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1942 NZ PACING SPRINT CHAMPIONSHIP

Gold Bar is the new record-holder at a mile and a quarter. His 2:35 to win the NZ Pacing Sprint Championship by three lengths from Haughty is a world's race record, and as far as New Zealand-bred horses are concerned, Gold Bar now holds the mile harness record 1:59 3-5, the mile saddle record 2:03 3-5, the mile and a quarter record 2:35, the mile and three furlongs record 2:56, and the mile and five furlongs winning record 3:27.

It is a bunch of records never before held by the one horse in the Dominion, and as a speed king Gold Bar has certainly earned a high place in light harness history.

He now goes to the stud at a fee well within the reach of all breeders.

Full Result

1st: A Holmes's GOLD BAR. Trained and driven by D C Watts, Yaldhurst.

2nd: B Grice's HAUGHTY. Driven by O E Hooper.

3rd: Messrs Pezaro & Bridgen's JOSEDALE GRATTAN. Driven by F J Smith.

4th: E R Smith's PETER SMITH. Driven by L A Maidens.

The winner won by three lengths, with two lengths back to the third horse.

Times: 2:35, 2:35 2-5, 2:35 4-5, 2:36.

Also started: Bayard; Burt Scott; Dusky Sound; Fine Art; Mankind.



Credit: NZ Trotting Calendar 18Nov42

Haughty & Ossie Hooper

1942 NEW ZEALAND TROTTING CUP

This is the story of the four pillars of Haughty - four mares whose names are cornerstones of trotting history - Princess, Norice, Regal Voyage and Haughty herself. This is the combination of champion mares whose united efforts have culminated in a new World's Champion pacing mare, Haughty, 4:13 4-5.

The first link in this chain of champions was forged long before the NZ Trotting Cup was established. It all started away back in the 80's, because a young jockey found increasing weight forcing him out of the saddle. That young jockey was D J Price, who then turned his attention to trotting. Price related how he noticed a pacing mare showing a turn of speed on the side of a road, how he bought her for £20 and a £20 contingency, and how he called her Princess. She was said to be by Dexter, but there was some doubt about her breeding. However, she developed into an out-and-out champion, by far the greatest pacer seen in New Zealand up to her time, and she was much too good for the Exhibition Cup field at Dunedin.

Later Princess went to Australia, where she produced to Hambletonian Bell Boy that good horse Prince Imperial, who became the sire of a mare that never raced, but which produced, among other winners, Thixendale, Lady Willings, Lough Neagh, Denver City, Glimpse and Logan Princess who, to Happy Voyage, produced Regal Voyage. Here is the second champion mare in the pedigree. Regal Voyage was a fine stayer, quite one of the best mares of her day, and in the Mid-summer Handicap at Addington in 1931 she beat a great field and registered 4:19 4-5 for the two miles, then a world's pacing record for a mare; in third place was Harold Logan, who was forced to do 4:13 2-5. Regal Voyage was bred by Mr B Grice, but she did most of her racing for the late R Wanden, of Blenheim, and was trained by D Withers. At the conclusion of her racing career, Regal Voyage was bought back by Mr Grice, and her first foal, to Nelson Derby, was Haughty.

The remaining link in this chain of celebrated mares is imported Norice, and it is a matter of real interest that the first New Zealand Trotting Cup in 1904, and the latest contest, should be so closely connected. Norice finished second in the first Cup to Monte Carlo, and now her grand-daughter, Haughty, is enthroned as the 1942 winner and the champion two-mile pacing mare of all time. Norice produced a great line of horses, including Nelson Derby, Native King and Nelson Fame. The great store that Mr Grice places upon the potency of Norice is reflected in the number of her descendants he is using at his stud. He decided to breed from Nelson Derby when this fine racehorse was practically in the discard as a sire. That must have required a certain amount of courage, but it turned out to be nice judgement, for he has had several good winners by Nelson Derby, notably Haughty, Hardy Oak and Single Star.

Mr Grice's interesting experiment in putting mares descended from Norice on the dam's side back to a son of Norice has met with happy results in the production of such good pacers as Hardy Oak and Single Star. Call it inbreeding, linebreeding, or what you will, it was done deliberately by a breeder whose great success over a long period places him in the forefront of breeders-owners-trainers. He has made a study of the Nelson Derby breed, refusing to over-race them at a tender age, and that is one of the main reasons, probably, why Haughty is the champion staying mare of today; she was not taken to the races until she was four, and then she was started only twice, when nearly a five-year-old. That was in the 1939-40 season , so she is now only seven. The latest champion is just a plain, ordinary mare; she can make no pretence at look or style, but she can wag her head at the beauties and reflect that handsome is still as handsome does.

