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JACK WALSH

The death in Gore last week of Jack Walsh, aged 77, had me digging into the archives for a few words I penned on this gentleman in 1967. I hope you enjoy the reminiscience.

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Walsh, who trained the champion mare, Robin Dundee, in the twilight of his career, was the leading Southland driver and trainer on numerous occasions. He rode or drove close on 400 winners and as a trainer, won more than 300 races.

Walsh was born in Nightcaps and his first job was in a grocer's shop there. He was quite content with the job, but, he recalled, "the owner asked me to manage the place, so I left." It was also at Nightcaps in 1917 that Walsh had his first introduction to trotting. A Nightcaps butcher, Mr J H Reed, asked Walsh to ride a pacer called Gladiola, whom he owned and trained. Although he had ridden in gentlemen riders' at galloping meetings, Walsh told him that he had no idea how to sit on a pacing horse in harness and he thought he would be certain to come down.

Mr Reed had greater faith in Walsh, and asked him to ride Gladiola in saddle events at the 1917 Forbury Park winter meeting. Walsh applied to Christchurch for his horseman's licence, but this had not arrived on the morning of the meeting. A hurried phone call to Christchurch confirmed that the licence had been granted and Walsh took the mount on Gladiola. Gladiola was beaten a head by Nihilist, but came out to on the second day to win the two-mile Dunedin Handicap. A 3-year-old filly, she gave away starts of 60 yards and won by two lengths.

From then on Walsh never looked back. He returned to Gore in 1926 and worked with trotting trainer J R McMurray for 12 months. Then as private trainer to Mr F Wallis, he prepared such good winners as Sea Hawk, Ding Dong Bell, Nelson Elwyn and Red Anthony. Later as a public trainer Walsh trained such winners as Kissing Cup, Heather Dillon, Pacemaker, Gildirect, Meg Mundy, Aspasia, Lauder Lady, Dame Sybil, Mooloo, Navigate, Cabra who won the Dominion Handicap, and Ley's Pride.

Walsh's best training tally was 18 wins in the 1956-7 season when he also drove 16 winners. Walsh's services as a horseman, were in keen demand and between 1930 and 1940 he rode or drove 121 winners. Walsh maintained the best horse he rode in saddle was Rocks Ahead, who holds the track record of 2:09 2-5 set at Forbury Park in 1936. Walsh developed Robin Dundee into the best pacing mare in Australia and NZ in the 1960s when she took a record of 1:59 at Harold Park and won more than $100,000.

Credit: Taylor Strong writing in NZ Trotting Calendar 4Aug71

DRIVERS COMPULSORY RETIREMENT

Harness marketing gurus would describe it now as the quaddie from hell. At the end of the 1970-71 season when Jack Litten, Doug Watts, Bob Young and Bll Doyle "four horsemen of the apocalypse" in their era were invited by the authorities to hand in their driving licences having reached 65 - an invitation it was impossible to decline. For many it was almost the harness equivalent of the Buddy Holly plane crash the "day the music died." Three years later when Maurice Holmes had to follow suit, it was.

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JACK LITTEN -
was almost an "overnight sensation" for the times, having risen from relative obscurity just before the Second World War with horses like Suspanse and Firewater after having to sell his best star Royal Romance, to Vic Alborn just as she struck her best form. He was able to buy her back later to breed from. Within a decade the battler was a leader in his profession.

His famous training and breeding deeds, especially with young horses, was partly formed by his early association with Bella Button, then of Brooklyn Lodge in New Brighton, who while never officially licenced in either code won many races driving her trotters and produced outstanding gallopers at Riccarton in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Something of a phenomenon, Bella was especially skilled with young horses and the Little Rive'r-born Litten learned his lessons well.

Relative to scale, few have matched his achievements with youngsters in the generations since. But he was an all round champion producing Our Roger, a horse with a famously low heart score, to win a NZ Cup - though he would have dearly loved the "Mighty Atom", the champion Caduceus, to have shared that honour which he actually should have won that day.

On his retirement Jack rated Caduceus setting a 2000m record at Addington in 2:31.8 (it stood for a generation) as his biggest thrill though the 1956 Inter-Dominion Final when he took over the driving himself and won before a crowd we will never see at an ID final again must have been magic.

