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FG Holmes pictured with the 1935 Wellington & Auckland Cups won by Graham Direct and Adorian's 53 NZ Cup

FREEMAN (FG) HOLMES

Freeman (FG) Holmes, who died in Christchurch last week aged 88, apart from being one of NZ's most accomplished and successful horsemen, was an enigma. Many of the old school have insisted he was every bit as gifted a reinsman as his famous brother Maurice. His record leaves no doubt that he was not only a top driver but also an outstanding trainer.

'FG' was a loner; an introvert who shunned publicity and well wishers, and was very selective about who he even spoke to. He was harder to get on with when he'd just won a race than when he had been tipped out from a favourite. Yet catch him in the right moment and he would chat the breeze for as long as you would care to listen - and listening to him could at times be very enlightening and rewarding. Besides breeding, racing, training and driving, he had other pet pursuits, high among them hunting and shooting. He was also, in his early days, a fine athlete.

The writer well recalls as a junior in the racing department of "The Press", Christchurch, in November, 1953, calling on 'FG' at home at West Eyreton a few hours after his NZ Cup win with Adorian, in the hope of getting a feature story to phone through in time to make the next morning's paper. People were phoning to congratulate the family. Freeman refused to be called to the phone. "Don't ask them here," he insisted. "We're not having a party." Trying to get the background to Adorian from him was nigh on impossible. He insisted, with that curious humour of his, that I sang a song before he would tell me anything. When I obliged, instead of telling me about Adorian, he played for me, over and over, a record of an Australian race in which, in a skirmish with top Sydney driver Jack Watts, 'FG' had been tipped out over the rail and quite seriously injured. "He's a bloody good driver, that Jack Watts," said Freeman each time we listened to the incident. I finally got some sort of story from him - which took some working out as he spoke of horses, mares, colts and fillies without bothering about their registered racing names.

'FG' was the first son of the famous Free Holmes to come to prominence. Insofar as NZ horse racing is concerned, the Holmes saga began with Freeman Senior. Born on a farm near Ashburton in 1871, he was, as a rising 12-year-old five-stone stripling, pressed into service, because of a shortage of jockeys, to ride, laden with "ballast," in an Ashburton galloping event - which he duly won. "Old Free" as he ultimately became reverently known to the racing and trotting fraternities in NZ, successfully rode gallopers on the flat, and over jumps, and then became a prominent trainer and owner of thoroughbreds.

Turning his hand to the sister sport of trotting, Free became a leading saddle exponent, driver, trainer, importer and breeder. Race driving until he was 73, Free continued to train, and when well into his 80s was training - and riding to and from Riccarton racecourse from his property nearby - the thoroughbred Tarantella, owned by his then teenage grandson Graham (son of FG), and a winner for them.

Of Free's four sons, first Freeman, then Maurice, then Allan became actively involved as drivers and branched out to become trainers in their own right. Walter stayed at home, assisting with the stud side of Free's activities. 'FG' was a proficient jockey. He was 13 when he won the Apprentice's Plate at Wingatui in February, 1913, and subsequently won several hurdles and flat events. He first drew attention to himself riding saddle winner Law Chimes at the 1916 NZ Cup carnival. Two years later he finished third with Sungod in Author Dillon's NZ Cup.

Freeman's first classic win came in the fourth edition of the Auckland Trotting Club's Great Northern Derby in 1919, driving Lady Swithin for successful Ashburton owner and administrator H F Nicoll, later to become long-time president of the NZ Trotting Conference. In 1921, then aged 22, Freeman drove Sherwood to win the NZ Cup for owner S G Lemon. After a protest alleging interference by Holmes to the previous year's winner, straight-out trotter Reta Peter (whom he beat by two lengths), Sherwood was relegated to second and Holmes was fined £25. The incident was hotly debated for years by many who saw the race. And, when, 32 years later, 'FG' trained and drove his own good horse Adorian to win the 1953 NZ Cup, he seized the opportunity at the presentation to insist again that he should not have been disqualified with Sherwood. "It was unjust," he said.

'FG' drove NZ Sapling Stakes winners Richore (1926), Sonoma Child (1928), Captain Morant (1942)and Forward (1951). He won the NZ-GN Derbies double in 1927 with J Washington's Daphne de Oro, drove J Duffy's Native Chief to win the NZ Free-For-All that year and was the nation's leading reinsman of 1927/28 with 33 wins. He trained Graham Direct to win the 1935 Auckland Trotting Cup for J Westerman (driven by his father, Free) and drove him himself to win the 1938 NZ Trotting Gold Cup at Wellington. He won two further NZ Derbies with Bonny Bridge (1943) and Blue (1958).

