 | RACING HISTORY |
YEAR: 1922
HORSES
CUP KINGS - WRACK 1922
INTRODUCTION
Bettor's Delight in just about ready to make the list as a "Cups King"- the most influential stallion in the two major all-aged races on out calendar, the Auckland and New Zealand Cups. He already has three winners and given his domination that might grow rapidly.
But topping some of the "old timers" won't be that easy, even if he has gone past many already. Who are the best? My top 10, based on the following statistical model.
- 10 points for each winner of the New Zealand or Auckland Cup.
- 5 point bonus for each individual winner greater than one.
- 5 points for each broodmare sire win.
- 1 point for each winner sired by a stallion son.
7= WRACK 1922
(Peter The Great-Colorado Belle-Colorado E)(Died aged 19)
Six WINS, Three WINNERS, Zero BROODMARES, Zero SIRE SON WINNERS = 70 points.
There was no middle ground with Wrack who stood his first season at a record high fee for New Zealand at Ashburton. Trainers either liked them or they drove them to distraction.
Plus that his owners had most of his early stars, not the ones paying the high fees. He had been a rough and tough free-for-all horse in the States with an official race "half" of 58.5 as a free legged pacer. He won three stallion premierships here but long term had less influence than other much cheaper stallions of his time.
Of Wrack's six major Cup winners Indianapolis, a great horse but a failure at stud, won three. One of the others, Wrackler, from his first crop, later won a Dominion as well. Bronze Eagle, the upset in the 1944 NZ Cup, was his last. None of Wrack's daughters produced Cup winners and none of his sons amounted to much.
The Wracks were, like him, generally plain lookers. His major influence would be through his trotters. He left three Dominion Handicap winners and not many on this list had that sort of versatility.
TRIVIA FACT - wrack met a rather sad end. When Harry Nicoll retired him from breeding he sold Wrack (at 17) to Edgar Tatlow of Tasmania as a replacement option for Globe Derby. After one season the world double-gaited champion Raider (the last US horse allowed into Australia for a decade) became available earlier than expected. Wrack was virtually given to a New South Wales breeder but died suddenly before serving a mare there.
Credit: David McCarthy writing in Harnessed Nov 2016
YEAR: 1922
FEATURE RACE COMMENT
1922 NEW ZEALAND CUP
Realm and Reta Peter were the eleventh-hour withdrawals for the N.Z. Trotting Cup, leaving a dozen runners scheduled to compass two miles in 4.31 or faster. When the field filed out to do their preliminaries a nasty easterly was blowing, and clouds of dust were in evidence. Box Seat was subjected to a stiff preliminary. Tatsy Dillon moved scratchlly, but Onyx, Vllo, Agathos and Gold Boy hit out in determined fashion. When the spectators got to work Vilo was the early favorite, being entrusted with a few pounds more than the coupled horses, Trlx Pointer and Sherwood, while Box Seat, Onyx, Agathos and Tatsy Dillon were the next best fancied, with Moneymaker the outsider of the
party.
From a good despatch Locanda Dillon was the only one to jig. Box Seat also mixed it and was more or less tangled for the first furlong; Gold Boy was first to break the line, but before a furlong was covered Agathos rushed to the front. The first two furlongs were covered in 38sec, at which stage Agathos was just in front of Gold Boy, Vilo, Vlce-Admlral, Tatsy Dillon, General Link, Sherwood and Onyx, with Locanda Dillon, Moneymaker, Whispering Willie and Box Seat tailed off.
Going down tho back Vilo ranged alongside of Agathos. Passing the tanks Gold Boy broke. The first mile was negotiated in 2.21 1/2. With a round to go Agathos was still bowling along in front with Vilo, Vice-Admiral, Tatsy Dillon, Onyx, Sherwood, General Link and Trlx Pointer all in a bunch. Rounding the turn for home Vilo was under a hard drive and Onyx could be noticed making her run. Once into the home stretch Onyx challenged Agathos, but in a tight finish Agathos beat Onyx by a length. Three lengths further away came Vilo, then General Link and Vice-Admiral.
The Winner was accorded a rousing reception on returning to scale. He is the property of the well-known official who races as "Mr Channlng." For some time past the O.Y,M. gelding has been exhibiting his best form. His condition was a credit to his mentor, Nelson Price. He was driven by A. Butterfield, who has previously proved his worth as a reinsman.
Credit: NZ TRUTH 11 Nov 1922
YEAR: 1922
FEATURE RACE COMMENT
1922 NEW ZEALAND TROTTING CUP
After three earlier attempts, perseverance paid off for a previously unruly sort in Agathos in his 100th career start.
He showed the way from the start and held off the grand mare Onyx (24 yards) and favourite Vilo, who carried more money than the Sherwood-Trix Pointer bracket.
The race was probably most notable however for the introduction of a distance handicapping system, rather than the messy method of using a stopwatch.
**NZ HRWeekly 1Oct 2003**
The 1922-23 season was notable for the re-introduction at Addington of the now-familiar distance system of starting from a stand, and the disappearance of the time method. The Metropolitan Club made the change at its August meeting and, because it had proved successful, the Cup meeting followed suit. The New Zealand Cup has been started the same way ever since, despite some agitation, particularly in the 1970s and 1980s, for a mobile start.
A big crowd, a fast track and perseverance prevailed when the 11-year-old Agathos ran the race of his life for victory. Only Monte Carlo (14 years, 1904), Durbar (12 years, 1908) and Invicta (11 years, 1961) can match or better Agathos as the oldest winners in the country's premier event.
