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ERNEST ALBERT LEE

Mr Ernest Albert Lee, a retired magistrate and one of two men who played a major part in getting the Totalisator Agency Board established in New Zealand, died in Christchurch last week at the age of 84.

Mr Lee acted as junior counsel to Mr Charles Thomas during the 1948 Royal Commission into horse racing, and it was these two who put forward proposals to introduce TAB betting in this country.

A former chairman and life member of the New Brighton Trotting Club, Mr Lee acted in an advisory capacity to the NZ Trotting Conference on his retirement as a magistrate, and few rule changes were framed without him giving his advice.

Appointed a senior magistrate in Christchurch in 1962 and a senior magistrate of NZ in 1967, the year he retired, Mr Lee was admitted as a solicitor in 1927 and a barrister in 1932. Born in Seafield, Mid-Canterbury, he practised with the Christchurch firm of Cifford Jones and Lee for 21 years until appointed a magistrate in 1948, serving in Timaru until 1958 when he was transferred to Christchurch. He was president of the Canterbury District Law Society in the 1940s, chaired the War Pensions Commission, and took a keen interest in youth rehabilitation throughout his lifetime.

Tennis and bowls were his other sporting interests, and he represented Canterbury in lower grade tennis and was a Canterbury and South Canterbury bowls representative. As a tennis administrator, he served as chairman of the Canterbury Lawn Tennis Association Management Committee, as Canterbury selector and as a delegate to the NZ Lawn Tennis Association.

Mr Lee is survived by a daughter and a son.

Credit: NZ Trotting Calendar 11Sep84

Nellie Winter & Millom's Girl

NELLIE WINTER

When Nellie Boyns scraped together £25 to buy a standardbred filly named Loyal Bonny in 1935, she mainly wanted a hack to ride, but one who could be bred from later on. It was considered a lot of money at that time, more so for a young buyer who was working full time for only 25 shillings per week.

Loyal Bonny was offered to Nellie (now Mrs Nellie Winter) for lease and this seemed a better alternative to buying the filly outright. However, Nellie's parents were not keen for her to have Bonny Loyal and they told her if she wanted the filly she would have to buy her. Nellie suspects her parents thought she would not be able to raise the necessary finance for the purchase which would mean she would not get the filly, but they had underestimated their daughter's determination. Nellie raised £23 and her father, who must have decided the project was a worthwhile one after all, made up the rest.

Later on, Nellie decided to try Loyal Bonny as a racing proposition. However, when she was put in the cart it was discovered she had only been mouthed on one side. This made driving her difficult and Nellie decided to put the mare in foal. She was sent to Lusty Volo and left a chestnut colt, later named Lusty Volo. Nellie sold him for £200 and this was her start in the business of breeding and selling. "My father told me wise men breed horses for fools to race," she said. "That is why we never raced a horse until he was two years dead and gone." Loyal Bonny left 15 live foals and Nellie sold them all except for three fillies, Eskdale, Millom and Whitehaven.

The latest relative of Loyal Bonny to be sold was Bonny Cord, who was by Card Shark out of Bonny Cindy. Bonny Cindy was by Nevele Gourmet out of Whitehaven. Nellie said an American trainer bought Bonny Cord as a 21st birthday present for his daughter. Today, more than 45 years since she purchased Loyal Bonny, Nellie was reluctant to estimate how many horses she has bred, raced or sold, but there have been many top horses amongst them. "It has been a lifetime of work," she said simply. Suffice to say that horses like the top trotters Westland King and his son Stormy Morn, Uteena and her son Tuteena and the top pacers Lookaway, Speedy Lopez, Flying Dream and Gerry Junior, to name only a few, all have one thing in common; they all trace to Nellie Winter's £25 hack, Loyal Bonny.

Nellie said her father, Henry Walker Boyns, was born in Millom, Cumberland, in the north of England. He was educated at Whitehaven University and later taught at Leeds University. He came to NZ on holiday in 1905, but ended up staying here. "He met my mother walking down the street and married her three weeks later," Nellie said. Although her father had "mucked around with the odd galloper" and had bred draught horses, Nellie's initial interest in horses stemmed mainly from the need to have a reliable hack to ride. Horses provided the main source of transport in NZ during Nellie's school days and it was a seven mile ride to her school.

She said she was one of the first women to be issued with a trainer's licence in NZ, but the licence approval had not come easily. It took perseverance and seven years of applications and rejections before she was finally granted an amateur trainer's licence in July, 1971. The Trotting Conference licensing committee had given her many reasons over the years why she could not be licensed. One of the final reasons - that she did not own a racing sulky - was easily remedied and had the desired result of licence approval. However, Nellie soon discovered licence approval was only a small step towards recognition as a trainer and it was clear that there were many male trainers and drivers, as well as club officials, who felt she should not be licensed. "I had a job getting started - the drivers ganged up on me," she said.

It was difficult to get drivers for her horses. But Peter Toomey was one who suffered no aversions to driving for a woman trainer. He drove most of Nellie's horses in those early days, before the success of her horses, and the licensing of other woman trainers, gradually waned the opposition. Over the years, Nellie had received many compliments on her "marvellously mouthed" horses. Credit for the skillful mouthing work was due to Burke Roper, who went to school with Nellie's second husband, Henry Winter. Mr Roper later worked for Nellie and Henry when Nellie ran a dairy farm at New Brighton which had been bequeathed to her by her parents. "We were on town supply at New Brighton," Nellie said, "so the cows came first." In addition they also owned several butcher shops and Henry Winter was also a cattle dealer, but with Mr Roper's help there was still time for the horses.

Nellie said she had been a widow for 15 years and had moved to her present home, on an 86 acre property at Marshlands in Christchurch, when her New Brighton farmland was zoned residential about seven years ago. Although Nellie trains a small team, her stable is a busy one. The welcome mat is always out at the Winter stable. Several trainers work from her property and a number of young trainers had started out leasing boxes at her stable before moving on to their own properties. Nellie also grazes outside horses on the property which she said is ideally suited to horses. "My foals and yearlings tower head and shoulders above the rest that come here to graze," she said. She is also proud of her roomy 800 metre clay track. "Our horses never get leg problems here," she explained.

Nellie's most recent training success was with Isel (Loyal Bonny's great grandson) at the Cheviot meeting held at Addington on March 19. She also qualified yet another of Loyal Bonny's great grandson's in Bonny Fella at Addington a fortnight ago. At the Winter stable, all trainers of winners, qualifiers and horses sold are expected to provide cream cakes for everyone at morning tea, so Nellie had to provide two spreads in quick succession. The cream cake requirement was not too good for the various trainer's waistlines, Nellie said, but it was a pleasant way of celebrating success - and also very nice for visiting journalists.

Nellie will tell you her horses are "all pets" and when asked who is the best horse she has been associated with, she will not single out any one horse. But there is one, a yearling named Millom's Girl, whom she is particularly fond of at present. The youngster is a great granddaughter of Loyal Bonny. She is by Keystone Mutiny out of Flying Jill (Flying Song-Millom, by U Scott out of Loyal Bonny). Although she had already had an offer from an American buyer for Millom's Girl, Nellie said she planned to race the filly with a friend, Edith Savage, and they have high hopes for her.

Credit: Shelley Caldwell writing in NZ Trotting Calendar 6Apr83

LEICESTER ROPER

A little more than six years ago, Leicester Roper decided he was 'sick of horses' and thought sheep farming would make a pleasant change, so the Ropers moved from their 75 acre dairy farm/ training property at Greenpark to a 250 acre sheep farm at Sheffield.

In theory, the plan was fine, but in reality, Leicester now has more horses than ever. The Sheffield property was named Kia Ora when the Roper's purchased it and they have kept the Maori greeting as the official name for what has now become a busy standardbred stud - and current home for three stallions, Dryham Lea, Montini Bromac and Count Bay - as well as some sheep. Of the three stallions, last term, the newcomer, Montini Bromac, was bred to the most mares, 36, in what was a pleasing response to his first season at stud. The trotter Count Bay came next with 21 mares and Dryham Lea the longest serving of the trio, was bred with 20 mares.

Although Dryham Lea is currently in the limelight with his sons Beware and Logan Dryham, both winners at Addington last month, he has received only modest support from breeders during his ten years at stud, and Leicester estimated the horse had been bred with only about 150 mares during that time. Leicester said that Dryham Lea had been raced by a friend, Mr Lance Pearce, and that when the horse, who won five races during a brief track career, was retired from racing he was interested in getting some foals by him. Leicester and his wife Rona, a keen and efficient horsewoman, had often considered the possibility of running a standardbred stud, so when Lance Pearce offered them a long term lease on Dryham Lea for stud purposes, they were on their way. The possibility was transformed into reality.

Dryham Lea was their first encounter into the stud business and initiallly the support for him was not encouraging. In the early days, nobody paid much attention to the smart son of Lumber Dream and Meadow Jewel and most of Dryham Lea's mares came from 'just a few friends'. Leicester said that although the early negative comments and lack of support for Dryham Lea was disappointing, they always believed he would eventually make his mark as a stallion. He has now sired over 25 individual winners, and these include the tallented Australian performer Rough Lea, Classic Lea, Unaware, Logan Lea who reached c9 before being sold recently to a New York buyer, and the smart trotters Girl Lee (a sister to Rough Lea) and Senator Lea.