Much of the credit for tough NZ-bred gelding Captain Sandy becoming the first two-time Inter-Dominion Grand Champion must go to 'FG'. At the 1950 series in Melbourne, with regular pilot James Bryce junior suspended, FG Holmes filled the breach and from the awkward 24yd mark got him into the final by gaining a fourth and a third in the heats. But Holmes himself was suspended on the third night for alleged interference to swift Melbourne Claude Derby. Jack Watts replaced 'FG' and Captain Sandy won the Grand Final by a head from Globe Direct, trained and driven by Freeman's brother, Maurice. At the same carnival, brother Allan won a Consolation with Congo Song.

At the 1953 Inter-Dominions in Perth, Freeman again did most to get Captain Sandy in the Grand Final, finishing fourth with him the first night and second in fastest time the second night. Committed to drive good NZ mare Blue Mist (with whom he won on the first two nights) in the Grand Final, Freeman had a rocky run with her on the way to finishing fifth. His replacement behind Captain Sandy, West Australian Bob Pollock junior, emerged triumphant.

'FG's 1953 NZ Cup winner Adorian was one of four good winners he and Miss P Norton bred from a very good mare for them, Coquette. Miss Norton and 'Old Free' bred Coquette by Free's importation Grattan Loyal from Bonny Logan, daughter of Free's importations Logan Pointer and Bonilene. Racing from three to ten years, Bonny Logan won 14 races for Free and his principal stable patron W H Norton, then produced nine live foals, eight of them winners. 'FG' raced and trained Coquette for eight wins including the 1942 National Cup. Apart from Adorian, Coquette's only other three foals were top winners for 'FG' in the shape of Vigilant, Morano and Forward.

In a memorable contest for the 1951 Canterbury Park Juvenile Stakes at Addington, 'FG' was skittled and tipped from Forward's sulky at the start, ran with the colt holding on to his reins for some fifty yards, climbed back into the cart, wheeled the field in the last half-mile and won. In 1953, 'FG' drove Brahman, son of the first two NZ-bred 2:00 pacers Gold Bar and Haughty, to an Australasian record 2:02.2 time trial as a two-year-old. In 1957 he drove Blue, trained and part-owned by his brother Allan, to a world yearling record of 2:09.2. Both marks lasted for more than 20 years.

In the 1960's, 'FG' became associated with champion trotter Ordeal. Seven before she won a race, she was handed to him after five wins for Reefton trainer Charlis Murcott. She won two more as a seven-year-old under Holmes. After having a season off to have a mystery foal that was destroyed because the sire was unknown, she returned to racing as a nine-year-old. Her next victories under Freeman were the Worthy Queen-Dominion Handicap double at Addington. She went on to win the 1961 Rowe Cup (driven by Maurice Holmes from 78yds in a national record 4:14), and wound up winning in America.

In later years, Holmes dabbled as an amateur trainer of gallopers, winning with good chaser Hogan. His last racing win came with Delargey at Wingatui in October,1980.

'FGs' sons Freeman ('FL') and the late Graham Holmes followed in the footstep of their father, uncles and grandfather as prominent horsemen, and 'FL' has been associated as part-owner, trainer, driver and now studmaster of a modern-day champion, Noodlum.

-o0o-

'Ribbonwood' writing in NZ Trotting Calendar 30May51

If you read about it in a Nat Could or Edgar Wallace racing thriller you wouldn't believe it, which only goes to prove that fiction, after all, is not such a complete stranger to the truth!

It happened at Addington on Saturday (May 26): the race, the Juvenile Handicap, the horse, Forward, and the hero of the piece F G Holmes, trainer-driver of Forward.

When the barriers were released, Centennial Hall swung across and tipped up Forward's sulky on its side, throwing Holmes on to the ground. With the field well on the way, Forward instinctively went after them. Holmes, holding firmly on the reins, was smartly on his feet, and he secured a tenuous hold on Forward's sulky with one hand while holding the reins in the other.

For upwards of 50yds, Holmes was forced to put in some giant strides to keep up with Forward, and he eventually managed to get one foot in the sulky, followed immediately by the other; by the time he was seated safely again the leaders must have been 60yds in front of him; it was a wonder he retrieved the situation with no greater loss of ground.

