HE GREW UP.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 600, 2 November 1932, Page 10

HE GREW UP.

Romantic Rise of Peter Pan, Cup Winner. FAME CAME QUICKLY. Times may be bad, depression souring us all, but sportsmen will yet appreciate the romance of the Melbourne Cup of 1932. Peter Pan, the boy who would not grow up, was Barrie’s creation. Peter Pan, the horse who did—well, he was Pantheon’s idea. Unknown, unbacked and most assuredly unhonoured was Peter Pan at the beginning of this racing season on August 1. On August 27 he ran a dead-heat for first in the Novice Handicap at Warwick Farm. On September 10 a paragraph appeared in these columns headed “ Dark Horse for Derby ” and beginning “ Some keen Sydney judges have Derby ideas about Peter Pan, who ran a dead-heat for first ” etcetera. Well, those unnamed Sydney judges have justified their description. Peter Pan is another striking example of the fallacy in many years of forming Derby ideas on two-year-old form. If another is needed, may Phar Lap be suggested? Peter Pan raced only once as a two-vear-old and over in Sydney with Kuvera all the rage, nobody, as might be expected, took much notice of the Pantheon colt, who ran unplaced in a juvenile handicap at Randwick in May. His next start was his three-year-old half-win at Warwick Farm. Peter Pan put himself right into the limelight when he raced at Rosehill on September 17. He won the -weight-for-age Hill Stakes with Nightmarch second. That success foreshadowed his A.J.C. Derby win. He next ran in the Caulfield Cup and all reports received in New Zealand indicated how desperately unlucky he was to run only fourth.

His Melbourne Stakes sucess on Saturday followed and they will now have to work up a new “ hoodoo ” in Melbourne. Two years ago Phar Lap won the Stakes and the Melbourne Cup and Peter Pan has repeated the double. No “ hoodoo ” can withstand two adverse results inside three years. What more is there to say about a great colt, a great trainer, and in regard to the owner, a member of one of the best “ racing ” families in Australia They have all been written up so much lately. A slight New Zealand touch is supplied by the fact that Mr Ken Austin, managing director of the Elderslie stud, is related by marriage to Mr R. R. Dangar, owner of Peter Pan. Grandson of Tracery.

Peter Pan is by Pantheon, a newcomer among English sires in Australia. A class racehorse himself and a son of Tracery, Pantheon is a most interesting success as a stallion. Remember how much that wonderful judge the late Mr William Allison, the “ Special Commissioner ” of London “ Sportsman,” thought of Tracery. Mr Sol Green, of Melbourne, owner of the Shipley stud, where Biplane was bred, foreswore breeding for years, but his Tracery horse, Gothic tempted him and at a great expense he established another stud in the rich Bacchus Marsh district of Victoria. Gothic most unfortunately died after a brief term at the stud, but Mr Green is carrying on with other .sires. Frank M’Grath just recently has trained the winners of the A.J.C. Derby, the Metropolitan, the Melbourne and Cantala Stakes, and the Melbourne Cup. He trained Abundance who won the A.J.C. and Victoria Derbies thirty years ago. He was one of the numerous trainers that the late “Mr J. Baron favoured for a while, and during his reign M’Grath trained Prince Foote, winner of the A.J.C. and Victoria Derbies also of the Melbourne Cup in 1909.

In these columns on Thursday appeared the following extract from an interview accorded a Melbourne paper, by M’Grath. “ Prince Foote was the best stayer I ever trained. If Peter Pan can prove himself to be in the same staying class as Prince Foote, he should win the Melbourne Cup by a street.” M’Grath trained Amounts, winner of £48,297 10s during the greater part of his career. Forty-seven years ago, he was one of the jockeys badly injured in that terrible smash in the Caulfield Cup when 41 horses started and sixteen fell. All present-day New Zealand racing folk who have taken horses to Randwick know Frank M’Grath and know him for a genuine, quiet-mannered, likeable man who thoroughly understands his business. N.Z. CUP CANDIDATES. No. 17.—Red Sun. Ba}' horse, four years, by Australian Sun from Red Wheat by Maltster. Weight 7st. Owner and trainer, J. W. Lowe (Trentham). This Australian horse is regarded by some folk in the North Island as a distinct possibility in the New Zealand Cup. His track w'ork this spring has been really good, but he has not acted up to it in private. His sire, Australian Sun, won the A.J.C. Dangar Handicap, and is well known in the Dominion as the sire of Glare and In the Shade. He is a son of Sunstar, and belongs to the same family as Bill of Portland, Solario, and Gloaming. Red Wheat, dam of Red Sun, is by Maltster from Aurora 11., by Collar (son of St Simon) from Fair Emigrant, by< the unbeaten Grand Flaneur from the Trenton mare Gloria.

Red Sun had one unplaced run at two years. Last season he started a dozen times and gained two firsts and a second. He won the Waitoa Handicap, seven furlongs, at Te Aroha and the Southern Champion Hack Handicap, one mile, at Riverton. He was second over a mile and a quarter to Great Emblem at Te Aroha.

This season he was third over a mile and 55 yards at Otaki, and third in the Masterton Handicap, one mile and a quarter, with 7st to Korokio Bst 21b and Cluny 7st. Fie did not make much of a showing in the mile Wainui Handicap at Trentham. He has thus run 16 times for two wins, one second, and two thirds. Red Sun is bred to stay, and shapes as if he would be suited by a journey.

Mr C. A. Shiel, the owner of Blue Metal, has lodged an appeal against the decision of the South Canterbury stewards in connection with an incident in the Flying Handicap at last month’? meeting. Blue Metal won narrowly from Mount Boa, but the positions of the two horses were reversed by the stewards on a protest that the rider of Blue Metal hit Mount Boa on the head with his whip. The appeal will be heard next Tuesday