SPORTING

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19035, 2 April 1930, Page 10

SPORTING

WHANGAREI PROSPECTS. (Special to the " Star.”) AUCKLAND, April 2. The autumn meeting of the Whangarei Racing Club opens to-morrow and there are prospects of fine weather. The following may be the favourite division:— Trial Stakes.—Biddy Comet, Wai- ' miiri, Norval Tea. Portland Handicap.—Maurieana, I’m Alone, Treasury. M'lnnes Memorial.—Desert Glow, Sir Archie, Le Choucas. Hurdles.—Archeen, Ned Kelly, Glena Bay. Stewards Handicap. Refresher, Branson. Settlers’ Handicap. Gold Lily, Frothblower, Kildeer. Maungatapere Handicap.—Currajong, Tetrachate, Big Bertha. Waipu Handicap.—lmperial Prince, Sea Cob, Hipo. HAS NIGHTMARCH LOST LAST SEASONS FORM? (Special to the “ Star.”) SYDNEY, March 24. When the Melbourne Cup winner, Nightmarch, was beaten at Moorefield on Saturday, a quiet whisper went round that he was not as good as at his previous visit to Australia, nor would he again attain the same form. In the spring he won the Epsom and Melbourne Cup, the Randwick Plate weight-for-age, the C. B. Cox Plate and Tatt’s Spring Handicap. Shrewd heads believed after Saturday that this standard of form had been lost to him. When yesterday he was scratched for the Doncaster and Cup, the £3OOO and £6OOO stakes constituting the best prizes for old horses at the Easter carnival at Randwick next month, it lent colour to the assertion. But on the same day he was entered for the weight-for-age races at the meeting, and the entry showed that connections _of Nightmarch are playing cunning in formulating this weight-for-age campaign during the carnival. On the first day he is in the mile and a half Autumn Stakes, and, as only half Australia’s talent is likely to meet him on that day, a stake easier than usual might be picked up; for on that same afternoon Phar Lap will be busily engaged winning the Leger, and Amounis, if it is fine, might be tackling the Doncaster, despite his 10.4 That leaves Chide to beat, and the Nightmarch connections no doubt believe their champion capable of defeating this New Zealand rival. In later events at the meeting, Phar Lap awaits Nightmarch in the longer weight-for-age races, and Amounis will tackle him if he starts in the mile Allaged Stakes. So some shrewd heads still believe that there is something in the deterioration story because of this wily picking of the easy race for the start of the Randwick carnival. Anyhow, they say that, if he had been the old Nightmarch of last November, there would have been no question about victory instead of a moderate third in the Moorefield race last Saturday.