MODEST OWNER

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 336, 23 April 1928, Page 6

MODEST OWNER

FEARS FOR WINALOT MARKET FLUCTUATIONS The opinion of shrewd men who closely watch racing and the financial side of the betting is that Winalot’s complete superiority upset a lot of schemes to win huge sums from the Sydney betting ring. Principally involved were the Victorian horses, and behind these in double betting ventures were the big gamblers from the Southern State. They had alsj coupled their double wagers beginning with Simeon's Fort (the Doncaster winner) with prominent Sydney performers for tens of thousands. r PHE confidence with which horses -*• involved in this mysterious choice were backed put fear into the hearts of those interested in other candidates. But Winalot upset any ulterior motives, it' any were planned. Me was too good to be tampered with. Victorians Supported Backing for the Victorians Valwyne and Imitator might have suggested, even to the initiated, that the race was all over. They were very heavily coupled, and either would have taken upwards of £ 1.00,000 from the ring. Besides these, the Sydney horses, Amusement, Valamita and Piastoon, stood to take amounts out of the bookmakers’ bags that were quite out of proportion to the recent form of either. These plunges, backed up in most instances by no form that justified them, together with, the fact that at one stage betting op the Sydney Cup Winalot, overnight favourite, took a rightabout turn, and drifted a point and ahhlf. set the hardheads thinking. But Winalot came into his own again. The public would not be put off, and eventually sent him out favourite. And their confidences were justified. He achieved one of the greatest triumphs ever seen in a Sydney Cup, and the crowd gave him an ovation. Was all this cheering the outcome of a belief that strange forces had been frustrated by a great colt whose owner had run him straight? Many people thought so. especially when from running close behind the leaders Winalot at a critical stage was knocked back five horses. But allowed to settle down after the impact, and then ridden with confidence round the leaders, he got to the front, and gained a triumph, the equal of which hasn’t often been seen in a two-mile race in Sydney. For the foresight to purchase Winalot four months ago for 2,100 guineas, Mr. E. K. Wliite, owner of the Sydney Cup winner, takes no credit. After the race, his praise was all for Joe Cook, the trainer, and for Jack Toohey. the rider. “I give them all the credit,” he said. But Mr. White was too modest. First he chose the horse who had been beaten in four successive races, and resolved to buy him. Me outbid richer men at the ringside, because he was determined to get Winalot. Next he chose the trainer he wanted. And finally when Winalot struck form, he selected the jockey he liked best at the weights, Jack Toohey. It was sheer determination all through that carried him to victory on a tide of success that few owners enjoy. For in his last three starts Winalot has credited Mr. White with the Warwick Farm Cup, the St. Leger, and the Sydney Cup. There are far wealthier turf men in Sydney who would give anything within reason to attain such racing triumphs. But they had the opportunity when Winalot went up for sale, but were frightened to take it. £8,200 in Ten Days The stakes won by- Winalot in his three triumphs in ten days amount to £8.200. The bets Mr. White won over the Sydney Cup amounted to some £12,000, and with sums he gathered in over the colt’s other wins he must be in pocket some £20,000. He backed the colt for the Sydney Cup when he was at long odds, before his Warwick Farm win ten days previously. He had little on him in the Leger but after the latter success ventured £I,OOO on him for his Warwick Farm Cup win. Said Mr. White in praise of his servants, after the Cup triumph:—“Joe Cook is regarded by some men as taciturn, and sometimes short. But when you know him, there is not a more genial man in the game. And his honesty and his responsibility to an owner are beyond reproach. For the way he turned out Winalot for these autumn engagements I give him full credit. “As to my jockey, Toohey, there is not a straighter-goer or more reliable

rider. I chose him for Winalot because 1 regarded the colt as a stayer, and there is no jockey that serves a stayer, or gives him a more patient or better chance than Toohey. “I feel that I had a great combination working toward Winalot’s triumphs.” Joe Cook was freely congratulated upon his win by Randwick colleagues. He has not been a lucky trainer, and just when Amounis began to come good in his stable he was sold. Amounis afterwards became a champion, but in another stable, and there was a lot of sympathy for Cook over that. With Winalot, however, he has made full amends.