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Australia Syntax N. Zealand Horse of the Year By BOB THOMSON y Our Melbourne Correspondent MELBOURNE, Australia. — New Zealands racing season, fast drawing to a close, has produced such sensational gallopers as Sonnetary, Somerset Fair, Kings Fair, and Horse of the Year Syntax. The unprecedented success of Dominion race r.s in Australia may begin to wane by next spring. Of all the class horses in Australia only Pride of Egypt, Prince Cortauld and Somerset Fair will be missing from the Victorian scene. The champion New Zealand three - year - old Syntax was injured while running in the AvR.C. Easter Handicap and finished only ninth. Stan Walkers ace sophomore was galloped on but made a quick recovery and outclassed his rivals in the G. N. St. Leger. Later on Syntax trounced Ray Ribbon and Redcraze in the ,125 Awapuni Gold Cup, an ill-aged WFA contest over eleven furlongs." The striking ease with which Syntax has won the St. Leger and Awapuni Cup left no doubt that he is New Zealands mightiest galloper. According to his owner the colts spring mission is the 1956 Melbourne Cup. Stan Walkers colt has won 13 races from 18 starts this season. All overtures to buy him up to 2,500 have been refused. After Syntax glorious Great Northern Derby triumph at Ellerslic early this year English trainer Jack Jarvis said the chestnut Count Rendered colt was. almost the equal of Britains top three-year-olds. What impressed Jarvis was the colts brilliance at a mile or beyond. He was amazed that a Derby winner could beat New Zealands fastest horse, Fair Chance, at weights-for-age over a mile so capably as Syntax did in 1:35?-;. Fair Chance, ace Dominion sprinter, -will do his future racing- in Australia. Handicappers have virtually weighted the son of Fairs Fair out of the countrys . major short-distance races. In Aucklands sprint of the year — the ,500 Railway Handicap 6f. — Fair Chance carried 140 pounds. He started from the extreme outside in a 24-horse field and never got on the course. Fair Chance won the 2,750 Easter Handicap at - EUerslie last year and stepped the mile in 1:35%, only a fraction outside the race record set by "wonder horse" Kindergarten at his second success in 1942. By. Somerset Fairs sire Fair Chance is a stylish five-year-old chestnut gelding from the Irish Lancer Allenby mare Irish Chance. He is owned by G. Tucker, a Matamata farmer and the rich Cantala Stakes at Flemingtoii will be his chief objective next spring. Yahabeebee, one of New Zealands fast-, est juveniles has beaten the best colts decisively on several occasions and ran right away from Bali Hai in the G. N. Champagne Stakes with Barobar third. At the Auckland Easter carnival Yahabeebee made the best colts and geldings look veritable novices. Passive, another high class filly, trounced the colts in the Manawatu Sires Produce Stakes, a race that often provides Derby class. -Yahabeebee has now won three of her seven races and placed second four times. This speedy filly cost 75 and has garnered 2,500 for her part-owner Lou Fisher whose brother Woolf j Fisher owns the French-bred sire Gabador. j Experts describe her as one of the fastest j fillies ever to grace the Dominion turf. Bred by Sir James and J. C. Fletcher Ya-j habeebee is a well-grown brown filly by the [English Derby winner Mid-day Sun from j Grilse by the Blandford horse Solocitor i General from the imported mare First Cast i by Salmon-Trout from Joyous, a half-I sister to Mumtaz Mahal. Latest New Zealand stayer to aspire to Cup honors is Sonnetary whose autumn failures are not a true reflex of his ability and the newcomer will add zest to spring racing. He was stripped during the running of the Sydney Cup and had to receive treatment for several days. Before leaving, the Dominion Sonnetary won his fourth important handicap this season when he triumphed over Big Blow in the Herries Memorial lm3f at Te Aroha in time which equaled the course record of 2:16!. Merry Legs, first slayer sired by Fairs Fair, finished third. Sonnetary graduated from hack company at the Te Aroha track last year to beat x field of good routers in the President! Continued on Page Forty-Six i| — Australian Report By BOB THOMSON Continued from Page Eight Handicap. As a four-year-old he won the Presidents Handicap at Rotorua and the Tyler Memorial at Te Rapa and dead-heated with Ah Over in the Tally Ho Handicap at Rotorua. Sonnetary was bred by R. R. Bennett at Wanganui and sold for 75 to H and C McCarvill. His sire, Felous, was imported from England by R. R. Bennett in 1944 and later sent to Australia. Felous is by the St. Leger and Ascot Gold Cup winner Solario from Coin of the Realm by Phalaris from the One Thousand Guineas winner Plack by Hurry On from Groat by Junior. Dam of Sonnetary, Golden Sonnet is by Broifort Blandford from Elegy by the Son-in-Law horse Posterity. Elegy ran second to Brunhild in the N. Z. Oaks. Prominent New Zealand breeder Woolf Fisher has refused several U.S. offers for the Gabador three-year-old El Khobar who went amiss last spring and will return to Australia for the rich Queensland sprint races. Gay Sierras part owner, Simon Voet, and Sydney veterinarian Viv Stewart paid a flying visit to the Dominio after the Easter carnival at Randwick and made determined negotiations to buy the colt. After a brief stay and watching El Khobar gallop. Fisher, who selected the Pharis horse Gabador while inspecting a parade of M. Marcel Boussacs horses in 1949, decided not to part with New Zealands swiftest juvenile of last season. At Ellerslie recently, El Khobar turned in the most amazing race in the history of the north islands time-honored event. Carrying workaday shoes the colt glided over half a mile in AGYz, fast enough gallop to win any sprint race in the world. Australians can look forward to some ultra-brilliant performances from this unbeaten colt. Queensland races for sprinters are the QTC 0,000 Stradbroke Handicap f . and the BATC Doomben Ten Thousand seven furlongs less 93 yards. Clashes between New Zealands glamor colt Syntax and Coleridge have been a feature of Dominion racing this year. Owner-trainer-J. L. McDonald sold Coleridge who will race in America. He won the Wellington Stakes at Trentham on January 14 from the juvenile Mediterranean arid Genre. Coleridge is a brown colt by Khoras-san Big Game from the good sprinter Namakia by the Gay Crusader horse Bay Shield. I
