2 By "Tue Sum"
ONE could have wished for better racing than yesterday's, and the only complaints were about the weather and the absence of winning favourites.
Sammy was the only out and outer' to come to the punters' rescue as the other winning favourite, Windsor, could only share the honour of winning, his race resulting in a dead heat.
The big race was a distressing one for backers. Mou Tan Hua's recent running encouraged none to believe that he would come out a winner here, and he was not amongst the first five favourites, but he won convincingly by a length, to reward his fortunate backers with the handsome winning dividend of $57.20. There were several surprises in the race and to my mind the Greatest was the confident support for Merry Jester who was a firm first favourite both for a win and on the place pari-mutuel. After once appearing beaten he made a sensational effort close. home and, running gamely under pressure, snatched second place from the tiring Mefistofele.
The Cire stable saw to it that there was no loitering, the pacemaker shooting out at the start. Roehampton lay at the back of the field in the early stages but moved up at Probsts and came along steadily, catching the leaders. Once in the straight, he looked like the winner, but he was a tired pony after the furlong post and it looked as though Clark was having a job keeping him straight as he appeared to want to bore.to the rails. As he and Mefistotele weakened, Mou Tan Hua forged ahead with a very 'I can't be beaten' air about him.
On his running in the Champions, 1 did not see how "The Frigate, barring accidents, could very well be beaten, end when Pote Hunt, who rode him this time, kept him well placed throughout, his backers began to congratulate themselves, but they were counting their chickens far too soon as once Pote Hunt called on him to go ahead and win he failed entirely to show any ability to produce his old rush and faded right out of the picture.
All that Needa has said about the pony was amply borne out. It will be remembered that after the Champions, he said—in effect—the only Ones qualified to express an opinion about The Frigate were those who had actually ridden him in a race.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.