Wanganui Centennial Steeplechase Trophy

Wanganui Chronicle, 6 May 1948, Page 3

Wanganui Centennial Steeplechase Trophy

To mark the hundredth year of racing in Wanganui, the Wanganui Jockey Club is maintaining for its three 1948 meetings the policy which made the Centennial Cup meeting last February an unqualified success. For the winter meeting, to be held on Saturday and Monday, June 5 and 7, the stakes have been appreciably increased, and it is expected that r generous response will be forthcoming when nominations close next Monday week. Feature event at the meeting will be the Wanganui Centennial Steeplechase, to be run on the second day the King's Birthday holiday. The distance of the race is about three miles and 150' yards, and, as will be the case with all other events at the meeting, it will be from starting stalls. The race carries a stake of £l2OO, including a gold cup valued at £2OO. and an illustration of this handsome trophy is reproduced with this article.

Several other valuable trophies will also be offered at the meeting. The

winner of the Hack and Hunters' Steeplechase on the opening day will get a trophy valued at 25 guineas, presented by the Egmont-Wanganui Hunt Club. In the case of the Century Hurdles and the Grandstand Steeplechase, the successful trainers will each receive a trophy valued at £4O and the jockeys riding the winners will each receive a £l5 trophy. Similar trophies will be given for the May Hurdles on the second day of the meeting. Altogether the trophies for the fixture are valued at £391 ss. An alteration is notified in the conditions for the Maiden Plate on the first day and the Castlecliff Handicap on the second day. In the programme originally published the Maiden Plate, with a stake of £3OO, was for horses three year’s old and upwards that at time of starting had never won a flat race at a totalisator meeting to the value of £2OO to the winner. The event is now confined to three-year-olds and upwards “that have never won a race at a totalisator meeting.” The Castlecliff Handicap had originally been for’ horses that had never won a flat face at a totalisator meeting. It is now "for three-year-olds and upwards that at time of entry have never won a race at a totalisator meeting of more than £2lO to the winner.”