RaceCafe..#1...Tipsters Thread.... Share Your Fancies For Fun...Lets See Who The Best Tipsters Here Are.
crustyngrizzly

ORANMORE remembered

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Oranmore more synonymous with Waihi Beach , be interesting to see how many times it won at Paeroa ..if at all ?  Joystep or Black Seaman Crescent arguably more fitting :rcf-thinking-1: Great horse all the same , and the recovery after losing its mane and tail hair ( poisoned?) in a failed Australian campaign to win the Lion Brown sprint fantastic 

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he Sprinters. Speed To Burn by John Costello from DB Racing Annual 1975-76.

Think of crack sprinters and you usually think of Ellerslie's Railway Handicap or Trentham's Telegraph. Flying fast track speedsters, streaking over 1200m in less than 1:10, breaking 1:23 for 1400m.

Certainly two of the 1975-76 season's outstanding sprint performances fell into this category - Blue Blood's phenomenal 1:07.5 in the 1200m Telegraph Handicap and Mop's 1:22.1 in the 1400m Thibenzole Sprint at Te Rapa.

Yet to me, the most remarkable sprint race of the season was a 1200m event run at Avondale for the modest stake of $4000 and a time of 1:17.5, just ten seconds slower the Blue Blood recorded in the Telegraph. That race was the rather inappropriately named Long Handicap at the Avondale July meeting and the two fine sprinters who lifted from mediocrity to high drama were Oranmore and Shifnal Chief. 

Oranmore, a nuggety little speedster who loved to go to the front and run his rivals into the ground; Shifnal Chief, one of our very best sprinter-milers of the last decade, inclined to get back in 1200m scurries but able to turn on a blistering last 200m. Both of them at this stage were well up in the weights. And both, though ridden by apprentices to get some weight relief, were still conceding big weight advantages to their rivals.

The word "blistering" would be relative this July day. The track was too heavy to allow fast times. Under such conditions, a horse which can gallop through the deep footing at 13 to the furlong is going fast - and one which can run the last 200m in 12 is finishing brilliantly. 

Shifnal Chief's class, on top of the ground or in the heaviest going, had been well established before the 1975-76 season opened. He boasted a string of wins in the wet, a Railway Handicap under top weight and from an outside draw on a fast track. Oranmore had been a speedy two-year old in the 1974-75 season, his four wins including the ARC Welcome Stakes and the 75th Avondale Stakes. In the latter race he beat the highly regarded filly named Tudor Light. 

A three-year old Oranmore didn't waste much time showing that he could pit his speed and determination against the older sprinters and hold his own. By the time the Avondale winter meeting came around he had notched six metropolitan sprint wins, three at Avondale and the rest at Ellerslie. And he had shown, too that despite his lack of size he could carry weight. At the Auckland winter meeting he'd recorded two sprint sprint placings with Tony Williams riding him at his full book weight of 61.5 kg and 62kg.

In the President's Handicap on the opening day of the Avondale winter meeting Oranmore was weighted at 61.5kg. Owner-trainer Jim Doran put apprentice Ken Mathews up to get 2.5kgs off his back. Back even with 59 the chunky little speedster's task looked difficult. For among his rivals was that great sprinter Shifnal Chief, right back to peak form.

"The Chief" had resumed from a summer spell at Te Rapa in May and finished third behind Good Gift and Regal Tan under 62kg. Taupiri owner-trainers Ian and Jim Cameron realised that in his coming winter campaign their star would need to take advantage of apprentice allowances where he could, So, although the maximum top weight of 59kg at Rotorua on May 29 was already inviting enough, the Cameron's engaged Takanini apprentice Ray Mathers to take the mount. With his weight reduced to 56kg by the allowance Shifnal Chief looked a shot's eye, and he was. Mathers, having his first ride on "The Chief" and conscious that he could get more rides on the classy black if he acquitted himself well, had him well positioned all the way.

With Shifnal Chief, that's all you had to do. He did the rest, outfinishing his opposition comfortably. The Cameron's were happy with young mathers' showing and he had the mount again when Shifnal Chief lined up next, on the final day of the Auckland winter meeting. No maximum top weight here and in the the 1400m Visitors' Handicap. Shifnal Chief was handicapped at 63.5kg and even with Mathers aboard he still had to lump 60.5kg, the equivalent of 9.7 under the old scale.