Leicester's interest in Dryham Lea stemmed from an earlier association with a filly named Golden Jewel, whom he trained and raced in partnership with Lance Pearce. Golden Jewel was by Garrison Hanover and was the first foal from Meadow Jewel. The partners won two races with Golden Jewel before selling her to North American interests as a 5-year-old. "She was a good little mare," Leicester recalled, and her ability created, for him, an interest in other foals from Meadow Jewel. But it was not until the early 1970s that Leicester had the opportunity to choose brtween two of Meadow Jewel's colts, False Idea and Dryham Lea, as stud propositions.

Both horses had proven themselves on the racetrack having won several races each in relatively brief race careers, so the decision was not easy. Leicester liked both stallions but Dryham Lea won over in the final analysis because he was 'such a lovely mannered, nice natured horse'. The Ropers felt if Dryham Lea could pass on his speed and ideal disposition to his stock, he would leave some fine racehorses - a theory which is now coming to fruition. "We always had faith in him," Rona said.

The road to success is not always an easy one for a NZ-bred stallion. Broodmare owners tended to "rush to American stallions", whereas the NZ stallion had to prove himself on the racetrack and then at stud before breeders took any notice, and even then often the support was not great. Leicester said support for Dryham Lea had always been best when one of his sons or daughters was racing well. That was particularly true when Leicester and Bob McArdle raced a smart 2-year-old, by Dryham Lea out of Winsome Queen, during the 1977-78 season. Named Even Chance, the youngster raced three times for for a third and a win, both at Addington, before being exported first to Australia and later to North America. Even Chance was trained in NZ by Reg Curtin who had also broken in his sire, Dryham Lea.

Leicester said he often attended racemeetings as a child with his father, and he won his first race with Merry Gold, a mare they raced in partnership. "I went to the races with my father to fill in time," he said. In those days, during the 1940s, the general public had unlimited access to the horse box area and this freedom of movement often encouraged children to ask trainers if they could have a ride on various horses before they raced. Leicester found a sympathetic trainer in the form of the late Cecil Donald. "I used to ride a big black horse Cecil trained, before his races. I would get sixpence for doing it and I thought I was made," Leicester said.

However, the chance to earn sixpence was not the only attraction at the races for small children in those days. Their sights were often set on richer prizes, and sugar bags were a standard part of raceday equipment, in pursuit of these. The children collected discarded totalisator tickets and, in defence of this seemingly futile exercise, Leicester indignantly claimed he found 'one or two' profitable tickets out of the many thousands he collected.

Leicester said the raceday outings with his father had probably given him the inspiration to own racehorses, but an uncle, the late Joe Washington, who raced the great mare Daphne d'Oro before Leicester was even born, had provided the "biggest influence" and the Ropers now use Joe's racing colours. Joe Washington trained and raced Daphne d'Oro on lease from her breeder, Mr J B Westerman, during the late 1920s and early 30s. During the 1927-28 season, Daphne d'Oro won six races and these included the Great Northern Derby and the New Zealand Derby. Leicester was given the winner's ribbons for both races, but unfortunately only the Great Northern Derby ribbon is recognisable and is almost like new. The NZ Derby ribbon is in tatters, literally, having succumbed to the rigours of time.

Leicester worked for Clarrie Rhodes, as private trainer, between 1954 and 1964. During this time and later, Peterson Lodge was considered to be one of the most modern and up to date training establishments in NZ. "The whole set-up was good," Leicester said. "It was a nice place to work and we had good horses to work with," he added. Leicester still considers Clarrie's 1957 NZ Cup winner, Lookaway, as the best horse he has handled. He broke in Lookaway, drove him in his first race win and travelled to America with the gelding later in his career.

Another of Clarrie's horses Leicester has vivid memories of is the smart trotter Mighty Brigade. He admitted he had "always had a fancy for a trotter", and "we thought he was a super little horse". But he recalled on day at the Banks Peninsula meeting in October, 1958, where he was subject to stipendiary disapproval after driving Mighty Brigade. Mighty Brigade raced twice that day for two close seconds. After the first race, Leicester was in trouble with the Stipendiary Stewards for alleged "undue use of the whip". He was subsequently warned, but after Mighty Brigade ran second again later in the day, Leicester was once more in trouble and this time he was fined £10 for undue use of the whip. Leicester maintained he had not hit Mighty Brigade, and was extremely unhappy with the stipendiary decision. His enthusiastic protestations were not received favourably, so he invited the stipendiary stewards to examine Mighty Brigade. Leicester felt an examination of the gelding would prove the injustice of the fine. An examination was later carried out by the club's veterinarian, and, although it did not have quite the desired effect, the fine was reduced and the charge changed from 'undue use of the whip' to 'the manner in which the whip was used'.

After ten years with Clarrie Rhodes, the Ropers moved to Greenpark where they ran a dairy farm, worked some horses and started Dryham Lea off at stud. From Greepark they moved to their present home at Sheffield. Life at Sheffield is busy, but the Ropers said they are fortunate to have an enthusiastic and capable worker in Stuart Thomas, who is also a neighbour, to help out. A professional junior reinsman, Stuart works for the Ropers and has done a lot of the work with Beware, a smart 3-year-old pacer by Dryham Lea out of Wairiri Leicester is currently traiing for Lance Pearce. Stuart has also driven Beware in two of his three wins.

Credit: Shelley Caldwell writing in NZ Trotting Calendar 10May83

Clarrie Williams & Mr Aybee (Oct 83)

CLARRIE WILLIAMS

One of the most familiar sights at Canterbury racetracks on raceday is the red-coated figure of Clarrie Williams, clerk of the course. In formal riding garb and sitting straight in the saddle, with riding crop in hand aboard a neatly groomed horse, Clarrie always maintains a dignified approach to the job he loves.

And after twenty-three years as clerk of the course for the three Addington clubs, Clarrie has no thoughts of giving it all up. Although he was a reluctant starter and was pushed into the job by his father, the late Maitland Williams, today, almost a quarter of a century after that first day on the job, Clarrie remains enthusiastic about the work, and he is now clerk of the course for 18 Canterbury trotting and galloping clubs.

A member of a large family - one of eight children - Clarrie's interest in horses was probably inevitable as it stemmed from a strong family involvement in horses of all shapes and sizes. Clarrie's parents ran a dairy farm at Belfast during the Depression, but horses were always an important part of the Williams family life. "Mum's father raced horses at Lancaster Park," Clarrie said. But Maitland Williams also raced horses, both thoroughbreds and standardbreds, as well as breaking in ponies. So it is not surprising to learn that Clarrie's love of horses is the main reason he has stayed in the job for so long.

"I like seeing good horses," Clarrie said simply. Although he has seen many great champions come and go over the years at Addington including Cardigan Bay, Lordship and, in more recent times, Robalan, Noodlum, Lord Module, No Response, Scotch Tar, Hands Down, Armalightand the current stars Our Mana and Derby, to name only a few, Clarrie has no particular favourites. "You see good horses, and you never forget them." he explained.

Clarrie spends 73 days of the year working at one meeting or another and several years ago he decided to relinquish a permanent job at the CFM freezing works at Belfast to accommodate this busy schedule of clerk activities. In recent years, on the days that he has not been working at racemeetings, Clarrie has been kept busy shoeing show jumpers and ponies around the North and Central Canterbury area. He steers clear of trotters because they are too complicated. Clarrie said that there is enough shoeing work in the areato work seven days a week "if you were silly enough", but his raceday commitments restrict his farrier work to something less than that.

All the Clubs racing at Addington now use two course clerks, but when Clarrie first began working there, back in May 1961, the clubs used only one, and it was not until the NZ Metropolitan Club held the 38th Inter-Dominion series in 1979 that another clerk was taken on to help. After the 1979 Inter-Dominion, the New Zealand Metropolitan club used two clerks for NZ Cup Day and Show Day, but Clarrie did all the other meetings alone up until Dave Ferriman was taken on to help out on a permanent basis three years ago.

It is their job to assemble the horses in the parade ring and follow them up to the birdcage, and then lead them out onto the track. "They are in our care till the start," Clarrie said. After the race the winner is escorted back to the birdcage to salute the judge and then the remaining horses are escorted back to the stable area. During the running of the race the clerk of the course is responsible for catching any riderless/driverless runaway horses. They must also attend any accident and keep the remaining runners clear of any accident if possible. But this does not always prove as easy as it sounds, and this was clearly emphasised at the recent Ashburton meeting when Ginger Milne fell soon after the start in the Rokeby Handicap. Unfortunately the fallen horse could not get up and had not been cleared from the track by the time the horses entered the back straight again. Clarrie warned the drivers to keep clear in a loud voice, which some course patrons claimed was heard right across the track and into the stand area. Most drivers followed his advice, but five took the inside route and in so doing gained a considerable advantage on the rest of the field. Three of the horses who were given the inside run subsequently finished first, second and third. Clarrie said that a member of the crash team restrained the fallen horse as the other horses were passing, in case it managed to get up. But, with horses running on both sides of the accident, it could have developed into an extremely dangerous situation. "We are just there to help, but I might as well not have been there when a few of the clever ones just ignored me," Clarrie said. "It was a silly thing to do and I didn't expect them to do it," he said.

