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HORSES

 

YEAR: 1982

Court Martial and owner Joe Hampton
COURT MARTIAL

Edna Hampton lost another of her 'family' the other day. Jerry died on August 2, the day after his 35th birthday. "It broke my heart," Mrs Hampton said a few days ago. "I'm still getting over it. I look out the window to his paddock and keep thinking he might reappear..." But Jerry won't. He was put down just as all the effort of trying to keep going a little bit longer was starting to become a bit painful for him.

Jerry was just his pet name. He was officially Court Martial. He had been part of the Hampton household since the day he was born. Mrs Hampton, at 76 now no longer as agile as she was, remembers that day. The Hampton's mare Suda Bay, served by that old gentleman Light Brigade, was due to foal. The night before she had been a bit unhappy and Joe Hampton "knew she'd foal in the morning. He went across the road at four in the morning to check on her but he was back in a few minutes. The foal was there but he was a whopper. Joe said it was the biggest foal he'd ever seen. He couldn't get up to stand to suckle. But that, really, was only a momentary problem. We wrapped him up, put him on a barrow and wheeled him under the old mare to suckle. He was a lot stronger after that first meal. Right there and then, Joe reckoned he'd keep the horse as a stallion. He was so impressed with him." And, after winning three or four races and then breaking down when involved in a skirmish at Wellington, Court Martial was indeed sent to stud.

No-one has to be told how successful he was. He's still making his mark. His mares can't help leaving winners. All told, Court Martial left close to 480 foals...for 149 winners, a grand performance. There were some champions among them, too. And Jerry has also left 128 winner-producing mares, another top effort. He hadn't served any mares over the last few years, Joe Hampton took him out of public service abour six years ago when he considered they both weren't as fit as they had been. Mr Hampton himself died almost two years ago.

From the time he was retired, Court Martial had his own little paddock with a road frontage in one of the outer suburbs of Christchurch. He'd walk backwards and forwards, just checking, and then, when children on bikes or ponies rode past, he'd be away to investigate. "His ears would prick up and he would whinny away to them. He was a real darling," Mrs Hampton said. "Everyone round here knew him and would talk to him." And at meal-times. "You had to be right on the dot otherwise he'd come up and lean over the fence and look at you as if to say, "I'm here, where's my tea? If he didn't get his food then, he'd stalk off in a huff." It was when Mrs Hampton went out to feed her old pet the other morning that she realised somthing was wrong. Jerry used to sleep in the hay barn..."there was plenty of straw there for him to lie down on." But this morning, instead of the usual whinny of greeting from the barn, there was only silence. "I thought it was a bit strange. He always used to call out when he saw me going to the feed shed. I went into the barn and he was still lying down. I told him to get up and he gave a couple of kicks but he couldn't or wouldn't get up. There was still food left from the meal before so I thought he wasn't hungry (he was always well fed). Then when he tried again, I thought perhaps his cover might be hindering him. I'm not strong enough to try to unfasten a cover with a horse on the ground, so I rang Gavin (her son who trains at Weedons) to come over and see what was wrong."

Gavin thought "the poor old chap had had it and called the vet. The kindest thing to do, the vet said, would be to put the old horse down. He could have got him up, but he would be in pain. It was hard, but it was the best thing." Court Martial was given an injection that afternoon. He's now buried in a plot alongside his brother, another fine trotter in Signal Light, and Bonny, Mrs Hampton's Queenland Blue Heeler who was run over. "I'm not keen on going into that paddock. It's as though all my family's there in the one plot. While Court Martial was known affectionately by all and sundry as Jerry, Signal Light, who won the Trotting Stakes at his first start, was known as Barney. "People used to reckon we had a couple of Irishmen on the place," Mrs Hampton said.

The Hamptons bought their dam, Suda Bay, when she was two for 60 guineas as part of an estate sale. She and her daughters bred on well for Joe and Edna Hampton. Court Martial's half-sister by U Scott, Heather Dew, left several good winners including the Cup horse Rhyl. And another half-sister, Landgirl, left Pipitre, the dam of champion trotter Nigel Graig.

