 | RACING HISTORY |
YEAR: 1958
FEATURE RACE COMMENT
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One of the early leaders, False Step dropped back into the middle of the field but came again with a strong run to be one of the leaders into the straight in the NZ Trotting Cup at Addington. After a stern tussle with his one-time stablemate Caduceus, False Step got the verdict in a photo-finish by a head to give his trainer-driver C C Devine, his third training and driving success in the Dominion's premier event. The Auckland pacer Gentry, was four lengths back third and Lady Belmer fourth.
The race was not devoid of interest and the time of 4:18 3-5 could perhaps have been several seconds better if the field had not been slowed up considerably when Caduceus took over in the middle stages. He was not allowed to make his own rules long however, and the field was soon racing again at a pace befitting New Zealand Cup candidates. False Step is not a big horse by any means but he is all horse and his stamina cannot be doubted. When he showed up about the three furlongs, it was obvious he had something in reserve. The first half mile was run in 67secs, the mile in 2:12, the mile and a quarter in 2:46 1-5, the mile and a half in 3:18 and the mile and three-quarters in 3:48.
Thunder was a little slow to begin and Roy Grattan broke shortly after the start. Trueco took over from False Step and these two were followed by Bartender, Gentry, Caduceus, La Mignon, Lookaway and Roy Grattan with the remainder in close attendance. With a mile and a half to run False Step was showing the way from Trueco, Bartender, Lady Belmer, Gentry, Caduceus, Tactician and Thunder with Lookaway close to Thunder. Caduceus dashed into the lead with nine and a half furlongs to run and he immediately attempted to slow down the field. He was not permitted to stay there long. When two more furlongs had been covered, Tactician took over and he was followed by Roy Grattan, Gentry, Lady Belmer, Thunder, Caduceus, Bartender, Lookaway, False Step, La Mignon and Trueco.
Gentry was the leader approaching the half mile and shortly after False Step came into the picture to race into the lead after rounding the turn. He appeared to be in for a clear-cut success until Caduceus came onto the scene, but False Step responded gamely to vigourous driving to win by a head. Gentry paced a sound race for third and Lady Balmer raced right up to her effort at the trials. Next to finish was Lookaway and he was followed in by La Mignon, Thunder, Trueco, Roy Grattan and Bartender.
The hot favourite Lookaway, was well enough placed for most of the way. He received a slight check in the middle stages but he could be regarded as having every chance. He did not really finish on as expected though.
The winner, False Step, was one of the greatest four-year-olds to race in the Dominion and at that age he won six races and gained five seconds in 15 starts for £5545 in stakes. His success on Tuesday brought his record to 14 wins and 23 placings for a total of £16,945. False Step was bred by his owner, Mr J Smyth, and is by the successful colonial sire Fallacy (by Light Brigade), from Dainty Direct, by Dan Direct-Queen Betty, by Four Chimes-Dot Robbins, by Frank Robbins. False Step is the 1952 foal of Dainty Direct, who also left other winners in Josedale Direct, Dainty Joe and Tyrone Queen.
Fallacy was an outstanding three-year-old, winning seven races and gaining two places at that age. Included among his successes were the NZ Champion Stakes, the NZ Futurity Stakes and the NZ Derby Stakes. Queen Betty, granddam of False Step, besides Dainty Direct, who did not win a race, was also the dam of the winners Dainty Lady, Queenie Direct and Robin's Pride. Dot Robbins left a string of winners, one of her best being the big Author Dillon pacer, Big Author. The others were, besides Queen Betty, Dick Swithin, Golden Thread, Slip Along and Awatea.
Mr Smyth acquired Dainty Direct very "cheaply;" he got her in exchange for a hayrake, and Tyrone Queen was the first foal he bred from her, False Step being the second. False Step was educated and developed for his early racing by the West Melton trainer, J D Litten, and it was only towards the end of last season that he joined Devine's stable.
The race created keen interest weeks before the event and although most people expected Lookaway to win the Cup for the second time, there were many who thought False Step would be the most difficult to beat and he was sent out a firm second choice on the win machine and favourite for a place. On-course investments on the race were down on those of last year but the off-course turnover showed an increase. This year the on-course figures were £21,199 compared with £25,395; off-course investments were £26,811 as against £24,137 last year.