Although Clarrie has many newsclippings describing various dramatic recoveries of riderless/driverless horses on raceday, he is reluctant to talk about that side of his work, mostly claiming that "it is mostly luck, and a good horse. You have got to have a horse you can trust." The first horse Clarrie used at Addington was a tall, fleet showjumper named Lofty, who could clear jumps of six feet four inches, a talent which helped earn him a place in the Canterbury Show Jumping Team and six South Island Champion Hunter awards. Named for his height, Lofty, who was also known as Alb by the Williams family, was 16.2 hands tall, which is not surprising considering his sire was one quarter draught horse and his dam was a thoroughbred.

Clarrie likes to keep two horses to use at racemeetings. This way, if one gets hurt or goes lame, he always has a horse capable of doing the job and, by keeping two horses available, the workload for each horse is reduced. Over the years, Clarrie has used several different horses on raceday, but they have all been geldings. "It's not that I have anything against mares," he said, "but there are too many colts and stallions these days."

Many of Clarrie's clerk of the course horses have become firm favourites with raceday crowds, and one gelding in particular, an unsound galloper named Dotterell, was especially popular. "People still ask about him. If there was a smash, he would take off on his own (to the crash site). He loved the job. He has a way of his own which is hard to explain, but he used to dance and show off in front of the crowd, and they loved him. We got him when he was three; we paid £16 for him at the Kirwee pony sale," Clarrie said.

However, he was not the only one of Clarrie's horses with an independent streak. Hogan, who was about sixth in the line of Williams' raceday horses, also had a mind of his own, and Clarrie recalls one day at the Methven trots when Hogan put on a show that sent Methven horseman Mac Miller into fits of laughter. Clarrie said that he saddled up Hogan, climbed aboard and was all set to ride off when the gelding just sat down, literally. "I must have had his girth strap a bit tight or something," Clarrie said, "but anyway he just decided he wasn't going to move." He remained in the saddle and the waiting game between the horse and the rider began. Eventually, Clarrie's patience won out and Hogan, tiring of the game, got up and moved off, still with Clarrie aboard, but not before Mac Miller happened to pass by the stable. Taking in the humorous sight of horse sitting crouched like a dog with a rider perched in the saddle, Mac "just about burst his sides laughing," Clarrie said.

Although Clarrie has had the pleasure of leading one of his own thoroughbreds back to the winner's circle, the way the rules stand at present, he will not get the chance to own and train a standardbred winner, because of his clerk of the course duties. "I can own, train and race a thoroughbred, but I can only own a standardbred mare if I sell her foals," Clarrie explained. Of all the thoroughbreds he has raced, he considers High Test, who ran second in the Brabazon Handicap at Riccarton earlier this year, to be the best. "But we had more fun with Country King," he said. Clarrie particularly enjoyed the success he achieved with Country King because "he was mad when we got him and people said we were wasting out time". But where others had failed, Clarrie succeeded in quietening Country King and he won two races with him in a row, at the 1978Grand National meeting ar Riccarton. However, he considers that Country King was unlucky not to have achieved his hat trick of wins at the meeting. He explained that one clerk of the course had to remain at the start at Riccarton in case a horse escapes from the starting gates. Clarrie was riding Governor General that day and he decided to attend the start himself, a decision he later regretted. When Clarrie arrived at the start with Governor General, Country King, who was in the starting gate, began gawking around looking at his mate. Bill Skelton, who was riding Country King, yelled out to Clarrie, telling him ti "get that horse out of it," however Clarrie had no choice but to remain close by and Country King was subsequently slow out of the gates and finished fifth.

Although the clerk of the course is supposed to try anf catch a horse who has escaped from the starting gates, the task is far from easy in that the galloper always has a head start, a considerable advantage in a short chase. Some trainers have asked him not to chase their horses if they should escape from the starting gates, because they feel chasing only makes the horse run harder and further. Clarrie is happy to oblige such requests, but he points out that at least two horses they have caught have gone on to win the race.

One escapee they did not catch, at Riccarton one year, got well and truly off the beaten track and ended up at the Yaldhurst Hotel, still with saddle, bridle and saddlecloth in place. There have been other instances where horses have ended up in odd places while remaining on the racecourse. Clarrie recalled one night at Addington when a horse had tried to duck out of the top gate on the track, heading for the stable area, and ended up under the water cart. "He knew where he was going, but we didn't."

All told, over 23 years at Addington, Clarrie has missed only four race days to date - three days off with a broken collarbone and one day off with a knee injury - and he has faced every type of weather imagineable. From hail and snow at Addingtonto a quagmire at the Ashburton gallops in 1977 when "Nobody believed they would hold a racemeeting. But they did and there was next to nobody there," he said. The conditions were so bad Clarrie had to catch two horses after the running of one race because they were "blinded with mud."

Most clubs now run ten races, two more thn when Clarrie first began working as clerk of the course. This often means a long day for the clerk - between five and five and a half hours in the saddle - and his horse. But Clarrie said that once the horses become familiar with the work they seem to enjoy it.

At the moment, he has three horses available to use for his work - all thoroughbreds. They are High Honour, Melody Morn and Mr Aybee. The former top galloper, Mr Aybee, is the most well known of the trio and Clarrie said the gelding is "an ideal horse for the job and lovely to ride." High Honour, who is still racing, is also ideally suited to the job, particularly at the night trots which often unsettle thoroughbreds for a while because of the unfamiliar surroundings of carts and lights. However, because High Honour is in racing trim, he tends to get "a bit full of himself" and is not beyond letting fly with his back heels at any unwary racehorses he feels might be getting too close. but they are only half hearted grizzles and Clarrie ensures there is no chance of connection.

Although his clerk of the course horses need only light exercise to keep them fit for the job, his racehorses (High Honour and High Test) are given a combination of road and beach work. Spencer Park beach is only six and a half miles from Clarrie's home at Clarkville and he is one of the many local trainers who work their horses on the beach. "It is beaut up there," Clarrie said, "somedays you feel like you could stay there all day."


Credit: Shelley Caldwell writing in NZ Trot Calendar 11Oct83

George with Stanley Rio's Inter-Dom spoils

GEORGE NOBLE

G B Noble's effort to top the trainers' list for the Dominion this season was a fitting reward for an association with trotting in this country which began in 1941 when he was appointed private trainer of the Roydon Lodge team. Of the record total this season of £28,361 15s won by Mr R A McKenzie, horses trained by Noble won around £23,000 of that amount.

Before coming to NZ, Noble had trained at Harold Park from 1918 to 1941. Besides being a horse trainer and reinsman, Noble is a qualified architect and a farrier of no mean ability. He had made a study of the horses foot and its footwear and it was this fact that weighed heavily in Noble's favour when in 1941 Mr J R McKenzie was seeking a private trainer.

Noble's early interest in trotting was through his father, a trainer, and it is more than 40 years since he drove his first winner, Elmo Chief, at Harold Park. In his early years of training at Roydon Lodge, Noble prepared the outstanding trotter Fantom, who won the Dominion Handicap at Addington and the Rowe Cup at Auckland twice.

One of Noble's best records is in the Oamaru Juvenile Stakes, a 2-year-old semi-classic, first run in 1941. He trained and drove Scottish Emperor to win the event in 1943 for Sir John and for the same owner won with Royal Minstrel in 1954. In 1956 he produced Golden Hero to win for Mr R A McKenzie and was successful for him again with Jar Ar in 1960. Two years later he drove Thunderboy to win the race at odds of more than 70 to 1.

With La Mignon (1954) and Golden Hero (1956), Noble won the NZ Sapling Stakes, driving both himself.

After the death of Sir John, Noble continued to train the Roydon Lodge team for Mr R A McKenzie. The establishment has produced some good winners, including two of the best mares to have raced in NZ, Arania and Samantha. Arania won nine races and £8960 in NZ. Her successes included the NZ Oaks, Dunedin Festival Cup and two heats of the 1961 Inter-Dominion series at Addington. She then went to America, where she ran a 1.57 mile against time - the third fastest of all time for a mare and just outside the world record time for a mare of 1.56¾, held jointly by Rosalind(T) and Her Ladyship(P). Arania did not race a great deal in the United States, but won six races and was 11 times placed for $45,400. Samantha, who, like Arania, was by U Scott, took a mile record of 2.01 4/5. She won 15 races, including the Wellington Cup twice, and £14,910.

As a driver, Noble has been associated with many of the winners he has trained, and has also met with success in the odd outside drive. He has more than 250 winning drives to his credit. This season he has driven 25 winners, his best total ever, placing him eighth on the drivers list. Asked who was the best horse he ever drove, Noble unhesitatingly plumped for Light Brigade, and one of his greatest earlier thrills in the Dominion was when he drove Bronze Eagle (trained by R B Berry), to win the NZ Cup in 1944.

NZ Trotting Calendar 14Jul65

-o0o-

George Noble, one of NZ's most capable and respected trainers over the past 40 years, died in Christchurch last Thursday at the age of 85 after a brief illness.
During a career which commenced in New Zealand in 1941, the former Australian trained and drove some of NZ's greatest pacers and trotters to win here, in Australia and in the United States. He was leading trainer in New Zealand on two occasions.