Royal Romance's daughter, Royal Triumph, would later produce Junior Royal. A granddaughter produced Royal Mile who set a 2-year-old Australasian trotting record for Litten at Addington in July of 1954 in a special time trial. A keen student of breeding "JD" also stood the thoroughbred stallion Aristoi, a brother to world champion Sir Ivor (sire of Sir Tristram).

The horse which established him in classic racing was Fallacy who was at 8/1 first up at three at Ashburton in the spring but paid £46 at his second start and then won the Riccarton Stakes and the NZ Derby. Only the 4-year-old Johnny Globe beat him at that Cup Meeting. His unexpected success at stud was notable. His granddam, Escapade had been an outstanding trotter in the 1920's and her dam (Country Belle) won the NZ Cup.

Like many of his era getting trapped in the field with the money on was a cardinal sin, Jack Litten was never a "pretty" driver (Cecil Devine, his nemesis, was much the same, as was Maurice McTigue) but when the pennies were down their horses could do that little bit more. No stylist, Jack used outside drivers more than most, further proof of his astute thinking. Once established "Litt" seemed to have a never ending string of genuinely outstanding horses.

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BOB YOUNG -
was a quiet man who loved gardening; highly respected especially within the game but low key and he peferred it that way. He was especially a master with trotting horses. Unusually Young preceded his father Jimmy in emigrating from Scotland after Roydon Lodge trainer Bobby Dunn offered him a position in the late 1920's. His father arrived a few years later and set up first at Addington and then at the Spreydon terminus with a big team.

Jimmy Young was soon a leading trainer, famous for his colourful use of four letter words. Don Nyhan used to recall the string of well intentioned invective Young considered normal speech after Johnny Globe had gone close to two minutes on grass the message being the driver should have "tried harder".

Rather oddly Bob named Single Task as the best trotter he drove, one of his three Rowe Cup winners. He also drove the first two winners of the Inter-Dominion Trotting Championships. He had his first NZ Cup drive in 1932 and his last in 1967. He was largely a free lancer usually driving second stringers for big stables in major races or for owner-trainers who loved his "there is another day" style. He was hugely popular with punters because of his outstanding strike rate. Avante was the last big name pacer he trained.

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DOUG WATTS-
came from South Canterbury where he went to school with Richard Brosnan's father, Jack. He was first a champion apprentice jockey in Wanganui also riding in Australia as a teenager in 1927.

After he won seven of the first eight saddle trots he competed in, Watts turned to harness driving with Jock Henderson at Oamaru. Few have been better at it. He won the NZ Cup with Our Roger(1955) and an Inter-Dominion final on Massacre(1961) both almost entirely due to the driver rather than the horse. He was largely with Vic Leeming at Prebbleton and rarely held a training licence though he raced fine pacers of his own like Valour and Historic.

Watts was a great "money" driver, cool under pressure and adept at finding the short way home. He is still famous for driving seven winners on an eight race card at Reefton in 1954, a feat never bettered. He recalled he only had one engagement when he arrived at the meeting. His longest dividend was over £4 and his shortest £2, three of his drives winning twice.

Doug was good at keeping his own counsel and once he and Leeming had to be escorted off Addington by the police well after the last when a loud demonstration by hundreds calling for their blood over a form reversal was only inflamed the longer Watts waited it out in the driver's room. Ironically, in later years Watts was an astute patrol steward at the course.

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BILL DOYLE-
is generally regarded as the founder of a famous trotting dynasty but in fact he inherited much from his father, also W J Doyle who was a master of many trades. He stood thoroughbred, trotting and draught stallions at stud, played a major role in the founding of the Ellesmere Trotting Club; ran the Doyleston pub and a catering business, raced, trained and drove top horses and even gave musical recitals at local functions.

He died when his son was just 20 though both Bill Jnr who owned a Grand National Steeplechase winner, and his sister, Laurel, champion show rider and the first woman licenced to train gallopers in the South Island, retained the wider racing interests of their father. Laurel also trained a Melbourne Cup placegetter, Willie Win.

Bill Doyle's feats as a horseman - he was also one of Canterbury's leading stock dealers - and the success of the next generation as horsewomen are well known.

When, which descended from a borrowed foundation broodmare Violet Wrack who left When's dam Passive, was probably his favourite. He campaigned her with success in America and again on her return, rare in those days.
Gold Horizon, pound for pound, may have actually been his best trotter. He was amoung the pioneer patrons of European trotting stallions, a cause he was passionate about though the results were mixed to say the least.

