WILD NOTE IMPRESSED WITH "FIRST UP" WIN AT AWAPUNI

Wanganui Chronicle, 24 June 1948, Page 3

WILD NOTE IMPRESSED WITH "FIRST UP" WIN AT AWAPUNI

Feature of the displays by sprinters at the Manawatu meeting was the “first up” win of Wild Note in the Members’ Handicap last Saturday, for the Wild Chase gelding was meeting a -lumber of seasoned horses over seven furlpngs ami proved equal to making the pace ami holding off a strong challenge. Wild Note had had enough a furlong off the post, but his pilot, leading horseman N. B. Holland, had established a winning break on the home turn and he just lasted out the journey

Wild Note had not raced since he had finished second to Frances in the Hutt Handicap (one mile) at Trentham last March, but his connections appeared quietly confident that he would prove capable of running out the seven-furlong journey at Awapuni. They proved right, though it was only Dy the narrowest of margins that he got the verdict over the place favourite, Playtos. Betting figures on the Members' Handicap make interesting reading. Playboy was the favourite on the win machine, with £llB2 10s invested on his straight-out chance, as against £1265 10s on Playtos, who was 2/1 in the betting. There was a marked drop to Deprive (£810), Peter Theio (£708) and Wild Note (£607), while Cooraclare was an outsider with only £32 invested straight-out. Place betting did not show such a wide divergence, there being £953 on Playtos and £585 10s on Wild Note, with £lO2 10s on Cooraclare. Wild Note is trained at Trentham by It. J. Belcher, who took over the Wild Chase-Lost Note gelding last August. Since then Wild Note has contested 14 races for four wins, two of them at Trentham, and five minor piacings, so he can claim to be consistent. On Saturday he conceded Playtos 121 b and outpaced him after having been off the scene for three months. As might, be expected, he was stopping over the final stages, but the game manner in which he fought on to keep his challenger at bay suggested that he might be all the better for the race. He will have to be kept in mind for his Trentham engagements, which include the Whyte Handicap, of one mile, in which he has 9.8. Playtos has changed stables since he won at Otaki last month, and he just failed to score a win for J. G. Farrell, of Stratford. Against any other sprinter but Wild Note T. Webster’s tactics would have succeeded. He limed his effort splendid.y, but Holland had obtained just sufficient margin when he slipped the field to enable him to get the verdict. It is worth noting that the Plato gelding is another engaged in the Whyte Handicap, and he will meet Wild Note on 51b better terms than at Awapuni. Cooraclare was three lengths behind the major placegetters in the Members’ Handicap, just getting third place from Master Baron, Playboy and Deprive, and supporters of the Croupier gelding secured a doublefigure dividend. Had he won the return would have been in the neighbourhood of a century and a-half. Cooraclare was not in the first halfdozen on the home turn, but he finished solidly.

' Playboy was rather disappointing, for he was handy enough to Wild Note at the half-mile, but over the final stages he could not reproduce the strong finishing run usually a characteristic of his finishes. He may do better at Trentham, a course on which he built up a good hack record.