There is a limit to speed; the torrid pace set by Gold Bar found out the backmarker, Josedale Grattan, but last year's winner was not disgraced. He was asked to register 4:10 3-5 to win, and it is doubtful if there is a horse in the world today, including Billy Direct and Greyhound, who could do such time on a six-fulong track. Greyhounds 4:06 against time was done from a flying start on a mile track, while Josedale Grattan, in addition to having more turns to contend with on a track two-furlongs shorter, had an additional 36yds to cover from a standing start. All these facts should be given full consideration, because there must eventually be a limit to the speed a horse can carry over any distance in harness.

Time was when certain schools of harness racing thought that the day might arrive when a pacer or trotter would attain the speed of a galloper. That is ridiculous; but it proves this much: the limit of pacing and trotting speed must nearly have been reached. It proves that the trotter and pacer is possibly rapidly attaining its highest peak of perfection. And pacers in this country, racing under entirely different and more difficult conditions than trials against time in the States, have got remarkably close to the best times over the longer distances made in the home of the trotter and pacer. So much for the fact that there may be a limit to pacing speed.

If anyone had suggested that a horse would go 4:14 3-5 off the limit of the Cup and get beaten, he would have received a very poor hearing. Yet it happened to Gold Bar. The official sectional times made Gold Bar go to the first half-mile in 62secs; the mile in 2:04 3-5; the mile and a quarter in 2:35 2-5; the mile and a half in 3:08 2-5. He took 65 1-5secs for the last half-mile, and had to lower his colours to three horses in the run home. It was a sensational performance, drawing unstinted praise from Mr A L Matson (president of the NZ Metropolitan Trotting Club) at the Cup presentation. He expressed great admiration for Gold Bar's wonderful achievement, and sympathised with the owner in having to accept fourth place after his horse's being almost totally responsible for the establishment of a new two-mile winning record.

Another record was established which is liable to be overlooked. This is Bayard's time of 4:13 2-5 for third, representing a world's pacing record for a stallion. The ponified pacer was beaten for second only in the last couple of strides by Loyal Rey, whose 4:13 1-5 places him next to Harold Logan on the roster of fastest two-mile pacing performers.

The unlucky horse in the Cup was again Peter Smith who had the job of overhauling Gold Bar, and actually gave Haughty the run of the race. Haughty was tucked in behind Peter Smith all the way to the straight, and by that time Peter Smith's desperate chase of Gold Bar naturally found him out. Loyal Rey drifted early, and his run over the last half mile was of a very high standard indeed.

The world's harness record for two miles is held by the trotter Greyhound, who went 4:06 in 1939. The first mile took 2:03 and the second the same. The best pacing time for two miles in America stands to the credit of Dan Patch 4:17, who took his record away back in 1903. It is obvious that Billy Direct, 1:55, would greatly reduce this record, but, until a great American pacer does tackle Dan Patch's record of 39 years' standing, the world's pacing records for two miles stand to the credit of Harold Logan, 4:12 2-5 (for third), and Haughty, 4:13 4-5 (winning).

Investments on the race totalled £18,350/10/- and for the day £99,419/10/-

Full Result

1st: B Grice's HAUGHTY. Trained by the owner, Tinwald and driven by O E Hooper, started off scratch.

2nd: P A Watson's LOYAL REY. Driven by M C McTigue, started off 12yds.

3rd: H E Salter's BAYARD. Driven by C King, started off 12yds.

4th: A Holmes's GOLD BAR. Driven by D C Watts, started off scratch.

The winner won by two lengths, with a neck to third and a length to fourth.

Times: 4:13 4-5, 4:13 1-5, 4:13 2-5, 4:14 3-5.

Also Started: Bronze Eagle scr; Clockwork scr & Ferry Post 12 bracketed with the third horse; Peter Smith scr; Colonal Grattan 12; Fine Art 12 bracketed with the second horse; Great Jewel 12; Josedale Grattan 36


Credit: 'Ribbonwood' writing in NZ Trotting Calendar

LEICESTER MAIDENS

Now forgotten, a lesson on how few "legends" last beyond our own time, Winchmore trainer Leicester Maidens produced some amazing results with "has been" pacers and trotters on both sides of the Tasman in the 1930's and 1940's. What was his secret? - and did it later play a role in Bart Cummings winning at least one of his Melbourne Cups?