From soon after the home turn it was a two horse race, Shifnal Chief and Cornelius, himself a grand wet-weather sprinter with 4.5kg lass than the topweight and the services of wily veteran Grenville Hughes opposed to the youthful and inexperienced Mathers.

But young Mathers did his part and Shifnal Chief, like the high-class horse he is, did his part and more. Nether horse giving an inch, both shifting ground a bit under the tremendous pressure, they slogged it out to the line. And Shifnal Chief was just too good, getting there by half a head. It was a measure of their superiority that the third horse, Regal Tan was seven lengths away.

An even more crushing display of superiority was still to come.

But first Shifnal Chief had to clash with Oranmore on the first day of the Avondale winter meeting.

This time "the Chief" had 65.5kg reduced by Mather's allowance to 62.5kg. He had to concede 3.5kg to the front running Oranmore and it seemed likely that he would have to concede him a fair start as well from the top of the straight. Though it is a big, roomy track with a long straight, Avondale seems to favour front runners. Whether or not the first part of the run home is slightly downhill, the leader on the turn often seems able to shoot to a handy break in the first 100m of the run home, and very often it is a winning break.

Oranmore, who hugs the rail like a mechanical hare, is well suited to such tactics and, having won already four races on the track, had proved himself well suited to Avondale. He sped straight to the front in the President's Handicap. Sabre Prince, who had looked on the way back to form and was himself something of an Avondale specialist, tried to keep the pressure on him making the top bend. But once they straightened Oranmore shrugged him off and shot to a commanding lead in no time. Meanwhile Shifnal Chief had got snookered on the rails well back in the field. By the time he got clear he was giving Oranmore an impossible start and he did well to grab second in the last 40 odd metres.

So the stage was set for another clash between Oranmore and Shifnal Chief in the Long Handicap on the second day. Both had risen further in the weights. Shifnal Chief was handicapped at 66kg and would carry 63kg with Mather's allowance; Oranmore handicapped at 64kg would drop to 61.5kg with Mathew's allowance.

At that level in the weights it hardly seemed a match race. Though the others were not in the same class they were receiving such big weight advantages, even with the weight allowances, that it seemed one might come up with a run good enough to overturn the topweights.

Just the same, a match race it was.  

The Cameron's, philosophical though they were about their first day defeat, had one instruction for Ray Mather; to have Shifnal Chief handier than he had been on the first day. For the rider of a horse like Oranmore there was no need for instructions, unless it was the classical old simplification: Go to the front and stay there.

So away went the field and away to the front, with that remarkable early acceleration of his, streaked Oranmore. Sabre Prince had even less chance of footing it with him this time; Shifnal Chief, as per instructions, was keeping handier in about third place but he was well astern of the flying pacemaker. And when Oranmore turned the corner and set sail for the judge, he widened his gap in dramatic fashion. From being two or three lengths clear of his nearest rival he was seven or eight lengths out in what seemed the space of barely fifty metres. The task of Shifnal Chief in closing that gap, though he was in the clear to challenge from the top of the straight, looked well nigh impossible. But horsemen don't use a very large vocabulary to their charges and evidently the Camerons had never taught Shifnal Chief the meaning of the word "impossible.'  

He set out to bridge the gap and, though Oranmore was still galloping freely in front, he gradually closed it stride by stride. Fifty metres out Shifnal Chief closed with Oranmore and it seemed he would storm past him. But then Oranmore showed his own brand of class. As "The Chief" came alongside he pulled out something extra and the two grand sprinters flashed across the line locked together. It was anybody's guess who had won.

I've become a rather better judge of the Avondale angle since the days when the camera gave the December Plate there to Gay Sovereign after I'd thought she finished a close third. I though Shifnal Chief had just got up and the camera confirmed it - Shifnal Chief by a nose.

If Oranmore had won the honours it would have been just as richly deserved and I've heard few horses get a warmer reception than those two when they returned to scale. The final measure of the quality of their performances, of their superiority over the rest came with the official margins - a nose between Shifnal Chief and Oranmore, an incredible eighteen lengths to the third horse Battle Fury.

Just a run of the mill sprint at Avondale, only a modest $4000 at stake. But what a memorable thriller that race was!

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2 hours ago, crustyngrizzly said:

The first house and land packages of the old Paeroa Racecourse have hit the market.

 

It has been dubbed ORANMORE Crescent.Only the carpark was zoned residential so these lots consist of the carpark land.