George, or "G B" as he was known to his great number of friends, was born in New South Wales, the son of a farmer who also raced standardbreds. George received his early education with the family horses and drove his first winner at the age of 18. However, he decided to follow a career as an architect and did so until the depression in 1930. He then decided to return to the world of harness racing, and in one of the toughest periods of Australian trotting, made a success of his new career.

He was among the top trainers in New South Wales when the late Sir John McKenzie chose him to take over the training and stud management at Roydon Lodge in Yaldhurst. It was a partnership which was to prove highly successful, as a string of champion racehorses went forth in the McKenzie colours to win many of the country's top races. Horses such as Red Emperor, Flight Command, Commander Scott, Royal Minstrel, La Mignon, Highland Air, Slipstream and Highland Kilt saw J R McKenzie head the owners' list on three occasions and following his death in August 1955, the success continued as his son Roy headed the owners' list on seven successive occasions. Scotch Paree, Golden Hero, Garcon Dór, General Frost, Valencia, Bonheur, Adioway, Jay Ar, Heatherloch, Samantha, Bewitched, Arania, Garcon Roux, Roydon Roux and Hurrania continued to keep George Noble and Roy McKenzie to the forefront.

When Roy decided to expand Roydon Lodge's stud activities and transferred the stud and training operation to Templeton in 1970, George Noble remained at the Yaldhurst property he had operated from so successfully. It was from here that George performed one of the training feats which will probably go unequalled in NZ harness racing history. In November 1976, he turned out the Australian-bred 4-year-old Stanley Rio to win the NZ Cup, took him to Auckland to win the NZ Messenger Championship in March 1977, the across the Tasman to win the Inter-Dominion Grand Final at Albion Park. Stanley Rio is the only 4-year-old ever to win such a demanding treble, and only a trainer of George's expertise could have programmed it. He raced the Tasmanian-bred pacer in partnership with his son John and Wayne Francis. The same year, he trained Rustic Zephyr to win the NZ Derby at Addington and was justly named 'Racing Personality of the Year' by the NZ Racing Writers' Association.

Few major NZ races escaped George Noble in his long and successful career, but he also made his mark in international competition. He won the Inter-Dominion Grand Final twice, deadheating in the 1965 event at Forbury Park (with Robin Dundee) with Roy McKenzie's Jay Ar whom he drove himself, then winning the 1977 event with Stanley Rio. He won the NZ Cup with Stanley Rio (1976), the Auckland Cup twice with Highland Air (1957) and Garcon Roux (1971), the Sapling Stakes twice with La Mignon (1954) and Golden Hero (1956), the Rowe Cup with Fantom (1943 & 1944), the NZ Juvenile Championship with General Frost (1968), the NZ Messenger with Stanley Rio (1977), the Great Northern Derby with Garcon Roux (1968) and Roydon Roux (1971), the Dominion Handicap with Fantom (1945), the NZ Derby with Royal Minstrel (1954) and Rustic Zephyr (1976), the NZ Trotting Stakes with Highland Kilt (1950), the NZ Oaks with Arania (1959), Bonnie Frost (1969)and Hurrania (1974), the NZ Futurity Stakes with General Frost (1968), Bonnie Frost (1970), Roydon Roux (1971) and Fabriani (1975), the NZ Sires' Produce with Garcon Roux (1968), the Timaru Nursery Stakes with Meadowmac (1963) and Garcon Roux (1968), the North Island Oaks with Bonnie Frost (1970), the NZ Golden Slipper Stakes with General Frost (1967) and Roydon Roux (1970), the Wellington Cup with Samantha (1962 & 1963).

George also campaigned successfully in Australia. He won the NSW Southern Cross Stakes at Harold Park in 1970 with Bonnie Frost and again in 1976 with Stanley Rio when the race was renamed the Prince Stakes, won the NSW Oaks - Victoria Oaks double with Bonnie Frost in 1970, the same year she took out the J L Raith Memorial at Harold Park, and won the NSW Derby and the R C Simpson Sprint at Harold Park in 1969.

Under his guidance, Garcon Roux became the first 3-year-old ever to better 2:00 in New Zealand when he time-trialled at Hutt Park in 1:59.6 while, when campaigned in the United States, his champion mare Arania narrowly missed becoming the then fastest mare in the world when she time-trialled in 1:57 at Lexington when driven by Bill Houghton. Only Her Ladyship (1:56 3/4), Dotties Pick (1:56.8) and the trotter Rosalind (1:56 3/4) had gone faster at the time.

Arania, one of NZ's best mares, was narrowly beaten in the sensational finish to the 1961 Inter-Dominion Grand Final, which saw Massacre, False Step and Arania locked together at the post. Arania and False Step then went to the United States for the 1961 International Series at Yonkers, and, though she performed dissappointingly during the series, she was to win at Roosevelt, and George also drove his Inter-Dominion winner Jay Ar to win at Santa Anita, California, in 2:01 and Garcon Dór to win on the same track in 1:59.

As a trainer, George Noble may have been equalled by few, but never bettered, and he earned the respect of everyone in the industry for his willingness to help others. He was, in every respect, a 'Gentleman' and harness racing is the poorer for his passing.



Credit: Tony Williams writing in NZ Trotting Calendar 28Jun83

DAVE CLARKSON

Dave Clarkson, who was named commentator of the century in 1974 and was a life member of the trotting Hall of Fame, died in Christchurch last week, aged 70, after a long illness.

He began commentating in 1937 at the Banks Peninsula Racing Club, and during a thirty-four-year career he became known for his distinctive style of commentaries at galloping and trotting meetings in the Canterbury region, and also at Trentham for a number of years.

Always a keen racing enthusiast, Mr Clarkson was involved in many areas of the racing industry, both professionally and privately. He was bloodstock manager for Pyne Gould Guiness Ltd in Christchurch for many years until he retired from the position about five years ago. Mr Clarkson was also an auctioneer at the Trentham Yearling Sale for about 25 years and he was instrumental in establishing the South Island bloodstock sale.

After his retirement from race commentating in 1971, Mr Clarkson served as judge for the Canterbury Jockey Club, after which he became a steward for the club and he was later elected an honorary steward. Also a racehorse owner, Mr Clarkson had a good deal of success with the smart galloper Just A Rebel, whom he raced in partnership with the Riccarton trainer Dave Kerr.

Mr Clarkson is survived by two sons.

-o0o-

NZ Trotting Calendar 5Sep45

"I'll pick them up for you as I see them walking round." Yes, its the voice of Dave Clarkson - a voice known to every owner of a radio who ever heard of a horse, from one end od the Dominion to the other. He even has his fans in Australia; he has been listened to with bated breath in Egypt, in Italy, Fiji and Trieste.

Recently the well known radio personality, Jack Maybury, managed to entice Dave Clarkson into the 3ZB studios for an interview. As was only to be expected when these two able 'men of the mike' got together, it was a very successful and very entertaining interview.

Jack Maybury started off by saying that the voice of racing commentator Dave Clarkson has at some time or other been listened to on every radio set in the land. "I feel justified in saying too," said Jacko, "that thousands of listeners, including this one, have repeatedly questioned,'How does he do it?' Well, Dave, I dont know whether, like the Society of Magicians, you are sworn to secrecy - are you? Good! How did you come to take up racing commentaries?"

Answer: Well, I just fluked it. I was drafting sheep with Mr Guy Nicoll one day for the late Mr Walter Parkinson at Kaituna, when the conversation turned to the question of securing a commentator for the Banks Peninsula Club. I listened to the various suggestions of those present and then when we were coming away said to Mr Parkinson,'How about me having a go at this racing business?' One thing led to another, the result being that I was given a start and did my first broadcast for the Banks Peninsula Club on October 20, 1937.

Question: It is not a full-time job with you?

A: No, it is not a full-time job. Actually I am an auctioneer and stock agent and am employed by Messrs H Matson and Co, of Christchurch, my headquarters being at Leeston, in the Ellesmere district.

Q: Having a sporting chief like Allan Matson, I presume, facilitates your fulfilling microphone engagements?

A: Yes, it does. Mr Allan Matson and his brother John, who are the principals of the firm, are very good and let me off just whenever I am wanted by the various racing and trotting clubs.

Q: Do you find the task a tedious one?

A: No, I do not. I Enjoy every race day.

Q: If the answer to this one is yes - you don't show it in your work - ever get nervous?

A: No. Never now. Although I must admit when I first started I was very nervous for the first few days.

Q: Now, let me see - does, say, a race as important as the NZ Cup impose a greater strain on you than does, well, an ordinary hack event?

A: Yes, it does a little. When you broadcast the NZ Cup it is usually relayed throughout the country, and when the technician in the box with you says 'Don't forget you are on a national hook-up' you think, well, here goes, and it has to be good.

Q: From an announcing point of view, which is the more difficult to commentate on - galloping or trotting?

A: Galloping is the harder, mainly because the tracks are further round in circumference and therefore the horses are further away. Added to this is the fact that the gallopers race in closer formation and travel faster.

Q: In the course of your duties, you are called upon to descibe races over all manner of distances - have you any special preference in this direction?

