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ALEC PURDON

The retirement of former leading trainer Alec Purdon passed just the way he wanted it...quietly.

An unassuming gentleman, Alec had slipped from the limelight in recent years after losing the services of brilliant pacer, Master Dean.

Never one to hog the headlines anyway, Alec went about the task of getting smart trotter Game Way back in racing trim. The stallion had been put aside with leg problems soon after dead-heating for third with No Response in the Dominion Handicap in November.

Leading trainer in the 1953-54 season with 29 wins, Alec trained a succession of smart pacers and trotters, beginning in the early 1950s with Imperial Trust, Onward, Poranui and Prince Charming. Later he handled good sorts Zany(1957 NZ Oaks), Annual Report(1959 Dominion Handicap), Gay Robin, Smokey Express, Our Tim(1959 New Brighton Cup), Cloudage(1964 Rangiora Cup), Superfortress, Cherry Queen(1955 Reefton Cup) and True Friend(1955 Marlborough Cup).

Around the same time he produced Master Dean to win 17 races including the 1976 NZ Free-For-All and Pan Am Mile he also had speedy types Master Leon and Arden Bay. Master Dean, who won in 1:57.3, is one of the fastest pacers this country has produced.

Born in Glasgow in 1915, Alec came to NZ when only four and after trying his luck as an apprentice jockey, turned to trotting, working for Gladdy McKendry, Vic Alborn and Colin Berkett before going it alone. Alec has the distinction of winning his last drive - Bonaparte in a maiden trot at Addington in July, 1980.

Dave Cannan: DB Trotting Annual 1981

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One of Canterbury's more proficient horsemen, seen at his peak in the 1950s, Alexander (Alec) Purdon died in Christchurch recently following a short illness. He was 70.

After experience with noted conditioners Bill Tomkinson, Gladdy McKendry and Vic Alborn, Purdon enjoyed a successful association with the late Colin Berkett, which in no small way contributed to Berkett heading the national list of winning trainers in 1947/48 and 1948/49.

Purdon set up as a professional trainer in the early 1950s on a property purchased by long-time Trotting Conference executive member, the late Bill Desmond. He eventually took the property over himself, and in 1953/54 he topped the trainer's list. Alec's important training and/or driving wins included the 1957 NZ Oaks and Ashburton Cup with Zany, the 1959 Dominion Handicap with Annual Report, New Brighton Cup with Our Tim and NZ Free-For-All and Pan Am Miracle Mile with Mister Dean. Other good winners Purdon trained included Smokey Express, Superfortress, Thurber Command, Cloudage, Onward, Double Cross, Grand Charge, Poranui and Game Way.

Alec is suvived by two daughters, Elaine and Janice.


Credit: HRWeekly 19Mar87

BRUCE WOODS

A gap will be created at the top NZ harness racing administrative level that will be extremely hard to fill when Bruce Woods of Prebbleton follows his plans to move with his wife Colleen to live in Queensland. Due to depart in April, Bruce is relinquishing his posts as Treasurer of the NZ Trotting Conference, director of Addington Raceway and committeeman of the New Brighton Club, not to mention various positions on harness racing-affiliated organisations. He first joined the Conference executive six-years-ago; he is a past-chairman of Addington Raceway; he is a past-president of New Brighton and has been chairman of its programme committee for some 15 years.

"I haven't got a horse left, I have sold the lot," said Bruce. "I've had this move in mind for years. There's not a lot more I can do here - I've been involved with the sport every which way, and I want now to try a change of pace. I don't intend to drop my trotting interests, and, possibly, I'll become embroiled in it all over there - not that I'm going out of my way to do this. But I've a feeling that is what could well happen."

On the practical side, Woods was licensed as a stablehand in 1943 before getting his amateur trainer's licence, while he has contributed greatly to the installation and improvement of various harness racing tracks.

Born next to the Addington course, Woods grew up with the sport. He remembers crawling through a hole in the fence as a 9-year-old to see Pot Luck and Maurice Holmes win the first Inter-Dominion Final at Addington in 1938. Soon after, Bruce lived at Templeton with Dick Humphreys - "a great horseman" - who let him take his first horse into the birdcage. That was Cantata, who finished second to Lucky Jack in the 1939 NZ Cup. Cantata's stablemate Blair Athol finished third.

Woods learned the rudiments of educating, training and driving not only from Humphreys but also a string of fine horsemen associated with Humphreys, including Jack Pringle, Howie Smith, Wes Butt, Doug Watts, Alan Fields, Jack McLennan, Gordon Collinson and Snow Upton. In 1943, Bruce began working full time for Methvem breeder-trainer Andy Wilson. "My first job there was taking Loyal Friend, who was owned and trained by Andy, up for the 1943 Auckland Cup. He won, with Bill Doyle at the helm. Andy had a top trotter in Royal Worthy. He used to be driven by Free Holmes or 'F G' Holmes, who seemed to get on with him best. A lot of times he never went away. He had 30-odd starts and won 15. He remains one of the best trotters I've seen and I'm sure he would measure up to today's best. Realm Again, a Jack Potts horse, was another fine performer of Andy's."

After four years at Methven, Woods returned to Halswell, just down the road from Addington, to work for Howie Smith, who was to the fore at the time with good pacer Navigate among others. On marrying, Bruce embarked on a more dependable vocation, general contracting in the earth-moving line, gleaning considerable expertise that would serve him in assisting with developing racetracks later on. "But I retained an interest in the horses. Over all the years until the present, I have been very closely associated with Felix Newfield. We went to school and worked a milkround together. He has trained and driven horses over many years for me.The best of these would be the trotter Power Cut, which I trained and either Felix or Fraser Kirk drove. The best horse I actually ever had was Lunar Chance, who I trained on lease from Keith Lawlor after he had won the 1975 NZ Cup. For me he was second in the New Brighton Cup (clocking 4:06.6) before going to the States."

Bruce in his youth at one point worked a stint with Jack Fraser, who often drove champion Indianapolis for Bill Tomkinson and subsequently trained gallopers. He was associated briefly with the top flat performers Bruce and Finalist, and the very good jumper The Vulture.

Another part of the Woods story is the chapter over the past eight or nine years in which he has built horse floats. He boasts that he has been responsible for something like 190 of these that are on the roads. In hotels for a few years (Avonhead Tavern, Esplanade, Black Horse, Blenheim Road Motor Inn), Bruce has led a more settled existence over the last 15 years at Prebbleton, where he has "bred and raced the odd horse or two". The best horse Bruce has seen? "Highland Fling"

For some 15 years, Woods has contributed his knowledge significantly to the development and improvement of tracks around NZ. He served as consultant to the Racing Authority in the establishment of the Ruakaka, Greymouth, Rangiora and Timaru tracks, and has also assisted in several other areas where advice was required, more notably at Manawatu.

In association with Addington course superintendent Charlie Anderson, he mastermined the reconstruction of the Addington racing strip around 1970. "We felt sure our work would make it a top track," said Bruce. "This has been proved. Vin Knight (Bag Limit, Alpine Fella), who is tops in his own right in Australia, told me Addington is two seconds faster than Moonee Valley - and that is saying something because Moonee Valley is pretty quick."

Credit: Ron Bisman writing in HRWeekly 26Mar87

ROY PURDON

No trainer in the history of horse training in NZ can match Roy Purdon's 14 premierships, and only Gore galloping trainer Rex Cochrane (1265) wins can boast a better tally than Purdon's 1146 wins to date.

Only one other standardbred trainer (the late Cecil Donald) has topped the 1000 mark. In a career spanning 51 years, Donald topped the national trainer's list nine times, hit the 1000 mark in 1972 and geared up a total of 1025 NZ winners, plus a good few in Australia. Cochrane became the first galloping trainer to reach four figures - in 1980. The late Bill Sanders of Te Awamutu, the late Eric Temperton of Awapuni and Matamata's Dave O'Sullivan were the only other galloping trainers to have topped the thousand mark. Gore's Eric Winsloe is another galloping trainer knocking on the door of the "1000 club".

Roy Purdon, now 60, began training in 1953, and between 1959 and 1963 gave it away while developing a farm property. To have done what he has in the space of 34 years with a four season lay-off is remarkable, even comsidering the fact that there are many more races to be won now than in the old days. No other trainer harness racing or galloping has tallied 100 wins in a season, whereas Roy and Barry notched 102 victories in the season just ended. What is more remarkable is Roy's streak of 13 premiership wins in the last 13 years. He first topped the list in 1970-71, then four seasons later shared the title with Charlie Hunter, each with a record 67 wins. Since then, Roy has been unchallenged at the top, the last 10 years in partnership with his son Barry.

Roy's 1000th winner came on September 21, 1985, in the form of the Max Harvey-owned filly Kiwi River. It has been claimed that he reached the milestone 10 wins earlier, but that was in the misunderstanding that he had trained 10 winners in 1960/61, when in fact that was his winning-drive tally for that term. Roy would have been the last one to worry about breaking records or to have any bad feelings about not winning the Racing Writers' 1986/87 Personality of the Year award, which went to Matamata thoroughbred trainer, Jim Gibbs.

The irony of it is that he is one person who so richly deserves this honour, but it has eluded him in the past, and now again this year. And this despite capping his accomplishments with a national record 102 winners - 27 more than the previous record of 75, held by himself and Barry since 1982/83. For Roy is indeed a personality; and nobody could be more co-operative with the media - or anyone else for that matter. "One of nature's gentlemen" is a description bandied around somewhat, but, in the case of Roy Purdon, it couldn't be more accurate.

In the long years I have known him I have never caught him not wearing that friendly smile of his, and have never heard a mean word pass his lips. He is popular with everyone who has anything to do with him and, despite his long and continuing success, he is completely down to earth; just one of the boys, be it race-night, a black-tie dinner, or round his busy stables.

One of a famous NZ trotting family, Roy started out in the game as a 17-year-old just after World War II, when his father, the late Hugh Purdon, was given a few horses to train by the famous horseman of his day, the late F J ("Wizard") Smith. Hugh Purdon leased a property at New Lynn, and, with Roy as his right-hand man, their venture into the harness racing sport began. It was a hard struggle. As well as aiding his dad, Roy had a night-shift job, so was kept constantly busy. Father and son battled along, and gradually their team of horses increased, leading them to lease boxes at Mt Roskill from trotting enthusiast Alf Taylor.