For a part-time trainer Doyle had an enormous string of top horses, his pacers from earlier eras(Betty Boop, Reason Why, In The Mood, Wipe Out etc) often overlooked in favour of the many trotters which came later. He drove Pacing Power into third for trainer Roy Berry(who drove Springfield Globe his own horse) in the 1943 NZ Cup losing a winning chance when checked at the start.

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Losing four driving names of that stature one July 31st was certainly a bad day in harness history.

Credit: David McCarthy writing in HRWeekly 24Jul2013

GEORGE MURFITT

In October, 1858, the good ship 'Strathallan' grated against the side of a newly-built wharf in the settlement of Lyttleton after a rough sea crossing lasting many week from the old country...England.

On board and full of hope for a new life in a new land was a Mr John Murfitt, his wife, and son Harry, who was born during the voyage. The young family arriving only eight years after the first four ships had deposited the first of Canterbury's colonists, trekked over the 'bridal path' and settled in Woodend, a 20 mile journey from Christchurch, where John started work as a timber carter. Work was hard with the horse and cart as the trip from Oxford to Christchurch was over unbroken rugged country unable to be called roads. Harry, when he was old enough, went to work with his father, and then afterwards began a career that was to involve his son, Mr G H Murfitt, of Southbrook, for approximately 88 years.

Times were difficult in those early pioneering days before the turn of the century and Harry's new livelihood of training both gallopers and trotters was a hard struggle. Before long Mr G H (George) Murfitt was in the saddle breaking in young horses, and like most of the young boys in those days possessed 'no fear'. He was soon riding in races - at Oxford, Riccarton, Amberley and Ohoka, and these were nearly all either steeplechase or hurdle races. At one Amberley meeting in the late 1890s before a very big crowd and the 'bookies' he vividly recalls winning the first four races - all over jumps.

As well as riding for his father he also rode for a Mr Cassidy and a Miss Buttons. Cassidy, who lived on the West Coast, ran stage coaches which connected the Coast to Christchurch. His uncle, Mr G B Murfitt, also raced a large team of gallopers and trotters from Cobden. One day his uncle raced a pacer called Daystar at a Coast meeting, and tied his three stone son, Eddie, onto the horses back to make sure he didn't fall off. The horse won, but little Eddie was later killed in the Great World War. George also cackles when he thinks about the time when the late 'Free' Holmes was running second to him in a race at Ohoka. After the race 'Free' entered a protest against George's horse, who was owned by a banker, as it was on the forfeit list. The stewards had little option but to disqualify George's mount and promote the second horse.

When the First World War started in 1914, weight problems and family ties finally forced George to hand in his galloping licence, and he then took on trotters. Rangiora, where George trained his horses, was nowhere near as big as it is today, and his stable was in the middle of the township. As well as training horses, George ran the livery stable and two days a week this was a thriving and bustling concern. "It was sale day every Tuesday and shopping day every Friday, and they would all come to town, and leave their horses at the livery," he explained. "Sometimes we would have over 100 horses and have to run a wire along to tie them all up. It cost a bob a stand and a bob a feed." Among those who used the livery was Mr Jack Matson, a well known auctioneer with the old stock firm of National Mortgage and Agency Company for many years.

Between the First and Second World Wars a horse fair was held one day a month in Rangiora, George had the responsibility of trucking the 40 or 50 unbroken horses, ponies, and other types to be sold from the railway trucks to the saleyards. After noting the markings on them all, the horses would be driven at midnight past the Red Lion Pub, through the main street of Rangiora to the yards, where they were all assembled back in the same groups as they were when they disembarked.

One of his cunning tricks was to buy an unbroken quarter draught horse at one sale - take it home and run the clippers over it after quickly breaking it in. At the next monthly sale he would take it back looking
every bit a show horse, and after prancing it around the ring with a pair of sharp spurs on, sell it at a handy profit.

Getting on towards 30 years ago he sold his Rangiora stables to a panel beater and the Rangiora Fire Brigade and moved out to his present 100 acre stud at Southbrook.

