REAL DERBY COLT

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 255, 27 October 1937, Page 4

REAL DERBY COLT

ROYAL CHIEF’S FINE WIN THREE-YEAR-OLD’S RECORD If there were any doubts about Royal Chief s being a Derby colt they were settled once and for all by the manner of his victory over older horses at weight-for-age in the Harcourt Stakes, the main attraction of the concluding day’s racing. Three-year-olds have now won the last five Harcourts, and Royal Chief's effort was best of them all. Wise to what Cuddle was capable of doing, L. J. Ellis decided to play a' wailing game on Royal Chief, and so he remained at the rear of the field .ill the straight. It was then that he asked the colt to make his claim, and so ready was the response that he swept up to the leaders in a furlong, and had Cuddle.measured at the distance. It was a brilliant exposition of how a good three-year-old is next to invincible at weight-for-age, writes “Rangatira.” There was still further merit in the effort, as Royal Chief set up new record figures not only for the distance but also for the distance on the Trentham track. On the middle day of the meeting his stablemate Cerne Abbas lowered the figures to 2min. 3isec. for the mile and a-quarter, and he clipped another quarter of a second off the time, going within half a second of Bronze Eagle’s New Zealand record, registered on the Riccarton track in a race that is no longer on the Cup programme. Monday’s final mile took lmin. 37isec. and the last half-mile 48isec, these fractions being identical to Cerne Abbas’, so that it was the first quar-ter-mile that made the difference. Winning the Harcourt Stakes is becoming a habit with L. J. Ellis, who has now won the last four contests on Sporting Blood, Kinnoull, Gallio, and Royal Chief in turn, and previously also succeeded on Croupier and Pink Coat, two other three-year-olds at the time.

Royal Chief was seen in the parade to be no small horse, as he measured in size up to his older opponents. He improved his race record to nine wins and eight minor placings in eighteen starts for £3525 in stakes, of which £1335 b?.s been earned to date this season. Cuddle ran second for the second time in two starts in the race. S. Wilson did not get her away too well, and the mare was at the rear with Royal Chief for a furlong, but before the end of the next furlong she had swept round the whole field to be in front at the mile post, her favourite position. At the straight entranccCatalogue, Wild Chase, and Kinnoull were hot on her heels, but she had disposed of them when Royal Chief threw out his clajm. For a moment Wilson did not appear to scent the new danger, but the mare is a freegoer when in the van, and it is doubtful if inis brief lapse affected the result of the race. Cuddle revealed beyond need of any further disputation in her two races at the meeting that she is as good as ever she was in the past. The Crooner, the other Ihree-year-old in the field, came home from fifth to beat all the older horses except Cuddle, and he was going well at the post a couple of lengths behind the leaders. This was his best showing since his resumption. Wild Chase’s fourth was evidence of the class of the winner, but it is a question whether he is yet racing as well as he was last spring. Kinnoull I was going well on the home turn, but 1 failed to improve in the straight. Catalogue and Enge were not up to the class, though Catalogue ran a creditable race to the straight, and was actually for a short space the • most menacing horse in a vain effort to pull back Cuddle.