3min . 32sec. This performance suggests , staying ability. Later at Ellerslie she won the Islington Handicap (one , mile) carrying 9.1 by four lengths from ’ Adalene (8.6) in lmin 37 3-ssec—a good , performance. [ EIGHT STARTS LAST SEASON , In eight attempts last season as a four-year-old she won one race, was second four times, third twice, and was once unplaced. Her win was in the Flying Handicap of six furlongs at the Taranaki Jockey Club’s meeting by two lengths in lmin 14 2-ssec. At the Auckland Cup meeting following she contested the important Railway I Handicap of;six furlongs under 9.0 and in a trying race went under by a head to Adalene (8.0) in lmin 12 l-ssec. In the King’s Plate of one mile Cuddle (8.11) beat Oratory (8.9) by four lengths in lmin 38sec. At the same Auckland meeting there was a fine race between three starters for the Clifford Plate of

one mile and a-half, Cuddle (9.0) beat - ing Argentic (9.3) with Oratory (8.11) a head away in 2min 7 3-ssec. At Trentham she was started in a big field for the Wellington Cup of one mile and a-half won by Ponty (7.7), who was followed by Lowenberg (8.1) and Tunneller (7.7), finishing jn the bunch. The time was 2min 32isec. At the same meeting the Thorndon Handicap of one mile resulted:—Rebel Lad (8.0) 1; Concertpitch (8.6) 2; Oratory (9.6) 3. The margins were a length and half a length, and the time lmin 39sec. A third and a second in Taranaki completed the four-year-old turf career of Oratory in two events decided over six furlongs. Seldom raced over longer distances Oratory did well to win the Great Northern Oaks of a mile and a-half easily in 2min 32sec, race a good second to Cuddle over eight furlongs, and press Cuddle and Argentic to the judge over 10 furlongs as a four-year-old, while her third to Rebel Lad. and Concertpitch at a mile at Trentham under 9.6 was a convincing achievement. Never

overtaxed during her career and recorded to have carried substantial burdens with credit at from five furlongs to 12 furlongs in races, she is bred for stamina and there is reason to expect Oratory to stay out a long race during the 1937-38 season. A DAUGHTER OF GAINSCOURT Oratory is by Gainscourt (imp.) and son of Gainsborough, (sire of Hyperion, winner of the Derby, Solario, a premier sire in England, and Singapore, St. Leger, winner), by Bayardo from Rosedrop, by St. Frusquin (claimed as the most successful sire son of St. Simon in England). Oratory is very strongly bred on the maternal side, as she is from Oratress (New Zealand Cup winner, 1920, and dam of Oratrix, New Zealand Cup, 1928, Concentrate, a stayer, and other performers), by Demosthenes (imp. and by Desmond, son of St. Simon, and sire of Limond) from Equitas (a noted galloper), by Advance (a brilliant performer and w.f.a. winner) from Muriwai, by Torpedo (son of Musket and a good sire) from Mystery Girl, by Peter Flat (sire of stayers) from Sybil, by Riddlesworth (a very successful sire) from a N.S.W. mare of unknown, but suspected pure origin. With her dam, Oratress, and half-sister, Oratrix by Kilbroney, tabled-as New Zealand Cup winners, hopes may be entertained of Oratory staying on as a mare preserved for supreme efforts as a five-year-old to win long distance events. Her maternal grandsire Advance, was by Vanguard (son of Traducer), who won the New Zealand Cup of 1884, and was heralded on his racing displays as the best horse in New Zealand. Away back in the maternal lines of both Advance and Oratress (dam of Oratory) it is claimed that weak links exist, but the writer was assured years ago by a leading importer of thoroughbreds and student of breeding in New Zealand that this was not so. He described Vanguard and Advance as bred beyond reproach and was equally certain of the aristocratic origin of Sybil, the taproot mare from whom Oratress traces. Racing men in those years were not as careful as the breeders of today in recording pedigrees, but difficulties continually arose in the preserving of the records of blood stock lines, while in some instances the breeding of horses was hidden for shrewd racing reasons.

CRICKET

SATURDAY’S FIXTURES Cricket fixtures for Saturday have been announced by the Southland Cricket Association. In junior A fixtures High School is defaulting to Bluff because of having to play the Waitaki Boys’ High School on the following Saturday, December 18. The Bluff team has been invited to play a one-day friendly match with High School on the school grounds. The fixtures are as follows:— Seniors.—Matches continued. Junior A.—Bluff v. High School at Bluff; Old Boys v. Georgetown at Queen’s Park No. 2; Marist v. I.C.C. at Queen’s Park No. 1; Railway v. Appleby at Biggar street east; Union a bye. Junior B.—Kiwi v. Bluff at Biggar street west; Borstal v. Railway at Borstal; Appleby a bye. Third grade.—High A v. Georgetown at High School; Union v. Marist at Queen’s Park No. 3; Old Boys v. Appleby at High School; High B v. High C at High School.