Since he began training many good pacers and trotters have passed through George's hands including Header, Pearl Logan, Harvestin, Karaki and Harbour Light. Header, an attractive black gelding by Sonoma Harvester out of a mare by Wildwood Junior, was probably the best horse he had. At the Wellington Trotting Club's meeting back in 1935, Header, driven by M Holmes, raced twice and won twice on the same day, the second time off 84 yards. In March, 1936, Header returned to Wellington finishing second at his first start, then winning later in the day off 60 yards. Purchased by Sir John McKenzie, Header reached the very best class of trotters. Karaki, is the horse he reserves most affection for, and in his words "he was never done." He too, reached the top class of trotters.

One incident he recalls was on board the horse train going to a meeting in the North Island. "The train was going through Palmerston North and we heard that the brakes wouoldn't work. Three or four hundred yards past the station the brakes suddenly locked and the horses were all thrown forward. When the train stopped a bolt had stuck in his horse's head. There was no compensation from the railway in those days, so we patched up the wound and had to race Header on one of the later days to get some expenses," he relates.

On another occasion he was at the Wellington meeting with Header. At the same meeting was M Holmes, who had gone to the meeting to drive Renegade in the same race as the Murfitt owned and trained trotter. For some reason Maurice, according to George, was taken off Renegade, and came to him to ask for the drive behind Header. Maurice was anxiuos to beat Renegade. And he did, for Header won both starts, while Renegade could do no better than a third and a fourth. This continued a long association between the Murfitts and the Holmes's.

Harbour Light would undoubtedly be the most profitable winner that he has raced. She was bred in 1957 by Light Brigade out of Sure Phoebe and won $26,095, the result of 14 wins and numerous placings against the best trotters in the Dominion. Harbour Light's wins included the Canterbury Park Trotting Cup (twice, once dead-heating with Flaming Way after a late run from the back), the Greyhound and Stewards' Handicaps at Addington, and the first heat of the NZ Trotting Championship at Addington in 1966 when she also dead-heated, this time with Grand Charge.

For more than 30 years, since he stood his first stallion, Proud Child, at his Rangiora property, he has always had a horse at the stud. Highland Chief is one that he particularly remembers. Bred in 1944, Highland Chief was by U Scott out of Pearl Logan, who also left Frank Logan, Calumet Pointer and Logan Scott. His present stallion is Larnie Scott, who was bred in 1950 by Light Brigade out of Lady Scott. Although he reached the best class as a trotter, 'Larnie' was also a competent pacer. His oldest stock are now 8-year-olds and his progeny include a top race mare in Stereo Light, recent trotting winner in Doctor Scott, as well as Kilarno, Haughty Scott, Copper Wire and Shot Silk.

As well as seeing to the day to day running of the stud, George, and his good wife, Wyn, are working about seven horses, most of them yearlings. George Murfitt still takes part in all stable chores, and drives all the team, including young horses in training. At 88 years and with every faculty working perfectly, he is a remarkable old gentleman, who would surely claim the honour of being the oldest active trainer in NZ.

He could relate interesting yarns on the old days for hours and hours. "Just recently," he said "the parson at Amberley asked me to write a book on my life. And I said to him I might be put in goal if I did." With too many stories like the Sunday mornings he would meet his mates in a Rangiora barn armed with their bantam roosters, he would certainly be running a close race with the law. "After all the fighting was over, we would bring them home, put them in a basin of water to wash the blood off and get them ready for the next Sunday," he recalled. "Life was hard in those days," he sighed.

But what a life and what terrific memories he must have collected through his 88 eventful years. And it's by no means over yet.




Credit: Mike Grainger writing in NZ Trotting Calendar 21Oct70

Jack Litten, Caduceus & Marty Tananbaum

MARTIN TANANBAUM

The death last week of Yonkers Raceway president Martin Tananbaum removed one of trotting's world figures.

Mr Tananbaum, who died at his New York home of a heart attack, aged only 54, entered harness horsedom in 1956, he and his brothers Alfred and Stanley, buying the controlling shares in Yonkers Raceway. As Yonkers president, Marty (as he became widely known) quickly realised the great public appeal of international racing.

At the suggestion of former Aucklander Noel Simpson, now of NSW, Mr Tananbaum first visited NZ and Australia in 1960, and, after seeing the crack NZ pacer of the time, Caduceus win the Inter-Dominion Championship Grand Final at Harold Park, Sydney, he persuaded the horse's owners, the Moore brothers, and trainer-driver Jack Litten to race Caduceus in the first running of the now-famous International Pace Series at Yonkers. Caduceus performed with distinction in that series and in his subsequent American racing became a public idol, as he had been in NZ and Australia.