Credit: 'Irvington' writing in NZ Trotting Calendar 12Nov58
YEAR: 1958
FEATURE RACE COMMENT
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The 1950s was a vintage era for the light harness sport in New Zealand. Champion horsemen combining with champion sires to produce champion racehorses all conspired to result in drama, controversy, intrigue, excitement and spectacles like no other decade. So much so that it is difficult to single out any races as highlights - there were so many of them - but one race that does sum up the careers of two truly great horses and horsemen was the 1958 New Zealand Cup.
As a race in itself the Cup was far from one for the purists, being a roughly run, stop-start affair where not one runner escaped serious interference, but the result so encapsulated the stories of the protagonists so vividly that it can be reflected upon as a truly magical moment in time. It was the history either side of the event which made it special.
One could say the public which flocked to the big occasions in those times were spoiled for such events, and while caught up in the events unfolding before them on the day it was only with the benefit of hindsight many years later that the full magnitude of the occasion could be fully appreciated.
Caduceus was a champion 8-year-old and False Step a 6-year-old 'rising star,' and they were well established arch rivals at the start of the season. As a U Scott blood brother to Highland Fling, Caduceus represented the bluebloods of the day, but that didn't count for much the day he showed up from Southland at Jack Litten's as a hairy, scruffy, lame, pony-sized yearling colt. He also toed out so badly that Litten called him Charlie, and he took a nail out of a hind hoof and chucked him in a paddock with no promises for Denis and Dudley Moore to subsequently train their youngster.
Fast forward seven years and Caduceus had pretty much won everything, including the NZ Derby and the Auckland Cup as a 4-year-old, except for the NZ Cup. In 1958, he would be making his fourth attempt from 30 yards with only the veteran Tactician behind him. Litten had also won the 1951 NZ Derby brilliantly by 12 lengths and in record time with Fallacy, a son of Light Brigade he also bred and owned and who had first brought him to national prominence. Fallacy did not win beyond his 3-year-old season however, having been badly injured in a mishap at home when he piled over a fallen horse, at a time when Litten was in America. Litten tried in vain to patch up Fallacy, but eventually decided to stand him at stud himself at West Melton, and the first mare bred to him produced False Step.
Dainty Direct was a 20-year-old broodmare with little pedigree and produce to speak of when Jim Smyth, a stable client and regular visitor to Litten's Preston Farm, acquired her for a 'fiver' and a hay rake. Templeton's Jack Adams, who raced top pacer Acropolis and who was setting up a stud farm, had needed a hay rake and knew the Irish-born Smyth had one going unused. Smyth had actually persuaded Litten to have Dainty Direct served by Fallacy a few days after his Derby win.
False Step was top class from the time he won the Methven Juvenile Stakes, while he had emulated his sire in the NZ Derby and won six races at four, when he had beaten Tactician under FFA conditions and finished second, beaten a nose, by the same horse in the first 2:00 race mile run in NZ. As a 5-year-old, False Step was fourth in Lookaway's Cup and was often doing battle with his stablemate Caduceus while he was at the peak of his powers.
But their rivalry had nothing to compare with that of Devine and Litten by the time the 1958 NZ Cup rolled around. After unsuccessfully campaigning Caduceus and False Step at the Inter-Dominions around the saucer-like Wayville circuit in South Australia that year, Litten had returned home to have a very public falling out with Smyth over a driving engagement for False Step in Auckland. Never one to mince words, Litten told Smyth to take False Step away, and with no doubt spite in mind, Smyth gave him to Devine.
What was adding to the colour and controversy here was the fact that Devine and Litten had had their infamous whip slashing incident at the prior NZ Cup Meeting, and both had been given six months on the driving sidelines to cool their heels. A special mile feature, the NZ Flying Stakes, had been carded on the final day to mark the South Island debut of the new mobile gate. 'The Flash' was publishing turn-and-finish photos of all the main horse racing meetings, and the photographer on the home turn captured Devine and Litten going at it in full cry. That issue, carrying the graphic print, was a sell out.