With the Purdon team on the increase, a bigger set up was necessary, so Hugh then rented the Mangere property of Brian and Ash Ogilvie. Purdon-trained winners were by this time becoming more frequent, and, after two more years, the Purdons purchased a property at Pukekohe. Roy stayed with his father about four and a half more years before branching out on his own.

His first break came when Doug McAlpine offered Roy a property at Te Awamutu with a five-furlong track. Roy accepted and with a team of six horses began making his imprint upon the list of NZ's trotting trainers. Success came within three months, and he was on his way. Roy rates Te Koi and Ruth Again as his best early winners. Te Koi, a big gelding by Ubakim from the good mare Te Huarau, won six races for the young trainer before it joined the Templeton team of Wes Butt, for whom he went on to gain Cup-class status. Ruth Again, by Dillon Hall from Girl Black, was another who kept the Purdon flag flying high; and she became a good broodmare.

When he had been training a year, Roy married Margaret Hughes, sister of Pukekohe horseman Jack Hughes, and a nationally prominent golfer. With Margaret at his side, Roy continued to go from strength to strength in the profession that has been the livelihood of so many Purdon family members throughout NZ - including his brothers Sandy and Les, who have both enjoyed their share of success as northern professional trainers.

The inception of night trotting in Auckland (on New Year's Eve 1958) prompted Roy to move closer to the hub of the sport, and in 1959 he purchased 10 acres alongside the Pukekohe training track. With Arnie Gadsby as his foreman, Roy soon had a team of between 20 and 25 in work at Pukekohe, with the first star of his stable Governor Frost, winner of 14 races for Waiuku owner Charlie Hadley. "The Governor's" wins included a heat of the 1968 Inter-Dominion Championship series in Auckland, in the Grand Final of which, he finished fifth after pulling a flat tyre for the last mile and a quarter.

Roy first won the Great Northern Derby in 1958 with Charlie Blackwell's Call Boy, the won it again with Governor Frost in 1966 - driven by Peter Wolfenden, who became first driver for Roy's stable. The Purdon/Wolfenden combination dominated northern harness racing through the 1970s, but in more recent years, Roy's sons Barry, Owen and Mark and son-in-law Tony Herlihy have done the bulk of the Purdon stable driving, with Brent Mangos chipping in with some fine reinsmanship behind Luxury Liner among others. Wolfenden, his own sons Glen and Ross maturing into the game, has set up as a trainer in his own right and in recent years has been faring very well on a scale a bit smaller than that of Roy's.

Roy recalls his first winning drive was behind a horse called Whistler, trained by his father, and with whom he scored at Awapuni in April, 1949. His last driving win at a tote meeting was with Jack Sprat at Alexandra Park on November 14, 1970. A hip injury shortly after this forced an early retirement from race driving; but he soon became to recognise this as a bonus. It was allowing him to pay more attention to the training side and the detail of harnessing-up and other vital perparation on race-nights. Lonesome Valley, Charlie's Task, Swartze Pete and the good mare Scottish Charm were just some of the topliners trained by Roy at Pukekohe.

In 1972, he purchased his present-day establishment at Clevedon, with it's 900-metre track originally laid by Monty and Sonny Baker. Ably assisted by sons Owen (who started work with his dad when the family moved to Clevedon) and Barry (who joined the stable in 1973 after two years with Charlie Hunter at Cambridge), Roy continued in the limelight. Purdon stars in the 1970s - generally with Wolfenden at the helm - included 1977 NZ Cup and 1978 Auckland Cup winner Sole Command, and 1977 Rowe Cup winner Framalda. Melton Monarch won the 1981 Great Northern Derby and the NZ Messenger the following season with Barry the driver, while Wolfenden quided the Max Harvey-owned Billbob to his $100,000 2-year-old Sires' Stakes Final win in 1984, Tony Herlihy piloted the Harvey-owned Comedy Lad to his 1986 Auckland Cup win, and Brent Mangos did the honours at top level last season with Luxury Liner.

With Owen now branched out on his own (occupying the Pukekohe property that Roy trained from in the 1960s), the current set-up at Clevedon includes Roy, Barry and Mark Purdon and Tony Herlihy, with six other assistants. At the moment, 38 horses are being worked and major improvements and upgrading are being carried out on the 20-hectare property. Roy, who was assisted by Mark in training for a few years at Ruby Lodge, Ardmore, intends making the Clevedon property a similarly impressive showplace.

Having done most everything there is to do in the sport, Roy's main ambition is to train an Inter-Dominion Grand Champion. Sole Command, whom he part-owned, represented him in two Grand Finals, but had bad luck both times. Roy came closest to an Inter-Dominion title in 1975 in Auckland when he produced Hi Foyle and Irish Kiwi, second and fourth respectively behind Young Quinn.


Credit: Ron Bisman writing in HRWeekly 9Sep87

Jack Litten with Caduceus and Our Roger

JACK LITTEN

Jack Litten, whose colourful career in harness racing concluded with his death aged 81 in Christchurch last week, had many attributes. These included a sharp wit and a keen sense of humour. Several notable incidents in his life showed him also to be a man of principle.

Litten, as will be reiterated to eternity, "made" many top horses. He will best be remembered, of course, for Caduceus, that little bombshell he nicknamed "Charlie" because he stood in front with his feet turned out, a la Chaplin.

With Caduceus in 1960, Litten became the first "Down Under" representative in international competition in America - programmed by Yonkers Raceway, New York. Fourth in the first race of the $150,000 three-leg series, and third in the second leg, Caduceus dead-heated for first with Canadian rep. Champ Volo in the final leg, only to be disqualified from that placing after an inquiry into interference allegedly caused by Jack by crossing over too acutely in the early rush. Litten accepted the decision with a grace that made him forever and a day 1-1 favourite with his American hosts. Caduceus had also proven his point and endeared himself to harness racing buffs in what was to be his new home. Pushing his career record to 53 wins and earning $329,937 - in those days a record for a horse bred in Australasia - Caduceus sparked an American demand for NZ standardbreds that has since proved the life-blood of our sport.

The two other most outstanding horses made by Litten - who made a belated entry into the sport after early experience with the famous Button family and their horses at New Brighton followed by some years as a bush-whacker - were Vedette and False Step.

Moulding Vedette into great shape for Christchurch breeder Charlie Johnston and his racing partner Mick Jenkins, Litten gained four wins, five seconds and three thirds with him in his first campaign as a 4-year-old in 1949-50. Knowing Vedette to be a budding topliner, but disturbed by the things Johnston was telling him to do with the gelding, Litten came in after finishing third with him when hot favourite at Hutt Park in February, 1950, and told Johnston he wanted nothing more to do with him, and he could take the horse away. Top horseman Maurice Holmes "inherited" Vedette, who wound up winning 19 races including the 1951 Inter-Dominion Grand Final at Addington and £27,710 - a national record, racing or trotting.

Litten educated and trained False Step for 18 wins before owner Jim Smyth complained about Jack appointing Bob Young to drive him at the 1957 Auckland Cup meeting. Litten had been suspended, along with contemporary Cecil Devine, from driving for six months for their infamous whip-slashing duel in a mobile free-for-all at the 1957 NZ Cup carnival. Unplaced in th Auckland Cup, False Step had finished third and fourth in the other tight-class races at the Alexandra Park meeting. Litten would not be shaken in his faith in Bob Young. Again it was a case of Litten letting go a top horse to stand on his rights. False Step, handed on to Devine, went on to win three NZ Cups, came within a whisker of an Inter-Dominion Grand Final win at Addington and also starred in America.

Litten possessed great humility. Whilst nobody doubted his educating and conditioning skills, he was often criticised for his driving - and just as often announced to those around him that he knew he was "no Maurice Holmes." Yet when Caduceus won that epic encounter over Australia's Apmat in the 1960 Inter-Dominion Grand Final in Sydney to the roars of a sardine-tight crowd of 50,346 (where have they gone to today?!), it was with Litten at the helm in Caduceus' sixth Inter-Dominion attempt. He had been piloted in earlier unsuccessful bids by such top flight reinsmen as Australia's Frank Kersley and Jack Watts and NZ's Doug Watts.

The writer first met Jack Litten in the flesh immediately after he had won the 1951 NZ Derby with his own great pacer Fallacy. A green 18-year-old cadet in the racing room of "The Press" in Christchurch, I was asked to do a leader-page feature on the Derby winner for the following day's edition. Jack was so helpful that the article earned me a letter of commendation from the chief reporter of the time, the late Charlie Powell, from whom praise to the lowly such as I was almost never elicited.

I found Jack no less helpful for the rest of his life - to the day, only a few weeks ago, when, with Fred Freeman, I went to get for the "Weekly" a few lines from him and a photo to go with them (and to see him, of course) as he lay waiting for it all to end in Princess Margaret Hospital. Even then the sense of humour had diminished not a fraction. Suffered gangrene of the lower legs, doped to the eyeballs to allay the pain, and his feet encased in fleece-lined hug-boots up to his shins, he told us: "I think I'll get a patent out for these shoes - I think you could win a race or two with them."

Finally, a story from Jack that will live for all time: The approach to him on the eve of his 1960 Inter-Dominion Grand Final win with Caduceus. The mystery caller to his hotel room in Sydney said it was "worth the stake to get beaten with Caduceus in the Final." Jack informed the briber: "No business. One or two of my friends in NZ have put a £ on his horse, and I would hate to let then down; and I would hate to let the horse down." I can close my eyes and picture Jack, as cool as a cucumber, saying exactly that.

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(Article by Frank Marrion writing in NZ Trotting Calendar 19Jun84)

The Jack Litten story began in February of 1906.

Born John Duncan Litten at Little River, he has been known as Jack for as long as he can remember. He was one of six children. As is so often the case, it was Jack's father James who was to introduce him to the world of horse racing. His earliest recollection of the sport, "I think I was about six", was attending a local meeting at Motukarara to see his father's horse Wai Rakau race. Wai Rakau was no more than a passing interest for James Litten, leasing him at an advanced age, but he had some success.