Every year after that Mr Tananbaum made his annual 'Down Under' crusade, scouting for talent for his Raceway. He did not buy. He merely offered enticements to owners of top horses to either accept invitations to Yonkers or sell to American owners who would. Apmat, False Step, Arania, Smoke Cloud, Cardigan Bay, Cardinal King and First Lee were among the better-performed NZ and Australian horses whose owners yeilded to the Tananbaum entreaties.

And the Yonkers chief was proudest of all about his accomplishment in persuading successful New Jersey horseman Stanley Dancer to buy Cardigan Bay as an aged gelding for $100,000 in 1964. It is now history that Cardigan Bay swept all before him in America to become the sport's one and only million dollar earner.

Convinced of the worth of NZ and Australia as breeding grounds, Mr Tananbaum in recent years shipped all of 20 fashionably-bred stallions to stand at stud on lease in this part of the world. It was his intention to breed and race young horses here before shipping them to his homeland for further racing and eventual stud service at his newly-established White Devon Farm in upstate New York. And, with this in view, he was a ready spender at various standardbred sales in NZ and Australia on his latest visit made only weeks before his death.

The $9500 he paid for a filly at the national sales in Christchurch earlier last month was a record. She was from Arania, a Roy McKenzie owned mare he invited to America in 1961 and who, before returning home, distinguished herself in no uncertain terms with a 1:57 time trial around the big Red Mile in Lexington, Kentucky.

In his brief time in trotting Martin Tananbaum pushed the sport along in grand style. Future generations will look back on his contribution as of great significance to this Dominion in its emergence as a world trotting nursery.

Credit: 'R B' writing in NZ Trotting Calendar 1Apr70

DOUG MANGOS

One of the many pleasures of working within the trotting industry is meeting people. Such a meeting was that with dapper Doug Mangos. A proper little gentleman, Mangos is in the top flight of NZ reinsmen, and his services are now keenly in demand. Short and stocky with an affable character and a dry sense of humour, Mangos has worked at Roydon Lodge Stud since he left school some 18 years ago.

An ex-West Coaster, he was born in Reefton and came to live in Christchurch with his parents when aged 14. He spent a year at the Christchurch Technical College and then terminated his education to join the Roydon Lodge staff under the watchful eye of private trainer to Mr R A McKenzie, George Noble. It was in 1952 when he started work at 5am in the morning as a stablehand, and shortly after marrying a Christchurch girl in 1957, he received his probationary driver's licence.

His first win came behind the top class Highland Air at Forbury Park in the Winter Handicap. It was important in more ways than one because the second horse, La Mignon, was driven by 'the boss,' George Noble. With six wins the next season his career was taking shape, and he displayed the potential necessary to reach the top of his profession. But it was going to take time. his winning share in the next four seasons was not great and with seasonal winning totals of six, six, five, three, four and four progress appeared slow.

In the 1964-65 season he drove 10 winners, and then when George Noble retired from driving the next season on reaching the compulsory age limit of 65, Mangos came into his own with 21 successes. That was the turning point and from that stage on he has not looked back. The next season brought in 18 winners followed in the 1967-68 season by a record 22, which put him in ninth place in the drivers' premiership. Last season when fellow stable horseman John Noble scored well, Mangos's total dropped to 11.

However he is making amends this season and so far has reined 11 winners, including two in a row at the recent Canterbury Park meeting where he won with Robin Rose and Valencia. This pushed his total winning drives to 122. "Arania was a terrific horse for speed," he replied when I asked him the name of the best horses he had driven in his career. He added that he won a lot of races with her, but remarked that Jay Ar "was the best horse I got results with." Others to hold special memories for him were Danny's Pal and Julie Hanover. His greatest thrill came when he drove La Mignon to victory in the Louisson Handicap at the NZMTC's national meeting at Addington in 1958. Trainer George Noble was in America at the time, and the team was under the management of R H Bonnington. That day he defeated Invicta(R Morris), Light Nurse(C R Berkett) and Auditor(F E Newfield).