Caduceus, driven by Tony Vassalo, had won that encounter easily in 2:00 as Litten (driving bracketmate False Step) and Devine (with Don Hall) engaged in a spectacular whip fight through the home stretch, watched in amazement by the huge crowd. They had pulled up second and third and both horsemen were obviously distressed. It was an unfortunate exacerbation of a bout of friendly ribbing among several of the top Canterbury horsemen of the era, which had expanded in this case to some race jostling before exploding into their whip slashing duel.
It ended a friendship between the two outstanding horsemen, who for the remainder of their lives refused to speak to each other. Litten had a stable full of top horses at the time and did not need owners telling him what to do. Earlier, and when yet to make any real name for himself in the game, Litten had 'made' Vedette and similarly told the owner to take the subsequent Addington Inter-Dominion winner away as a matter of principle. Litten would have Inter-Dominion success with Caduceus, but the closest he ever got to winning the NZ Cup was when 'Charlie' came up a desperately unlucky head short of False Step and Devine in 1858.
After winning the Hannon, the 1957 Cup winner Lookaway with Maurice Holmes at the helm from 24 yards were the favourites to repeat ahead of Ces Devine's bracket of False Step, off the front, and the 1956 Cup winner Thunder from 30 yards. Gentry (18yds) with his northern support and U Scott mare Lady Belmer (12yds) were next in the betting ahead of Caduceus, who by now had the record book and the handicapper very much against him. Caduceus had come off 54 yards to finish within half a length of Lookaway at Oamaru in track record time, but hardly raised a mention in 'Irvington's' Cup preview in the NZ Trotting Calendar.
Lookaway, who had of course become the first 4-year-old to win the Cup the previous season, had also impressed in the Cup Trial, whereas both False Step and Thunder had not according to Irvington. This was the point however where the unsound Lookaway's career began an out of control downward spiral, and the rise of False Step really began, although it should be noted he was "one of the greatest 4-year-olds ever" under Litten's tutelage.
Trueco and Derek Jones led early, but False Step was showing the way after half a mile before Caduceus dashed past down the back and Litten slammed on the brakes. The field then rushed up and around Caduceus, who went back on False Step and he tripped and almost fell passing the mile. False Step had only La Mignon and the tardy Thunder behind him starting the last lap when Tactician took them along from Roy Grattan and Gentry, who had skied to a clear lead starting the last half and seemed likely to win coming to the home turn.
False Step and Devine had been inching closer out wide all the time however and forged to a clear-cut lead early in the run home, looking set for an easy win, but Caduceus came flying out wide to almost bomb him on the line after himself being severely checked in the backstraight. Gentry and F J Smith jnr were four lengths away in third ahead of Lady Belmer and Lookaway, who "had every chance and did not really finish on as expected."
"Caduceus was pacing well when he met trouble near the three furlongs, and almost went down on his knees," said a crestfallen Litten, "by the time he got going again, he had lost his position."
"False Step is not a big horse by any means but he is all horse and his stamina cannot be doubted. When he showed up about the three furlongs, it was obvious he had something in reserve," wrote Irvington.
False Step had of course given Fallacy a very good start to his siring career, although he would still want for support as a 'colonial-bred' sire. Litten had bred him from Diversion, a Rey de Oro mare from the outstanding trotter Escapade, a daughter of Nelson Bingen and the 1915 NZ Cup winner Country Belle. In the end he produced around 250 winners, with NSW Derby winner Dignus coming from his second crop and 1971 NZ Cup winner True Averil was another in a long list of quality performers. Light Brigade himself had four starters in the Cup that year - Lookaway, La Mignon (6th), Thunder (7th) and Trueco (8th).
Caduceus would have his revenge by brilliantly winning the mile-and-five-furlong Ollivier Handicap from 48 yards on Show Day and the NZ Free-For-All on the fourth day, winning the latter for the second time. Earlier on the fourth day, False Step (30yds) had again beaten Caduceus (48yds) in the two-mile NZ Pacing Championship in a much more strongly run 4:11 1/5, as Lady Belmer and Gentry again chased them home.
It was still not uncommon at this time for the top horses to race twice a day more than once even at the four-day Cup Meeting held over 18 days, the fans feasting on double helpings so to speak. Not something to be even contemplated today of course.
Credit: Frank Marrion writing in 14Jun06