FULLY EXTENDED

Taranaki Daily News, 26 November 1934, Page 12

FULLY EXTENDED

PETER PAN’S THIRD WIN DUKE OF GLOUCESTER CUP. the Failure of nightly. Many of Melbourne’s big ‘bettors who lay oddS bn were surprised at being able to lay as little as nearly even money on Peter Pan winning the Duke of Gloucester Cup at Flemington on Saturday, writes the Sydney Referee. Meeting then), all on so much better terms after his Melbourne Cup, he was generally voted a certainty who might be unbackable. But the Victorian bookmakers will always hive a tilt at the apparently unbeatable, arid they did sb on this occasion. Pbter Pan quickly shortened to odds on, but Broad Arrow almost upset the hot pot. He maintained a slight advantage until within the last furlong, and had Darby Munro struggling his hardest to get the utmost out of the dual Melbourne Cup winner before he had the race won. The handicapper had his critics for allowing Peter Pan to meet many horses who finished behind him at a weight disadvantage compared with the Melbourne Cup result. But it shows how handicappers can sometimes get out of—or almost get out of—such dilemmas, when Broad Arrow, meeting Peter Pan 121 b worse than the Melbourne Cup, proved to be a most difficult rival at the end of the Gloucester Cup. Yet in the Melbourne Cup Peter Pan was first and Broad Arrow only fourth. MEETING WITH NIGHTLY. Nightly he met 51b better than in tire Melbourne Cup, in which the former was last home, but although in the meantime Nightly had beaten Hall Mark ind Lough Neagh in the C. B. Fisher Plate, there was not much demand for him in Saturday’s betting. Many had a fancy fbr Hyperion because of his 2st lib pull in the weights compared with Peter Pan, but at that he had only a 51b advantage over w.f.a. against a proved champion, winner of two Melbourne Cups, the’ Derby, and many w.f.a. events. And Hyperion could run only third in last week’s Victoria Derby. Tire race for the Duke’s Cup was run in w*holly different fashion to the Melbourne Cup. Whbreas Flail in that was the leader ftom a mile and a-quarter to tire distance, here he was last. Nightly, who was always on Flail’s tracks in the Melbourne Cup, here dropped back second last and stayed there persistently. The result was that third-raters in Curator and Wallopian, were the leaders, and Broad Arrow and Hyperion were always on their tracks. Peter Pan was next to these most of the way, and when Broad Artdw, cutting down the leaders, moved to the front rounding the home turn, Munro quickly realised that he could not afford to give too much to such a sticker, sb he hurried Peter along. The champion was a little sluggish, and it took so long for him to make an impression that it looked as if Broad Arrow might upset the pot. Hyperion was coming almost as well as Peter Pan, too, in pursuit. But he was shut in on the rails behind Broad Arrow, with Peter Pan keeping him penned there. A little over a furlong from home Munro realised the seriousness of the situation. Apparently it struck him quickly that here was opposition that was even more dangerous than he had experienced in the Cup, and not to be treated lightly.

It took Peter a time to respond, too. Apparently he had had all the brilliance knocked out of him by his Severe Melbourne Cup trial in the wet. But his old determination arose. He gained gradually for the first half-furlong. .Then he began to assert himself in the real Peter Pan fashion, and before the end he had gathered Broad Arrow, and he wCht On to win ultimately by half a length. Hypefion was beaten right off, two lengths away third. Wallopian finished fourth. He beat Nightly by a narrow margin. Flail was sixth, and Curator, the only other runner, a bad last. Nightly’s form was for below best standard. He had won the Mbonee Valley Cup and had run a good third to Pbter Pan and Hall Mark in the Melbourne Stakes at the commencement of the Cup meeting. But in the Cup he had run last. The excuse for that was that a lump of turf thrown up by a rival had got into his mouth and throat and choked him. As if to prove the authenticity of this excuse, he beat Hall Mark in the C. B. Fisher two days later. But subsequent reports of Hall Mark robbed the victory of much of its merit. Hall Mark had developed a leg which perhaps militated against his chance in the Fisher Plate. In the circumstances it is puzzling to kiiow exactly what Nightly’s present credentials are with only the one win sandwiched between two poor Flemington performances. Perhaps the unusual tactics adopted, when he was ridden behind instead of up with the leading division, had something to do with his poor effort on this occasion.