His father owned a team of bullocks, and more often than not this was the mode of transport for the Litten family. Jack easily recalls the occasion his family moved to Burwood. "We drove them all the way from Little River to Burwood. It was quite a spectacle," he said. His father had been employed to haul timber from the felled Burwood tea gardens, a well known land mark in those days, to the sawmill. It took about 18 months to complete the job, and then the Littens went into the saw milling business themselves. It was soon after shifting to Burwood that Jack remembers getting "hooked" on trotting. He would quite often attend meetings at the nearby New Brighton racecourse and there were a number of horses being trained in the area. "I remember a horse called Sunrise winning at New Brighton one day. It made quite an impression on me," he said.

When about ten years old, Jack began working with horses at the nearby stable of Miss Isabel Button. "Bella" Button was something of a celebrity in those years, through her exploits with show horses and racehorses. "She was a wonderful horsewoman, a great side-saddle rider," Jack recalls. However after a few years Miss Button was tragically killed in a freak accident. The accident occurred the day before they were due to take a team of horses to a Dunedin Royal Show. "I was to have ridden a horse called Patience at the show, but that day Miss Button said she would ride him. She was sitting on top of him when he threw his head back. It stunned her and she fell off backwards and broke her neck," said Jack. "The funeral was quite an event of the day. She must have requested to be carried to the service by horses. There were three each side," he added.

Jack competed at many shows and among his rivals was none other than Bill Doyle. They were the same age. He was also involved with a number of trotting trainers in those days at Burwood, among them the leading New Brighton horseman "Manny" Edwards. "It was tough then. The trotters were always rather shortly bred, being out of variously bred mares. They were rough going things. You really had to work at making a racehorse. Not like nowdays. You can just about qualify any horse as long as it has four legs," said Jack.

When the depression arrived, the first people to feel the effects were those involved in the building industry. Jack could see there was no future in sawmilling and began making ends meet by breaking in young horses. In the 1920s the family moved to Addington. Jack worked his horses at Addington and became good friends with the top horseman Vic Alborn. Alborn's home, directly opposite the main entrance to Addington on Lincoln Road, is now dilapidated and surrounded by barbed wire, being occupied by "bikies".

In 1931, Jack made his first venture into standardbred breeding, securing the Logan Pointer mare Logan Lass at an advanced age and mating her with Native King (Dominion Handicap). Jack named the resulting filly Royal Romance and she was to give him immense pleasure. At her third four-year-old start, Royal Romance won at New Brighton in December of 1935 by six and 15 lengths. She was officially trained by Morrie Holmes, but Jack was doing all the work with her. Royal Romance continued to win races for Jack in following seasons but as a seven-year-old he sold her to Alborn. "I was ofered a bit of land next to our place and I badly wanted it. I sold her to Vic on the understanding that I could have her back as a broodmare, though," said Jack. Royal Romance won the 1939 Dominion Handicap for Alborn and retired the winner of 10 races. She left a couple of minor winners for him, while one of her daughters, Sure Romance, produced Royal Mile (NZ Trotting Stakes)and another in Royal Triumph left the Cup class pacer Junior Royal and a fine broodmare in Vignon, although Jack did not breed those foals fron Royal Triumph.

In 1939, Jack also bought the aged mare Diversion for £70 from Billy Morland, of Country Belle fame. Diversion had already won races and was to credit Jack with his first success as a trainer-driver in December of 1939 at Wesport. Jack has fond memories of the trip. It was his first race day drive. "I went over there with Bob Young, through the Lewis Pass when it was just being completed," he said. Later that season Jack was approached a Addington one morning by Alborn, who was interested in buying Diversion. Another friend, Clarrie Rhodes, overheard the conversation and also wanted to buy her. "Clarrie ended up with her, but under the same understanding that I would get her back for breeding," said Jack. But Clarrie wasn't so keen on that idea, and Jack agreed to take alternative foals from the beautifully bred mare. Diversion's second foal for Clarrie was the Light Brigade colt His Majesty, while Jack sent her back to the champion sire the next year and she again produced a colt, which he named Fallacy. In his debut as a three-year-old at Ashburton, Fallacy won the Second Eiffleton Handicap, beating His Majesty. Fallacy went on to sweep all before him that year, winning seven of his ten starts including the 1951 NZ Derby in 12 lengths in record time.

In 1940 he married his wife Iris. "I used to see him running to catch the trams," Iris recalls. Jack had moved to his present property in 1945 and left him almost penniless. There was just a little farmer's cottage and the bare land," Jack recalls. "We had a lot of work to do for a couple of years," he added. The property, which was already called Preston Farm, was soon being knocked into shape however. A five furlong track was laid, which would have few equals even to this day. With lengthy straights and perfectly curved bends, it served the purpose of getting young horses 'organised' admirably.

Jack didn't have much time for training horses, but luckily success came quickly. The first 'outside' horse to arrive at Preston Farm was a youngster by Gold Bar. "Allan Holmes dropped him off soon after we settled in one day. There weren't any stables, he just tied him to a tree," said Jack. The youngster was a colt called Congo Song and Jack produced him as a juvenile in 1947 on three occasions for two placings including a second in the Sapling Stakes. The following season Congo Song finished second at Addington in August, and had made such a suitable impression that even as a maiden he was considered the favourite for feature 3-year-old events at NZ Cup time. However, less than a week before the big meeting, Jack was injured on an incident on the track at home and was unable to continue training Congo Song. Allan Holmes took him home and won the Riccarton Stakes on Cup Day, the Derby on Show Day and the Metropolitan Challenge Stakes on the third day, starting favourite on each occasion. Jack was not credited with training Congo Song in those events, but Holmes gave him his percentage. Iris remembers the occasion well. "Allan wandered into the kitchen and put £50 in my hand. I had never seen so much money in all my life," she said.

The following season Jack produced another promising juvenile in Preston. Part-owned by him, Preston was placed at two and won twice as a 3-year-old, but later broke down. There were many other training successes for Jack in the early years of Preston Farm, about 30 by 1950, but it was Fallacy who really sent him on his way. Tragically, at the beginning of his 4-year-old campaign, Fallacy dammaged his back in an accident in training. "We tried to patch him up, but he was never the same," said Jack. Retired to stud, Fallacy was to initially suffer the fate of many locally bred horses. That was a crippling shortage of mares, and any quality. "I remember Allan Matson coming out one time when Fallacy had just begun his stud career. He had a browse at the mares Fallacy was serving and said he would never leave a winner," said Jack. The first foal born by him was False Step and the following year he produced Dignus (NSW Derby).

Fallacy went on to become one of the most successful New Zealand-bred stallions ever, also siring True Averil (NZ Cup), Junior Royal, Falsehood, Allakasam, Rain Again, Happy Ending, Kotare Legend, Doctor Dan, Doctor Barry and Individual among his 240 winners. He is now a leading broodmare sire, with around 360 winners and 30 in 2:00 to date, including Hands Down, Graikos (1:56.6PL), Royal Ascot, Mighty Me, Shavid Skipper (US1:55f) and Whispering Campaign among his credits. "He was foaled right outside the kitchen window and is buried there as well," said Jack.

Fallacy's outstanding 3-year-old form was only the beginning, however. That season, 1951/52, he prepared 17 winners and entered the 'top ten' in the trainer's premiership for the first time. That was a position he was to maintain for the next decade, winning the premiership in the 1959/60 season.

In the early 1950s, Jack had also been educating a couple of promising geldings in he shape of Our Roger and Vedette. He won races with Vedette as a 4-year-old, but that son of Light Brigade was to be passed on to Morrie Holmes, who won the 1953 Inter-Dominion Final at Addington with him. Holmes has always maintained that Vedette was the best horse he ever sat behind. Our Roger was to win a New Zealand Cup in 1955 under Jack's guidance, but there was still so much more to come.

Early in 1952, a diminutive U Scott colt had arrived at Preston Farm to be educated. This youngster looked far from inspiring, he stood in such a way that he was soon being called Charlie, after the legendary comedian of earlier years. But he was a blood brother to Highland Fling, so Jack needed little encouragement to let him show his paces. Caduceus, was originally the name of the rod carried by Mercury, the messenger of the gods, but to the trotting world he was to be known as the 'Mighty Atom'.

Jack found that the U Scott colt had ample speed in his early education, and as a juvenile he was registered and made his debut in the Timaru Nursery Stakes. However, he attracted little attention in finishing down the track and was put aside to develop. Caduceus had his first 3-year-old start at Nelson in October, 1953, and in Jack's hands won by three lengths. He was on his way. He won again on the second day of that meeting and went on to take the NZ Derby and the Champion Stakes and Futurity Stakes at Ashburton.

As a 4-year-old, Caduceus again won six races, including the All Age Stakes at Ashburton in October from 30 yards, beating Tactician (60 yards), Johnny Globe (60) and Young Charles (60), the NZ Metropolitan Challenge Stakes at Addington on Show Day, the Auckland Cup, and a heat of the Inter-Dominions at Alexandra Park. His Auckland win came on the first day of the Championships, with Jack also handling Our Roger to win the other heat. Caduceus finished third on the second day to easily qualify for the £10,000 final, but that event was to be the beginning of a long and frustrating search for Inter-Dominion honours that would end after no less than six attempts. Handled by Doug Watts, Caduceus set all the pace but broke for no reason when in front 100 yards from the finish. "It was just one of those things," said Jack. It was a dramatic contest, Tactician and Morrie McTigue holding off the gallant back-marker Johnny Globe to win by a head.

That season Jack also produced the first of Fallacy's progeny in False Step, winning the Methven Stakes with him before running second in the Sapling Stakes. Caduceus could win only one race in NZ as a 5-year-old, but False Step and Our Roger more than made up for that. At the NZ Cup meeting, Our Roger won the Cup in the hands of Doug Watts and False Step won the Derby by a head over the fine filly Glint, recording 3:12 3/5 for the mile and a half, which was 2/5 of a second outside Fallacy's race and NZ record. Caduceus had enjoyed no luck in the running of the Cup, but straight after False Step's Derby, came out and won the Ollivier Free-For-All by six lengths over Rupee and Johnny Globe, recording a brilliant 3:04 2/5 for the mile and a half from a standing start. "That was one of his best efforts," recalls Jack. False Step won three of his remaining four starts that term, including the Champion and Futurity Stakes at Ashburton, emulating the feat of Caduceus two years earlier.