The majority of the public had not been unaware of the incident, and Holmes was warmly applauded on passing the stands the first time round. Excitement mounted as Forward improved his position and hotly challenged the leaders with two furlongs to go. Wide out, he strode to the front at the distance and won full of running.

It was an astonishing recovery, to say the least. Most of the people who made him hot favourite must have been persuaded that all chance had vanished when Holmes was deposited on the ground at the outset. Presence of mind, a full measure of grit and determination, and an ounce of luck were the main ingredients in perhaps the most dramatic spill and its sequel ever seen at Addington; it at least ranks equal to Indianapolis's win in the Christchurch Handicap at Addington in 1934 with a broken hopple.


Credit: Ron Bisman writing in HRWeekly 4Jun87

DAVE TODD

Dave Todd, the man who bred and developed Cardigan Bay, world harness racing's first millionaire, doesn't bother to go to the races nowdays. He is 83 and feels his eyesight has slipped too much to enjoy the spectacle. "I like to sit at home and listen to them on the radio though," he said recently when reflecting on his successful lifetime involvement with harness racing.

Dave relinquished his licence to train seven years ago and contents himself in his twilight years with gardening, sea fishing and overseeing the training operations of his grandsons small team at famed Chimes Lodge, Mataura. Stuart and Richard Scott, his two grandsons, share their grandfather's love of standardbreds. But they know only too well that the chances of getting another in the same class as Cardigan Bay are one in a million.

Dave loves nothing better than a bit of trout fishing. In his younger days, he and his mates frequented the productive waters of the Worsley, Upukarora and other peaceful high country rivers. "But I have had to give the trout a miss lately...a cobber dropped in one day and borrowed my rod and tackle and hasn't got round to returning it." Ken Johnson, a good Stewart Island mate, who is a commercial fisherman, has introduced Dave to sea fishing in recent years. That pastime has introduced a new and enjoyable dimension of the outdoors for Dave, a keen deerstalker in his prime and still the proud owner of an outstanding Virginian (white tail) deer head exhibited in his lounge.

Price, racing men often point out, never made a horse. Dave Todd is the first to acknowledge that adage, because Cardigan Bay cost nothing to breed and went on to win more than $1 million in four different countries over nine seasons of competition on the world's major raceways. The old warrior is now content in retirement at Sir Henry Kelliher's Pukututu Island Stud, Auckland.

Dave trained the champion's dam, Colwyn Bay, for Alex Jopp, who farmed at Hindon, 25 miles from Dunedin on the Central Otago branch line. Colwyn Bay won four races but would have graduated to Cup class if not inconvenienced by an injured fetlock and deep seated corns. Jopp didn't want to retire the mare on the Hindon type of country and Dave offered to buy her. Her owner, however, insisted that she be gifted to Dave. A man never looks a gift horse in the mouth and the mare had a new owner.

Dave and his late brother Sandy, who was six years his senior, were close colleagues of George Youngson of Gore, another true blue Scotsman and another of Southland's grand old gentlemen of trotting and a pioneer in breeding. "George and I never charged each other stud fees...we had a reciprocal business arrangement," Dave recalled. "George was keen for me to send a mare to Hal Tryax, who arrived after the stud season was well underway." Colwyn Bay duly conceived to Hal Tryax, the first 2:00 three-year-old imported to New Zealand from America. Cardigan Bay was the result. "So, there's another story - a horse who won a million cost nothing to breed."

Cardigan Bay 'told' Dave literally from the word go that he had a big heart. During an aborted roundup of mares and foals at Chimes Lodge (gates were left open), a couple of mares and foals careered about for a long time. The two mares and one of the foals were easily caught when they became exhausted. But the sturdy Hal Tryax colt further defied efforts to be caught and was as fresh as a daisy some time after. "I knew there and then that he had to have a big heart and the constitution good horses are made of," Dave said. Bill Pearson, the Todd brothers' Gore-based veterinary surgeon, could see no reason why colts should not be gelded before they were weaned. Cardigan Bay was gelded at five months of age when still running with his mother. In hindsight, Dave reckons that early move might have helped to contain and harness the colt's remarkable energy and vigour.