The list of the open class trotters sired by Court Martial goes on and on... Reprimand, world record holder Moon Boy, Aquit, Seven Nights, Logan Count, Marshella, Rannach Lad, Jason McCord, Aronmot, Fair Play, Merrin, Sure Mart, Macamba (who provided Maurice Holmes with win number 1000), Slane and latest Australasian Championship winner Courting Appeal. Among his pacers have been the likes of Hoover, a huge winner in America, and Martial Salute (US1:59.8). He also sired the dams of horses like Trafalgar, Royal Armour, Dingle Bay, Ambleside, Wee Win, Classic Touch, Stevie Prestige, Logan Lea, Dryden Lobell, Tough Girl, Local Product, Cyclone Lad, Mister Square, etc, etc, etc.

Around the place, Court Martial was always a pet. "He was a real Light Brigade. He didn't have a single vice. Even in his younger days when he was serving mares, he was the gentlest horse you would ever meet. A kid could lead him along on a loose rope; or they could sit up on his back without any fear. He was just one of those lovable old horses. I still miss him. I think I always will..."





Credit: Graham Ingram writing in NZ Trotting Calendar 24Aug82

 

YEAR: 1991

GAVIN HAMPTON

This month marks the end of driving for Gavin Hampton, now aged 65. Having driven 250 winners since being first licenced in the 1946-47 season, he retires thinking how fortunate he was to train two of them. Near the start of his career, in 1952 and 53, he had Masterpiece and 29 years ago it was the handsome stallion, Radiant Globe.

He wouldn't separate the two on ability, though Masterpiece won him 6 and Radiant Globe 22. "The best was never seen of Masterpiece. I got him when he had won five and he won me six, including four on end. He had great speed. You could bring him into the straight about seventh or eighth and he would produce a brilliant finish; he was a better horse if you held him up."

An unsound son of Light Brigade, Masterpiece started his trot for Hampton by winning at Hutt Park, where he beat Inglewood, and then defeated First Victory at Addington. He went to Ashburton on Boxing Day, winning from Tribal Song and Tiberius, and brought up his fourth successive win in the Au Revoir Handicap at Addington from Vedette, Zulu and Dragoman. His sixth and final win of his career came the same season at Addington, where he won from Lauder Hall, Petite Yvonne and Maida Dillon.

"Radiant Globe was a lovely horse, a great horse to have round the place, and the kids could get on and ride him. You knew he was always going to do his best for you."

Hampton's best driving tally was in the 1970-71 season when he won 21 and Radiant Globe gave him eight of them, including the Greymouth Cup from Barrhill and Jacquinot Bay, and the New Brighton Cup from True Averil and Barrhill. It was also the season of his greatest disappointment. "The 1971 Inter-Dominions were at Addington, and he couldn't start on the first night because he got tied up. On the second night he ran fourth and he won on the third night with a faster rate than any of the other three winners (Stella Frost, Manaroa and Rain Again). He missed out on a start in the Final by one point." To illustrate the good prospect he would have been in the Final, Radiant Globe won the 13 furlong Consolation from Globe Bay by more than six lengths in 3:27, after Stella Frost took 3:38 2/5 in the Grand Final. "I was lucky to get a horse like that," he said.

Hampton's first job was at Takanini at F J Smith's Village Farm. It was a top stable, including at the time Josedale Dictator and Volo Senwood. You had to pick up all you learned, but it was different than what it is these days. He had 11 boys on the staff and they each had two horses to look after and they were strapped for an hour and a quarter every day. "It was three months before I got my first day off, and six months before I was allowed in the cart," he said.

His first winning drive was after he had returned south, to where his father Joe was training at East Eyreton in North Canterbury. "My father wasn't very pleased about it. I drove Rowan McCoy at Greymouth, where it was usual to have two starts in the day. In the first of them, when he was paying £100 to win, I miscounted the number of rounds, and got him going to run fourth. I won with him later in the day, but he was hot favourite then," he said.

