AUSTRALIAN TURF ACTIVITIES

Southland Times, Issue 24057, 22 February 1940, Page 10

AUSTRALIAN TURF ACTIVITIES

HIGH CASTE WINS AGAIN RIVETTE RETURNS TO BEST FORM ' By SIR MODRED I Champions will meet in the Caulfield Futurity Stakes, of £3OOO (7fur.) on Saturday. The attraction in Sydney on Saturday will be the Moorefield Racing Club’s minor meeting. Under 9.8 the crack sprinter Pamelus ran second to Unishak in the Oakleigh ; Plate. The Alma Stakes, of £750 (6fur.) will suit handicapped youngsters in Melbourne on Saturday. When Rival Hit won at Randwick ■ recently the South Island gelding started at a remunerative price. By 'Lord Warden from Stage Fright the New Zealand gelding Prompter won recently in New South Wales. When the current season closes Veilmond will claim a high percentage of winners as a sire. The imported French horse Actor heads the Australian Cup (2.1 m. handicap list with 9.7—Maikai has 9.4. Distinction, a colt and a half-brother to the costly horse Talking, recently won a race at Mentone, Victoria. The progeny of Liberal have been winning of late. Liberal is by Windbag, a son of the New Zealand mare Charleville. A week before his fatal mishap in Sydney the apprentice jockey W. Lappin won the last three races at Moorefield. In training for six seasons the Melbourne mare Lady Kooringal has started in 129 races and steps sound and well. Pooley Bridge, one of the best allround performers of Australia as a flat and hurdle racer, is under suspicion of unsoundness. A Melbourne writer states that when the Southlander Lucky Hoot was beaten by half a head at Pakenham he should really have won. EARLY FAVOURITES When the last mail to hand left Australia the equal favourites for the Sydney Cup, of £7OOO (2m.), run on March 25 were High Caste, Mosaic, Royal Chief, Maikai and Pantier. The crack racer Ajax was included in the second line of quotations. It may be remarked that four out of the five first favourites were bred in New Zealand or descended from Dominion maternal strains, Maikai being the exception. The feelings of South Australian racing folk would be joyful on Saturday when the four-year-old horse Unishak scored in the coveted Oakleigh Plate (54fur.) in Melbourne. A crack sprinter in" his home state Unishak was sent over to Melbourne with his mission universally understood to be the famous sprint race at Caulfield. This is not the first time that a South Australian galloper has confounded the bookmakers in connection with the V.A.T.C.’s wellknown sprint race. Unishak is a son of Shakuni (a son of Brazen, imp., ■ and by Phalaris) from Lady Adelaide, by St. Anton (imp.) from Lady Dudley, by Pistol (imp., and son of Carbine). The sires St. Anton and Pistol were very successful at the stud in South Australia. It will be remembered in some quarters in Southland that the late Mr W. Stone raced a gelding here called Anton. The son of St. Anton could gallop like the wind, but his manners were against him as a public performer. Returned a winner at Newcastle some weeks ago the three-year-old gelding Catanzar is a son of Salmagundi (imp.) from Quirindi. This juvenile winner is the descendant of a very successful maternal sire line. Quirindi was sired by Rangag (imp.,

and by Eager from a mare of St. SerfBend Or strain) from Lady Earlsford, ! by Earlston (imp., from Isisford, by 1 Simmer (imp., and by St. Simon) from ! Isis, by Goldsbrough (a great Australian sire) from lona, by The Barb (winner of the Melbourne Cup in 1866, and an enduring sire). VEILMOND WINNERS From winning modest stakes in the county districts of New South Wales and Victoria to scoring in the A.J.C. Villiers Stakes, of £lOOO (Im.) at Randwick the progeny of Veilmond have been in constant evidence during the past eight weeks. The son of Limond has been mated with many mares of the best class since his retirement to the stud, but this will not account for his continued success. The New Zealander promises to leave a favourable name in Australian stud circles, just as his English sire did in the Dominion.

Australia’s champion performer Ajax, has yet to start in a race at two miles, but this fact does not prevent the son of Heroic being quoted at a comparatively short price for the Sydney Cup (2m.). He is certain to be topweight. He also ranks as first favourite with the bookmakers for the Doncaster Handicap (one mile) for which he will be weighted at the head of the list. It is hardly likely that he will be a starter for the Sydney. Cup. A New Zealand jumper’s success was recorded in Melbourne on Saturday. The race was the Warren Hurdle Handicap, of £5OO (2m. 65yds) and the aged gelding Glenlonan caught the judge’s eye. A son of Lord Quex (imp., and by Lemberg) the unsexed winner Glenlonan claims as his dam the well-bred mare Lalla Rookh, by Feramorz (imp., and by St. Frusquin, by St. Simon) from Class, by Wallace (son of Carbine) from La Tosca, by Robinson Crusoe from Nightmare, by Panic (a sire of flat stayers and jumpers) from Evening Star (imp., and a noted Australian brood mare). The Lemberg horse, Lord Quex, has sired many winning jumpers in New Zealand, and Woodend, another imported son of Lemberg, has claimed a number of winning leapers in Southland. Turf history repeated itself when High Caste proved superior to Ajax in the St. George Stakes with Reading relegated to third place at the end of the nine furlong contest. It was by no means a bloodless victory, however, as the New Zealander got up in the last few strides to defeat the Australian champion by a head, with Reading only a neck away third. It was a real test at weight-for-age as there was a field of 12 runners. A striking performance was accomplished by the Caulfield Cup and Melbourne Cup winner of the current season in Rivette finishing in fourth place, as the sturdy mare has been spelling since the spring campaign. With 9.2 to carry in the Australian Cup (2.1 m. run on March 9, the prospects of the remarkable daughter of Ronsard (imp., and by Son-in-Law) appear to be bright. True to his reputation Ajax ran a great race but youth prevailed under the w.f.a. scale. The fact that High Caste won as a good racehorse should and will be received with pleasure in New Zealand, but it has to be noted that Reading was within a neck of the leaders and in the Derbies in Sydney and Melbourne he has proved better than High Caste over one mile and a-half. It is hoped that the winning son of Bulandshar (imp.) will develop high-class stamina with increasing age, but in the meantime Reading has proved his master at 12 furlongs. Excitement will be rife when Reading and High Caste meet again at from 10 to 12 furlongs. To date Ajax has won £33,700 in stakes and High Caste £18,500.