LEPPERS IN THE LIMELIGHT

Taranaki Daily News, 21 August 1930, Page 5

LEPPERS IN THE LIMELIGHT

SURPRISING QUALITY REVEALED PESSIMISTIC VIEWS DISCOUNTED ■' YOUNG JUMPERS SWEPT THIS BOARD The general cry that the jumpers in New Zealand were many removes from the class of timber-toppers and hurdlers of other days has been definitely proved to be unfounded, and the Grand National meeting brought the fact home forcibly to those who voiced their pessimism earlier in the jumping season. A stop has been put to the dry rot, and surely the remarkable performances of the young leppers this season entitle them to consideration among the great jumpers whose names and records are perpetuated in the records of the Northerns and Nationals. The tide has turned, and it would seem that the Dominion’s jumping brigade has embarked on a cycle of improvement. Hfcs, the best been seen of Carinthia, Aurora Borealis,' King’s Jest and Omeo, to mention a quartette in the public eye? Assuredly not. As jumpers go, they are juveniles; their best days are yet to come, and already they have shown the stamina and brilliant jumping ability that made their predecessors famous. Nor are they unable to shoulder the imposts that qualify them for inclusion among the redoubtable performers of the past. And there are more to take their places. «■ When everything is taken into consideration it is scarcely feasible to assume that the breed of thoroughbreds is improving • in the direction of jumping lines for the reason that our most promising novices are being called from every family. Rather I would attribute the turn of the tide to the fact that owners and trainers are growing wise in their day and the fallacy of resorting to jumping races when equines have passed their hey day on the flat has become recognised. An old ,dog cannot be taught new tricks, and the good stakes .offered for jumpers should be sufficient inducement to owners to give the handicaps and classics the go-by when they have suitable horses. The place for old horses is on the station run, or in the clover paddock, not on the racecourse, where they are making the most spectacular branch of the Sport of Kings ludicrous.

Owning a fair class jumper that can stay is reasonably well is a worthwhile proposition in Nw Zealand, and this jumping season the two biggest winners, Aurora Borealis and Carinthia, swelled their winning totals by approximately £4OOO and £2300 respectively. King’s Jest was another big winner and the consistent but unlucky Omeo more than paid his way. Aurora Borealis, of course, was the outstaiding performer. Scarcely more than i pony, Aurora Borealis has justly earned the title of the greatest jumper for her inches the Dominion has seen for some years. To successfully carry the big weights she has done during the past three months and prove her versatility by mixing hurdling and steeplechasing stamps her as a jumper of class, and her stamina and brilliant jumping ability are her two fine assets. It was not until she sprang into fame by winning the Kairanga Hurdles at Awapuni and carved out the fourteen furlongs in the Australasian record time of 3min 11 l-ssec, that she became recognised as a possible good winner, and since then the spotlight of fame has played steadily upon her. In her next race, the Egmont Steeplechase, she was atrociously handled and beaten into fourth place, but she made the amende honorable the second day by taking the Adamson Steeplechase. In her next etart she was stacked 'up against the best jumping field she had yet met, and the way she gathered in the Century Hurdles field at Wanganui impressed the sceptical. Taken to Ellerslie, she performed creditably in the Great Northern Hurdles, where she chased King’s Jest and Roman Abbey home. Two days later ehe was included among the winners of the rich Great Northern Steeplechase, and on the final day of the meeting carried topweight in the Winter Steeplechase and won easily. She was improving all the time, j and it was only by the greatest bad luck that she failed by a nose to catch Mangani in the Wellington Steeplechase. Through thia stroke of misfortune she missed a chance of repeating Beau Cava-, lier’s performance of winning the three big steeplechases in the same jumping season.

Fresh in our minds is her sterling achievement in winning the National Steeplechase with 11.1, and running second to Carinthia in the National Hurdles, and she capped these performances .by shouldering a welterweight of all but 12st in the Steeplechase and winning with consummate ease. Certainly there must be a limit to her endurance, but thia big-hearted mare has done practically all that has been asked of her, and who can say that the best has been seen of her? . Hurdle laurels thia season undoubtedly rest on Carinthia, whose meteoric rise from obscurity has been one of the sensations of the season. While Aurora Borealis was achieving fame in the north, Carinthia stepped into the limelight by walking away with the two-

mile Otago Hurdles, establishing a track record and eclipsing his previous performances over battena. The merit of that win ■ was emphasised when Carinthia finished fast into third place in the Trentham Hurdles, and the confidence expressed by South Islanders was substantiated on the third day of the Wellington meeting, when he outstayed the field to score decisively in the Winter Hurdles. A rise of 131 b to 10.8 did not worry him in the National Hurdles, and here his superiority was even more pronounced. Carinthia had eet the seal to his fame, and he repeated the performance by winning the Sydenham Hurdles on the last day when a steadier of 11.9 was allotted to him. In a more masked degree even than Aurora Borealis has Carinthia shown improvement, and on the face value of his record his future prospects look particularly rosy.

Though King’s Jest’s only claim to fame has been his victory- in the Great Northern Hurdles, he has been a consistent performer in his few starts over hurdles, and has not once finished out of a place. He made no mistake about the Great Northern and, as he had previously started only twice ijj jumping races, there was a great deal of merit attached to that performance. King’s Jest has all the qualifications for a ■ hurdler, and as he is not yet too highly assessed by the handicapper it is reasonable to expect him to achieve further triumphs next jumping season. Bad luck has consistently dogged the New Plymouth hunter Omeo. throughout the season. He was never in better fettle than when he left for the Auckland winter meeting, but a misfortune in a schooling task threw him out of the Northern Hurdles, and he was not really well enough to do himself justice when he raced in the Northern Steeplechase. His gameness and ability were emphasised in his close second to Aurora Borealis, and there is no doubt that he would have won but for his misfortune. Careful treatment in the ensuing period found him once again sound to battle for National honours, but again, the fates were unkind, and though he was patched up at the last minute and started, he did noble work to run a fine third. Surely Omeo’s luck must change some day, and this robust hunter, who possesses the necessary qualifications of stamina and jumping ability, may have - an opportunity next year to reveal his . true worth.

Among , the novices, and lesser lights, nothing appeals, more than the Awapuni ■trained Corneroff, whose second in the National Steeplechase was a noteworthy effort. With more experience Corneroff should prove a valiant contender ' for big honours next season. Other young horses one can call to mind are Taumai, Amorist, Luminary, Llyn Du, West Dome, Tractarian, and Elysianor, and with the pick of the spring winners included, it seems as if the jumping ranks next season will be stronger than has been the case for • many years.