PARRISH GUIDE AN IMPROVER

Southland Times, Issue 23408, 15 January 1938, Page 8

PARRISH GUIDE AN IMPROVER

WILLOW WAVE HAS WON £5438

LEEWAY TO REAPPEAR AT FORBURY Handicaps for the Forbury Park meeting are to appear on Monday. The New Zealand Trotting Gold Cup to be decided at Hutt Park next month is a 4.26 class and carries a stake of £7OO.

Paying Guest, a member of R. B. Berry’s team, is probably the only three-year-old square-gaiter racing at the present time.

Willow Wave has now contested 79 races for 16 firsts, eight seconds and seven thirds. His stake winnings amount to £5438. .

Jean Dewey who did her early racing in Southland is engaged at Timaru and Forbury. The Frank Dewey mare has not raced for some time but early in her career promised to win her way to a good mark. The contention that Willow Wave dislikes Canterbury tracks is rather an odd one, but is supported by the fact that by far his best performances have been registered at Auckland and Forbury Park.

Llewellyn’s Pet has taken a mile and a-half record of 3.17 but she has been unable to win her way from the ranks of the improvers. The Llewellyn mare is engaged at Wasbdyke today to race at both gaits.

It is some months since Leeway last raced but he is down to reappear at Forbury Park this month. Apparently he h.as been in work for some time as he was nominated, for the last Forbury meeting although he did not put in an

appearance. Leeway is doubtless one of the best trotters raced in Southland for some time but his present mark gives him very little chance against those of his own gait in local fields. The manner in which Parrish Guide won in his only start at Winton over the holidays suggests that he has a mortgage on a race at Timaru or Forbuiy. In his winning outing he broke after seven furlongs but was not troubled to run again to the front and win fairly comfortably. A member of R. Townley’s team he is by Guy Parrish from a mare by Petereta, and while his pedigree may be a short one it embraces sound trotting blood.

Although he does not appear a good proposition John Desborough is still being persevered with and he stripped particularly well in his only start in the holidays. This was at Winton when he finished third to Waitemata and Master Potts over a mile and five furlongs in 3min 45 3-ssec. The Desborough gelding is engaged at Forbury but the opposition will be much stronger and the firm track will not suit him as well as the grass.

The Winton Cup winner Carver Doone will have his next outing at Forbury Park when he will be opposed to a field of useful improvers. On the strength of his recent successes Carver Doone may be expected to show up in this field but he would be much preferred over a distance longer than a mile and a-half. His form as a stayer has been much above anything he has shown over middle distances.

Royal Travis in M. B. Edwards’s stable may not be a good stayer, but he showed that he possesses plenty of speed when he made practically all the running and finished second to Civic in the Paroa Handicap at Greymouth. For the eight and a-half furlongs Royal Travis registered 2min 23 2-ssec, a very good performance on a half-mile track. In the Salisbury Handicap, of one mile, at Timaru, he is handicapped on 2min 20sec. The Addington trainer, J. Young, met with a serious accident during the week. The horse Harlequin bolted, capsizing a jogging cart, and Young was dragged along the road. Young was just about to take hold of another horse’s reins preparatory to going to the track to do jogging work when Harlequin bolted out of the yard. Young held the reins, and Harlequin galloped on to Lincoln road. The cart capsized, and Young was dragged some distance before the cart righted itself. He was able to regain his feet and insisted on holding the reins. A little farther on, however, the cart again capsized, and Young was forced to let go the reins. During the battle to regain mastery of the horse, he suffered a deep cut on one leg, and his face was injured (states The Christchurch StarSun). The horse eventually returned to the stable with the wreckage of the cart. The horse received injuries to his legs.

King’s Play, who is one of the outstanding pacers eligible for the limit of the New Zealand Trotting Gold Cup to be decided at the Wellington Trotting Club’s February meeting, revealed that he is in his best form by defeating the unhoppled champions Lawn Derby and Nervie’s Last, in a match over a mile and a-quarter at Cambridge on Saturday. King’s Play has risen to top class in meteoric fashion this season. He was on 4min 31sec when he failed by a head to give that fine mare Parisienne 36yds in the Queen Mary Handicap at the Metropolitan August meeting and he won his other two races at the meeting, the Canterbury Handicap, a 4min 33sec class, in the exceptional time of 4min 20 3-ssec, and the Federal Handicap, a 2min 46sec class, in 2min 41 4-ssec, King’s Play returned to Addington in November and was placed in all his three engagements. He finished third to U Scott in the Hagley Handicap, registering 2min 41 l-ssec, won the Le Lievre Handicap in 4min 27sec, and was narrowly defeated by Pot Luck in the Louisson Handicap in which his time was 4min 20 2-ssec. It was a big step for any horse to take, and many great pacers have failed to accomplish it. King’s Play’s breeding is given as by Blue Mountain King or Peter Bingen from Buz Buz, but (states a Wellington writer) he looks more like a Blue Mountain King than a Peter Bingen. He is not a handsome horse, being inclined to coarseness, and at times he develops a hitch in his gait. For a llthis he is a splendid stayer probably the best on his mark.