WINALOT RECKONED BEST THREE-YEAR-OLD

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

WINALOT RECKONED BEST THREE-YEAR-OLD

A SYDNEY VIEW Writing on tile eve of the Cumberland Stakes, two miles, run at Randwick last Wednesday week (in which Winalot again won), a Sydney critic penned the following in connection with the meeting of Winalot and Trivalve, after the former had already defeated the Melbourne Cup winner in the A.J.C. St. Leger: With a track almost certain to be back to normal, Trivalve and Winalot meet to-day for a test of their staying merits that should finally settle the question of supremacy. It is Trivalve’s pet distance, two miles. If he cannot succeed to-day, it will be Winalot who will retire into winter quarters the season’s best three-year-old. Trivalve was not knocked about through his run in the wet on Saturday, when he was hopelessly beaten in the St. Leger. Lewis "Was careful t.o avoid this. Nor did he race on Monday. So he comes to to-day’s battle a fresh colt, and if the going is firm as the result of nearly four days of drying weather, the conditions should be slightly in favour of the Victorian. Crowning Triumph But Winalot has developed such form that his claims cannot be denied. His racing has been wonderful, and it is quite on the cards that today he will crown his triumphs by proving himself the long-distance weight-for-age hero of the autumn carnival. Trivalve was the better stayer in the spring because ' Winalot quickly lost his form. But it looks as if the pendulum had swung over to the Sydney colt, and on the wave that he is at present, Winalot may continue to carry all before him. Winalot has had a busy 10 days. He has run a mile and a-half, a mile and three-quarters, and two miles; but when he pulled up after the Sydney Cup, he looked as strong and sound as possible. Indeed, his condition was a tribute to the thorough preparation Joe Cook had given him. Having suffered no ill effects from the race, he should be at his best again to-day. It will be a great battle if, as Trainer Scobie believes, Trivalve is at his best, despite his Leger failure. Piastoon will probably make the pace sound. But his chance is not to be compared with that of Winalot. Nor does Valamita appear to have any hope except of a minor plaice, seeing that here he has 9.4 against the 8.4 he failed with in the Sydney Cup on Monday. The issue certainly appears to rest between the colts, and perhaps Winalot will again prove superior.