A: Yes, I have. If the track is a mile and a half in circumference, I prefer a mile and a half race, the reason being that the start is directly below you as you stand in the box, and you therefore have what you might call a proper sight of them as they leave the barrier. In the same way, if it is a mile and a quarter track, I prefer a race of that distance and so on. This can be easily understood when you think how hard it is to see them up at the six furlong barrier as at Riccarton and Trentham.

Q: Now Dave, heres's a thing that has most of us guessing - we go to the races and maybe in a field of 20 we back our particular fancy. I think I speak for a lot of sports when I say it's a ticklish job to pick up that one horse at the barrier, let alone follow his fortunes - good or bad - during the race. With you, well, as easy as falling off the preverbial log - you lay aside the racebook and with that now quite famous phrase,'I'll pick them up for you as I see them walking round'...you proceed to run through the entire field. Is it numerology, psychology, astrology, or just plain Clarksonology?

A: Well, now, that is a question I am often asked, and it is not so easy to answer. Firstly, you must have good binoculars and I am particularly proud of mine. Secondly, I have been brought up among horses all my life, and have a great love for them.

Q: Does it entail a great degree of initial study on your part?

A: When I first started I used to swot the colours up quite a bit, But now I never see them until the actual day of the races.

Q: I hope you don't consider me too inquisitive, and please don't think I have any designs on a racing commentator's job. I tried it once - yes - a draught horse derby in Hereford Street - only three starters too - believe me I had a headache for days afterwards. It is rumoured that a lot of people see pink elephants - do you see horses in your sleep?

A: Well, I am afraid I don't see horses in my sleep, and am lucky enough to be one of those who sleeps particularly soundly.

Q: How exactly do you follow the candidates through the progress of a race?

A: There are several small things that give us a clue to the various horses in the race, but the main item is the colours. You must know them from A to Z. Then some particular horse may have a white bridle or martingale on, or both. Another might be wearing a breast-
plate. Then one of the horses in the race may be grey and this is a wonderful help. Then in the trotting sport you get to know the crouch of the various drivers in the sulkies. They have their little pecularities in style which stand out to you. Can't you see at this moment the crouch of Dil Edwards, the way F J Smith holds his hands and the way Allan Holmes leans forward behind Gold Bar. Then in the galloping sport riders such as L J Ellis, W J Broughton and R J Mackie have a seat of their own that is hard to miss, and you couldn't help but pick up Arthur Didham with his long legs. All these points help to make the job a bit easier.

Q: When something comes out of the blue, as it were, is your judgement taxed?

A: Well, no, it is not. But knowing the colours and those smaller points you are able to pick out the horse 'that comes from the clouds' just as soon as it appears.

Q: Do adverse weather conditions make it very difficult?

A: Yes, they make a big difference. If it is a lovely fine day the horses are brought into the birdcage and the jockeys come out to mount with their colours up and you get a good look at them as they parade round. Then you get them set in the back of your mind. If it is a wet day the riders or drivers appear with their coats on, and go to the post like this, which means that you don't get a chance to get a look at the colours and freshen up your memory until about two minutes before the starter lets them go.

Q: When your engagements take you away from your home area, is it difficult to become acquainted with new horses?

A: Yes, it is rather. When I first went up to Trentham to act for the Wellington Racing Club, I found it was nearly like starting all over again. I had then to become acquainted with a big number of North Island horses, and learn their colours. Even now on each trip to Trentham I find that I come in contact with a good number of fresh horses on each visit.

Q: Do you really get as excited during the finish of a race as you appear to over the air?

A: Do I really get excited? I have been asked this question several times. Well, yes I do. The tougher the finish the better I like it. Nothing appeals more than a race with the pace on all the way and a head and head finish. I love to see them go.

"Again our grateful thanks for having made this broadcast possible," said Jacko in conclusion. "I feel I voice the sentiments of many thousands of listeners all over NZ in saying 'Thanks a million for the job you have done so well in the past." We appreciate you, and trust you may enjoy the very best of health to enable you to carry on the good work for many many years to come."

Credit: NZ Trotting Calendar 16Aug83

Max & June Thompson with Wee Win

MAX THOMPSON

Popular trainer Max Thompson died in Christchurch last week. The holder of an amateur trainer's licence for the last 21 years, he was probably best known for his association with the tough open-class performer Wee Win, now at stud. Wee Win won nineteen races and was placed 26 times for stakes of over $110,000 for Thompson. Included in his wins were an Easter Cup and three heats of the 1979 Inter-Dominions at Addington.

Thompson a bushman and then a self-employed contractor in his early years as a licence holder, bred the horses he raced himself. Most of them stem from the fine trotting mare Foam from whom Thompson bred such winners as Foaming Lass, Pacific Star, Coral View, Gourmet's Pride and Foaming Waters. He bred from Foaming Lass with a lot of success. As well as Wee Win, she left speedy mare Winning Lass, and Winning Queen and Jaymax, both $25,000 yearlings bought at the national sale by Sydney owner Jack Honan. This season Thompson raced the successful Wee Junior (by Wee Win) who was trained by his son Gavin.

Max Thompson, who had been in poor health for some time, was 62 when he died. He is survived by his wife June, sons Gavin, Dennis and Mark and daughter Merilyn.



Credit: NZ Trotting Calendar 22Jun82

LES WHEELER

A £25 investment thirteen years ago is still paying dividends for Springston dairy farmer Les Wheeler.

Back in 1968 he and a friend went halves in a £50 broodmare, Wavering Downs, deciding to take alternative foals from her. Les Wheeler's first foal was a filly, Edis Nova. She developed into a top trotter. Then, ten days ago, Novander, Edis Nova's first foal, made it two starts for two wins when she took out the 4-year-old trot at Addington. She had, earlier last month, won her debut at Oamaru after several impressive trial runs.

Wheeler, an amateur licenceholder, trains the mare and races her in partnership with his son Jeff, himself licenced to drive at matinees and trials. There is nothing much of Novander but she showed she has got a big heart when she slugged it out with Bloxett all the way down the Addington straight after getting a long way back early in the race, then improving to sit in the open. The race didn't take too much out of her. And out at Springston last week the owners suggested she could have gone another round after winning at Oamaru.

Peter Jones has driven her both times. "She can be a bit tricky at the start, you have got to watch her over that first bit," Jeff, who does a lot of the work with the horse, said last week. "Peter knows her though. We have taken her over the Derek's place a couple of times so he could get to know her. The other night they got back because Peter didn't want to hurry her early, but once on the way she's as good as gold." Novander has many of the traits displayed by her mother. She is a lazy worker and generally has to be pushed along. Edis Nova, too, was a great doer, "just like this wee thing here," said Jeff, patting the latest stable star on the flank. The Wheelers, already pleased with the way she's gone so far, will be ecstatic if Novander turns out half as good as her mother.

Edis Nova won about a dozen races and racked up more than thirty placings in her career. Les Wheeler bred her himself, his first venture into the harness game. A fellow member of the Metropolitan Milk Board, Lester Moore, had bought Wavering Downs for £50 and offered Les a half-share. He took it. "Lester wanted to toss a coin to see who would have the first foal; But I reckoned that seeing it was his mare to start with, he should have the first," Les recalled last week. She produced a colt, Arthur's Pass by Password. The next season, Wheeler sent Wavering Downs to Tuft. "I didn't know much, but I thought I would like to breed a trotter. Dudley Moore had Tuft near my run-off property down the road, so I decided on him. "He was one of the first really trotting-bred horses here, wasn't he? Even that's no guarantee you will get a trotter."

The mating couldn't have worked out much better. Little Edis Nova was a good horse almost from the day she arrived. As a 2-year-old, she won three non-tote trots at Addington in a row, the first of then by an official fifty lengths. The filly was raced in partnership by Wheeler and Freeman Holmes who trained her until Les was granted a licence himself in 1975. All told, she won close to $31,000 before being sent to stud. She was placed in both the Rowe Cup and the Dominion Handicap.

"When I was contracting I'd had a bit to do with Leo Berkett and Dave Bennett and a few other trotting people...but I had never owned a racehorse before Edis Nova, probably because I couldn't afford it. There was no way I expected my first one to turn out like that." Edis Nova was retired because she was starting to make hard work of her races. She was meeting the likes of Easton Light and company. "She probably had another win or two in her, but she had been so good to us, we didn't want to break the old girl's heart," Wheeler said.

Over the following years, Lester Moore bred Pacific Wave, Star Wave (both by Pacific Hanover), The Power Game and promising maiden trotter Proud To Be (both by Game Pride) from Wavering Downs, a half sister to 1964 Rowe Cup winner Dreaming. Proud To Be showed her ability when she bolted in in the trotter's sweepstake event at the latest Canterbury OTB trials at Addington.

