Juliette's Weekly Frolic

Sponsoring horse races is a highly chancey business: the stakes are high and there's no

cast iron recipe for success. Take last Satur

day, when Newbury in summertime appeared the ideal hunting ground for some soft sell

advertising on the part of Morlands Brewery. The quantity and quality of the field were well up to standard and Realistic and Ronco could not have made a closer race of it, however, the Berkshire course was not its customary wellfilled self. Wimbledon, Henley and the two rich

Northern meetings lopped hundreds off the at

tendance figures and without the consolation of television coverage, I doubt there was much

cause for celebration back at the brewery. The race itself played to virtually empty stands, for those who did turn up, made for

the bars, preferring an Irish Derby on the television to a three-year-old handicap in the fie3h. I was a great deal more satisfied than

most to see the English raiders waltz off with the Curragh classic (though, admittedly in the wrong order) and, like all the best fillies, perhaps I am finding my form now the sun's come out?

But to return to the ticklish question of sponsorship, few have been more generous to both flat and national hunt racing than Benson

and Hedges. Last year they announced a £20,000 boost to the Eclipse Stakes and ap peared all set for a handsome publicity pay off when the connections of Brigadier Gerard and Mill Reef selected the race for their long

awaited meeting. Now they are yet one more party to sympathise with in this sad tale of the match that never was.

The bookies will presumably be taking a quick siesta while the Brigadier canters to

the post, but forty minutes earlier they should

be doing some brisk business on another cigarette sponsored race, the Benson and Hedges Anniversary Handicap. Bill Marshall'S Polacca carried 9st 111b when notching up his fifth successive victory here last month, but the presence of the classy weight-carriers Cal shot Light and Comedy Star, brings his burden down to more manageable proportions and the grey five-year-old should have the edge

over Miracle, who ran well for a long waY in the Hunt Cup. Sixteen months ago Persian

Majesty won a division of Cheltenham's Gloucestershire Hurdle and appeared all set for the top honours in that field. However, things did not go too well for him National

Hunt-wise in the season just ended and reverting to the flat last Saturday, he carried 9st

51b for a first time out victory. The second, Dutch Bells, meets him 51b worse off and if saddled again, the Ryan Price horse should deal with course winner, B Major. Assets: £112.50. Outlay £3 to win Polacca and Persian Majesty (alt. B Major).