Caduceus was in the meantime in Sydney for the Inter-Dominions, but in the care of Jack Watts had to be content with two placings in the heats and a third in the Final to Gentleman John, finishing a little over a length from the winner after starting from 36 yards. However, soon after he trounced a similar field in the Lord Mayor's Cup at Harold Park.

The next season Caduceus won the Ashburton Flying Stakes, beating False Step, but was no match for Ces Devine's rugged stayer Thunder in the NZ Cup. Jack won later in the day with False Step, the first of three successive wins at the meeting. Caduceus won the mile and a quarter Express Handicap from 30 yards on the second day and downed Johnny Globe in the NZ Free-For-All on the third day to wrap up the Cup Meeting, which was run over four days that year. A fortnight later the NZ Metropolitan Trotting Club held a Summer Meeting and, after finishing second to Ces Devine and Captain Sandy in the NZ Pacing Championship, Caduceus won the last race, the mile and a quarter Shirley Sprint, by six lengths from 36 yards. False Step and Our Roger were unplaced in each event, but it was indeed a formidable bracket.

At Easter that season, Tactician beat False Step by a nose in the mobile mile Rattray Stakes in 1:59 4/5, the first occasion 2:00 had been bettered in a race in Australasia. On the second day False Step downed Tactician under free-for-all conditions and Jack also handled the smart Fallacy 3-year-old Dignus to win. Meanwhile, Caduceus had been in Perth for his third Inter-Dominion under the guidance of Frank Kersley. A free-for-all win at Gloucester Park elevated him into favouritism for the final, but it was obvious even a horse of his undoubted quality was going to be hard pressed from the backmark. Starting from 36 yards in the series, Caduceus was the equal top points scorer with eventual winner Radiant Venture after two wins and a second in the heats, but had to settle for fourth in the final, run in front of over 30,000 people.

The next season the NZ Cup proved a showcase for Clarrie Rhodes' brilliant 4-year-old Lookaway, who was out by five lengths at the finish over Thunder, with Jack and False Step fourth and Caduceus unplaced from 30 yards. Caduceus was placed on the second and third days of the meeting but really came into his own on the final day, winning both feature events, the NZ Pacing Championship and the mobile mile NZ Flying Stakes by five lengths in 2:00. On each occasion Jack was second with False Step. While Caduceus sped away with the Flying Stakes, Jack and Ces Devine (Don Hall) staged their infamous 'whip lashing' battle. "It was just one of those things that happened in the heat of the moment. They do it all the time in rugby, but because it happened in trotting, it was all blown up," said Jack. Both Jack and Devine were suspended for six months.

Caduceus was handled at the meeting by the young Australian Tony Vassallo, who often handled the stable runners during a two year working holiday with the Littens. Vassallo, who was originally from Malta, had met Jack through his good friends in Australia, the Kersley family. Caduceus and False Step then travelled to Auckland for an unsuccessful bid on the Auckland Cup, Bob Young being engaged to drive False Step, with Vassallo handling Caduceus. Although placed, False Step raced below his best and owner Jim Smyth returned home in a somewhat disillusioned state, insisting that Young had "driven for another horse". Everybody knew that Bob Young was a man of principle, and so was Jack "Take him away. Not tomorrow, today," were Jack's sentiments.

Of course it is now history that 11 months later Caduceus and Jack gave the NZ Cup their best shot, and were beaten a head by False Step and Ces Devine, the first of their three successive wins in our most prestigious event. In between times, Vassallo and Caduceus were in Adelaide for another Inter-Dominion, but after a simple defeat of most Inter hopefuls at Wayville, their luck was all bad. Caduceus finished fifth on the first night and pulled up sore. He returned to NZ without racing again. False Step was also in Adelaide that year, with the Kersleys, but after a second night heat win was unable to make any immpression in the Final, won narrowly by the local horse Free Hallover the bonny mare, Sibelia and Jack Watts.

When the 1958 NZ Cup meeting rolled around, Caduceus and False Step were arch rivals (at least in the eyes of the public) instead of stablemates, and predictably the champion pacers dominated proceedings. In the Cup, False Step started from the front and Caduceus from 30 yards, and after neither had enjoyed any luck in the running, they drew clear to fight out a desperate finish over the closing stages. As was so often the case, the predominantly black colours of Litten and Devineflashed across the line together, with False Step in front by a head. Caduceus won his second Ollivier Handicap, from 48 yards, on the second day, with False Step unplaced, and then they shared the honours on the second day of the meeting. False Step (30 yards) won the two mile NZ Pacing Championship over Caduceus (48) in 4:11 1/5, while Caduceus was clearly the better sprinter in the NZ Free-For-All later in the day.

The Inter-Dominions were in Melbourne that season and Caduceus took his tally of heat wins to six when unbeaten on the first three nights in the hands of Frank Kersley, much to the delight of the big crowds which turned up at the Melbourne Showgrounds. By now long overdue to win the title, Caduceus received a shocking run and flashed home late for fifth. There were thoughts of retiring him. But Caduceus returned as a 9-year-old and produced magnificent form, winning six of his nine outings here, and at last, that Inter-Dominion.

Wins in the Ashburton Flying Stakes and Hannon Memorial led to another NZ Cup meeting, but a 48 yard handicap and a trained to the minute False Step (24) saw him a well beaten third in the Cup, Devine winning by eight lengths over Gentry that year. Thunder and a youthful Derek Jones did little to help his cause, attacking him hard once Caduceus reached the lead. Sharing the back mark of 48 yards in the Ollivier on the second day, False Step was again an easy winner over Caduceus, but the Mighty Atom took his revenge later in the day, winning his third NZ Free-For-All. Driven by stablehand Ray Morris, Caduceus won the Allan Matson Handicap from 48 yards on the third day in a near record 3:21 3/5 by three lengths. In that event, False Step had faltered soon after the start, gone down on his knees and broken a front carrier strap. With a hopple daggling around his legs, he bolted for three furlongs before choking and collapsing on the track. False Step suffered no serious physical injuries, but was often fractious at the start from that point. On the final day of the meeting, Caduceus went against time in an effort to better Highland Fling's mile record of 1:57 4/5, and earned £500 in clocking 1:57 3/5. At Addington on January 2, Caduceus set another record when he won the appropriately named mile and a quarter Au Revoir Handicap from 66 yards in 2:31 4/5. It was to be his last start in NZ.

He was set one more task, the Inter-Dominion in Sydney. Cheered on by an amazing 50,000 plus crowd, Jack got Caduceus home in the Final by half a length over Apmat, survived a protest and tasted the success. Jack has always played himself down as a reinsman, but he had worked the oracle where others had failed. The Inter-Dominions that year were a chapter in themselves, but needless to say it was 'J D' and Caduceus' crowning glory. On hand to see Caduceus take his 46th win (28 in NZ) and his earnings to a record £68,000, were Yonkers Raceway president Martin Tananbaum, publicity director Irvin Rudd and secretary Ted Gibbons. Prompted by Noel Simpson, they had made tentative arrangements for a three race International Pace series in New York, and needed the Down Under stars. "Marty approached me soon after the final, but I told him I wasn't very interested. But he asked me if I would meet him for breakfast. I'd never been invited to breakfast before so I agreed," Jack recalls. Jack explained to Tananbaum that he simply couldn't afford to make the trip, but the American was to make him an offer he couldn't refuse. "In the year I was lucky enough to be leading trainer, my accountant told me the only money I made was from the sheep. And I didn't have many sheep," said Jack.

Farewelled at Addington in April, Jack and Caduceus arrived in New York, only to find Tananbaum was too ill to complete his arrangements. "I never even saw Marty on that trip," said Jack. But it wasn't long before he was approached by another Yonkers official. "The Americans always honoured their word. I can't speak too highly of them." Caduceus and Jack were celebrities in New York, appearing on television and doing radio interviews. After placings to Widower Creed and Bye Bye Byrd in the opening legs of the series. Caduceus deadheated for first with the Canadian representative Champ Volo in the final race, only to be relegated for interference. Taken over by a New York stable and Billy Houghton, Caduceus continued to race boldly for a couple of years, endearing himself to the American public. Seemingly racing against horses twice his size and half his age, he took his earnings to around $US320,000, a record for a standardbred or thoroughbred bred in Australasia, and paced the fastest mile of his illustrious career as a 12-year-old, 1:57.4 in California. Caduceus eventually returned to Southland for a stud career, but died after only one season from a haemorrhage, the result of a chest injury.

Jack returned to NZ and began 'scaling down' his training activities, preparing horses on a more personal basis. In 1964, he trained his fourth NZ Derby winner with Doctor Barry, while in 1972 Black Miller credited him with his fourth NZ Trotting Stakes win, following on from General Lee (1952), Royal Mile (1955) and Highland Glen (1956). He also dabbled in the thoroughbred world and struck up a friendship with world renowned Irish horseman Vincent O'Brien. David O'Brien, who trained the winner of the recent English Derby, beating his father's horse, was a guest at the Litten household in his younger days. Vincent O'Brien was instrumental in Jack importing the Irish stallion Aristoi to NZ.

There have been numerous talented performers produced by Preston Farm since the golden era of the 1950s, the likes of Westland King, Bravine, Peerswick, Harlequin Parade and Junior Royal, and the West Melton establishment is far from finished yet. One of Jack and Iris's four daughters, Jackie, married Robin Butt in the mid 1960s, and the Butt winners have continued to flow at a regular rate in recent years. Robin and Jackie's son, David, has proved himself a highly competent young horseman also during the present season. David has his ambitions for the standardbred world, and presently Jack's old shearing shed is being converted into a separate stable.

Jack has no intention of severing his life long love entirely. His offsider in recent years, the very capable Brian Kerr, will continue his training activities from a stable on an adjacent property of Jack's, and prepare the handful of youngsters Jack has bred in recent years. One of those is the appropriately named juvenile trotter Borrowed Time, a son of Game Pride and the Fallacy mare White Plains. He has revealed exceptional ability in his brief career, but has enjoyed little luck on raceday. White Plains is also the dam of a yearling filly by Plat Du Jour, and Jack's admiration for the standardbred is most evident as he describes her capabilities. "I saw her trotting full steam over the paddock the other day. They still send a shiver down the spine," he said.

As he casually strolls the impressive surroundings of Preston Farm, the admiration of family and friends is also not hard to gauge. "Hello there boss," says a passer-by. And as usual, Jack is only too happy to pass the time of day. "Giving them corns in their ears," as he often says.