Meanwhile the Wheelers, since Edis Nova, have bred their share of winners from Wavering Downs. Lord Nova was their second foal. By Lordship, he won two races for them before being sold. He was a disappointment then, until he was sent to America, where he went 1:59.8 and won more than $100,000. "We were disappointed with the way he went here. We were sure he would win a lot more," Les Wheeler said. The next foal was Nicki Nova (by Tuft). She won one race pacing before leaving the speedy young pacer Nova Light (by Winterlight). So far, then, there hadn't been many to fulfill Wheeler's hopes of breeding trotters. But Wavering Downs' ninth foal, to Gerry Mir, was the fine young trotter Gerry Nova. Trained by Les' older son Ross, then a professional trainer, Gerry Nova ran third to Thriller Dee in the NZ Trotting Stakes at his first start. Two starts later he was second again to Thriller Dee in the Rosso Antico Stakes at Auckland before winning a maiden trot at Timaru in 3:31.7, a time seldom, if ever, bettered by a novice trotter on the track. He was then sold to America for good money while, soon after, Ross moved to the Waikato where he's been share-milking for the past three years. Wavering Downs has since left Star Nova, a Crockett 4-year-old who is close to qualifying. Unfortunately, she died the day after foaling Bad News, now a 3-year-old, by Evening News, for Lester Moore.

Her racing days over, Edis Nova was left in the north where, after missing to Crockett, she produced three foals to Great Evander. Novander is the first of them. She was floated back to the South Island as a weanling and was taken along very quietly. She showed hardly any inclination to trot at all in the beginning. "As a 2 and 3-year-old she appeared a natural pacer. We worked her quietly free-legged but then, gradually, the trotting side of her came through. "She almost got to the stage where she might have qualified pacing," Jeff, who's 19, said last week. "But now she trots cleanly with no weights and only very light shoes."

Jeff drove Novander when she qualified...twice. "She went 3:38.2 when winning at Addington but she couldn't qualify because she hadn't been inspected. We went back the next time and, even though we didn't go quite as quickly, she qualified again," Jeff said. Jeff gained most of his experience through helping Ross when he trained at Springston. These days when he's not helping with the cows on the family's three blocks, he spends all his time with the horses. They have already put some time into Edis Nova's other two foals by Great Evander, the 3-year-old Nancy Nova and Ricky Nova. Nancy Nova has been turned out for a good spell while her younger brother is also out for a while. "He's pacing at the moment but I think given time, he will probably trot," Jeff said. The only other in the stable right now is a 2-year-old filly by Lumber Dream out of Nicki Nova. She's trotting. "I think she'll be okay, too," Les said. "She's not being rushed."

With all the Wheeler family riding ponies and show jumping with some success when younger, the racehorses often get a saddle put across them. The latest in the team are no exception. "They should be handled a lot when young...and riding them provides a bit of variation and gives them a bit of strength in the back," Jeff contends. "Most of all, it takes time and patience." That, it seems, is sure to pay off with Novander.

In the meantime, Edis Nova is in foal to Scottish Hanover, a champion sire who's left very few trotters. "We decided on him when we saw her other foals paced a bit," Les said. "We thought, if she wants a pacer, we'll give her a chance." But, even then, it's not certain her next foal will pace. And that's what the Wheelers find fascinating about breeding their own horese...the uncertainty of it all.

Credit: Graham Ingram writing in NZ Trotting Calendar 9Jun82

BILL DOYLE

It was back in October 1948 or 1949, the year doesn't matter much. Bill Doyle had his trotting mare Passive down at Oamaru and was with her in the box before the race when a stranger stuck his head over the door. "Do you want to sell your horse?" was the visitor's opening gambit. "No." "Are you sure you don't want to sell her?" "Quite sure. I brought her down here to race, not to sell," was Bill Doyle's firm reply. The stranger left. The race over - she was either third of nowhere depending on the year - Passive was on her way back to her stall when they encountered the would-be buyer again. "You haven't changed your mind?" he asked. Hopefully. "No." "You know you've got the best bred mare in the country there, don't you? Seeing your not going to sell, you may as well have this."

And with that the stranger handed the visiting trainer a piece of paper and walked away. Now, more than thirty years later, Bill Doyle scrambles around a draw in the lounge in his spacious old home and produces that piece of paper. The ink-pen writing is still easily legible, even though the paper itself is almost coming apart through many foldings. "There it is," he says. "Passive's breeding right back. He must have spent countless hours, months, finding all this out and putting it down." And there it is too, Passive's pedigree all the way back to the pure-bred imported Arabian mare who was mated to Traducer in the 1860's sometime. Traducer, an English thoroughbred, was by The Libel and foaled in 1857.

Bill Doyle had never seen the would-be buyer before that day...and he hasn't seen him since. Didn't even find out his name. "But he must have been right," Doyle concedes. Passive's breeding record bears that out. Her record is better than just about any other in the Stud Book. At the end of her racing career - and she won a good number of races for Doyle - she produced foals to Ripcord twice, champion sire Light Brigade six times and Flying Song once. Eight of those were winners, six producing winners themselves, while even Passive's grand-daughters have kept the current chain going.

Currently keeping the Doyle name among the leading lights of trotting owners is About Now, a pet around his Leeston property and winner of 22 races as well. She's won four this term for stakes of more than $21,000 and, at this stage, must be a Rowe Cup prospect. But back to Passive.

Bill Doyle bred her himself out of Violet Wrack (by Wrack from Violet Wilkes), a mare he trained and raced for his friend Dan Robertson from Hakataramea. "I won a lot of races with her. When she finished I asked Dan if I could breed from her. 'Take the first foal,' he said, so I put her to U Scott to get Passive." The youngster couldn't have pleased her breeder more. "I'll tell you how good she was, I would have started her in the Sapling Stakes as a trotter if she hadn't broken a leg when she was two. She was a real flying machine," Doyle recalls with obvious pleasure. Later, when the leg mended, she showed a fair amount of ability. Still, it was some years after the accident she finally hit the track again. Doyle hadn't intended to race her but was persuaded by a friend from down south to at least try her again. "She trotted with a stiff leg, a real old peg-leg getting along, she was."

Her first foal was Reflective, by Ripcord. Reflective herself left winners in Jeepers Creepers (dam of Deep Hanover and Kenwood Song), Journey Home, All Alone, In Disguise and Let's Think. Chances Are (by Light Brigade) left five winners, Big Spender (dam of Ready Money and Lay Off), Rebel Statesman, Main Chance, Chichester and Smart Move. As well, her three other daughters Chance Again (Sly Chance), Hello Stranger (Espiritu) and Passive Lady (Leica Lady and Poker Night)have produced winners. Then came When.

"What a great mare she was." Doyle, relaxed in his lounge, surrounded by photographs of some of his winning horses, trophies galore, savours the memory. "She was the fastest of them all." When held the NZ mile record at 2:02.8 in 1963 when Doyle took her to America. "She was never right over there. The virus got to her but not as badly as it did some. They were dragging horses out of the barns only two or three days after we had got there. And it seems to hang on to them."

That trip, as Doyle assesses it, could have produced a sensation in NZ breeding circles. Ha almost bought a Russian mare to cross with the local blood. "What a horse. I can see her now as plain as day. The length of that lovely big chestnut...I fell in love with that mare." A pause in proceedings to search the myriads of photographs and cuttings from the time so the beauty of the beast can be shared. Apparently she'd been stabled in the box next to When. Both were down to contest the international trot series at Yonkers, an event conceived by raceway owner Martin Tananbaum. "I really took a fancy to her. I'd be into the box with her all the time. She was being looked after by a doctor and a professor and, while they couldn't speak English, I got on well with them through an interpreter." The Russians told Doyle she was for sale, along with another mare, a grey, they had brought over for the series. I told them I couldn't afford to pay too much but would talk to them again."

Off on a different tack for a moment to explain how the series was organised. The Americans would pay all expenses for owner and horses and then would share any winnings, fifty-fifty. "Tanabaum himsef was out here and he wanted When so much, he agreed to my terms in the end. The first race was mine...I'd play ball with the rest. We really sweated over that." That first race was for about $65,000, Doyle recalls. He was confident that after it he'd be able to buy the Russian mare. But it wasn't to be. When finished only second, beaten by an Italian 'gentleman' driver, a count, and his horse. He disorganised half the field at one stage and the stipes were waiting for him. They asked me to testify that the Italian had been to blame, but I wouldn't. I would not have liked to win the race that way."

Doyle produced a huge photograph of two smiling drivers, himself and the count, shaking hands after the event. "I really felt like kicking him. In the end, he bought both those Russian horses with his prize money. They would have provided a great cross for our blood. They belonged to the old Vladivostok line." (Incidentally, they finished at the rear of the field.)
Back home, When made a brief and successful reappearance on the racetrack before going into the broodmare paddock to produce winners in Now Charles, Time To Go, Now, Live Twice, Dining Out, Forget It and Now or Never.

So Rare, another by Ripcord, produced Perfect Answer, who qualified and a winner in Rarify. Asia Minor, winner of a host of races, was Passive's next foal by Light Brigade. At three the gelding - "I wouldn't have a colt on the place" - won the NZ Trotting Stakes for Doyle. Then came Remember When, a winner herself and dam of Boadicea, Anniversary Day and Now Then. Remember When, too, was by Light Brigade and was a sister to Wipe Out who developed into a Cup class pacer. "He was a big flat-footed horse who took a 65 to 67 inch hopple. He started off trotting but one day he just broke into a pace. We put the hopples on then ...and we never took them off." He was a good horse all through, but Bill Doyle especially remembers his double at the Auckland winter meeting in May, 1969. There, in the hands of Peter Wolfenden, he won the Mark Memorial on the first night and then the Adams Gold Cup on the second. Those trophies rest on the mantlepice today. Wipe Out made it three in a row when he returned home to Canterbury to take out the Louisson Handicap at Addington at his next start, early the following season.
Someday, a top trotter, was the next of Passive's progeny. As well as trotting a winning mile in 2:06, she also became the dam of About Now and Some Evander, an unraced colt who is now at stud. Snoopy, by Flying Song, was Passive's last foal and he was a good winner in America.