A proud possession in the Mangos home is the trophy he won by scoring the highest number of points in the drivers' championship at the Auckland Inter-Dominions two years ago. At the conclusion of the racing on the final night, Kevin Newman, Peter Wolfenden and Mangos all totalled the same number of points. So they decided to toss coins to see who would take the expnsive tea set. Reg Lewis, president of the Auckland Trotting Club loaned them a coin each, and on the first toss all three turned up heads. On the play-offs all three coins turned up tails, and it was not until the third flick that Mangos threw up an odd face. This meeting was the most successful one away from home recalled Mangos. With George Noble, he took seven horses north and all of them won races. Mangos has played no small part in the success of the Roydon Lodge Stud racing team. He has now taken out a trainers' licence in the absence of Noble in Australia and he will be in charge of the team until the end of June.

Mangos, a family man with three children, is a credit to the trotting industry. He has many good years ahead of him, and if and when he decides to branch out on his own accord, there will be no dearth of people anxious to assist him to become established. Meatime he will remain in his present capacity at Roydon Lodge Stud where over the years he has proved a tradesman of the highest order. Trotting would be well served by more persons of the calibre of Doug Mangos.

Credit: Mike Grainger writing in NZ Trotting Calendar 25Feb70

F W JARMAN

The death occurred recently of Mr F W (Frank) Jarman, a stalwart not only in the trotting world but especially so in the farming community of Canterbury.

Mr Jarman, a fine figure of a man, was a committeeman of the Canterbury Park Trotting Club and although he did not race a vast number of horses he devoted considerable time and energy to trotting. Among the horses he raced were Wairau Princess, Kaboon, Te Par, Kennaway, Jeanna, Copper Khan, Friendly Rival and Friendly Jane, winner of the Cardigan Bay Stakes at the recent Gore Trotting Club's meeting.

Mr Jarman was better known as the owner of the Lea-Avon Stud at Darfield, one of the best appointed and managed farms of its kind in Canterbury. With his wife, Jean, he established a Suffolk sheep stud many years ago, and today the Suffolks are probably the best in the Dominion. In 1955 Mr Jarman was awarded a Nuffield Scholarship, which took him around the world studying all branches of farming in many countries.

Mr Jarman is survived by his wife and two daughters, Anne(Mrs G Cameron) and Barbara(Mrs L C May).

Credit: NZ Trotting Calendar 29Apr70

J F HAMILTON

A man who had a lifetime association with trotting in Southland, Mr James Francis Hamilton, died at his home in Winton recently. He was 80.

Born in the Winton district, he was a member of a family closely associated with trotting since its formative days in the province. He farmed in the Oreti district before retiring to Winton some years ago.

Hamilton bred and raced a champion straight-out trotter in Bellflower, one of the best of her time, who put up some phenomenal performances under the saddle. She was trained and ridden by Mr Hamilton, who sent her to Canterbury when she was handicapped out of Southland classes to be trained by the late Andy Pringle.

In August 1916, Bellflower beat a field of pacers over two miles at Addington, and she repeated the performance in the Australasian Handicap at the NZ Cup meeting the same year. The following season, at her last appearance before being retired, Bellflower again beat the pacers over two miles in the saddle in the Australasian Handicap, winning by 10 lengths in 4:35 2/5. She was then 12 years old.

When racing in Southland, Bellflower, after winning five races, became so badly placed in the handicaps that Mr Hamilton did not race her for a season and he bred her to Marvin Dillon to whom she produced a winner in Flowerbell. Bellflower had nine foals. Two of them, Nelson Bell and Bon Fleur, were useful winners, but the best of her progeny was Arctotis, who developed outstanding form. He was sold for a record price at the time of $1200 but later developed unsoundness. Bellflower's daughters bred on to some purpose and today the family is widely and successfully represented. A top juvenile trotter of a few seasons back in Halberg was a member of it.

Mr Hamilton held a trainers' and horseman's licence for more than 40 years and a short time ago recalled driving in a race at Invercargill involving a 'ring-in' in 1924. This was the notorious case of Willie Lincoln, a Cup class horse who raced under the name of Lookout.

Mr Hamilton raced, educated and bred many horses over the years. Azaleas, whom he drove at Invercargill in Willie Lincoln's race, later bred to advantage, leaving such winners as Tritoma, Picotee, Azure, Arabia and many others. An early winner for Mr Hamilton was Bellfashion, who won the first mile and three furlong race at Forbury Park. Bellfashion, a son of Bellman, proved himself an able pacer and was unbeaten in the show ring.

