Juliette's weekly frolic
I've never gone in for marriage myself, but just now there's a lot to be said for having Maurice Zilber as a husband. He, in case you were asleep, drunk or generally disinterested around 3.10 last Saturday afternoon, is the cosmopolitan gentleman who trained Dahlia to win the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes. My interest, however, centres on a brooch, an exquisite mixture of white and openwork gold, laced with dikmonds. that the sponsoring De Beers gave him as a reward. Sideboards get the trophies, but since wives can claim the jewels, husbands evidently have their uses. Caroline Blackwell, of course, won a ring in her own right, by driving her father's Hurdy Gurdy to victory in the Cullinan Diamond Ladies Race, but though I was both amused and flattered to be mistaken for that competent lady rider, Brook Sanders, at one of the sponsor's drink parties, I fear it would need a mine full of diamonds to get me galloping round Ascot racecourse. Gems apart, neither Ascot nor De Beers could be faulted last weekend for the -sheer quality of both horses and hsopitality, though considering all the ballyhoo over Britain's firstever £100,000 race, it was ironic to find Weatherbys had left a vital nought off that figure on their racecard.
It's Goodwood and just supposing I were to mark the occasion by playing truant from Gower Street, there would be . no difficulty about choos ing the day to do it. Wednesday's Sussex Stakes promise a more thrilling spectacle than any mile .event this year with the meeting of the two three-year-olds, Thatch and Jacinth. This clash is all the more fascinating in that there are few' means of tying up the form, the only connection being that both were expensive failures In their respective Guineas races and both have scored twice since. For once Jacinth may not start favourite, but with the girls in such allconquering form, there seems every reason to suppose that this race will fall to the fair sex as well.
Not all Goodwood hosts are anxious to hurry lunch for the sake of the sport so I was delighted to see that this year, the Sussex and King George V Stakes no longer open proceedings, but have been moved to fourth and fifth position on the card. Stilvi and Deep Diver's domination of the big sprint last year, has succeeded in frightening off all the four-year-olds except Workboy, and young Sandford Lad is most people's idea of the meeting's banker bet. However I'll side with the old man of the party who went down in a finish of heads at Ascot and is at his best over five furlongs.
Jimsun should find K. II a comfortable enough weight for Saturday's '13TS Laurels', but in his absence try Offenbach, an easy winner of one of the better-class Rollups.
Assets: £87.2fi, Outlay: £3 to win Jacinth, Workboy. Jimsun (alt. Offenbach).
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