 | RACING HISTORY |
YEAR: 1952
HORSES
MOBILE GLOBE
The New Zealand Cup of 1952 was all about the weather - the rain. A wet August affected some top horses at the National meeting and a wet spring meant their trainers were frustrated getting the work and racing into their charges right through until Cup time. It was still raining then. The four day Cup meeting was reduced to three through rain. But singing in it were Noel Berkett and Mobile Globe.
Berkett was already noted for his ability to work horses through the winter to peak at the August meetings. And he had recently taken over Mobile Globe - a good horse but a much better one in the wet. Mobile Globe had not won a race all of the previous season and only a handful in the one before that. He has been switched from the Laing stable at Eiffleton and won the Louisson and National Handicaps first and second up for Berkett.
Normally that would make any horse a warm Cup favourite but he was dismissed as a mudder who lacked class. Punters preferred eight others on the day. It was a testing track. Favourite Johnny Globe broke down. The next best, Tactician, had had only two starts due to weather. He went clear 500m out to try and steal it but the seasoned Mobile Globe came up on the inside of him and ran away by four lengths. It was almost bizarre. There had been only two slower Cups in 25 years. It was Berkett's first Cup runner but his magic with Mobile Globe was short-lived. The horse could not handle regular racing on hard tracks and never won again
Credit: David McCarthy writing in Harnessed Feb 2016
YEAR: 1952
FEATURE RACE COMMENT
 |
| Mobile Globe parades after winning the 1952 Cup |
In a true staying test for the 1952 New Zealand Trotting Cup, Mobile Globe well earned the generous applause of the dense crowd that packed Addington to see him collar Tactician a furlong from home and go on for decisive victory.
A stayers' race it certainly was. With the track thoroughly saturated by heavy rain throughout the previous night and early morning, racing near the fence was out of the question, and although the track from the middle to the outside fence was drying out rapidly by the time the Cup was run, it was still not fast, and every candidate had to cover a good deal more than two miles.
Furthermore, there was no loitering at any stage and the sectional times show that the pace was faster early than later: the first half-mile in 1:06 1-5, mile in 2:12 4-5, mile and a half 3:19 4-5, and the full journey (gross by Mobile Globe, from 12yds)4:27 2-5. The final quarter took 33 3-5secs and the last half 1:07 3-5 or more than a second slower than the opening half-mile.
The sensational collapse of Johnny Globe, the hot on-course favourite, with half a mile still to run, took away a lot of the anticipated glamour from the race: he had tangled at the start and lost 24yds, something foreign to his make-up. He dropped right back to the rear when the pressure was on.
Morano broke up completely and took no real part in the race, and Young Charles made his usual poor beginning. Soangetaha soon strode away in front of Pleasant Smile, White Angel and Blue Mist. Before two and a half furlongs had been covered, Pleasant Smile was a clear leader from Soangetaha, White Angel, Tactician, Burns Night, Blue Mist, Mobile Globe, Johnny Globe, Te Maru, Maori Home and Van Dieman, with a gap of five lengths back to Young Charles and further daylight to Vedette, who was not at all happy in the patchy going.
With a mile covered Te Maru had run up to Pleasant Smile in the lead and half a dozen lengths would have covered all the field (with the sole exception of Morano) at the stage. Te Maru took charge with six furlongs to go, and positions changed rapidly from that point. Tactician was taken to the front with less than three furlongs to go and he opened up a lead of two to three lengths coming round the top, where Mobile Globe and Maori Home were next of a field now stringing out.
Mobile Globe, coming through on the inside, soon had Tactician in trouble and he beat him by four lengths. Van Dieman made a late run for third a good length away, Maori Home was fourth, then Burns Night, Young Charles, Te Maru, Pleasant Smile, Vedette, Soangetaha, White Angel, Blue Mist and the thoroughly exhausted Johnny Globe.
The Dominion-wide popularity of the Trotting Cup is revealed by the off-course total on Tuesday of £33,943 10s. The total on-course was £38,336. The record total on a New Zealand Trotting Cup (on-course only) is the £40,907 10s invested last year. It is interesting to recall that the total off-course receipts last year for the whole day's racing were only £4061 15s. This year's off-course investments for the day reached £86,475 15s.
Mobile Globe, an eight-year-old bay gelding, brought his total stake-winnings to £14,705. The Cup was his 13th win. He was bred by Mr N G Mason, Rangiora, who bought his dam, Helen Ann, for a few pounds. Mr Mason sold Mobile Globe as a yearling to Messrs Findlay and Orange, of Mosgiel, and Mr Orange sold his share to Mr C Smith, who races the horse in partnership Mr J Finglay, perhaps better known as an erstwhile star forward for the Otago Rugby Union game.
Mobile Globe won 10 of his races when trained by C M Laing, and in his only four starts for N L Berkett he has won three races - he had previously won the two principal handicap races at the Metropolitan August meeting this season.
The New Zealand Cup is becoming something of a family affair for the Berketts. L F Berkett trained Highland Fling to win in 1947 and 48, he drove that great champion in his second success in the race, his son, C R, being the driver in 1947. C R Berkett was the trainer and driver of the surprise 1949 winner, Loyal Nurse.
Mobile Globe is by Springfield Globe, who also sired Tactician, the second horse in the Cup. Springfield Globe's success in the Dominion this season is nothing short of phenomenal. With his youngest New Zealand progeny now five-year-olds, he has established a substantial lead over Light Brigade, U Scott, Dillon Hall and Grattan Loyal. It is doubtful if there has been a greater Colonial-bred sire than Springfield Globe since the mighty Rothschild, who headed the list for many seasons up till 1915-16. Springfield Globe returned to Australia about six years ago. He is by Globe Derby (Australia's greatest sire of all time with 309 individual winners), from the New Zealand bred Ayr, by Logan Pointer-Precision, by St Swithin from the thoroughbred mare Kildasa. Ayr was bred at Durbar Lodge, Ashburton, by H F Nicoll, and Springfield Globe was bred in Tasmania by Mr E Tatlow. Springfield Globe, a great racehorse, won an Inter-Dominion Championship in Tasmania and was a free-for-all winner at Addington.
Mobile Globe's dam, Helen Ann, is by Silk Thread, an American importation who was a good winner for Sir John McKenzie. Helen Ann is out of Helen, by Brent Locanda (imp) from Tui Russell, by imported Russell Patch (son of the champion Dan Patch, 1:55.25), from Elie de Beaumont, by Prince Imperial, a great name in New Zealand stayers' pedigrees.
Credit: 'Ribbonwood' writing in NZ Trotting Calendar 12Nov52