Maiden's feats with top class veteran horses remain unequalled. In 1941, fresh from a two year retirement on health grounds, he won 23 races just from January to July when leading trainer Ces Donald had 34 for the whole season. More remarkably, the youngest of his winners was eight and the eldest two were 12! Zincali, raced by West Coast All Black, Jack Steel, and formerly with experts Maurice McTigue and "Dil" Edwards, was the leading stakes earner nationally, winning six races and setting an Australasian record for a mile and a half.

In 1936 when asked to take a "lost cause" for Ashburton owner, Harry Nicoll, Maidens agreed - if he could also try the New Zealand Cup/ Dominion Handicap winner Wrackler, then 10, which had been hacked in retirement for more than 12 months. Nicoll reluctantly agreed and within three months Wrackler had won the Addington Handicap beating most of the best open class trotters around.

Born in 1900 into an Ashburton farming family, the personable and popular Maidens first came to prominence with Harvest Child, one of two high class winners from th first crop of the "hyped" expensive stallion, Sonoma Harvester who never repeated the feat. Past his best and a refugee from stables such as that of Freeman Holmes, Harvest Child was rejuvenated under Maidens.

At his 1930's peak Maidens had 30 horses in work near Methven, a huge number then. Rollo, then a 12-year-old, had been retired out of Roy Berry's stable but won several rich races for Maidens. Peter Locanda, Marie Celeste - both 10 year olds - Zingarrie, Jesse Owens - who won four of his six starts for Maidens after being taken over from Dinny Teahen of Certissimus fame - and Palomar were other great successes.

His two best results, apart from Zincali, were Blue Mountain and Peter Smith. Blue Mountain was a tough grey horse owned bt Mrs Inex Sweetapple of Auckland and fornerly with Jack Shaw before Maidens raced him in partnership with his owner. He went within a length of beating Indianapolis in that champion's first NZ Cup in 1934, anothe champion Harold Logan being three lengths away.

Maidens inherited Peter Smith late in his career. He won the rich Olivier Handicap and ran third in three NZ Cup attempts, his problem on Cup Day being that as a fast beginner he was always dragging the field up to inevitable tearaway pacemaker, Gold Bar.

Maidens retired again in 1945 and took over the Royal Hotel in Palmerston North. In 17 seasons training by his count he had been in the top four trainers or drivers seven times and rarely outside the top five. In 1949 Maidens turned up in Melbourne, claiming health reasons though his wife, Margaret, remained in Palmerston North. After a time he took over a free-legged pacer well past his best called Dauntless Peter and decided to train him in hopples, something the horse hated with a passion. "He tried to kick them off every day for six weeks," Maidens recalled.

Largely thanks to a rejuvenated Dauntless Peter who beat the best in the Melbourne Free-For-All in spite of carrying a buckled wheel for most of the way so bad the driver had to sit on one side of the cart, Maidens then won a Melbourne trainer's premiership. Later, in 1953, he was on the front pages (headline "Women Screamed) after surviving a spetacular smash at the Showgrounds when thrown 20ft high in the air, and he was also a guest columnist in the Melbourne Argus.

He was then private trainer for owner/breeder Bob Stewart but after a time there was strife with the stewards over the form of Silver Trigger in two races the same night at a provincial meeting. Owner-trainer and horse were disqualified for 12 months. On appeal Stewart was absolved. However Maidens, who had been in trouble for giving the stewards a "serve" about them talking to him before the start of the race on the night, (he won one race and was second in the other) lost his appeal in spite of several impressive character witnesses in his defence. Stewart sold up in favour of galloping in disgust. Maidens later retired and died in Toorak, Melbourne, in 1973.

The Maidens secret? Various tonics were in use in that era but few were unknown to the top trainers on whom Maidens seemed to improve on time after time. He had either found an effective form of natural hormone treatment or, as he himself seemed to claim, he was ahead of his time in recognising the role of ulcers on the performance of older horses. "Old horses suffer more from ulcers because of stress and the standard training feeding diet ofter makes it worse," Maidens once said in an interview. "Ulcers are painful and have a big effect on diet and work. I pay special attention to diets for my horses (lower oats content, special cooked supplements) and work them less to cut stress."

60 years later, after veteran Rogan Josh came from nowhere to win the 1999 Melbourne Cup, Bart Cummings sang the praises of an ulcer product as the winning edge. Treating ulcers became a racing fad - until an ingredient was found to be a prohibited substance. Ulcer treatment remains large in the training of older horses as a result.

It would have been another story the colourful Leicester Maidens would love to have told.

Credit: David McCarthy writing in HR Weekly 6Feb13

Fred Smith, Josedale Grattan & Winifred Matson

1941 NEW ZEALAND TROTTING CUP

Josedale Grattan, a stallion imported from America by polished Auckland horseman F J Smith, convincingly led home a North Island-owned trifecta when Kenworthy and Peter Smith filled the placings.