No rezoning has been applied as yet for the remainder of the course.

Have NZTR got their finger in the pie to recoup what they have spent there in the past ??

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3 hours ago, rdytdy said:

he Sprinters. Speed To Burn by John Costello from DB Racing Annual 1975-76.

Think of crack sprinters and you usually think of Ellerslie's Railway Handicap or Trentham's Telegraph. Flying fast track speedsters, streaking over 1200m in less than 1:10, breaking 1:23 for 1400m.

Certainly two of the 1975-76 season's outstanding sprint performances fell into this category - Blue Blood's phenomenal 1:07.5 in the 1200m Telegraph Handicap and Mop's 1:22.1 in the 1400m Thibenzole Sprint at Te Rapa.

Yet to me, the most remarkable sprint race of the season was a 1200m event run at Avondale for the modest stake of $4000 and a time of 1:17.5, just ten seconds slower the Blue Blood recorded in the Telegraph. That race was the rather inappropriately named Long Handicap at the Avondale July meeting and the two fine sprinters who lifted from mediocrity to high drama were Oranmore and Shifnal Chief. 

Oranmore, a nuggety little speedster who loved to go to the front and run his rivals into the ground; Shifnal Chief, one of our very best sprinter-milers of the last decade, inclined to get back in 1200m scurries but able to turn on a blistering last 200m. Both of them at this stage were well up in the weights. And both, though ridden by apprentices to get some weight relief, were still conceding big weight advantages to their rivals.

The word "blistering" would be relative this July day. The track was too heavy to allow fast times. Under such conditions, a horse which can gallop through the deep footing at 13 to the furlong is going fast - and one which can run the last 200m in 12 is finishing brilliantly. 

Shifnal Chief's class, on top of the ground or in the heaviest going, had been well established before the 1975-76 season opened. He boasted a string of wins in the wet, a Railway Handicap under top weight and from an outside draw on a fast track. Oranmore had been a speedy two-year old in the 1974-75 season, his four wins including the ARC Welcome Stakes and the 75th Avondale Stakes. In the latter race he beat the highly regarded filly named Tudor Light. 

A three-year old Oranmore didn't waste much time showing that he could pit his speed and determination against the older sprinters and hold his own. By the time the Avondale winter meeting came around he had notched six metropolitan sprint wins, three at Avondale and the rest at Ellerslie. And he had shown, too that despite his lack of size he could carry weight. At the Auckland winter meeting he'd recorded two sprint sprint placings with Tony Williams riding him at his full book weight of 61.5 kg and 62kg.

In the President's Handicap on the opening day of the Avondale winter meeting Oranmore was weighted at 61.5kg. Owner-trainer Jim Doran put apprentice Ken Mathews up to get 2.5kgs off his back. Back even with 59 the chunky little speedster's task looked difficult. For among his rivals was that great sprinter Shifnal Chief, right back to peak form.

"The Chief" had resumed from a summer spell at Te Rapa in May and finished third behind Good Gift and Regal Tan under 62kg. Taupiri owner-trainers Ian and Jim Cameron realised that in his coming winter campaign their star would need to take advantage of apprentice allowances where he could, So, although the maximum top weight of 59kg at Rotorua on May 29 was already inviting enough, the Cameron's engaged Takanini apprentice Ray Mathers to take the mount. With his weight reduced to 56kg by the allowance Shifnal Chief looked a shot's eye, and he was. Mathers, having his first ride on "The Chief" and conscious that he could get more rides on the classy black if he acquitted himself well, had him well positioned all the way.

With Shifnal Chief, that's all you had to do. He did the rest, outfinishing his opposition comfortably. The Cameron's were happy with young mathers' showing and he had the mount again when Shifnal Chief lined up next, on the final day of the Auckland winter meeting. No maximum top weight here and in the the 1400m Visitors' Handicap. Shifnal Chief was handicapped at 63.5kg and even with Mathers aboard he still had to lump 60.5kg, the equivalent of 9.7 under the old scale.

From soon after the home turn it was a two horse race, Shifnal Chief and Cornelius, himself a grand wet-weather sprinter with 4.5kg lass than the topweight and the services of wily veteran Grenville Hughes opposed to the youthful and inexperienced Mathers.

But young Mathers did his part and Shifnal Chief, like the high-class horse he is, did his part and more. Nether horse giving an inch, both shifting ground a bit under the tremendous pressure, they slogged it out to the line. And Shifnal Chief was just too good, getting there by half a head. It was a measure of their superiority that the third horse, Regal Tan was seven lengths away.