Credit: Ron Bisman writing in HRWeekly 9Dec06

"SNOW" WHITFORD

After bravely fighting cancer for several years, "Snow" Whitford, one of Canterbury's more colourful harness racing identities, died in Christchurch last week, two days short of his 77th birthday.

"Snow" will best be remembered as the trainer of the smart pacer Sam Tryax, whom he raced with his wife Laurel. But his connection with horse racing in NZ went much deeper than that, and began when as a 12-year-old he commenced working near Yaldhurst in the stable of a famous horseman, the late James ("Scotty") Bryce. With that experience as a foundation, "Snow" Whitford became a successful jockey and then a successful thoroughbred trainer, one of his best galloping recruits being Accountant. Apart from Sam Tryax, other winners including Star Globe and Charles Twinkle gave the Whitford colours prominence in the trotting sport.

Sam Tryax, by the Hal Tryax horse Lucky Tryax from Scotland's Pride mare Preferable, was arguably the best juvenile of his time. He won an unprecedented eight of his nine two-year-old starts in the 1968/9 season, then three of his eight starts at three before going amiss. He came back at four, and while only able to win once made it a significant victory, taking out the NZ Messenger Handicap at Auckland. His final race win was as a 5-year-old in the 1971 National Handicap at Addington. Doug Watts, Derek Jones, Peter Wolfenden and Barry Anderson were among the drivers of Whitford winners.

Mrs Whitford, also claimed by cancer, died about two years ago, and "Snow" has bequeathed his handsome home on the Cashmere Hills to be utilised as a hospice for cancer sufferers. Last year, knowing of his illness, "Snow" purchased a showcase for the NZ Trotting Hall of Fame and despatched to the society various cups, trophies, photographs, ribbons and other material relating to his winning moments in the sport, to be displayed in his memory.

Credit: HRWeekly 16Jul87

JACK BROSNAN

In 1884 a proud young man from County Kerry in Ireland arrived in a South Canterbury district, later to be named Kerrytown. He brought with him a knowledge and love of horses, and the name of Timothy Brosnan became well respected in trotting circles. Today his son Jack, aged 81, still works with horses on the same family farm. His grandsons Richard and Tim continue the Brosnan tradition, and there's a younger generation growing up to take over the reins.

While Richard's achievements are public knowledge, it is not so well known that Jack Brosnan is the wise old man behind the success. He puts in a good eight to twelve hours a day, starting around 8am. His pace is slow and methodical, with many a pause to roll a cigarette, or lean on a shovel handle and take up a debate with a visitor. He has got firm views on many things, from stipendiary stewards to politics. He does all the tractor work on the farm, grows the oats and hay. He looks after the stables, the feeds and the odd jobs about the place. The whole complex, looking north to Mt Peel and Four Peaks, is sunny and about as spotless as hardworking stables can be. They're practical and efficient, no-nonsense sort of structures that well reflect the Brosnan philosophies.

Richard, 38, in his 21st year of full time training, acknowledges that his father is the biggest influence in his life. Two other men who were important to the developing horseman were Gladdy McKendry and Doug Watts. "I always ask Pop when things aren't going as well as they should," the father of three says. "He has an intuition about horses, especially early on with young ones. He has got a wealth of experience, and if there's a problem he will always come and have a look at it, and we can generally work things out." And he says, yes, sometimes he does have an older, wiser head on young sholders when he is out on the track because of that paternal influence.

Other people say Jack Brosnan has an exceptional ability to assess horses. He takes little notice of the stop watch, preferring instead to study stamina and class, and how a horse worked in a race. He is very firm with horses, but treats them all as individuals. Like many of his age, he is sceptical of modern methods and has a surgery of time-tested folk remedies at his fingertips.

He is firm too with owners. The Brosnan pride stands tall, and where an owner can't pay the price of trust he has been asked to take his horse away. There is more than a little of that famous Irish fighting spirit in this first generation New Zealander. He grew up with horses on the farm, taking control of a team of Clydesdales when he was 15. His father stood Man O' War (twice Auckland Cup winner) at stud and they raced horses as a hobby. He and a younger brother, worked in tandem. They also married sisters, Eileen and Winnie McGirr from Methven. Racing was well established in their family too.

Jack's father had a good mare in Golden Vale and the boys inherited her. She left them a legacy of luck with four winners. Battlefield won his first outing. Marsceres got to Cup class and made the cartoons of the day when he started five times in one week for four wins and a second. Battle Vale and War Field also won, so fuelled by those early successes, the Brosnans of the new generation were hungry for greater success. "It didn't matter what sort of horse we had - just as long as they were good," Jack says.

In this new age with public money in public companies, mechanical training aids, computer picks and laser machines, there are a diminishing number of characters like Jack Brosnan. Their love of racing goes deep into the cores of their souls. Their level of communication with horses goes beyond the materialistic. Their ability to draw the best out of the animals rests on an integrity earned by hard work and time.

He doesn't go to the races very often these days. Few of the familiar faces he has seen the decades out with are still there along the rails. The racing pages - and he bemoans the lack of racing news published in his local daily - and race commentaries are the substitutes. His life is busy. He's proud of his family, and lives with Richard and Juliya, their three children (Virginia, Richard and Soraya) and Tim. And just outside the house, there is the horses. Always the horses.



Credit: Christine Negus writing in HRWeekly 18Sep86

DAVE TODD

Dave Todd, the man who bred and developed Cardigan Bay, world harness racing's first millionaire, doesn't bother to go to the races nowdays. He is 83 and feels his eyesight has slipped too much to enjoy the spectacle. "I like to sit at home and listen to them on the radio though," he said recently when reflecting on his successful lifetime involvement with harness racing.

Dave relinquished his licence to train seven years ago and contents himself in his twilight years with gardening, sea fishing and overseeing the training operations of his grandsons small team at famed Chimes Lodge, Mataura. Stuart and Richard Scott, his two grandsons, share their grandfather's love of standardbreds. But they know only too well that the chances of getting another in the same class as Cardigan Bay are one in a million.

Dave loves nothing better than a bit of trout fishing. In his younger days, he and his mates frequented the productive waters of the Worsley, Upukarora and other peaceful high country rivers. "But I have had to give the trout a miss lately...a cobber dropped in one day and borrowed my rod and tackle and hasn't got round to returning it." Ken Johnson, a good Stewart Island mate, who is a commercial fisherman, has introduced Dave to sea fishing in recent years. That pastime has introduced a new and enjoyable dimension of the outdoors for Dave, a keen deerstalker in his prime and still the proud owner of an outstanding Virginian (white tail) deer head exhibited in his lounge.

Price, racing men often point out, never made a horse. Dave Todd is the first to acknowledge that adage, because Cardigan Bay cost nothing to breed and went on to win more than $1 million in four different countries over nine seasons of competition on the world's major raceways. The old warrior is now content in retirement at Sir Henry Kelliher's Pukututu Island Stud, Auckland.

Dave trained the champion's dam, Colwyn Bay, for Alex Jopp, who farmed at Hindon, 25 miles from Dunedin on the Central Otago branch line. Colwyn Bay won four races but would have graduated to Cup class if not inconvenienced by an injured fetlock and deep seated corns. Jopp didn't want to retire the mare on the Hindon type of country and Dave offered to buy her. Her owner, however, insisted that she be gifted to Dave. A man never looks a gift horse in the mouth and the mare had a new owner.

Dave and his late brother Sandy, who was six years his senior, were close colleagues of George Youngson of Gore, another true blue Scotsman and another of Southland's grand old gentlemen of trotting and a pioneer in breeding. "George and I never charged each other stud fees...we had a reciprocal business arrangement," Dave recalled. "George was keen for me to send a mare to Hal Tryax, who arrived after the stud season was well underway." Colwyn Bay duly conceived to Hal Tryax, the first 2:00 three-year-old imported to New Zealand from America. Cardigan Bay was the result. "So, there's another story - a horse who won a million cost nothing to breed."

Cardigan Bay 'told' Dave literally from the word go that he had a big heart. During an aborted roundup of mares and foals at Chimes Lodge (gates were left open), a couple of mares and foals careered about for a long time. The two mares and one of the foals were easily caught when they became exhausted. But the sturdy Hal Tryax colt further defied efforts to be caught and was as fresh as a daisy some time after. "I knew there and then that he had to have a big heart and the constitution good horses are made of," Dave said. Bill Pearson, the Todd brothers' Gore-based veterinary surgeon, could see no reason why colts should not be gelded before they were weaned. Cardigan Bay was gelded at five months of age when still running with his mother. In hindsight, Dave reckons that early move might have helped to contain and harness the colt's remarkable energy and vigour.

Cardigan Bay wasted no time showing that he had plenty of what it took to make a good horse. He could pace a furlong in 15 seconds and furlongs in 15 seconds by a yearling are not easily kept secret. A big, raw and immature type, he did not mature into a racehorse until a late three-year-old. He was not tried at two. It was simply a matter of 'waiting' on the big horse. In any case the stable had the more mature and precocious 2-year-old Blue Prince, also by Hal Tryax, to fly the flag. Dave and Sandy sold Cardigan Bay to Aucklanders Merv and Audrey Dean for $5,000 and a couple of contingencies after he had won seven races for them. The rest is now history. "Looking back, I wouldn't have sold him then if I had owned him outright, but Sandy, a real Scot, reckoned financial independence was a priceless asset and the money went into paying off the farm mortgage and other commitments.

Dave, born at Bothwell, seven miles from Glasgow, immigrated to NZ with his parents, Sandy and seven sisters when he was 12. He and Sandy rabbited about Central Otago in their teens. Alex McLellan of Invercargill trained their first winner - "a Sungod mare who wasn't much chop. Alex was a fine horseman and I learned so much listening to him, Jim McMurray and Barney Rushton...the younger fellows don't listen much to me, because they think I'm out of date with my thinking," Dave quipped. Dave and Sandy settled on a farmlet at Mataura in 1932. Over the years they bought small adjoining blocks when they came on the market. The farm grew to 180 acres and has since been handed over to the younger members of the family, Peggy and Ron Scott.