He gained a professional licence in 1950 and moved to Belfast, where Masterpiece - later the sire of top pacer Master Alan - and the U Scott trotter Ecosse joined the team. Cara Nelson was another good winner at the time, and in the early 60s he produced Wendy Dawn to win the NZ Oaks and the Nelson Cup, and Belmartial to win the NZ Trotting Stakes. In 1966, he moved to Weedons, where he trained and drove such good winners as Glen Bell, Final Donn, Pineship, Grovenor Globe, and Radiant General who won the 1975 Golden Slipper Stakes.

His driving successes included the Westport Cup behind Slick Chick, the Superstars Final with Lucky Boy, the NZ Free-For-All with Radiant Globe, feature races with Stampede and Zabadak, and the Canterbury Park Cup behind Philemon.

Hampton has noticed great changes in the style of driving in recent years. "It used to be stereotyped, but now it's all hustle and bustle. People are going for the money and they seem to under more pressure. When I first started you would follow someone who would show you how to get the gaps, like Maurice Holmes. I had my first drives for the season at Nelson last month and I couldn't get over it. I would think I'd be going alright, in a good position, then I'd find myself out the back. It's a different ballgame now," he said.

For many years a committeeman on the Trainers and Drivers Association, Hampton considers the Conference could have involved more professional men in some of its decision-making, and worries about the little protection for cadets after they leave the scheme. "It seems too easy to get a licence, and this must have an effect on the future of the young ones."

"The cost and pressure doesn't make harness racing as enjoyable as it used to be," he said. Hampton, whose last driving success was in the 1987-88 season, did not have his first drives this season until the recent Nelson meeting. He leased Parklane for the curcuit, and hopes to end his career driving the same horse at Addington - the scene of his most memorable wins.


Credit: Mike Grainger writing in HRWeekly 3Jul91

 

YEAR: 2009

Frank & Shirley Bebbington
FRANK BEBBINGTON

The Bebbington family has been involved with trotting horses for almost a century. Frank Bebbington's still training horses in his seventh decade and talks to David McCarthy about his experiences.

It was your grandfather who started it all off?
Yes, his name was Frank too and my father, Reg, trained as well. The other Frank had a good mare called Manuka which was a sister to (pacing champion of the Victorian ere) Ribbonwood. But he passed her on and a foal, I think, to Maurice McTigue and Frank McKendry. The filly, Ivy Mac, was a foundation mare for Maurice. It was where his best horse, Tactician, came from.

You and your dad trained a good one in Robert Medoro?
The Jamisons were next door to Dad. They had that very good breed but this one had a club foot and when a possible sale fell through we got him. He was by Medoro, a stallion we liked. He had been breed in Italy but was of all-American blood. In those days you couldn't bring a stallion in from America and he was one way round it. He was trotting bred, though actually most of the good horses he left were pacers. We had him at home trying to get his feet right. I don't think he raced until he was seven and ended up beating Snow Globe in the Hambletonian which was the big Easter trot in those days.

What about your first winner?
It was the first horse I trained and he came along exactly at the right time in 1960. I raced him with Gordon Cartwright who used to be my barber then. He bred him. His name was Whipaway and he won at Motukarara the same week Shirley and I were married. What we got out of it paid for the wedding, the honeymoon, the lot. I bred from a half-sister called Iron Maiden. She was a good mare and left some good horses including Avalon Globe who sired a grand trotter we raced called Globe Tour.

You seem to favour trotters?
It is just the way it has worked out really, but I must say I enjoy developing a good trotter. I did my own shoeing and it was a big part of it. You can't condemn a trotting horse if it lacks early speed, especially if it has got breeding. Sooner or later something will come of it, if it has the pedigree. In the old days the trotters were horses too slow on the pace, and some of those old trainers took six months to get them just to trot. It is a lot different now.

Some people say the ones now are not as tough?
I suppose it is right but you have to remember they are not trained to be tough like they used to be. Maurice McTigue, Ossie Hooper, Billy Doyle and those blokes did a lot of road work with their horses. Paul Nairn is still doing it but the roads around here now are too risky. Ted Lowe used to jog his pacers for half an hour before he fast worked them. People don't have time for that any more.

