ON THE TURF

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 90, Issue 122, 29 May 1946, Page 6

ON THE TURF

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“KESTREL”

MODERATE NOT SO MODERATE TWO STEEPLECHASE WINS ON END Moderate belies his name as a ’chaser. On his most recent performances he should develop into a cross-country jumper of more than moderate calibre. At the recent Otaki meeting he easily won the Puketoi Hack and Hunters’ Steeplechase, and only a week later, at Woodville last Saturday, he had another facile victory in the Mangarawa Hack Steeples. Moderate is in his element in the mud. and there should be no lack of that for a while now. Certainly. next time he lines up—he declined his Wanganui first-day

engagements—he will have plenty of friends.

Moderate has won his way out ' of hack class in steeplechases very ' quickly, for he has won exactly i £5OO over the big fences in two' starts. The steeplechase event at (Maki was worth £220 to the winner. and his share of the £4OO stake at Woodville was £2BO. He ehanged hands last January for ’ 90 guineas and has already proved himself a bargain at the price. More stake-money should come his way this winter. During the six seasons of racing 1 that Mocrerate has had—he is nowj rising ten and was not raced at two 1 and three years—only two ownersl have won money with him, these being I trainer B. Burgess, who first raced him and re-purchased him last January, and Mr. C. Garmonsway, whose colours he carried in the seasons from . 1942-43 till last year. FIRST WIN AT WANGANUI Had Moderate continued his Wang- ! anui engagements he would have been racing at the scene of his first success, • for at his 18th start he won the Castle- ' cliff Handicap (seven furlongs) on the . second day of the Wanganui Jockey ; Club’s winter meeting in 1941, when : a four-year-old. In all he started 22 ' times that season and scored, in ad-i' dition to that one win, two minor plac-1 ings, carrying the colours of B. Bur-' gess, then training at Opaki (Master-. ( ton). The winner’s share of the stake-j money in the Wanganui event was , £95. That Moderate was destined to have j a busy time on the turf was evidenced in his next season, for he was started 23 times for three wins and three minor placings. Taken to Riccarton for the Grand National meeting, he ' won the Sumner Hack (nine furlongs), worth £2lO. He came back to Wanganui for the spring meeting to win the Putiki Hack (nine furlongs), and completed a ’’hat trick” by winning the Gladstone Hack at Masterton, a sevenfurlong race for apprentice riders. On that occasion V. J. Sellars was in the saddle, whereas in his earlier successes M. Caddy had been associated with him as rider. His win at Wanganui was worth £lO5, and that at Masterton £75, so his four successes to this stage had been worth £485. Thus Moderate was on the verge of graduating from theranks of hacks. Yet it is a remarkable feature of his career that he was to have nineteen more starts that season, and fifteen more in the following season, 34 in all, before he made the grade to open company. At his sixteenth start in the 1942-43 season he carried 7.6 in the Oroua Hack Cup at the Feilding Easter meeting and was I steered to victory by Sellars. As he ’ was only sixth favourite the dividend associated with his win must have been acceptable to those who had loyally supported him throughout the lean period. Incidentally, that was his only Win in twenty starts as a six-year-old,

, and it was registered in the colours of (Mr. Garmonsway. Better fortune attended Moderate in I the 1943-44 season, for in eighteen I starts he scored four wins and two (minor placings. He won the Trial Hack Hurdles at the C.J.C. winter meeting, and followed that up with finishing second in the Spreydon Hurdles, second in the Okehu Hurdles at Wanganui, and second in two Highweight events, at Masterton and Trentham. At the latter centre he then won the Rimu Hurdles, with C. A. Eowry in the saddle, his earlier pilot at Riccarton having been D. W. Redstone. Going up to Te Rapa he won 1 the Waimai Hurdles, and later returned to racing on the flat to win the ■ Woodville Cup. worth £2lO and a 25gn. I trophy. For the latter event he was 17/7 in the order of betting, though he • had been a near favourite in his hurdle i successes. CHANGE OF STABLES I In the period between this success ;and his racing in the 1944-45 season (Moderate had a change of trainers, going into R. J. Belcher’s stable at Trentham, though he was still owned by Mr. Garmonsway. The change of stables was accompanied by further successes, as in 19 starts Moderate won three events. These comprised the Marlborough Cup, in which he beat Foxcatcher by a head, the Waimata Hurdles at the Poverty Bay meeting at Te Aroha, and *the Hamilton | Hurdles at Te Rapa just twelve i months ago. In the latter event, l run over two miles, he beat Hunto, a ’Great Northern Hurdles winner. 1 Moderate has ’tot had such a busy time in the current season, for he has had only six starts. Two of these were before he changed hands last January, and they were without success. In four starts since then he has been once unplaced, one third (in a hurdle race at Hawera), and twice successful in steeplechase events. In 108 starts since he commenced racing Moderate has registered fourteen wins, anc. these successes have brought £3085 in stake-earnings, in addition 1o his minor placings. Burgess will have no reason to regret his decision to buy the veteran back into his stables, as in return for his outlay of 90 guineas last January he has now won £5OO in stakes. Moreover, the dividends associated with the two wins were of fairly generous proportions. PROFITABLE PURCHASE Before Moderate won at Otaki Bur- • gess could have sold the horse again at a profit of 600 per cent, but he has proved wise to retain him. Moderate was improved by h'is race at Otaki and he had the cross-country lot at Woodville at his mercy a long way from home. The 'chasers seen out so far this season in the southern portion of the North Island are not a particularly impressive lot, and there is a 'good opportunity for a capable jumper who can stay and also handle heavy tracks. More good stakes should come the way of Moderate, who was got by imported Ollatrirn from the Mountain Knight mare Glow, dam of another fairly useful horse in Mataroa.