TRUMP CARD FOR BOOKMAKERS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17837, 4 May 1926, Page 3

TRUMP CARD FOR BOOKMAKERS.

KING OF CLUBS WINS ONE LEG OF DOUBLE.

(Special to the “ Star.”) LONDON, March 25. All the double-event wagers on the Lincolnshire Handicap and Grand National were trumped by King of Clubs when that despised outsider, an exselling plater, trained by his farmerowner. Mr Bellerby. at Acaster Malbis, near S'ork, won the Lincolnshire Handicap yesterday. The horse was ridden by Pat Donoghue. the fifteen-year-old son of S. Donoghue, who rode Tapin to victory last vear, and whose mount, Argeia, finished last but one in race, and he defeated the favourite, Zionist, by a head in a very fine finish. The starting price of 100 to 1 is arrived at by grouping King of Clubs with the “100 to 1 others,” but it is probable that even longer odds might have been obtained, and certainly on the totalisator King of Clubs’ price would have been many times 100 to 1, since he ran virtually unbacked by the public, which heavily supported other horses, notably Zionist, Nothing Venture and Don Zelon. THE BOY JOCKEY.

Pat Donoghue will not be sixteen until October. He won his first race on Nice One at Salisbury last year, his father also riding in the race. He was at Chafyngrove School at Salisbury before being apprenticed to a racing stable, and was captain of the Rugby fifteen, captain of the games, prefect, the best swimmer in the school, and the best boxer, lie also won a boxing competition for stable lads at the National Sporting Club on January 4 last. The lad is now apprenticed to S. Wootton at Epsom, but was first taught to ride by his father. Mr Bellerby fancied King of Clubs, because he felt there would be no fitter animal in the race, and the success of the horse was largely due to superior condition. He finished his preparation on the Hambledon Hills, near Thirsk. Yorkshire. Mr Bellerby’s hopes were not shared by any of the newspaper racing experts, one of whom, in summing up prospects on the race, dismissed King of Clubs with the remark, "Nothing good can be said of him.” King of Clubs has robbed the public of a big win over Zionist, and most of

the bookmakers have had what is known as a “skinner" over the race. It was an even more surprising result than the 100 to 1 win of Charley’s Mount in the Cesarewitch of 1924.