Sires they stood at Chimes Lodge included Grattan Loyal and Dillon Hall, "two of the best," Free Fight and Arion Axworthy, who was "no bloody good." Sandy devoted his time to the stud side of the operation and the books and accounts. Dave looked after the training side. Sandy seldom mated a broodmare until there was seed on the grass. Not long before his death 11 years ago, Sandy told the writer that too many stallions were abused by serving too many mares too soon in the colder southern breeding season. "It's the quickest way I know to ruin a sire," Sandy said. Dave and Sandy always claimed that every sire was condemned at some stage of other of his career. A lot of Southland breeders had written off Dillon Hall. That was until Acropolis, one of his sons, beat Plunder Bar in the 1943 NZ Sapling Stakes. "Then the phone just about rang off the bloody wall."

The Todd school was a tough one for horses. There was no holiday camp touch about it. An aspiring racehorse was guilty until it proved itself innocent. Looks and breeding counted for nothing if it could not run and show guts. Dave Todd was twice runner-up on the national premiership - once to Wes Butt and to Cecil Donald the second time. Had Dave not 'lost' a good horse to Jock Bain halfway through one season, he would have won the NZ Premiership. That was one dissappointment in a rewarding and fulfilling career. In the 1950s and 1960s in particular, Dave was ably served by Ken Balloch, a skilled and fearless reinsman who was part and parcel of the successful Chimes Lodge training operation. Fancywords and frills have never been evidenced about Todd and Balloch. Superlatives were not part of the combination's dictionary when it came to praising horses. Cardigan Bay, Blue Prince and Holy Hal were merely 'good' horses and not champions, terrific, great or anything like that.

When Jimmy Tryax won at Wyndham in November 1970, he became the 18th successive horse Todd had acquired from another stable to win first up for him. Dave reckons most of the secret lay in the fact that "half a kerosine tin full of worms" would be taken from a horse with a rigid worming programme, top feeding and a harder workload in training. So many responded immediately to the methods. There was no easy way out in the Todd and Balloch formula for success with horses. A horse had to line up and be counted and a poor one was not persevered with. It took about a fortnight to determine if a horse had a win in it.

When the Todd and Balloch judgement was on the line, the bacon was not always bought home. But it often was. Like the day Dave had a 'decent' bet on Colwyn Bay's nose at Wyndham. She duly obliged and the funds went up on stablemate Maestro, who came home at six to one later in the day. "I got a few hundred quid that day and it all went into the farm," Dave said. When the chips were down, Balloch had few, if any, peers in the south as a reinsman. Some of his contemporaries still like to recall the day at Winton when it was a 'money day' for the Todd runner Lassaloc. The mare was 'fair bolting' inside the last furlong and had nowhere to go. The situation was fast becoming desperate. Lassaloc had a wall of horses in front of her and Ken reckons the situation was getting 'bloody grim'. Then the front line drivers heard a threatening bellow from behind: "Get out of my bloody road or I will come right over the top." Lassaloc just made it and no more.

Dave Todd often regrets that he was before his time in trotting. Many horses are sold for big prices these days and breeding and training horses for sale was always part of the Todd operation. In 1945 he put down an all-weather track at Chimes Lodge. He and Jim Flynn were able to take Southland horses to Auckland in September and win. Twenty five years later, all-weather tracks took Southland harness racing by storm. Dave reckons no other innovation has played a bigger part in the development of Southland's multi million dollar harness racing industry.



Credit: Don Wright writing in NZ Trot Calendar 21Jan86

CLARRIE RHODES

Horsepower has dominated the life of Clarence Leslie (Clarrie) Rhodes. From as early as 1914, horses were introduced to his life. Not trotters or gallopers, but those animals used to pull the hansom cab operated by his father. The four-legged mode of transport was pushed to the back of Clarrie's mind in the early 1920s when he took over a Buick car agency in Ashburton.

The ability to sell 13 cars in nine weeks, a territory record for the vehicle in those years, and one which many car dealers today would envy, gave Clarrie the opporunity to visit America. Working for General Motors and living in an apartment at 99 Street and Third Avenue, Clarrie sold cars for $US600 each. For every vehicle sold he received $US28. Those years he spent in America were during the prohibition, the era of Al Capone, days when it was best to mind your own business if you knew what was good for you.

In 1926 Clarrie Rhodes returned to NZ. He came from America by boat and it was a trip that was to change his life. "I was feeling homesick," said Clarrie. "On the same boat was Free Holmes. He had been in America to buy a stallion, Grattan Loyal, and was returning to NZ."

Clarrie struck up a good relationship with Free Holmes and on their return to NZ he was a regular visitor to the Holmes' homstead. So regular that three years after returning from America he married Free Holmes' daughter, Daphne. Inseparable since, the couple have been married for 54 years. It was that meeting with Free Holmes and the marriage that rekindled the old feeling for horses. Not that cars were completely forgotten. The C L Rhodes Motors Company was formed, and, along with that and a rental car and truck business, it is still thriving some 50 year later. A momento that Clarrie cherishes, his drivers licence for petrol driven vehicles, is still in his wallet. The date of licensing - 1921.

Clarrie made an inauspicious start to the light-harness industry. His father-in-law gave him the Sonoma Hanover gelding Harvest Child in 1933. Then eight, Harvest Child had been extensively raced with a good deal of success. After gaining no return from the horse for some time, he leased him to Mr L A Maidens. Harvest Child went on to win three further races and this success stimulated Clarrie's interest. It is an interest that has not let up.

The first horse to race in Clarrie's name and colours was Worthy Need. A son of Frank Worthy and Necessity, Worthy Need was leased out in his early life. The horse was so small as a foal that he looked no bigger than a dog. However, under the guidance of J J Kennerley, Worthy Need developed into a promising two-year-old. Kennerley, who trained at Addington, had another promising juvenile in his stable, Southern Chief. Both horses were destined to have their first attempts on raceday in the Timaru Futurity Stakes in March of 1935. The two worked a mile in good time leading up to the race, but Worthy Need got out of his yard just before raceday and met with an accident that set him back more than a season. Southern Chief went on to score an easy two length win in the race. Raced on lease till the middle of his 5-year-old season, Worthy Need was taken over by Clarrie and placed with Free Holmes. The horse raced on till a 9-year-old and won seven races and gained 37 placings for stakes of £3126, good money in the late 30s and early 40s.

In the next ten years, Clarrie accumulated several horses, mares like Safety Pin, Bel Hamed, Escapade, Golden Pointer, Pauline Dillon, Ivy Peterson, Betty Ducrow, Suspense and Diversion. Diversion was the second foal of Escapade. She was secured by Clarrie towards the end of the 1939-40 season. When retired, Jack Litten, who had owned and trained her to win early in the 1939/40 season, joined Clarrie in a breeding arrangement with the mare. Diversion had the bloodlines to be a top class breeding proposition. Her dam Escapade was a half sister to Rustic Maid. She was the dam of Chamfer (NZ Cup and Great Northern Derby), Free Fight (NZ Derby), Slavonic (NZ Sapling Stakes), Scottish Lady (NZ Derby and dam of Scottish Brigade, Great Northern Derby) and Little Taff (dam of Student Prince, NZ Derby).

Diversion's first foal was the Grattan Loyal filly Sapience. She was unraced but left the Australian winners Pastime, Wise Leader, Wise Admiral and Crompton. An unregistered colt by Josedale Dictator followed in 1945. The mare was not served in 1942 and missed in 1943. His Majesty was the third foal produced. He won for Clarrie before being put to stud in Australia. In 1948 it was Jack Litten's turn to breed from Diversion. He had a sire selected to send the mare to but, after gentle prodding from Clarrie, elected to send the mare back to Light Brigade, the sire of His Majesty. The resultant foal was a colt named Fallacy.

Fallacy left his mark in no uncertain terms. As a 3-year-old he was a racing sensation. In his first six weeks he won five races, including the NZ Derby in NZ record time. Later the same season he won the NZ Champion Stakes and NZ Futurity Stakes. During his career on the racetrack, Fallacy won seven races. At stud he left a record that many sires will never repeat. False Step, winner of three successive NZ Cups, was Fallacy's first progeny to win. In all, Fallacy sired 240 individual winners.

The early 30s, when Clarrie started to build up his racing and breeding stock, saw him purchase the Rey de Oro mare Ivy Peterson. She was the second foal of a non-standardbred mare Lady Peterson and was bred by Peter Todd of Lincoln. Clarrie raced Ivy Peterson for four seasons and the mare won four races and gained seven placings for £572. Sent to stud in 1940, she founded the "Peterson" family which has won numerous races for the Rhodes family over the years. Ivy Peterson was the dam of ten foals. Nine raced and seven won. Lord Peterson was the first. By Grattan Loyal, he won four and was placed ten times for £1022/10/-. Sir Peterson followed with seven wins and over £2800. Admiral Peterson scored six wins and 19 placings worth £4095 while Jack Peterson (1949 NZ Futurity Stakes) won eight and was placed 13 times for £4866. Colonel Peterson and Princess Peterson were the poor relations of the first strain of Peterson blood. Neither won, Colonel Peterson managing four placings and Princess Peterson three. Overall, from the purchase of Ivy Peterson, Clarrie not only had the start of a very successful standardbred family, but a line that in its first generation won 41 races and £17,321, a great deal of money some 40 years ago. And money which was quickly put back into racing with the purchase of Peterson Lodge, a 150 acre farm at Templeton (formerly the late Roy Berry's training establishment).

Though success came in abundance in the early years, Clarrie also had many more horses than most owners during those years. Not all, though, were of great ability and many never saw a racetrack. Like all owners, Clarrie had to wait a good while before the glory of a classic winner came his way. It was 13 years after Harvest Child was given to him that On Approval scored a half head win over Darkie Grattan in the 1946 NZ Sapling Stakes. On Approval had been bought by Clarrie as a yearling from a Mrs Frost of Cust. He paid £50 for the colt and a similar contingency. But the glory of seeing the win was not there. Clarrie was tucked up in bed at home when the Sapling Stakes was run, recovering from a bout of pneumonia. However, he did hear the race. The Sapling Stakes was the first race to be broadcast in NZ and Clarrie had the added honour of owning the winner. He says that his doctor could not believe the remarkable recovery he made after the late Dave Clarkson confirmed On Approval as the winner. The day after, Clarrie was sitting up in bed like a new man.