It was an exciting spectacle thanks to the tearaway Gold Bar, but Josedale Grattan had his measure two furlongs from home and won by three lengths in a race record of 4:15.

The meeting also saw notable wins recorded by the mare Haughty and the Globe Derby entire Springfield Globe, who had won the Inter-Dominion in Tasmania as a 4-year-old.

Credit: NZ HRWeekly 8Oct03

PETER BINGEN

"Peter Bingen, who is 32 years old, is running on my farm at Kaipaki, Ohaupo," writes Mr C V Garmonsway in a letter to the Calendar. "He has not done any stud work for three years...has the run of the 125 acres dairy farm, enjoys a good cover every winter, is in perfect health and never fails to do a trial run on his own every day. He looks like going on for quite a few years yet," continues Mt Garmonsway's letter. Mr Garmonsway enclosed the photo of the old horse and himself which appears on this page. It is not the best of reproductions, but it will lose little of its interest; for those of us who saw Peter Bingen race it will recall the handsome dark bay horse's brilliant racetrack record of the late 1920s and the sensations he caused by becoming the first pacer in Australasia to better 4.19 for two miles and 2.40 for a mile in a quarter.

In winning his first NZ Cup in 1928 Peter Bingen registered 4.18 4/5, thereby lowering the previous record of 4.19 2/5 standing to the credit of his famous full-brother, Great Bingen; and then, a few days later, Peter Bingen won the Novenber Free-For-All (at that time the only free-for-all run in the Dominion), he clocked 2.38 4/5 and lowered by a wide margin the standing record for a mile and a quarter, 2.40 1/5, held by Minton Derby.

Peter Bingen, up till the NZ Cup carnival, he had been a fast horse but a moody one, and he was one of the outsiders of the 1928 NZ Cup field. That was one of his most generous patches, however, and he could not be caught after dashing into the lead to the call of his trainer-driver, the late J J Kennerley, with a round to go. The finish was one of the finest in the history of the race - still is. Over the final furlong Great Bingen and then Ahuriri were closing on Peter Bingen at every stride and he lasted just long enough to get the verdict.

Peter Bingen began his racing career as a trotter and, as a 3-year-old, he finished second - 20 lengths away - to Peterwah in the NZ Trotting Stakes at Forbury Park. He was switched to the pacing gait before the end of his 3-year-old season, but he never entirely lost his trotting instinct or ability and he had a beautifully smooth action at either gait. Kennerley used to give him a considerable amount of his training work for big pacing races at the trotting gait. "It helps to humour him," this very able trainer used to say, and Peter Bingen, who had his fair share of what many detractors of the Bingen breed called "fiery temperament" was a shining example of what patience, careful study and understanding will do for such a horse. In less capable hands Peter Bingen could have ended up a nonentity. He liked to trot, and Kennerley derived a lot of satisfaction from letting him step along at the square gait, in the course of his NZ Cup preparations, at a speed that would have won good-class trotters races.

Peter Bingen opened his winning account at Greymouth as a 4-year-old in October, 1924. That season he won four races. At five he won three races, and the following season he was first past the post five times. The 1927-8 season was a lean one for him and he ended up with a pretty poor name. People who had followed the aristocratic bay horse had turned almost as sour towards him as he apparently had to this racing business; he did not win a race that term, although he ran one good race at the NZ Cup meeting to finish second to Native Chief in the Free-For-All.

Came the 1928 Metropolitan August meeting and Peter Bingen was nowhere in the August Handicap, then a race little below NZ Cup class. The same lot was his in the principal event on the second day, the King George Handicap. But then the mood struck him, and he romped home by three lengths in the National Cup on the concluding day. Two months later he was at Greymouth contesting high-class sprint races which in those days were regarded as curtain-raisers to the NZ Cup. He was not impressive, being unplaced behind Cardinal Logan, Great Bingen, Ahuriri and Talaro on the first day, and a poor fourth to Cardinal Logan, Bonny Logan and Golden Devon on the second day. In extenuation of Peter Bingen's failures there, it is only fair to mention that Cardinal Logan was then the Dominion's most agile pacer on that small track; Peter Bingen was not.

