AUSTRALIAN EVENTS.

Waikato Times, Volume 106, Issue 17802, 29 August 1929, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN EVENTS.

COLTS SHOWING GOOD FORM. THE HOBARTViLLE STAKES. Sydney’s three-year-olds of note who might later be taken into consideration as Derby possibilities are beginning to race, and one of the number, Firbolg, dead-heated for first in his race at Rosehill on Saturday, creating a very favourable impression, says a writer in Smith's Weekly of August 24. A Victorian already here, Parkwood, is doing particularly well, and so are Comanche, Holdfast, Pentheus, and the New Zealander, Nedda. Saturday’s winner, Firbolg, is by Tippler, son of Polymelus, and first drew attention to a promise of stamina when he won the seven-fur-long Fernhill Handicap, with a strong finishing run at Randwick last autumn. He wintered well, and although his trainer, Bailey Payten, feared that he might not be sufficiently wound up for Saturday’s seven-furlong event at his first start for the new season, he won the race well under adverse circumstances. v King Crow, in running across the course a furlong from home, seriously checked Firbolg's passage, but he stuck to his task, and made the dead heat with this better-seasoned performer. Firbolg will improve a lot. Stamina was the outstanding factor in Saturday's win, and he is confidently expected to develop as a stayer of note this season. Saturday’s Big Test. An important three-year-old lest ’takes place on Saturday next, August 31, when most of the cracks meet in the Ilobartville Stakes, a £IOOO race of special weights.

Holdfast is getting ready for this. He won all his races except the Champagne Stakes last season, and only the heavy going spoilt his chance in that. All other races he won running away, and although he is not expected to stay sufficiently well to win the Derby, he will probably take a lot of beating in the ffobartvilie. His brilliance is phenomenal.

Comanche, runner-up to Honour in the Sires’ Produce Stakes, is also getting ready for it. He has developed the right way, and is a handsome Derby candidate. So is Pentheus. Victorians likely to contest the greater three-year-old classics, Parkwood and Carradale, are not in the Ilobartville Stakes.

Parkwood, who is doing splendidly in his training at Randwick, where he has been settled already for some weeks, has been entered for the weight-for-age race, the mile Warwick Stakes, to be run on the same day as the Ilobartville. Stakes, and although he -may. meet Limerick, Aussie, and other cracks in this, it is quite on the cards that ho will show sufficient form to indicate strong Derby claims.

SMART MILER. RAMULUS AND THE EPSOM. AN EARLY FANCY. Since the -appearance of the weights for the Epsom Handicap, Ramulus has been one of the popular fancies. He is a splendid miler, and with 9.2 reads as well as any of the topweights. He is also engaged in the Caulfield Cup with 8.9. His placed performances are as follows : At Two Years. Won A.J.C. Breeders’ Plate, 5 furlongs. Won Warwick P’arm Fairfield Handicap, 6 furlongs. Third A.J.C. Sires’ Produce Stakes, 7 furlongs. Third A.J.C. Champagne Stakes, 6 furlongs. At Three Years. Second Warwick Farm Hobartville Stakes, 7 furlongs, won by Mollison. Second Rosehill Guineas, 1 mile, won by Mollison. Won A.J.C. Clibborn Stakes, 1 mile. Second Caulfield Guineas, 1 mile. Second Moonee Valley Cox Plate, 9i furlongs. Won Flemington Batman Stakes, 1 mile.