Passive, though, isn't the only broodmare to have given Bill Doyle a top-line family. He has just as much time for Within, a Wrack mare from Lady Swithin who raced in the 1930s and early 40s. For instance, she trotted an Australasian record 3:32.2 for the 13 furlongs of the Holmwood Handicap at Addington in 1941. "Often I'd line her up against the pacers...and we'd beat them too," he says, producing the photograph of the finish of her record breaking run. He'd bought her off her Auckland breeder, Jim Paul, "a great man with trotters."

Doyle was up there in the north with Bomber some years later to win a Dominion Trotting Handicap for his trainer. "Bomber had never raced before. He chased every seagull off the course that day at Alexandra Park and still won. He could trot." Bomber was by Quite Sure. And that win gave Bill Doyle something to laugh about to this day. Apparently Miss Julia Cuff, from Hinds, had promised a new suit to the trainer of the first Quite Sure winner in NZ. Eventually it went to the owners of that trotting machine Certissimus. "But Bomber's win came months before," Doyle contends. "After that I'd often remind her she owed me a new suit. I never did get it."

Among several talented trotters (With You and Encircle for instance), Within also left Circlette, herself a winner and dam of half a dozen more. Circlette (by U Scott) left Certain Smile, Caught Napping, Villa Caprina, Country John, Going and Mercury Montego. Certain Smile is the dam of Emme Smile and Mini Smile and the grandam of an up-and-coming young trotter, Mini's Pride. Villa Caprina is the dam of Villa Katrina and top-flighter Relinquish, and grandam of recent double winner The Stag. There are more to come. Going, of course, is the dam of Sid and Let's Go.

Pictures around the wall. Every one evokes a story. Some can be told, others shouldn't. Horses, top horses almost without exception. Horses like Gold Horizon, another by Quite Sure, and the top trotter of his era. Bill Doyle leased him as a 9-year-old. At that stage he had had six wins from 24 starts. Then he really started to blossom. Over four seasons he lined up 35 times for another 14 wins and 11 placings and stakes of more than £15,000. When he retired in the late 1950s, Gold Horizon had won £18,260, a record amount for a trotter in Australasia. He was second twice in the Dominion Handicap, the first time to Barrier Reef, and the second when he conceded the winner, Vodka, 60 yards. He also won a couple of NZ Trotting Free-For-Alls and an Ashburton Cup against some of the better pacers around.

There was Lament, too, original wearer in the 1930s of the white bridle the Doyle horses used for more than forty years. "I think it's probably still around here somwhere," Doyle, now 77, says. Lament won "just about every trotting free-for-all there was" for Doyle.

Top mare In The Mood provided one of the most sensational incidents of his racing life. She was by U Scott, out of Princess Napoleon, and was a yearling buy from J R McKenzie. "I should have won the NZ Cup with her but she got into trouble early, was last into the straight, only to finish fourth," he reckons. He then took In The Mood and War Form north "to win the Auckland Cup." About the time of the war, Doyle recalls, and there were only five or six starters that year. His horses finished a furlong last. An incredible result. And, if that wasn't bad enough, when they got home they hardly had any hair left. And neither had the attendant who had been with them all through the trip. Doyle shakes his head. It's not the heat, or the screeching of the tame guinea fowl outside, which give him cause to wonder. "They were got at," he said. "Good and proper." He did, though, have some luck in Auckland Cups. He drove the winners of two...Nedworthy in 1940 and Loyal Friend in 1943. Betty Boop also took the big Auckland prize in 1944. She won the NZ Futurity for Doyle. "I sold her lease the night before the Futurity, win lose or draw."

In The Mood, the winner of £12,000, left three colts, all to Light Brigade. The first was Showdown who won an Ashburton Cup in 1958, the second was Reason Why who went on to make his mark as a sire in Western Australia, and the other was Light Mood, one of the few horses Doyle has sold through the yearling sales. Light Mood won nine races, beating Robin Dundee by three lengths in his last victory.

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Part two NZ Trotting Calendar 16Feb82

Bill Doyle has had a huge amount of success with his horses, pacers and trotters, over the years. He's bred his own and he's bought them. So what does he look for in a potentially good horse?

"First there's is the feet, then the legs, the body, and some character should show through the head," he says. "A good horse should have decent wide black feet. I feel your judgement's slipping a bit if you look at a foot with a lot of white in it. They can give you a lot of trouble."

His training methods, he reckons, are "pretty orthodox." Feeding and individual attention are essential for all horses. "If you can't feed them properly and get attached to them, you shouldn't have horses." And is Bill Doyle attached to all his horses? "I should say so. There's the occasional one you've got to square up, but once you've won that round, yes, then you get attached to them."

The Doyle horses lack nothing in attention. He spends hours every day getting the mud out of their feet and brushing hooves with tar and oil; interminable hours grooming the racehorses, a master practitioner of the dying art of 'dressing' a horse. He studies each one carefully and works out what they need to eat. Those ready for racing usually get their evening meal in two halves, rather than filling up all at once. And when the season's right, they can take their share of wind-blown pears which lie on the ground under the old tree in the yard. Even pick the ones which haven't fallen , if they like. He can call out to any of them - his youngsters, too - and they'll respond. Come to his hand.

He admits he's past doing his own shoeing these days and says there's no real secret to it - rather a method of trial and error until you come up with something that works. "I often get asked for advice. 'Try everything' I say." Variety in training is also essential, although the days of working around the roads are gone now. "There's too much traffic...and most of the drivers show no consideration to anyone with a horse on the road. It's out of the question." But there's plenty of room on Doyle's property for the horses in work to have a change of scenery nearly every other day. "They've got to have variety. They get sick of being bottled up in one place." Sometimes, by way of a change, the horses are sent to another Doyle property, where they're hacked around his cattle.

Bill Doyle is, in his own assessment, first and foremost a farmer, a cattle farmer with a hungry market to satisfy. "Cattle breeding and fattening is my priority always." He held a professional licence once but gave up public training a long time ago to put the farming first. Even these days, when he's gradually cutting down his cattle operation, his horses remain a hobby, a relaxation.

The Doyle family has always farmed in the area around Leeston...and it's always had horses. Bill's grandfather, J H Doyle, came out from Scotland in the 1860s and settled not far from Leeston in the area now known as 'Doyleston'. He, too, was a successful horseman. Bill Doyle provides the proof. Amongst racing books spanning almost a century, there's one with results from a Southbridge race meeting some time during 1875-76. There, winning a three mile saddle trot for the princely sum of five sovereigns, is one J H Doyle. "My grandfather." Bill's father, also W J, was also a farmer and worked with a lot of horses, quite apart from his racing team. He handled a lot of horses during World War I, mainly gun horses. And then, too, he supplied many of the local fishermen down at Lake Ellersmere with horses for their traps.

It was more than sixty years ago that the present Bill Doyle started with racehorses, riding in saddle races. He particularly remembers his first win, on a horse called Wirey trained by his father. "It was a one and a quarter mile saddle race at Greymouth. I remember Dad saying to me before the race 'if you don't come first in this , there won't be a home for you'." Doyle chuckles at the memory. "I won that race by ten lengths." And from that time the wins have come regularly. How many over the years? "I couldn't tell you within a hundred." He's even owned a Grand National Steeplechase winner, Thurina, who took out the country's premier jumping event in 1933. Bert Ellis rode the horse that day. The trainer was Bill's sister. Bill himself says he was always too heavy for the thoroughbreds.

Today, Bill Doyle regrets that trotting has grown to "too big a business. The sport's gone, the pleasure of being involved with a sport has been lost. There are so many horses around (and there's usually no more than a dozen on his property at once) it's become a liability to have one. More and more people are buying horses and breeding them, going into it thinking it's an easy game. But it's not. It's tough." You can't make it just by training a small team. You have to sell. "The American market keeps most going. They'd be shot without that." Rules and regulations now had taken most of the pleasure away. Which is why he is drifting away slowly. "I feel my hands are tied now." Those same rules and regulations had allowed the inexperienced to get licences, to allow people who might not have even seen a horse until a couple of years previously to drive. "In the early days you found that those with licences had worked with stock all the time. They had a big advantage."

"You only had to compare the attitudes of some of the less experienced drivers today with those of men like Maurie Holmes, Peter Wolfenden and Bob Cameron. The topliners think about their drives for days, during the preliminary all they're concentrating on is the job in front of them. You don't see them chatting away to other drivers during the preliminaries. And at the start, they're not waiting for the tape to go past them, they're watching the starter all the time.By the time the tape's gone, so too have the top men. They don't wait."

