THE ENGLISH TURF

Taranaki Daily News, 8 January 1927, Page 9

THE ENGLISH TURF

COJAH DEFEATED. IN A £2'009 MATCH. (From Our Own Correspondent.) Loudon, Nov. 11. Sir Hugo Cuuliffe Owen's French-bred three-year -old, Highborn 11. made an awful example of the brothers Joel’s four year old Oojah in a six furlong match held at Newbury for £2OOO aside. It was run with driving rain in the faces of the horses and. in going which had become sloppy. Anything more calculated thoroughly to upset a temperamental horse—one, too, that is at his test when the ground is firm—could not be imagined. Ooojah must have been hating it. His opponent, on the other hand, did not seem to mind. At least he was willing to make the best of a bad job. Both horses looked well, bearing in mind the conditions under which they came on view. Highborn 11, in particular, could never have been better/in the matter of physique and iitnesS. He made ail excellent impression. Oojah is an extremely handsome horse ‘at any time, but the contraption of bridle indicating precautions against the hard puller is not the best advertisement for him. One reflected on seeing it again that horses so equipped are frequently ot the sort that have done going when they have done pulling. What happened in the match went some way to confirm this. The starter got them away on even terms, which was just as it should be. Both riders—Childs on Highborn and Carslake on Oojah—selected the stand side, although ths track must have been much carved and cut about. On they came, side by side, and for three furlongs there was so little in it between them that it was not easy to decide which had any lead. The position was the same at the end of half a mile, but almost immediately afterwards the change came most abruptly. Oojah cracked rather than weakened, and was a hopelessly beaten horse in a stride or two. He did not even put up the semblance of a struggle when Carslake asked him. The thing happened so suddenly as to make one suspicious of his character. Carslake realised the position so far from home that he at once began to ease the horse, which explains the margin of ten lengths which separated them at the finish, Childs on the more willin" animal leaving nothing to chance. It was a big disappointment as a match, and it was a thousand pities that the weather and the going were not decent. But one must recognise that Highborn II thoroughly deserved the distinction he won. The’ colt made many new friends, and when the time comes for him to go to the stud he will not lack for the right sort of patronage. He is to remain in training for another season. AN UNFORTUNATE ENDING. The important race, tile Newbury Autumn Handicap of I>/ 3 miles, had an unfortunate ending. Sir Alfred Brett’s Perfect Son—the favourite toe the Cesarewitch who failed so badly—came in first, a short head in front of Lord Derby’s old horse, Hignbrow, with Sir Hedworth Meux's Donzelon third. An objection—a double barrelled objection —was immediately lodged against the winner.. Tommy Weston (who by the way, is going to be this year’s champion jockey) on behalf of Highbrow alleged that Perfect Son had bored him, while the rider of Donzelon complained that he had been crossed by the winner. In the result both objections were sustained. Either presumably would have been fatal, but it happened that the Stewards found reason to uphold both. It meant that Perfect Son had to lose a fine prize, which went to Highbrow's owner, while Donzelon moved up into second place, the remaining position going to tlie favourite, Incitatus 11. What happened was that Highbrow could be -made out in the bad light to be showing the way into the straight. There is a long run in at Newbury, and frequently it happens that in a handicap of this character the leader at that distant point comes to lose his place. Highbrow, however, held on, and as they came to the distance . it became evident that there were only three in it. The rest were well beaten. From the distance the three came on abreast, for Highbrow had been joined by Donzelon, on the outside of whom was Perfect Son, shaping very much like the ultimate winner. As he began to make his challenge felt he must have drawn too sharply across Donzelon, a movement which gave rise to the crossing complained of. It caused Donzelon to be squeezed out of the argument, while at the same time Perfect Son now came close to Highbrow next to the rails and, as Weston alleged, bumped him and then bored and hampered him. Locked together, they went past the judge, and it looked all over, from the stands, to be a dead-heat. The verdict was a short head in favour of Perfect Son. which, as has been said, was reversed in the objection room. As the deposed horse was second favourite at S to 1 and Highbrow at 10 to 1 chance, it will be understood that the adjustment made by the Stewards caused a considerable difference in the ‘•settling” over the race. IRISH HORSES TO THE FORE. The last Liverpool meeting always includes a sprinkling of jumping events, chief of which is the Grand Sefton Steeplechase. This year it was won by an Irish mare, Grecian Wave, who was thus compensated for bad hick in the same race twelve months previously. Then she was leading by a long way when she ran out of the course. On the latest occasion she jumped the proper circuit of 2J 'miles perfectly, and beat a previous winner of the Sefton in Ardeen. Grecian Wave is trained in Ireland, and will be heard of with the Grand National, as assuredly will Ardeen, who has never been so well as he is to-day. Ardeen is trained by his owner, Sir Keith Fraser, who is helped considerably by his sister, a knowledgable horsewoman. Irish horses were also to the fore in the other jumping events, Blancona and Easter Hero winning. Blancona defeated Brights Boy third in the Grand National last year, and so much was evidently thought of the .performance that the latter’s owner, Mr. 8. Sandford, the young American millionaire, made a substantial offer for the winner, which was accepted. Mr. Sandford won the Grand National, it may J;o recalled. with Sergeant I Murphy, and he is going to make a big effort to do the trick again. Thus

Blancona goes into Blackwell’s stable at Newmarket to be trained alongside Brights Boy, and that good mare Ballinede. Newmarket has never been so well off with high-class 'chasers, and the prejudice against training jumpers at the headquarters of flat racing has been thoroughly disputed. And no wonder, too, since the Grand National has been won three times in the last four years by horses prepared on the famous heath —Sergeant Murphy, Double Chance and Jack Horner. The latter will no doubt take his chance again, and Tom Leader has an embryo National winner in Desert Chief, not to mention the un/ueky horse of last year's race, Sprig. It was thought that the new Betting Tax would cripple racing under National Hunt Rules, but, so far as I can see sport “over the sticks” is going to be more virile than ever it has been.