Cardigan Bay wasted no time showing that he had plenty of what it took to make a good horse. He could pace a furlong in 15 seconds and furlongs in 15 seconds by a yearling are not easily kept secret. A big, raw and immature type, he did not mature into a racehorse until a late three-year-old. He was not tried at two. It was simply a matter of 'waiting' on the big horse. In any case the stable had the more mature and precocious 2-year-old Blue Prince, also by Hal Tryax, to fly the flag. Dave and Sandy sold Cardigan Bay to Aucklanders Merv and Audrey Dean for $5,000 and a couple of contingencies after he had won seven races for them. The rest is now history. "Looking back, I wouldn't have sold him then if I had owned him outright, but Sandy, a real Scot, reckoned financial independence was a priceless asset and the money went into paying off the farm mortgage and other commitments.

Dave, born at Bothwell, seven miles from Glasgow, immigrated to NZ with his parents, Sandy and seven sisters when he was 12. He and Sandy rabbited about Central Otago in their teens. Alex McLellan of Invercargill trained their first winner - "a Sungod mare who wasn't much chop. Alex was a fine horseman and I learned so much listening to him, Jim McMurray and Barney Rushton...the younger fellows don't listen much to me, because they think I'm out of date with my thinking," Dave quipped. Dave and Sandy settled on a farmlet at Mataura in 1932. Over the years they bought small adjoining blocks when they came on the market. The farm grew to 180 acres and has since been handed over to the younger members of the family, Peggy and Ron Scott.

Sires they stood at Chimes Lodge included Grattan Loyal and Dillon Hall, "two of the best," Free Fight and Arion Axworthy, who was "no bloody good." Sandy devoted his time to the stud side of the operation and the books and accounts. Dave looked after the training side. Sandy seldom mated a broodmare until there was seed on the grass. Not long before his death 11 years ago, Sandy told the writer that too many stallions were abused by serving too many mares too soon in the colder southern breeding season. "It's the quickest way I know to ruin a sire," Sandy said. Dave and Sandy always claimed that every sire was condemned at some stage of other of his career. A lot of Southland breeders had written off Dillon Hall. That was until Acropolis, one of his sons, beat Plunder Bar in the 1943 NZ Sapling Stakes. "Then the phone just about rang off the bloody wall."

The Todd school was a tough one for horses. There was no holiday camp touch about it. An aspiring racehorse was guilty until it proved itself innocent. Looks and breeding counted for nothing if it could not run and show guts. Dave Todd was twice runner-up on the national premiership - once to Wes Butt and to Cecil Donald the second time. Had Dave not 'lost' a good horse to Jock Bain halfway through one season, he would have won the NZ Premiership. That was one dissappointment in a rewarding and fulfilling career. In the 1950s and 1960s in particular, Dave was ably served by Ken Balloch, a skilled and fearless reinsman who was part and parcel of the successful Chimes Lodge training operation. Fancywords and frills have never been evidenced about Todd and Balloch. Superlatives were not part of the combination's dictionary when it came to praising horses. Cardigan Bay, Blue Prince and Holy Hal were merely 'good' horses and not champions, terrific, great or anything like that.

When Jimmy Tryax won at Wyndham in November 1970, he became the 18th successive horse Todd had acquired from another stable to win first up for him. Dave reckons most of the secret lay in the fact that "half a kerosine tin full of worms" would be taken from a horse with a rigid worming programme, top feeding and a harder workload in training. So many responded immediately to the methods. There was no easy way out in the Todd and Balloch formula for success with horses. A horse had to line up and be counted and a poor one was not persevered with. It took about a fortnight to determine if a horse had a win in it.

When the Todd and Balloch judgement was on the line, the bacon was not always bought home. But it often was. Like the day Dave had a 'decent' bet on Colwyn Bay's nose at Wyndham. She duly obliged and the funds went up on stablemate Maestro, who came home at six to one later in the day. "I got a few hundred quid that day and it all went into the farm," Dave said. When the chips were down, Balloch had few, if any, peers in the south as a reinsman. Some of his contemporaries still like to recall the day at Winton when it was a 'money day' for the Todd runner Lassaloc. The mare was 'fair bolting' inside the last furlong and had nowhere to go. The situation was fast becoming desperate. Lassaloc had a wall of horses in front of her and Ken reckons the situation was getting 'bloody grim'. Then the front line drivers heard a threatening bellow from behind: "Get out of my bloody road or I will come right over the top." Lassaloc just made it and no more.

Dave Todd often regrets that he was before his time in trotting. Many horses are sold for big prices these days and breeding and training horses for sale was always part of the Todd operation. In 1945 he put down an all-weather track at Chimes Lodge. He and Jim Flynn were able to take Southland horses to Auckland in September and win. Twenty five years later, all-weather tracks took Southland harness racing by storm. Dave reckons no other innovation has played a bigger part in the development of Southland's multi million dollar harness racing industry.