An even more crushing display of superiority was still to come.

But first Shifnal Chief had to clash with Oranmore on the first day of the Avondale winter meeting.

This time "the Chief" had 65.5kg reduced by Mather's allowance to 62.5kg. He had to concede 3.5kg to the front running Oranmore and it seemed likely that he would have to concede him a fair start as well from the top of the straight. Though it is a big, roomy track with a long straight, Avondale seems to favour front runners. Whether or not the first part of the run home is slightly downhill, the leader on the turn often seems able to shoot to a handy break in the first 100m of the run home, and very often it is a winning break.

Oranmore, who hugs the rail like a mechanical hare, is well suited to such tactics and, having won already four races on the track, had proved himself well suited to Avondale. He sped straight to the front in the President's Handicap. Sabre Prince, who had looked on the way back to form and was himself something of an Avondale specialist, tried to keep the pressure on him making the top bend. But once they straightened Oranmore shrugged him off and shot to a commanding lead in no time. Meanwhile Shifnal Chief had got snookered on the rails well back in the field. By the time he got clear he was giving Oranmore an impossible start and he did well to grab second in the last 40 odd metres.

So the stage was set for another clash between Oranmore and Shifnal Chief in the Long Handicap on the second day. Both had risen further in the weights. Shifnal Chief was handicapped at 66kg and would carry 63kg with Mather's allowance; Oranmore handicapped at 64kg would drop to 61.5kg with Mathew's allowance.

At that level in the weights it hardly seemed a match race. Though the others were not in the same class they were receiving such big weight advantages, even with the weight allowances, that it seemed one might come up with a run good enough to overturn the topweights.

Just the same, a match race it was.  

The Cameron's, philosophical though they were about their first day defeat, had one instruction for Ray Mather; to have Shifnal Chief handier than he had been on the first day. For the rider of a horse like Oranmore there was no need for instructions, unless it was the classical old simplification: Go to the front and stay there.

So away went the field and away to the front, with that remarkable early acceleration of his, streaked Oranmore. Sabre Prince had even less chance of footing it with him this time; Shifnal Chief, as per instructions, was keeping handier in about third place but he was well astern of the flying pacemaker. And when Oranmore turned the corner and set sail for the judge, he widened his gap in dramatic fashion. From being two or three lengths clear of his nearest rival he was seven or eight lengths out in what seemed the space of barely fifty metres. The task of Shifnal Chief in closing that gap, though he was in the clear to challenge from the top of the straight, looked well nigh impossible. But horsemen don't use a very large vocabulary to their charges and evidently the Camerons had never taught Shifnal Chief the meaning of the word "impossible.'  

He set out to bridge the gap and, though Oranmore was still galloping freely in front, he gradually closed it stride by stride. Fifty metres out Shifnal Chief closed with Oranmore and it seemed he would storm past him. But then Oranmore showed his own brand of class. As "The Chief" came alongside he pulled out something extra and the two grand sprinters flashed across the line locked together. It was anybody's guess who had won.

I've become a rather better judge of the Avondale angle since the days when the camera gave the December Plate there to Gay Sovereign after I'd thought she finished a close third. I though Shifnal Chief had just got up and the camera confirmed it - Shifnal Chief by a nose.

If Oranmore had won the honours it would have been just as richly deserved and I've heard few horses get a warmer reception than those two when they returned to scale. The final measure of the quality of their performances, of their superiority over the rest came with the official margins - a nose between Shifnal Chief and Oranmore, an incredible eighteen lengths to the third horse Battle Fury.

Just a run of the mill sprint at Avondale, only a modest $4000 at stake. But what a memorable thriller that race was!

Quite sad what has become of Avondale really.

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7 minutes ago, We're Doomed said:

In the 80s under John Wild it would probably have been considered the most innovative club in the country. It all went so wrong.

Never been Avondale , looking a pictures it looks shabby , looking at website it's pretty up to date and modern looking site  . Look like they have some ambition , or at least make it sound like they have . To compare so I've got an idea . Iam not a harness man but found myself in Dunedin once for rugby . Went to Forbury.  We left after two races , the most godforsaken awful racecourse I've ever been bar none , how does Avondale compare to that . If it's worse iam going just to see it in real life . Forbury shit hole number 1 , only mine and about 10 other lads opinion of place that night so might be mistaken .