Doyle's also critical of drivers pushing and shoving during races. "Those old hands don't push and shove...but at the same time, they wouldn't give you an inch. They know where everyone else is, and once they get to where they want to be, they stay there. And they're entitled to. Generally you get only one chance in a race and you've got to take it when you can. Not barge your way through when it's too late. They're not plough horses these fellows are driving. They're sensitive racehorses and must be nursed through, otherwise they're ruined." Doyle fully agrees with stipendiary stewards taking a hard line for interference. "They must be given the message somehow," he contends.

He recalls with some feeling the days when he could drive himself. "I had my greatest fun then. You pitted yourself against some of the finest chaps in the world, men like Gladdy McKendry, Dil Edwards, Freeman Holmes, Ces Donald, Ossie Hooper, Maurice Holmes, Maurice McTigue...the list goes on. They asked for no quarter, you gave them none. They were good friends, and if you fell out, well you just started off again."

It's time to bring the horses in, to start to get them settled for the night. There are some hours of work left yet and the bookwork hasn't been done this afternoon. Bill Doyle calls out as he goes from paddock to paddock, talks to those in their separate yards. The ones he wants follow him into the barn where they'll get their feet seen to...a brush and a feed.They're all individuals with their own needs. You've got to see they get them. Good food and good shelter. That's the story.

You leave him oiling a hoof. Late afternoon. Bill Doyle will be out and about again at five the next morning. A bit tough when your 77? Not really. That is when his morning helper arrives. "And I probably take the record for going to bed early. That helps."



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Article in HRWeekly 28Apr88

The death occurred on Monday of Bill Doyle. Regarded as someone special with the trotter, Bill was 82.

From Leeston, a farming area half an hour south of Christchurch, Bill Doyle became a legendary horseman right from the start of his career in harness racing.

At the age of 20, Bill took over a team of horses trained by his father. One of them was Prince Author, who soon after won the Reefton and Hokitika Cups. Like his father, Bill trained gallopers as well as trotters, and in 1933 prepared Thurlina to win the Grand National Steeplechase in the hands of his good friend Bert Ellis.

While his father had the store at Doyleston and ran his team from there, Bill bought a property at Leeston during the depression years. Prince Author was followed by the top trotter Mountain Mist, All Peters, Olson and the top racemare Violet Wrack, who left Passive. From nine foals, Passive produced eight winners - Reflective, Chances Are, When, So Rare, Asia Minor, Remember When, Wipeout, Someday and Snoopy.

In 1934, the stable was represented by the fine young pacer Subsidy, who finished second in the Sapling Stakes, then came out the next season to win the Great Northern Derby. Then came some outstanding trotters, notably the dashing Gold Horizon, When, Lament, Bomber, Going, About Now and Elite Rey.

Gold Horizon won the Worthy Queen Handicap, the Hambletonian Handicap (twice) and the NZ Trotting Free-For-All (twice). Lament won nine free-for-alls. Bomber won the Dominion Handicap in 1943 and When was invited to race in New York by Yonkers officials in the early 1960s.

Top pacers trained over the years included Betty Boop (winner of the 1944 Auckland Cup and the NZ Futurity Stakes). In The Mood (placed in the NZ Cup), Ned Worthy (winner of the Auckland Cup in 1940), Wipeout (10 wins), Showdown, Warform, Reason Why, Chances Are, Encircle, Now, Someday, All Alone and many others.

Until about 18 months ago, Bill was still training the young trotter Look. Quiet and modest. Bill Doyle was never one to dwell on the past.

Credit: Graham Ingram writing in NZ Trotting Calendar 9&16Feb82

Gordon Middleton & Fancy Dick

GORDON MIDDLETON

It seems to be the way that when a driver reaches the compulsory retiring age of 65, he finishes in the money somewhere, wins as often as not, his final drive. Wes Butt won his last drive at Addington on Brow Raiser, Alec Purdon got Boneparte home first in what turned out to be his last effort in the race cart. Cecil Devine got done by a nose with Lord Brigade, Morrie Holmes ended his career with a win behind Transmitter Sound in Auckland...No doubt there are more examples, but those suffice to prove the point.

Not so with Mid-Canterbury horseman and farmer Gordon Middleton, though. Sixth was his lot with son Carl's Kenneth William at Addington last week. "He was slow away and never got a good run after that," Middleton, who was 65 back in February, said the other day.

It was about a year ago, when looking at his imminent departure from the driving ranks, that Gordon Middleton suggested this might be his best season ever, 1981/82 though, was far from his best. Winners were scarce. Non-existent even. There was a good reason for that, however. Over the year he's sold or given away to sons or daughter, those who could have put him in the winner's circle - and the others he's let pass by. Over the years there have been a good number of winners, almost every one bred and trained by himself. His best season was back in 1974/75. "I had nine or ten wins that year, seven of them with Fancy Fred," Middleton recalled. "That would have been my best."

Although having a life-long interest in horses, Gordon Middleton never really got into racing until about thirty years ago. "I drove a six horse team for two years when I left school. That taught me how to feed them properly, what a days work was for a horse...and how far you could go with them." He then spent about seven years blade shearing around Hanmer Springs before shearing in Central Otago until the war intervened. He served with the 19th Armoured Regiment in the Middle East and Italy "without getting a scratch" and returned to shearing once home, this time around Methven. After a couple of years he had sufficient put aside to buy a small farm at Three Springs, near Methven. He stayed on those 188 acres before applying for a "rehab" farm at Highbank and getting it. "I've been on it ever since - thirty-one years it is," Middleton said.

He had to have a hobby then. Horses provided it. "I still liked them so I used to help Gladdy McKendry with his horses a bit," he recalled. In fact, it was McKendry who provided him with a reference when Middleton applied for his amateur trainer and trials driving licence in the 1952/53 season. Six seasons later he received his professional trainer and open horseman's ticket.

Marawiti, a Lucky Jack mare, was his first horse. And, as well as winning several races for Middleton - and others - she became his foundation broodmare. "She cost me £100, and after she had put up some good performances, I sold her for eleven hundred," Middleton recalled. It's a story he's had to tell often. "Four years later, when she'd had a few trainers and hadn't been able to win, I bought her back for £75. She won a double at Waimate and then I leased her to George Todd in Auckland. "She won three races for him and at one stage ran eleven seconds on end."

Her racing over, Marawiti returned to Highbank and was put to Light Brigade. Open class trotter Laplander was the result. He won eight races, in the process providing Gordon's son Carl with his first winning drive. That was at Rangiora. A few foals later, Idle Fancy came along. And she's proved to be the source of most of Middleton's success in recent years. But back to her soon. Pompano folllowed and she was a good trotter, too. Carl has her and is breeding from her. With success. She then produced Runholder, "the first horse I sold overseas" who has been a winner in Australia for Vic Frost, Truant Jan and Lucky Truant. There have been others, but as yet they haven't made an impact.

Idle Fancy did, though. A winner herself, she left the winners Fancy Kate, Francy Fred, Fancy Dick and Fancy Matilda, all by Truant Hanover, a horse Carl stood for some seasons. Fancy Fred was undoubtedly the best of them. "Probably the best horse I've had," Gordon reckons. His record as a youngster was a formidible one. He won the Springtime Stakes at his debut, was second and third in the Festival Stakes at Addington and the Golden Slipper, won the New Year Stakes, was placed in his next three starts, won the Timaru Nursery by six and a half lengths, the Kindergaten Stakes, the Graduation Stakes and later the Welcome Stakes. In between those wins there were more minor placings, and later he ran fourth in the Sapling, before another win at Auckland in his last win for the season. Even now, Gordon considers he should have won the Sapling too. "I led till the 600 and then went to sleep and gave it away. We got carted back and then had to come again. If I had kept in front he'd have won easily. He was only jogging," is how he sees it now.

Fancy Matilda would win the Kindergaten a few seasons later before leaving a speedy sort herself in Matilda, now in Sydney. "I gave her to my son Ross and she's with Ernie Hargraves in Sydney." He's sent other horses to Sydney over the years, Bret's Command among them, while he's had winners in America too. Graham Brown is the latest there. By Assault out of Pam Hanover, who also traces to Marawiti, Graham Brown still holds the world mile record for a yearling at 2:05.9. Gordon has a lot of time for that horse, too. He's just sold a yearling filly, Fancy Nola (Honkin Andy-Idle Fancy) "for big money" to Perth and she'll be on her way there any day. "That's the only way to do it these days. You've got to get them going and then sell them. That's where the money is I reckon." Right from the start, Middleton has had only a small team in work at any one time - and he's only ever trained one outside horse. "The was Gay Gillian who won five races, I think," he said.

He has definite ideas on how to get youngsters going along well early - "they need their hopples tight" - and, even though he's on the point of selling his Highbank farm, he'll still have the opportunity to put his theories into practice. His farming days over, he intends buying a piece of land on the outskirts of Ashburton, near the racecourse, and will continue to breed and train a few there. When he moves, he will take half a dozen horses with him. There'll be three broodmares - Idle Fancy, who's in foal to Plat du Jour, Pam Hanover (Out To Win) and Ina, by Fancy Dick, who's in foal to Farm Timer.

"I'm in pretty good health so I'll be able to do them okay," Middleton said last week. "In any case, a bit of hard work never hurt anyone."

Credit: Graham Ingram writing in NZ Trotting Calendar 3Aug82