Credit: Don Wright writing in NZ Trot Calendar 21Jan86

'SANDY' TODD

One of Southland's best known trotting personalities Mr A ('Sandy') Todd, of Mataura, who raced the first million dollar pacer, Cardigan Bay, died last week. He was 77.

Born in Lanarkshire, Scotland, not far fron Glasgow, Mr Todd came to NZ with his family at the age of 17. In partnership with his brother, Dave, he raced several horses when in his 20s, such as Sonata and Desert Star. The two brothers then bought Chimes Lodge at Mataura, then a 13 acre property and now a considerable holding. There they established one of Southland's early and most successful standardbred studs.

Dave Todd looked after the training side and 'Sandy', the stud side of the establishment. He was a competent and able studmaster and such horses as Arion Axworthy, Grattan Loyal, Bruce Walla, Cassanova, Dillon Hall, Free Fight and also the thoroughbred horse, Philamor stood at Chimes Lodge.

Highlight of the Chimes Lodge history was the arrival of Cardigan Bay, bred and trained by Dave Todd, and raced by 'Sandy' until he won his way out of Southland classes. Cardigan Bay was then sold to Mrs M B Dean, of Auckland, and he later went to America where, he became the first $1 million stake winner in trotting history. He did more to promote trotting in NZ than any standardbred before of since and his name was a house-hold word throughout NZ, Australia and America.

'Sandy' Todd not only developed Chimes Lodge into one of Southland's most successful standardbred nurseries, but he knew every aspect of the racing, breeding and training sides, and was also a successful farmer. His death breaks a further link with Southland's early pioneer breeders, a diminishing band whose early interest and enthusiasm in trotting played a salient part in the sport attaining its present day ranking.

'Sandy' Todd was a character in his own right; one whose contribution to the light harness industry can be measured by the success he achieved and the lengthy association he had. But, as he often said when referring to horses or officials. "The record has to be on the slate." And there would never be any question that Sandy had the record on the slate. He is survived by two sisters, Mrs H Brownsey (Auckland), Mrs Easterbrook, of Matamata and a brother, Dave, of Mataura.

Credit: NZ Trotguide 31Jul74

CHRISTCHURCH - MASSACRE
The glorious uncertainty of racing was seldom better illustrated than when Massacre landed the Grand Final at Addington in Christchurch 1961 - in one of the closest finishes on record. Massacre, a rugged sort of a 4-year-old but a virtual unknown, had won a mere four races before the Series. He was placed in two of the heats and scraped into the final.

But the merit of his performance could not be written down. He joined the select band to win the race as 4-year-olds when, after measuring strides with champion False Step through the telling home-stretch duel, he prevailed by the barest of margins over that great performer - to the dismay of thousands who were willing False Step to win and thought he had. False Step conceded Massacre 48yds, but had the race been run under ordinary handicap conditions the difference in Massacre's favour would have been 216yds.

What a finish it was. Massacre was declared the winner by a nose over False Step, and in fact the margin was a bare inch. Arania was a half-length back, third, and Lady Belmer was right up fourth. The outsider but one at 10-10 in the order of betting, Massacre paid £31/13/6 for £1 to win and £5/15/6 for £1 for a place.

It was the ultimate result for Massacre's amateur trainer, Duncan Campbell, who raced the gelding in partnership with Mr A Wilson on lease from Mr T E Prendergast, all of Ashburton, Mid-Canterbury. Campbell, a milk-bar proprietor, had served his time as an apprentice jockey before a stint as a coalminer on the West Coast of the South Island, and Wilson was a mechanic in a knit-wear factory. Neither had enjoyed anything out of the ordinary in the way of racing success, although a couple of years earlier, Campbell, treating trotting merely as a hobby, had raced the mudlark Bedivus for several wins in looser grades. He had leased Massacre as a weanling and driven him as a 3-year-old to win at the South Island country courses Reefton, Methven and Waikouaiti.

When Massacre was included in the line-up for the heats, experienced reinsman Doug Watts was engaged. Watts, a former jockey himself, and a driver with past Inter-Dominion experience, had achieved a record of some distinction when he drove the first seven winners on an eight-race card at Reefton in 1954. He had also won New Zealand Cups driving Integrity (1946) and Our Roger (1955), and the 1956 Auckland Cup with Unite.

