Champion Northern Colt Maiinbrace Well Engaged In Ellerslie Summer Classics

Wanganui Chronicle, 21 November 1950, Page 3

Champion Northern Colt Maiinbrace Well Engaged In Ellerslie Summer Classics

(By “KESTREL.”)

Mai'nbraee emerged with flying colours from the hardest race he has had in the north when he registered a sterling performance in the Foxbridge Plate at Te Rapa on Saturday, and now interest will centre on his programme for midsummer racing As might be expected, he is engaged in the Great Northern Derby, the King’s Plate and the Clifford Plate, and probably he will be given a race later in January at Trentham

“I’d like to be able to run him and let the old home town see just how good he is, but we have as yet not planned so far ahead,’’ said trainer Jack McDonald when asked by the “Chronicle” whether he would bring Mainbrace to the Wanganui Jockey Club's autumn meeting for the Jackson Stakes., That was before Mainbrace decisively defeated Felicitous and The Unicorn in the Wellington Guineas at Trentham last month. Since then the Admiral’s Luck colt has added the Waikato Guineas and the Foxbridge Plate to his successes to make his three-year-old record five wins following an initial defeat in a handicap sprint. Mainbrace has now won £11,015 in stakes, including the £lOO trophy which went with the Foxbridge Plate. Stake-money for the winner of the King’s Plate is £l5OO, for the Derby winner it is £3500, and for the Clifford Plate £l6OO.

In the Foxbridge Plate Mainbrace led all the way. Entering the back stretch Beaumaris kept at the colt to ensure a good pace, which was not particularly fast in the early stages. Along the back it was quite a good race, with Loder setting a difficult task by tailing the field.

Mainbrace had a length advantage over Beaumaris making the home turn and the rest were not far away. It was a real battle between the two

leaders for the next furlong, but once Hughes asked the colt the question there was no doubt about the issue, Mainbrace bounding away to lead by lengths. Beaumaris came at the colt in his customary dogged manner and was bringing him back a bit, but game as he was he could not bridge the gap. With a two-length advantage half a furlong off the post Hughes dropped his hands and the colt came on to win, easing right up. It. was this fact which enabled Beaumaris to run him to half a length. Mainbrace gave the impression that he had had enough at the post, but that is how he has won most of his races, producing only that little extra effort when it is necessary. Mainbrace’s rider, Grenville Hughes, said: “I had an anxious moment at the bottom of the straight, when Beaumaris ranged up, but I gave the colt a kick and riding him with hands and heels, he responded well. I dropped my hands half a furlong from the post and he coasted in.” Colin Wilson, rider of Beaumaris, had no excuses. “I had every show,” he said. Jack Mudford, who rode Gold Script, said that his mount was going exceptionally well passing the half-mile but he hung badly over the last three furlongs. Balmacara, according to Ray Ireland, never looked like winning, but he ran “a mighty honest race.”