The dream of all owners is to have your horse win a NZ Cup. That, too, was Clarrie's dream. In November of 1957 that dream came true. Lookaway, the only 4-year-old in the race, created NZ history when he became the first of his age to win the Cup in its 53 year history. Trained and driven by Maurice Holmes, Lookaway came right away from a talented field, that included False Step and Caduceus, to win by five lengths. Clarrie rates Lookaway's win in that Cup as his most prized of all. However, the Cup never came his way. At the presentation it was not a cup that was given as a trophy but a silver tray. Lookaway holds a special place in Clarrie's memory. Lookaway's dam, Raceaway, was bought from Mrs C E Hunt of Burwood. Raceaway won three races for Clarrie before being put to stud. Her first foal was Lookaway. Two starts as a 2-year-old brought little reward for Lookaway but as a three and four-year-old he notched 16 wins. Nine came at three, his first at Greymouth in October of 1956 with Leicester Roper driving. Lookaway's last win at three came in the NZ Futurity Stakes, winning by five lengths from Gentry. His nine wins that year were scored by margins ranging from one to nine lengths. At four Lookaway was the top earner for the season. His bankroll of £10,285 was £2000 more than his closest rival, Highland Air.

Wins in the National Handicap, NZ Cup and NZ Free-For-All were topped with what Clarrie thinks was the horse's best performance. In the first mobile mile on the grass at New Brighton, Lookaway came from lengths off the pacemakers, Caduceus and False Step, on the turn to win by two lengths in 2:01.6. Along with Caduceus and False Step, Don Hall, Light Nurse, Our Kentucky, Ricochet and Tactician were among the beaten runners. More wins followed. At five Lookaway won the Hannon Memorial. At six, when Clarrie was in Australia, he received a phone call from a close friend Cliff Irvine. Irvine said Lookaway was at his best and he wanted to take the horse to Auckland. Being thousands of miles away, Clarrie was uncertain about the trip. However, a suggestion by Irvine that he lease the horse for a month was accepted by Clarrie. The horse duly won and on his return from Australia, when the horse was back in his ownership, Lookaway won the Au Revoir Handicap at Auckland for him. Au Revoir was another top horse that Clarrie raced. He won 13 races for him with the National Handicap and consolation of Tactician's 1955 Auckland Inter-Dominion being his best wins. The following year Lookaway himself scored a win in a consolation of an Inter-Dominion. This was at Addington in 1961 when Massacre won the final and four races later Lookaway won one of the consolations. Lookaway won another race in his final season at eight. The Ollivier Handicap fell his way with a youthful Bobby Nyhan driving and Leicester Roper training. In seven seasons of racing, Lookaway won 21 races for Clarrie. Added to the wins were 13 placings for total stakes of £20,976.

It was around the time of Lookaway's retirement that Clarrie struck up a good relationship with Martin Tananbaum, president of Yonkers Raceway in New York. In 1956 the control and operation of Yonkers was placed in the hands of Tananbaum and two of his brothers, Alfred and Stanley. Four years after taking control at Yonkers, Martin Tananbaum made his initial trip to NZ and Australia in search of the best pacers from 'down under.' It was during this trip that Clarrie and Tananbaum met. This is how the International Pace, one of the richest challenge races between American, Canadian and Australasian horses came about.

NZ's first entrant in the event, back in 1960, was Caduceus, trained by Clarrie's life-long friend Jack Litten. Tananbaum and Clarrie Rhodes organised horses to represent NZ and Australia and exported them to America. They would race in their NZ interests (owners). The owner and wife, trainer and wife and driver would all travel to America free of charge. Caduceus was NZ's only entrant for the first series in 1960 and deadheated with Champ Volo in the first of the three-race series. However, bad luck struck when he was relagated to fourth. There were also teething troubles for Clarrie and Marty over transporting the horses to America. They were unable to gain rights to fly the horses direct to America. Instead they had to ship the horses by sea from either Bluff or Lyttleton to Sydney and then fly from there to America. It was a costly operation and one that went for several years. Orbiter, who was the Kiwi representative in the 1966 International series, was one of the last horses to be transported to America in this way. Orbiter was one of a 20-horse flight of NZ and Australian pacers to America in February of 1966. The flight, originating from Sydney, was hailed as the largest airlift in equine racing industry. This has since been bettered in the now modern age of air travel. Some time after this, air rights were given to Clarrie and Marty Tananbaum and direct flights started from NZ.

The purchase by Tananbaum of a 440-odd acre property at Rochester, some 400 miles from New York, sparked the start of an exodus of NZ horses to America by Clarrie and Marty. Called the White Devon Farm, the property was managed by Harry Moss. Clarrie and Marty would buy horses in NZ, mainly mares, transport them to America and race them. Once retired they would breed the mares to top American stallions then return the subsequent foals to NZ. This operation went smoothly. At the same time, Clarrie would send four of his staff at a time to White Devon Farm to help out Marty Tananbaum and for the lads to gain experience. Each of the staff members spent a maximum of two years in America.

The tragic death of Martin Tananbaum some years ago was a blow to Clarrie Rhodes. In one of the largest private sale transactions ever, Clarrie purchased the whole White Devon Stud contingent following the death of Martin. Among the contingent was a stallion named Lumber Dream, who had been imported to NZ in 1964. It seemed appropriate that the horse was now Clarrie's property as Lumber Dream's dam sire, Dominion Grattan, was a grandson of Grattan Royal, sire of Grattan Loyal, imported by his father-in-law so many years ago.

With the success of his operations in America, Clarrie's Australian business was also well in operation. Horses he has leased or owned outright have to this day won 198 races across the Tasman. Kiwi Peterson and Garrison started the ball rolling, Garrison winning 30 odd races before going to America and Kiwi Peterson taking a lifetime mark of 2:06.1 and winning over $68,000.

American stallions imported to Australia, like Truant Hanover and Typhoon Hanover have also found their way to NZ, along with Canny Scot and Emory Hanover. Another stallion that Clarrie has a place for in his heart is the Fallacy entire True Averil. True Averil gave Clarrie his second win in the NZ Cup 14 years to the month after Lookaway. Driven by Doody Townley, True Averil got home by a neck from Radiant Globe after being four wide for the last half. The winning drive by Townley was in some way compensation. Townley, the regular pilot of Stella Frost, had lost the services of the mare for the Cup after she had been taken to America to race in the International Pace. So in some way Clarrie Rhodes paid Townley back by giving him the drive on True Averil. True Averil stood in NZ for some time before being exported to Australia. Clarrie recently bought the horse back to NZ and he is to resume stud duties from this season.

With over 43 years of experience in the light-harness industry, Clarrie Rhodes has plenty to offer younger trainers by way of advice, but the now veteran of over 500 wins as a breeder and owner is not as outspoken as in his earlier years.

-o0o-

Article in NZ Trotting Calendar 24Jun86

When Clarrie Rhodes died last week at the age of 80, NZ lost one of her most successful breeder/owners of standardbreds. Clarrie died early last Thursday after several years of heart problems.

It is difficult to do justice to a gentleman, and he was in the true sense of the word, whose involvement with standardbreds spanned all of 50 years. Clarrie did not confine his interests to NZ, being represented by over 200 winners in Australia and also having close ties with harness racing in North America since 1960.

He had his first success as an owner almost 50 years ago when Bill Grattan won at the New Brighton Trotting Club's Spring meeting in September of 1937 for trainer/driver Free Holmes. Fittingly, Clarrie's last win in NZ came in great style, Free's Best accounting for the NZ Oaks in national record time last month. Best Dream, exported to California but still owned by Clarrie, was his last winner, scoring at Fairplex Park in Pomona a few weeks ago. There were well over 500 wins, mostly in Clarrie's familiar colours of a black jacket, red sleeves and cap, between Bill Grattan and Best Dream.

The highlights of Clarrie's involvement with standardbreds was undoubtedly Lookaway's runaway win in the 1957 NZ Cup. Trained and driven for him by his brother-in-law Maurice Holmes, Lookaway became the first 4-year-old to win NZ's most prestigious harness race when he crossed the line five lengths clear of Thunder, La Mignon and False Step. For most, winning a NZ Cup is just a dream, but Clarrie had the added thrill when he won the event again in 1971 with True Averil. Clarrie not only bred and owned the entire, but trained him as well. Doddy Townley was the driver.

There was also an added thrill when Clarrie won his first major classic race, On Approval narrowly winning the NZ Sapling Stakes at Ashburton in 1946. Clarrie did not see the youngster win by half a head, he was stuck in bed at home with a bout of pneumonia, but he heard Dave Clarkson's commentary in what was the first radio broadcast in NZ.

Horses, and horsepower, have always dominated Clarrie's life. Among his earliest memories is the cab operated by his father and the horses which pulled it. Clarrie made his name selling motor vehicles in the 1920s, initially in Ashburton and later in North America. He remained a motor vehicle dealer for most of his life. On his first trip home from North America in 1926, Clarrie struck up a friendship with the legendary horseman Free Holmes, who had just purchased what was to be an outstanding sire in Grattan Loyal. Clarrie and Holmes' daughter Daphne married a few years later.

Clarrie's first love over the years was always the breeding industry, and much of his success can be attributed to his knowledge. Clarrie owned dozens of stallions throughout Australasia notably Lumber Dream here and Hondo Hanover in Australia.

Lady luck was not always on Clarrie's side. In the late 1940s he entered into a breeding arrangement with a life long friend in Jack Litten over a mare called Diversion. Clarrie bred Diversion to Light Brigade and got a useful winner in His Majesty. The following year, Litten bred Diversion to the same sire and got Fallacy, a brilliant racehorse who later sired over 240 winners. Fallacy sired triple NZ Cup winner False Step from his first crop, while he later left True Averil for Clarrie.

Clarrie's other good winners included Jack Peterson (1949 NZ Futurity Stakes), Gerfalcon (1942 NZ Trotting Championship), Au Revoir (Cup class), Safe Return (1961 Kaikoura Cup), Best Bet (1977 NZ Trotting Stakes), Alec Peterson (1979 Methven Cup), Bel Hamed and, more recently, the likes of Hondo's Dream, Best Dream, Chataway and the trotters Armbro Almont, Bossy Boy and Quick March, the latter a top mare in New South Wales. No doubt, there were many stories behind every winner for Clarrie and many, many other stories he could have shared. Sadly, a part of trotting's heritage passed away with him.

