 | RACING HISTORY |
YEAR: 1930
FEATURE RACE COMMENT
1930 NEW ZEALAND FREE-FOR-ALL
Although the Free-for-All resulted 1i an inspiring race, easily the best of the meeting, there was one feature that was disappointing. There were eleven starters, and only nine could line across the track at the mile and a-quarter starting point, so the two to draw the outside positions - Logan Park and Tom Thumb — had to line up behind the others. The result was that Logan Park, after jumping out had to be checked, a thing he will not stand, so he went to a tangle and took no part in the race.
With Logan Park under a handicap, the legitimate choice was Wrackler, in view of his Cup form, but the race suggests that Wrackler is a great horse only on account of his stamina. Some are now making excuses for Wrackler, and some even go to the extent of saying that F. G. Holmes did not handle him as well as would younger brother Maurice. The latter statement is grossly unfair, for the simple facts are that Wrackler was not brilliant enough to take the position that F. G. Holmes would have liked, yet he kept him on the fence most of the way, and did just as much with him as any other driver could have done.
Through being in this position, which his lack of brilliancy forced him to assume, he did receive a slight check on the home bend, yet he was almost in line with the leaders half way down the straight, from which point both King Pointer and Carmel outsprinted him home. King Pointer's win was certainly full of merit, for he was not under the same desperate drive at the finish as was Wrackler and Carmel, and the only excuse that can be made for Wrackler is that perhaps he may not have been tuned up for a sprint. On the day he was fairly beaten. Although "iffy" at the peg, there are few more determined pacers than King Pointer.
Credit: NZ Truth 20 Nov 1930