ORELIO AT ELLERSLIE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 85, Issue 9, 11 January 1941, Page 9

ORELIO AT ELLERSLIE

DID HANDICAPPER ERR?

In the Christmas Handicap (one | mile), the concluding event on the first day ol the Auckland Racing Club’s summer meeting, Kindergarten (8.4), won by a head from Gayest Son (7.13), with Orelio (8.2), half a head away, the time being Imin. 36 3-ssec. On the third day of the meeting both Kindergarten and Orelio were in the limelight again, Kindergarten beating Lou Rosa and Beau Leon (third in the Auckland Cup) in race record time, and Orelio beating his stablemate Proud Fox in the Auckland Racing Club Handicap. But it was the weight Ore l -> cat’.ed on New Year's Day which gave rise to much discussion during the later stages of the Ellerslie meeting. Orelio was handicapped to carry 7.10 in the Summer Cup (10 furlongs) on the second day of the meeting, two days before being stepped out for the Racing Club Handicap (li miles). He gave some evidence of his quality and staying ability by beating Lou Rosa (7.8) • and Cornish (7.SJ) by threequarters of a length and half a length respectively in 2min. 4sec.—a course record for 10 furlongs at Ellerslie. Belle Cane, on the same mark as Orelio, failed to fill a place, and the beaten division also included Royal Appellant (8.9), Sly Fox (8.8) and Foxsen (7.3). This display could not have impressed the Auckland handicapper very much, for he treated Orelio as a non-stayer by setting him on the same mark again in the Racing Club Handicap, though it must be admitted that Royal Appellant came in on 101 b. better terms and Sly Fox 91b. better. Just what other owners and trainers thought of the chances given Orelio in the Racing Club Handicap maybe gathered from the fact that only eight horses figured in the acceptance list for this £l5OO stake, and these included Orelio and his stablemate Proud Fox. The latter, with 7.13, finishing half a length behind his stablemate, with Mintlaw (7.3) a similar distance back, the time for the mile and a-half being 2min. 32 4-ssec., almost as fast as Kindergarten's Derby record. Apparently the weight-adjuster realised that Orelio had to be treated as a proved stayer, for the Limond horse was raised to 9.2 for his Nathans Memorial engagement on the concluding day. The compliment was declined, as Orelio could have been held to have done enough for one week with a third and two wins. When the weights came out for the Wellington Cup Orelio had been allotted 8.5, just lib. below Kindergarten, acclaimed the best three-year-old of the season so far. There seems little doubt that at Ellerslie Orelio was presented with a splendid opportunity when he was weighted at 7.10 in the Racing Club Handicap, and h I connections were not slow to take advantage of the occasion to secure a four-figure stake. Just how he is going to fare in the Wellington Cup remains to be seen, but he is bred to stay out a 12-furlong journey. He is a four-year-old by Limond from the Absurd—Sea Elf mare Waterwings, dam of Agrion (N.Z. Derby winner) and Waikare (A.J.C. Metropolitan and Queensland T.C. Derby).