Clarrie is survived by his wife Daphne, sons Alan, Freeman, Gerald and Peter, and daughter Mary.


Credit: Brian Carson writing in NZ Trotting Calendar 27Sep83

BILL LOCHHEAD

Bill Lochhead, a well-known breeder, owner-trainer in Mid-Canterbury, died in November, aged 83. After standing the American-bred horse Sonoma Harvester, who left some capable trotters, he had a partiality for the trotting horse and was recognised as an expert farrier.

Lochhead bred and developed the 1947 Dominion Handicap winner, Hidden Note from a mare by Sonoma Harvester, but it was the purchase of Cloudy Horizon as a 2-year-old filly in Southland that provided him with a host of winners over the years.

From Cloudy Horizon he bred, raced and trained Supervise (NZ Trotting Free-for-all winner), while other fine winners he bred and raced were Harvest Note, Lightning Note, Scottish Note, Betty Thorpe, Erin's Lad, Super View, Super Glow, Cloudy View, Dollarwise, Be Wise, Lord Zetland and his last winner, Wise Game, who won four.

His three sons, Noel, 'Kiwi' Keith, president of the New Brighton Club, and Ian, a committeeman of the Ashburton Trotting Club who has also enjoyed success as an owner-trainer of the Cloudy Horizon breed have all followed in their father's footsteps with interests in trotting.

Credit: NZ Trotting Calendar 1886

Bill Bagrie & Orbiter

BILL BAGRIE

During the 1950s the Ohoka amateur trainer/driver Bill Bagrie and his wife, Elaine were farming in Southland. But after Bill suffered a haemorrhage he was told by his doctor he should give up farming and find a less physically exhausting job. Both Bill and Elaine came from farming families so when an alternative lifestyle had to be chosen it was difficult to know where to look so they decided to head north for Christchurch to see what life there had to offer.

Bill had an interest in harness racing and he had decided to buy a broodmare and begin breeding racing stock. So one of the first things he did when the family arrived in Christchurch was to attend a dispersal sale where he outlaid the considerable sum (in those days) of 450 guineas for the Dillon Hall-Tondeleyo mare Margaret Hall, a fine racemare who had won six races and was already the dam of the outstanding racemare, Rowan Star (now better known as the dam of the Australian pacer and now successful sire, Garry Rowan), and another winner in Rosslyn Rowan. Margaret Hall was in foal to U Scott but the foal was born dead. She was sent back to U Scott, the sire of her earlier winners, and in 1958 she foaled a filly whom Bill and Elaine called Kinsella.

At this time parking was just becoming a marketable commodity in Christchurch and so soon after Bill and Elaine arrived in the city they bought a parking centre - one of the first in Christchurch - close to Cathedral Square in the central city. They ran the centre - now known as the Avon Parking and Service Station Ltd - for five or six years before buying another central city business, Bennetts Shoe Store.

When it came time to begin working Kinsella, Bill leased facilities from Alan McKenzie in Harewood Road. Kinsella was the first horse Bill ever trained or drove, but she proved an outstanding introduction to harness racing, winning seven races and Bill drove her in all of them. Kinsella had given the Bagrie family a taste of success in harness racing but Margaret Hall's next foal - her 1959 colt by U Scott called Orbiter - was to achieve even better things on the racetrack.

Orbiter won 17 races in NZ including the 1963 Kaikoura Cup, the 1964 New Brighton Cup, the 1964 Hannon Memorial, the 1965 Allan Matson Stakes, the 1965 M G Pezaro Memorial, the 1965 Champion Free-For-All and the Dunedin Festival Cup Final in 1966. He also recorded a best mile time of 1:58.8 when he won the Flying Mile Free-For-All by three and a half lengths at Cambridge in 1966. From only 52 race starts in this country he finished further back than fourth in only 11 races, an outstanding record of consistency, particularly when the many miles he travelled during campaigns outside Canterbury are considered. Although he won only two races in the 1964-65 season, as a 5-year-old, he recorded four important seconds that year, three of which were at the NZ Cup meeting. He ran second to Lordship in the National Handicap at Addington in August, second to Cairnbrae in the NZ Cup, second to Lordship again in the NZ Free-For-All, and again in the Allan Matson Stakes on the final night of the Cup meeting.

Because Orbiter was racing so well, it was only a matter of time before somebody made Bill and Elaine an offer they could not refuse for the gelding. Early in 1966 the inevitable happened and an offer of $US120,000 was made for Orbiter by Noel Simpson, on behalf of a small grup of Americans. The offer did prove irresistable and Orbiter had his last race in NZ at Forbury Park on February 5, 1966 when he won the Dunedin Festival Cup Final. His American buyers wanted the gelding to race in the rich International Series at Yonkers that year and he was to be trained by Del Insko.

The geldings new owners - keen to get the best out of their purchase - invited Bill to travel to the United States with Orbiter and Elaine joined him there later. They were given an all-expenses-paid holiday in New York to enable Bill to assist Del Insko to prepare Orbiter. But somehow things did not work out as planned. Insko had his own way of doing things and he did not appreciate advice from somebody else on how he should train his horses. To make matters worse, Orbiter contracted some sort of chill or virus soon after he arrived in New York and the morning of the big race he was in an oxygen tent - fluid streaming from his nose - and obviously a very sick horse. Elaine said that it had been "heart breaking" to see him in such a bad way and if he had been at home he would not have even been worked in such a condition let alone raced. But race he did and, needless to say, he was unable to show his true ability that day. However, a NZ bred pacer did win the $100,000 International that year. The Yonkers favourite Cardigan Bay proved much too good and won easily, five lengths clear at the finish in the near race record time of 3:04.4 for the mile. Bill and Elaine returned home to NZ dissappointed and disullusioned at the way things had gone on the trip.

Soon after their return, Bill decided that the rented facilities he was using to train from in Harewood Road were no longer sufficient for his needs, so he decided to invest some of his money from Orbiter's sale in land. He sold the shoe business and bought 133 acres on Smiths Road (now known as Bradleys Road), at Ohoka, near Rangiora. The property, which has since been increased to 260 acres in two blocks, was essentially a sheep and cropping farm but even 20 years ago it was considered to be only marginally financially feasible. So the first thing Bill did was diversify the property. A large chicken shed was built and a contract to supply chickens to General Foods was undertaken. This proved a great success and today the Bagrie family have a contract to supply 100,000 chickens annually.

About six years ago Bill decided to further diversify the farm and he bought 17 hinds in calf. They now run about 120 stags and 130 hinds on the property. The deer provide three sources of revenue - velvet, venison meat and live sales. Although all three can be lucrative, live sale had been the most profitable because of the demand and subsequent inflated prices. Farming the property has always been a family concern and never more so than now, for last April Bill suffered a brain haemorrhage from which he has still not fully recovered. While Bill is recuperating Elaine and their son Peter, have continued to run the farm. Their workload is simply an extension of what they were already doing before Bill's illness.

Bill had a small team of horses in work when he became ill and Peter, an amateur trainer/driver, has been able to work them for him in the meantime while Elaine has been taking care of the mares and foals. Peter has often driven his father's horses in the past and he enjoyed an outstanding run of success in 1978 with Bill's horse, Gentle George who died at stud in 1983. Gentle George, by Bachelor Hanover from the race-winning mare Orbette (a half sister by Hal Tryax to Kinsella and Orbiter), won eight races altogether but created a big impression when he won four races at the 1978 NZ Cup Meeting. The stallion won one race at each of the two day and two night meetings (a feat equalled by only two other horses, Cardigan Bay in 1963 and the trotter Tutira in 1969), surprising many people but nobody more than the Bagrie family. Cello Sydney Wilkes (1919) and Red Shadow (1933) also won four races each at the NZ Cup meeting but not one win on each day. "We thought he might run fourth on the first day," Elaine said. "Bill usually drove him but this time he told Peter he could." And so Peter ended up driving George in all four of the wins at the meeting.

Gentle George's win on Cup Day topped off what had already been an exciting day for the Bagrie family, for earlier on Trusty Scot had won the big prize, the NZ Cup. The stallion was trained, driven and part-owned by Bill and Elaine's son-in-law Henderson Hunter, who had only been training a short time and had prepared Trusty Scot for the Cup at his in-laws property at Ohoka. The run of luck continued for both Gentle George and Trusty Scot on the second day of the meeting when Gentle George won the Cashmere Handicap and Trusty Scot won the Benson and Hedges Free-For-All.

The Bagrie's are currently breeding from five broodmares - Kinsella, Kindalla, Patronette, Roshelle and Georgelle. Kinsella who is now 28 years old was bred with Niatrix last year but she did not get in foal. She was bred to him again this season and it is not known yet is she in foal but because of her age, hopes are not high. She has been a wonderful broodmare though and left a number of good winners including Morpheus, Dalestar, Halfield Star, Hallfield Dream and Trinity.

Peter said that while they were "farmers first and foremost," his interest in horses has taken him to the United States three times working for Charlie Hunter and Brian Meale. He worked in Califoria and Chicago - at Sportsman's Park and Hawthorne. His first trip to the States was in 1972. That was in the days when horses were shipped regularly by boat. "I went on the last boat load that went," Peter said. The idea of a relaxing cruise with only a few horses to look after had instant appeal. "They thought they were going to have a leisurely trip," Elaine said. But once the trip was underway, those thoughts were soon shattered.

The trip took 22 days and the weather was rough. "We were as sick as dogs," Peter explained. But their illness was not the main problem. The horses were stabled during the trip in lightweight boxes located up on the deck and one morning, during a particularly bad storm, the grooms were told that they were not able to go up on deck too feed the horses because it was too rough. The command could not have suited them better bcause they were feeling too ill to move anyway, but they were only spared a short time. Not long afterwards they were given an urgent call to get up on deck immediately. They had two horses loose. "A big wave had smashed the boxes and left the horses starting in a heap of kindling," Peter said. The First Mate made a quick alteration of course in an attempt to "level things out" so the frightened horses out on the deck were able to be caught and put into shared quarters with the other horses until the ship's carpenter had completed replacement boxes. "We were lucky we didn't lose any over the edge," Peter said. Fortunately the rest of the trip was less eventful and all arrived at their destination safe and sound.


Credit: Shelly Caldwell writing in NZ Trot Calendar 4Feb86