How did you get Globe Tour?
Though a friend mine from Murchison, Dave Oxnam. He gave me some young horses to take home from Nelson one day and educate. They were pretty rough and getting them home was an achievement but they turned out alright. He was breeding from a horse called Protector there.

Protector became famous when horses like Nigel Craig were racing but came from nowhere.
A bloke called Charlie McHugh who was basically a car dealer was sort of behind him. He was unusual in that they had him running with the mares when he was two and he had stock racing before he did. He had ability but by then he wasn't interested in racing by the time he got there, only the mares around the track and (stipe) Len Butterfield wanted him out of it. Dave Oxnam had a remarkable piece of luck to get some of his best rachorses.

Like?
He was breeding thoroughbreds and when it was suggested he switch to trotters he wanted to know where to get some mares from. He was sent to Joe Hampton at Upper Riccarton for a couple, but Joe said he had sent them to the knackery the day before. It was the weekend and Joe said Dave might be able to get them there before the gun was fired. He just made it. They were waiting in the paddock. He took the two mares home and bred them to Protector in Murchison where he was a butcher and a farmer. One, Propetre, left the champion trotter Nigel Craig which set the mile record and the other Shendi Lass, left one of the best trotters we ever had in Royal Armour. She left some other good ones too. Trafalgar was a really good trotter she left. He was well known up Nelson way. A great staying horse.

I see Globe Tour won seven races one season at four?
A grand wee trotter. He went in the wind. I think it ran in the family because Royal Armour did the same. We operated on them but it was much harder to get it to work then.

Your daughter, Lynne, drove Globe Tour?
Lynne did everything with him. She broke him in, shod him, drove him, the lot. Then she got married to Andrew Neal. She had her photo taken in her wedding dress with him before she went to the church. Jim Ferguson got up at the wedding and told Andrew he was not only getting a lovely wife but an expert blacksmith.

You also stood stallions and one of them was Mercedes. That must have been a challenge?
He was a brute. Ted Lowe was in Ashburton hospital when the news came out we were going to stand him. He told the nurse to leave the bed next to him vacant because soon after Mercedes arrived Frank Bebbington would be needing it.

I remember seeing him in Auckland and he was a man-eater. How did you survive?
He had killed a bloke in America and he would have done here with half a chance. We heard the stories from up north where Ted Hooper had him. They told me he always had to have two headstalls on. If there was only one somebody would cop it. We couldn't get a headstall on him. You couldn't handle him. In the end we shot darts into him but it didn't seem to make any difference.

What was the solution?
We built a race right outside his stall. You had to have those sort of things to get anywhere. When he ran into the race we blocked it and tried to get a headstall on him from above where he couldn't get at us. We still had the darts as well. He always had to have someone on a pole either side when you could catch him. Gary Argyle was working for us then. I don't think I have ever seen anybody get over a big rail as fast as he did one day when Mercedes was going to eat him.

Was he a success?
Well of course he left Luxury Liner up north who was a great horse otherwise I suppose nobody would have bothered. We used natural service with him - you had no chance collecting semen for AI - and the first mare he served left twins. I thought that summed it up really.

Best horse you have seen?
Johnny Globe was a favourite of mine. I know everyone says that but he was for me. Mount Eden was a horse with terrific speed. He was the fastest I have seen.




Credit: David McCarthy writing in The Press 7Nov09

 

YEAR: 2011

GAVIN HAMPTON

Your father, Joe, had racehorses. Were you always going to make a career with them?

No way. I actually started working in town as an office boy but I got a bit sick of that.We had always had ponies to ride to school at East Eyreton where Dad had a farm. Anyway I was helping out at home. Dad went to the races at Ashburton one day and came home and said he had found a job for me. It was working for F J Smith in Auckland (Takanini), so I packed up and off I went.

F J Smith? He was the Englishman who had been in America and was a champion trainer always immaculately dressed?

