Weight-for-Age Stars and Their Earnings

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1076, 13 September 1930, Page 12

Weight-for-Age Stars and Their Earnings

Winners of jG 154,000 In One Race

Did the Warwick Stakes at Warwick Farm on August 30 attract the greatest collection of racehorses ever seen in one event in the history of the Australian Turf? asks a Sydney writer. Opinions may differ on that point, as some of the old-timers quote Carbine, Abercorn and their famous contemporaries, but one. thing is certain: racegoers at Warwick Farm saw the greatest collection of huge stake winners the Australian Turf has known in one race. A pessimist remarked as the field was walking round the enclosure that we would never see their like again, and then to be a super pessimist said that it was unlikely that they would ever meet again. Big Winners Perhaps he was right, ns there is no race on the programme at the A.J.C. spring meeting that will attract them all, and it is unlikely that they will all run in the Chelmsford Stakes at Tattersall’s meeting (today, September 13), or at Rosehill. Total up the winnings of the five stars—Amounis, Limerick, Phar Lap, Nightmarch and Fuji San —and it amounts to the amazing total of £133,477 10s. Shades of Etienne de Mestre and the Hon. James White. Their horses —and they owned champions—raced for a mere pittance in comparison to what the weight-for-age horses race for today. All Good Ones Add to the winnings of the champions the stakes won by the othei runners—Chide, Loquacious, Western Lass, Donald and John Buchan —which approximately total £21,000, and the winnings of the Warwick Stakes field amounts to £154,477. It is a stupendous amount and demonstrates in no uncertain fashion the amount of prize money that good horses can win today. The prize money, won by the five stars and their wins are: Amounis, 30 wins, £40,823 10s. Limerick, 281 wins, £38.729 10s. Phar Lap, 14 wins, £26,996. Nightmarch, 155 wins, £25,268 10s. Fuji San, 17 wins, £16,660. . Amounis may be verging on the sere and yellow, and the same applies to Limerick and Fuji San, but Phar Lap is in the full vigour of his youth, and so is Nightmarch. While it is too much to expect old Amounis and Limerick to race for more than another season, Phar Lap and Nightmarch are both sound horses, and several seasons of usefulness aro before them. Lion in the Path Phar Lap may be a stumbling block to Nightmarch in the long distance weight-for-age races in Australia for

the next season or two, and consequently the New Zealander will not have the opportunity to amass a huge total. It seems but a matter of health for Phar Lap to go on and break all records in the stake-winning way just as Don Bradman has done on the cricket fields of Old England. Should Phar Lap win the Melbourne Cup as well as the weight-for-age races run in Sydney this spring, he will be in measurable distance of Gloaming’s stake-winning record. The Melbourne Cup alone is usually worth in the vicinity of £IO,OOO, and while this year it may bo slightly less, on account of owners of moderate horses baulking at the cost of running—£77 —in view of the prevailing times, it will certainly be worth about £3,500, which makes it one of the richest handicaps in the world. Fortune’s Smile Hence his sale to Mr. W. Pearson for 1,800 gns. Fortune smiled on that owner when he purchased Amounis. In the purple and yellow stripes Amounis has won numerous weight-for-age races at Randivick, Flemington, Caulfield, Moonee Valley, Rosehill and Canterbury, while his handicap wins include two Epsom Handicaps, Williamstown Cup, Wagga Cup, two Cantala Stakes and a Futurity Stakes. Rivals Malua All tracks are just the same to Amounis, but he likes the ground to be hard. That is the only peculiarity he has, but he cannot be blamed for that, as it is hereditary, as the whole of the Magpie tribe are the same. In years to come, when scribes dwell on the versatility of Malua, who won a Melbourne Cup, Grand National Hurdle, and Newmarket, or on Wakeful, whose wins ranged over distances from three miles to 55 furlongs, let us hope they will remember Amounis. He has proved himself worthy to be grouped with the great horses of any age.

Limerick’s record, while not so versatile as that of Amounis, is a great one. He has been unfortunate in handicaps, as he was beaten in the Sydney Cup by Piastoon, and by Murillo in the Metropolitan, while as a three-year-old he failed in the Melbourne Cup when his hoof was split. Limerick’s Only Handicap Win Although Limerick has not started in many handicaps it is rather extraordinary to find that he has only won one open handicap—a Carlingford Mile at Rosehill in the early months of his three-year-old career. Of course, he also won the' King’s Cup at Randwick, but the conditions of that race are restricted. Phar Lap’s career has been meteoric and confined mostly to weight-for-age and set weight races. On the other hand. Nightmarch resembles Amounis. Ho is just as much at. home under handicap conditions as in weight-for-age company. Fuji San’s successes have been mostly handicaps, but in his heyday he was great. The spring carnival has opened in auspicious fashion and only ill fortune can rob the public of perhaps the best racing we have had for years.