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The Avondale Cup was one of the great races in earlier years, probably the greatest midweek race day in NZ. Mr Aye Bee the only SI winner I can recall, although I do recall Ray Harris taking out the double one day with Brutus and Scotch Mist, although possibly not the Cup. Certainly one of my favourite races on the calendar: Trocane, Solveig, Alice, Happy Union, Maurine. Great horses won it in those days. Was it Noel Eales horse Commissionare who tried a few times with big weights but couldn't win one?

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4 minutes ago, We're Doomed said:

The Avondale Cup was one of the great races in earlier years, probably the greatest midweek race day in NZ. Mr Aye Bee the only SI winner I can recall, although I do recall Ray Harris taking out the double one day with Brutus and Scotch Mist, although possibly not the Cup. Certainly one of my favourite races on the calendar: Trocane, Solveig, Alice, Happy Union, Maurine. Great horses won it in those days. Was it Noel Eales horse Commissionare who tried a few times with big weights but couldn't win one?

The place looks like in better times it could be a real winner . Shame racing under lights never took off . There is something special about gallops under lights in the city imho .

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2 hours ago, Red Rum said:

The place looks like in better times it could be a real winner . Shame racing under lights never took off . There is something special about gallops under lights in the city imho .

That's when it all started going wrong! :( They should have left the lights off!

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12 hours ago, Baz (NZ) said:

That's when it all started going wrong! :( They should have left the lights off!

A winter's night, racing under lights, wind whipping into the exposed grandstand from the west - you'd only go there once (although, I went there a few more times than that)

It's a hole now and needs dozing (good racing surface notwithstanding).

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11 minutes ago, gubellini said:

We’re Doomed Mr Ay Bee was originally trained in the South Island but when he won the 1979 Avondale Cup he was trained by Ray Verner at Takanini. Nigel Tiley rode him.

Thank you for that. I recall him winning the Great Autumn at Riccarton as well, in the days when that was a decent sort of race. I don't think Brutus won the Cup, perhaps he won the Governor General's Cup, and Scotch Mist possibly the Concorde.

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6 hours ago, We're Doomed said:

Thank you for that. I recall him winning the Great Autumn at Riccarton as well, in the days when that was a decent sort of race. I don't think Brutus won the Cup, perhaps he won the Governor General's Cup, and Scotch Mist possibly the Concorde.

Correct ...Brutus won the 1979 Governor Generals Cup beating Firpo & Wairere Girl from memory?

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23 hours ago, Baz (NZ) said:

That's when it all started going wrong! :( They should have left the lights off!

What they should have done was not use them in Winter.  No one  with a brain, which excludes myself obviously, wanted to be there in winter. One night there wouldn't have been more than 5 members there, pissing down with rain, fog and as cold as charity.  The president was buying this small rag tag bunch bourbons to keep us warm  Summer...... a different thing, good crowds, one committee member told me the summer night on course turn overs far exceeded when they raced in the daytime.  If they had stuck to say 5 months of the year it could have been very different

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26 minutes ago, Mr Spyro said:

What they should have done was not use them in Winter.  No one  with a brain, which excludes myself obviously, wanted to be there in winter. One night there wouldn't have been more than 5 members there, pissing down with rain, fog and as cold as charity.  The president was buying this small rag tag bunch bourbons to keep us warm  Summer...... a different thing, good crowds, one committee member told me the summer night on course turn overs far exceeded when they raced in the daytime.  If they had stuck to say 5 months of the year it could have been very different

I was there for 3 or 4 night meetings, including the first one. It was certainly a spectacular night out.

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On 2/4/2020 at 10:44 AM, Catalano said:

A winter's night, racing under lights, wind whipping into the exposed grandstand from the west - you'd only go there once (although, I went there a few more times than that)

It's a hole now and needs dozing (good racing surface notwithstanding).

Its always been a hole Cat, i dont go there for the architecture im there for the Racing, :rcfe-like:good vibe around the back parade ring and a decent surface even with rain, which as you know seems to arrive most meetings there outside the summer months. Wrong place for night racing even allowing for that cold west southwester, after dark in that hood not ideal and the vandalism there tells the tale, had a live last leg  ticket in the first night $200,000 jackpot  and Grylls bombed the start by 5 len and ran second to Stellar gold over 2200 as the fog rolled in . :rcf-sad-1:

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