Yes, he had a lot of success here. He was a top horseman and he knew all the latest things they were doing in America. I was there for about 18 months.

I suppose since he was one for appearances everything had to be spot on?

My word! We had two horses each to look after. There were 19 of us working twenty horses most of the time and we lived in a house there at Takanini. Each day you had to have all the gear hanging up outside the stable and he would inspect that and the horses.

A tough test?

He used to have a white silk handkerchief. He would rub it over the horse's rump and hold it up to the light. It had to be clean or you had to do it over again. He would do the same with the gear, giving it a dust test. The included the horse's covers. We had to wash and scrub them every day. He was a stickler for that. He also had a big collection of treatments he gave to the horses. If you ever went near there you were soon told to get back to work. He died not that long after I left there.

You came home?

Yes, I was training a couple at East Eyreton. Then Dad sold the farm and I moved out to Belfast. I was at George Ashby's for a while and then at Kent Smith's stables next to the Belfast hotel.

A tough start?

I started training for £2 10 shillings a week. But you could get a bag of chaff for five shillings and oats were cheap so it wasn't too bad. The top trainer charged up to £5.

I remember you had a good horse called Masterpiece soon after. How did that happen?

He was a Southland horse and Herbie Booth owned and trained him. I got to know him at Forbury when the meetings were spread over a week. At the end of it he offered me Masterpiece. He had won about four races then and that took him out of the Southland racing classes.

A good horse to work with?

A stallion but a lovely horse to do anything with. We won a lot of good races against the top horses an hell, they were good then. He won a free-for-all beating Vedette, but I never got him to the NZ Cup. He broke down in a suspensory ligament before the race. We bred mares to him. He later left Master Alan, which was a top wee horsepeople will remember.

What was it like for a young guy with a top horse then?

Well, it wasn't all easy. A leading trainer I wont name went all the way to Invercargill to try and get it off me. He told Herbie I didn't know what I was doing and h would do a better job. Herbie turned around at th end and said the horse was at Gavin Hampton's and he was staying there. In fact he sent me up other horses including a trotter called Ecosse which won a lot of races. Herbie died near the end of Masterpiece's career, but his son kept the horses with us.

Ecosse, another stallion. He was by U Scott? What was he like?

Yes, by U Scott, a little weed and a dirty little bugger. You just couldn't trust him. I remember I sent him over to Lyttelton one day to go to Wellington. In those days they used to hoist them onto the boat. When I go to the boat there was a hell of a scene. Horses bandaged everywhere. He was next to Johnny Globe who was a lovely quiet horse and had attacked him and everything else he could get at. I didn't have many mates on that ship.

What had been your first winner?

Rowan McCoy, which Dad bred and owned. A good trotter on her day.

What was the story behind Signal Light that you drove in the 1951 Inter-Dominion trotting final?

Dad had a rabbiting contract in Hakataramea and that required horse. He used to go to the Tattersalls Horse Bazaar in town to get them and that was where all our best racehorses came from when he decided to breed from a few of them. Suda Bay, the dam of Signal Light was one of them. She later left Court Matial for my father. He bought another one, Margaret Logan, which was to start a line for us. They were only going for hack prices.

Did Signal Light have his chance in the Inter-Dominion?

Yes, and I thought it had it won. Then Gay Belwin came along and took it off us in the last few strides. Signal Light won a Trotting Stakes and he was placed in a lot of the biggest races. There were terrific horses to race against then. I especially remember Dictation. He held all the records. He was one of the best trotters I have ever seen if not the best.

Court Martial. He made a big impression, especially as a sire?

He was a good stayer as a racehorse but he was a terrific stallion. He left horses like Moon Boy, lots of top liners. Dad stood him at stud in Riccarton on Hawthornden Road.

A big operation?

Not with old Court Martial. He was a dream. they'd walk him into a paddock of mares and he would just stand there while they tested the mares and palpated them. They'd call him over , he would do the job, then start eating grass. Nothing ever bothered that old horse. He was 35 when he died.