It was Agathos' fourth attempt to win the race, after he was unsuccessful in 1917, 1918 and 1919. Despite being fifth favourite in the 13-horse field, he was a popular winner for his listed owner, "C M Channing", who in fact was Cecil Ollivier, a prominent member of the Metropolitan Club. Agathos was the first horse he owned. Ollivier was a committee member and steward of the club for many years and vice-president, under Jim Williams, from 1925 to 1935. The prestigious Ollivier Handicap, later renamed the Ollivier free-For-All and raced on the club's November programme in more recent times, was named in his honour. His son, Walter Ollivier, was president from 1956 to 1960.
Agathos' form after a comeback had been good. After a second placing in the International Handicap, he won the National Cup at the August meeting. He was described as a good, but moody pacer, unreliable at the start. He was by the defunct American sire O.Y.M. from an unraced mare by HaHa. His winning time of 4:33.4 was the slowest since 1915, owing, it is thought, to a strong wind blowing down the track.
Agathos had a varied racing career, passing through a number of trainers before being taken into Nelson Price's Sockburn stable, where his barrier manners were improved. He first raced as a four-year-old, winning at Canterbury Park and recording one placing. His best season came at five years, when he won five races. At six he was placed seven times, but he raced 11 times unplaced as a seven-year-old, before winning at Ashburton. He had three wins as an eight-year-old, but just one the following season. The Cup race was his 100th start, from which he had recorded 13 wins, 10 seconds and four thirds, for earnings of £6699. He had been unplaced 73 times.
The Cup stake remained at 3000 sovereigns, but the qualifying mark was restricted to horses capable of running 4:31 or faster. Originally 18 horses had been nominated, but five - Reta Peter, Gleaming, Realm, Albert Cling and Dean Dillon - were withdrawn. Reta Peter had come to hand well for Alf Wilson and her trackwork had been closely watched, but four days before the race she broke down. Her presence in the field would have given the trotters an unprecedented representation of three, with Gold Boy, Auckland's top trotter, and Whispering Willie both starting.
Artie Butterfield had Agathos first out from the 12-yard mark. The front four - Moneymaker, Vice-Admiral, General Link and Gold Boy - were either slow away or broke. Agathos led all the way and in the back straight the last time was followed by Vilo, Vice-Admiral, Tatsy Dillon, General Link, Onyx, Sherwood and Trix Pointer. Onyx made a big run to follow Agathos into the straight, but was still a length behind the winner at the post. Vilo was two lengths back in third, followed by General Link, Vice-Admiral, Trix Pointer, Tatsy Dillon, Gold Boy, Sherwood, Whispering Willie and Moneymaker. Box Seat(James Bryce) and Locanda Dillon (Ben Jarden) failed to finish. The Logan Pointer-Cameos mare Onyx, the youngest horse in the race at six years, showed plenty of speed in the final lap and Vilo, always handy, was a good third. The Waimate-trained Vilo, the race favourite, carried 500 units more than the Free Holmes bracket of Trix Pointer and Sherwood.
The two Cup favourites fared much better on the second day, when Trix Pointer won the Free-For-All from Onyx and Tatsy Dillon, while Vilo, never far from the leaders, stayed on best in the Courtenay Handicap to win from General Link and Gold Boy. However, the outstanding performance of ther day came from John McKenzie's three-year-old colt, Acron. The Logan Pointer-Millie C colt, who had shown great form the previous August, started a firm favorite to win the Metropolitan Handicap, but he lost 100 yards at the start, recovered, and just missed a place. Acron demonstrated that he was a colt of the highest order, and was to develop into one of the best of his era. But for tardy beginnings, he might have been a champion. McKenzie, always known simply as J R, made an everlasting contribution to the harness racing scene in New Zealand. He had his first Cup representative, Vice-Admiral (then past his best), placed fifth.
The 1922 carnival also marked the appearance of two Australians, Bill Tomkinson and Jack Kennerley, both of whom became outstanding horsemen in New Zealand. Kennerley produced Peter Bingen, a dual Cup winner and for a time the two-mile world record-holder. Tomkinson produced many top class pacers and trotters, but a New Zealand Cup win eluded him. Tomkinson, while still a public trainer in Sydney in 1922, moved to Addington with a team that included Realm, Happy Voyage and Snowshoe. Realm, by Ribbonwood, broke down on the eve of the Cup and was withdrawn. Tomkinson then took the drive behind General Link, but his bad luck did not end with Realm. Happy Voyage reared during training the day before Cup Day, dislodged Tomkinson, and bolted. The horse, the son of Direct Voyage and Honest Meg, escaped serious injury but was unable to race at the meeting.
It was an unfortunate start for Tomkinson and without his stars he was unable to produce a winner at the meeting. Happy Voyage proved how good he was the following year by lowering the Australasian mile record. Assisted by two galloping pacemakers , he sped over a mile on the grass at New Brighton in 2:04.2. Later, at stud, Happy Voyage left Regal Voyage, who, when mated with Nelson Derby, left the great mare Haughty, a dual Cup winner.
Kennerley had better luck than Tomkinson in 1922 and produced four winners at the meeting.
Free Holmes trained the most winners in the season(19). James Bryce managed 17, and next on the list were Tomkinson and Kennerley. The expatriate Australians also figured prominently on the reinsman's list, which Bryce topped with 23 wins. Then came John McLennan and Dave Bennett with 20, followed by Kennerley and Tomkinson. Taraire, from the Bryce stable, was the season's top money-winner with £2700.
**Bernie Wood wrtiting in The Cup**