CUT THROAT

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 139, 2 September 1927, Page 7

CUT THROAT

BEATEN BY TACTICS MERRY MINT FAILS Just as one swallow does not make a summer, one impressive win does not make a champion. New Zealander Merry Mint scored in such taking style at Moorefield that plenty of racegoers hailed him as one right out of the box. They talked of him as if Derby favourite Royal Feast had lost one of his legs. They weren’t talking so big after the best Merry Mint could do at Rosehill on Saturday week was a third behind Prime Don and Chromium in the Three-year-old Handicap of seven furlongs. Prime Don has a second to Royal Feast in the Sires’ Produce Stakes to his credit, but few racegoers expected him to be fit for the race, and the brilliancy shown against moderates by Merry Mint rather obscured the form of other runners. AT LONG ODDS Punters apparently considered the race as good as over, and snapped up short odds against the favourite, despite the fact that there were 23 runners. Prime Don was on the bargain counter at a nice doube figure price. Toohey. who is riding with a lot more dash than recently, won the race with a well-timed run through an opening on the rails. But Chromium had the favourite beaten, before the winner came on the scene, so the unlucky horse of the race was Chromium, and not Merry Mint. Certainly Circean’s cut-throat tactics early may have resuited in Merry Mint being left without a kick at the finish, but the Ivew Zealander's wasn’t the run of a Derby winner. Prime Don is a (X S W ) horse, and the fact that he is not in one of the big punting stables probably explains his long p " his connections got their share out of him at the long odds a\|liable.