After Masterpiece, Signal Light etc, your next headliner was Radiant Globe. What can you tell us about him?

He was the best horse I trained. Right from the first time I put him in the cart he was special. He gave us a lot of thrills and the two biggest disappointments of my racing life.

How did you get him?

I really only had him to break in initially. Graham Holmes suggested they give it to me. Bob White, who was then a barman in Blenheim - he later had his own pubs - had bred him from a mare he bought from Westport for about $100. She didn't have a lot of breeding. John Hart had a share in him with Bob. As I said I liked him right from the start and they let me go on training him. He was better than anything else I handled.

What were the disappointments?

A New Zealand Cup and an Interdominion. You don't get many bigger disappointments than those two in our game.

Which Cup was that?

1971. He was second to True Averil whom he had beaten in the New Brighton Cup not long before. He was the favourite and he should have won it.

What happened?

I was in front. He was happy there. He could start to pull if you tried to do too much with him. Anyway, we were going along sweet as a nut when Robalan came around. They wanted to lead and there was some noise going on and my horse started to pull. It cost him the race.

Still second though.

When Robalan wouldn't go away I let my horse run clear of the field. He was only going to pull his way into the ground otherwise. We had a big break on them at the turn and it was only in the last few strides True Averil got him.

What happened at the Inter-Dominion?

They wouldn't let him into the final because he had missed the first round of the heats. That was the year Mount Eden didn't make the final either. Radiant Globe was going terrific that year but he had a muscle problem just before the heats started and we couldn't risk him like that. He got enough points in two rounds to get into the finals but they wouldn't let him start. He won his consolation heat by half the straight and went faster than they went in the final. He'd have won that too if he had got a go.

A kind horse?

Just a lovely horse to do anything with. Kids could ride him no trouble. A bit of an actor too. His only bad habit was that he liked to pull battens out of fences. I got a long piece of polythene pipe about 20ft long and gave him that to distract him. He loved that. He would stand on his hind feet and swing it around like a circus pony. The papers came out and took photos of him in action.

You ended up taking him to America?

Yeah. It wasn't a great result. When I first got there I had him at a farm, riding him and doing pacework with him. They thought it was a novelty riding a free-for-all pacer, but I did a lot of it with him. He thrived out there but Del Insko, who had charge of him, wanted him in town to step up his work. He didn't take a lot of work and he didn't show his best up there. In the end he broke down.

Wendy Dawn was a good filly you raced?

Yes, I bred her by Johnny Globe, like Radiant Globe was. Her mother (Meadowbrook) was from Rose Logan which Dad had bred from. She showed me quite a bit early on but when it came to race time I just couldn't get a start with her anywhere. Not many trials then and a lot less races. So I entered her in the New Zealand Derby for her first race. A bit daring then.

How did she go?

She ran fourth, pretty good first up. It was Tactile's year. Her second start was in the NZ Oaks and she won that.

What a career start. What happened next?

Not a lot to be honest. She was smart but she never really got any better. She was also a bit disappointing at stud. She left Tilringer which was useful, but not a lot else.

You did a lot of freelance driving later?

Yes, I had some good clients. Swannee Smith gave me drives on Gay Lyric when he was going well earlier on and Starbeam was another I got a drive on. Jim Curragh had Kind Nature and others and I drove Sassenach and Stampede. Lucky Boy was another and Alandria which Jim Winter trained. I drove Philemon earlier on. Paul did very well in his own right as a driver. He was probably better than me.

How did you get on Stampede?

Mainly through Andrew Sellars. I had driven horses for his father earlier. Alan Devery was training him and said "who is Gavin Hampton?" Andrew said to him he would soon find out because I would be driving him. We did alright together.

What are the horses which live in your memory over the years?

Lordship, Johnny Globe, Cardigan Bay. I mentioned Dictation last time and there was a great trotter in the 1940s called Certissimus who was just beautiful to watch. He died young. Radiant Globe is the horse of my own I will always rate right up there.

Credit: Interview with David McCarthy in The Press 19Feb 2011



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