But the public were sick of 'Peter' once more. He was too 'in and out' for the ten-bob punter, the army of small speculators who make horses favourites or consign them to the category of rank outsiders. They did not go quite so far as pushing Peter Bingen down among the depths in the 1928 NZ Cup, but it was a close shave: in a field of 14 totalisator chances, Peter Bingen was 10th in order of favouritism. It was a powerful field by any standards, past or present. In fact, there have been one or two Cup fields of the last few years that would have been hard pressed to go with the array of giants who met on that warm, sunny day, Tuesday, November 6, 1928, to do battle for the then rich stake of £3000. From the North Island, with a reputation that sent him out favourite, came Padlock. Second in demand was Ahuriri (winner of two previous NZ Cups), bracketed with Imprint; third favourite was the handsome Terence Dillon from Oamaru, next in preference was the old champion Great Bingen, followed by Prince Pointer, the trotter Peterwah, Jack Potts, Talaro and Queen's Own and then Peter Bingen. Others in the field were Black Admiral, Machine Gun, Dalnahine, Kohara, and Waitaki Girl - all names to conjure with at one time or another.

How Peter Bingen slipped the field with a round to go and refused to come back to the sizzling final thrusts of Great Bingen and Ahuriri lived on for many a day as one of the burning topics of light-harness conversation. The unkind thought in many trotting folks' minds - 'fluke' - did not survive above a couple of days, because the following Thursday he inflicted similar defeat on the Free-For-All field and broke his second Australasian record in as many starts - a mile and a quarter in 2.38 4/5 in the Free-For-All, in which Kennerley adopted the same tactics as in the NZ Cup: he took 'Peter' to the front a long way from home and was not caught, although his winning margin over the flying Prince Pointer was only a head, and Jewel Pointer and Great Bingen were not far away. The only other starter was Native Chief.

Peter Bingen was now enjoying the 'green years' of his somewhat chequered career: he came back the following year as good as ever and after finishing second to Kingcraft in his qualifying heat (an innovation that was soon dropped), he won the NZ Cup Final very easily from 36yds. The field was not quite as strong in 1929, the minor placings going to Logan Park, Dundas Boy and Imprint, with the hot favourite Kingcraft, who stood on the mark, unplaced. Peter Bingen put up the same time as the previous year. He finished second to Padlock in the Free-For-All, and the same season put up another great effort to finish second in the Auckland Cup from 84yds to Gold Jacket. The track was soft.

After having a complete season off, Peter Bingen returned to racing in 1931-2. He failed in the NZ Cup, in which he was still the backmarker, finished second to the new champion Harold Logan in the Free-For-All, and at his final appearance in public he finished third in the Champion Handicap, of a mile and a quarter, at Auckland. Peter Bingen won £8629 in stakes at a time when prize-money was less than half of what it is today. He is by Nelson Bingen, an American sire who was a stylish winner at the trotting gait in the Dominion and who made a big name as a sire of trotters and pacers. He sired 219 individual winners of £191,000 in stakes (in round figures).

Bertha Bell, the dam of Peter Bingen, was an outstanding producer. This bloodlike-looking mare was foaled in America in 1909, a daughter of Peter The Great, 2.07 1/4, and Corana Mac, by Wilkes Boy, who earned immortality by siring Grattan and so founding one of the greatest Canadian families of trotters and pacers. Another point of interest in Bertha Bell's pedigree is that her third dam was Lady Thorpe Junior, a mare whose blood played a prominent part in fashioning the pedigree of Lou Dillon, 1.58 1/2, the world's first two-minute trotter. Bertha Bell found a ready affinity with Nelson Bingen, for to him she left Great Bingen, Worthy Bingen, Peter Bingen, Bessie Bingen, Bertha Bingen, Great Peter, Baron Bingen and Great Nelson all winners. To other sires she left Great Parrish and Corona Bell (by Guy Parrish) and Ringtrue (by Travis Axworthy). Bertha Bell's progeny won £34,535 in stakes.

At the stud her sons sired numerous winners. Worthy Bingen sired Worthy Queen, whose mile record of 2.03 3/5 has stood as the trotting main since 1934, and more than 30 other winners. Great Bingen sired more than 40 winners, including classic winners in Taxpayer, Double Great, Refund and Great News; Great Parrish has sired close to 40 winners, and Ringtrue more than 30.

Peter Bingen has perhaps the best siring record of all the sons of Bertha Bell, for his progeny include Peter Smith (placed in a NZ Cup, and a free-for-all winner), Double Peter (who reached Cup class), Peter's Find (a classic winner); and a high-class pacer in King's Play was by Peter Bingen or Blue Mountain King. Peter Bingen sired close on 40 winners in all. At no stage was he extensively patronised, and most of the mares he did get were not of the choicest. In effect, like many of his great racetrack contemporaries, he was virtually wasted as a sire because of the prejudice against Colonial-bred stallions.

Credit: 'Ribbonwood' writing in NZ Trotting Calendar 20Aug52