For some years Mr Hamilton was a member of the committee of the Winton Trotting Club, being a vice-president for a time. On his retirement he continued to take a close interest in every phase of the sport and had a keen and studious knowledge of the breeding side. Mr Hamilton is survived by three sons, Ian, Colin, Murray, and one daughter, June(Mrs Smith, Edendale).

Credit: NZ Trotting Calendar 10Jun70

Dr A S SANDSTON

Dr Authur Samuel Sandston, who died last week aged 89, was a well known dentist in Christchurch for many years. At the age of 75 he was the oldest practising dentist in the country.

A fine athlete in his youth, Dr Sandston maintained his interest in all kinds of sport but his specialty was trotting, and he raced a number of trotters from about 1910 onwards.

As a young man, he raced two outstanding horses, Don Caesar and Lord Roanchild, and in more recent times raced several in partnership with his son, Dr A C Sandston, including Thelma Globe, the champion racemare of her time. Thelma Globe left Thermal, Don Caesar, Belle Renarde and Financial.

Dr Sandston was a steward of the Canterbury Park Trotting Club, a member of all local trotting clubs and of the Canterbury Jockey Club. He was also a life member of the Canterbury Club.

Credit: NZ Trotting Calendar 28May69

E 'DOODY' TODD

One of NZ's most successful trainers, Mr E 'Doody' Todd died at Invercargill last week at the age of 75. One of the 'old school' of traiers, Mr Todd enjoyed a long association with trotting.

Mr Todd turned his attention to training horses after World War I, during which he worked in the Wyndham coal pits. He based his training operations at Wyndham, and later acquired land at Menzies Ferry, maintaining that a private property was vital in training.

Mr Todd was associated with many outstanding horses, the more notable ones including Blue Mist, Barrier Reef, Rocks Ahead, Nell Grattan, Tactics, Mandrake and Will Cary. Other winners to pass through Mr Todd's hands included Sungauge, Blue Mountain, Journey's End, Sure Harvest, Blue Blood, Lynwood, Carver Doone, Willowbank, All Sunshine, Scarlett O'Hara, Dan McGrew, Elation, Happy Night, Quick Trick, Morning Sun, Dame Rumour, Volo Bond and Icilma.

Blue Mist, a former world champion pacer over a mile and a half with her 3:03 1/4 against time on the Banbury track in Western Australia, set in April 1953, reached her greatest heights under the care of Addington trainer, C H Fairman, but much of the credit for developing her rested with Mr Todd. Barrier Reef(2:07 3/5) was one of the outstanding trotters of his time, and Nell Grattan and Tactics were both well performed members of the noted First Water family to which Rocks Ahead, who won 16 races and established one of it's best branches, belonged.

Mr Todd achieved the unique distinction of winning successive races at the Wyndham Totting Club's autumn meeting in April 1949, with Blue Mist. The races were the Edendale and the Final Handicaps. Mr Todd drove her in both wins. The Invercargill Trotting Club's meeting in 1935 was one which Mr Todd had good reason to look back on with fond memories. He achieved a feat probably unequalled in Southland trotting when he produced five successive winners. The winners were All Sunshine (Invercargill Trotting Club Handicap), Royal Drive(Crescent Handicap), Journey's End(Travis Memorial), Lynwood(Members' Handicap) and Rocks Ahead(Takitimu Handicap). Mr Todd drove four of those winners.

One of his sons, Ray, a former Southland Rugby representative, is farming at Wyndham. He has inherited his fathers' love of horses and has been a trainer for some years. Ray Todd was responsible for the education and early training of Le Chant and Stylish Major, both champion trotters.

Credit: NZ Trotting Calendar 19Nov69

MR JAMES WILSON

Mr James Wilson died last week. His death ended a long association with trotting in the Ashburton district.

Mr Wilson, a farmer raced and trained many horses, the best of whom was the trotter Dictation, who still holds the NZ record for a trotter of 3:10 4/5 for a mile and a half.

Others to have been raced by Mr Wilson included Alight, Highland Flame, Acclamation, Bon Chance, King Oscar, Quincey Thorpe, Ordinance, Calumella, Flame, Flaming Way, Flaming Glow, Flammula, Prestbury, Cleeve Hill and Gold Direct.

Credit: NZ Trotting Calendar 19Nov69