Rather modest about the part he played in Massacre's Grand Final win, Watt gave a large slice of the credit to fellow reinsman Maurice Holmes. Said Doug "the horse was not going away at the start and Maurice told me not to let him begin but to wait for him." This amounted to not giving the horse his head immediately the barrier strand was released, and resulted in Watts getting Massacre away safely.

Holmes had driven Massacre in his other win before the Championship, a dead heat with Kingsdown Patch in the Templeton Handicap at Addington in August 1960. And Holmes was on the sideline during the 1961 Series with injuries he received in a race fall at the inaugural night meeting at Forbury Park, Dunedin, a month earlier. He had been driving star 4-year-old Sun Chief, who was also forced to miss the Series. Earlier that season, Sun Chief had won the Louisson Handicap at Addington and the Hannon Memorial at Oamaru and pushed False Step to the brink in that outstanding pacer's third New Zealand Cup win.

The absence of Holmes and Sun Chief prefaced a series of setbacks for the NZ Metropolitan Trotting Club in staging the 1961 Inter-Dominion carnival. Another came when prominent pacers Rustic Lad (third top points scorer), Invicta and Lookaway were barred from starting in the £10,000 Final because their connections had not obtained the special permission of the Championship Programme Committee to withdraw their horses on the first day.

Trainer Jim Ferguson had left the scratching of Rustic Lad as late as possible in the hope that his good pacer would recover from a bruised foot, and had overlooked the relevant clause. While it was acknowledged that the onus was on the owner or his agent to observe the conditions, it was claimed that the club should have drawn the attention of the trainers to the clause when the scratchings were made, giving them a chance to seek the required special permission to 'pass'. The condition had applied to Inter-Dominion programmes in New Zealand and Australia for some years. It was introduced because trainers of horses who had gained sufficient points to earn a start in the Final had scratched from the last set of Heats. The condition decreed that, unless a veterinary certificate could be produced saying the horse was not fit to start, the three Heats had to be contested.

False Step stole the limelight on the first day when runner-up to Diamond Hanover (Doody Townley) in the world record time of 3:21.4 for 13 furlongs. False Step had added to his 48yd handicap by galloping at the start, then improved to join the leader near the half-mile, fighting back in his best style. Scottich Command, given every chance, was third, NSW rep Redwin fourth.

Teryman, stablemate of False Step, and by Cecil Devine's 1951 NZ Cup winner, the U Scott horse Van Dieman, won his heat well from Smokeaway, with Massacre making up ground for a creditable third. Robert Dillon, driven by F G (Freeman) Holmes, took his heat in clear-cut style from Guiseppe (who had been forced by a shoulder abcess to miss the Grand Final in Sydney a year earlier) and the NSW visitor First Kiss.

USA horseman Delvin Miller provided a sidelight on that first day when he piloted the Jack Litten trained Lavengro to win the Sydney Handicap under a vigorous drive. Miller, the man who bought and developed as a sire the immortal Adios, three days later guided trotter Jewel Derby home at Alexandra Park in Auckland from 66yds. New York trainer Eddie Cobb also drove the same day at Addington as Miller, without success, but showed his worth driving Stormymaid to win at Hutt Park, Wellington, the same week.

Rustic Lad buried his rivals for speed in the first heat, at a mile and a quarter, on the second day, clocking 2:35.6, a 2:04 mile rate. It was after this that the announcement came that although he would be allotted any points he should earn on the third night to add to his then equal top score of seven, he would be ineligible for the final.

Before False Step lined up for his heat on the second day, it was revealed that Devine had raced him in illegal gear when he set his world record on the first day. Chief Stipendiary Steward Len Butterfield ordered Devine to remove a neck pricker from False Step. The pricker consisted of a few tacks with points blunted, protuding through the inside of the neck-band. It was used with the object of preventing the horse veering out at the start of his races. A pricker of a type approved by the NZ Trotting Conference is a leather disc, about 2 1/2 inches in diameter, fitting between the bit and the jaw.

Writing in the Melbourne 'Sun', Jack McPherson commented: "the False Step scandal rocked Australians in Christchurch, but this city of horse-lovers took the cruelty quite placidly. Chief Stipeniary Steward Mr L A Butterfield, while admitting the use of neck-band prickers is absolutely forbidden, said 'often the use of unauthorised gear will provoke a fine, but in this case Devine won't be penalised." Cecil Devine, trainer/driver of False Step, did not consider the use of prickers made 'all that difference'. Earlier McPherson expressed the discontent of his fellow countrymen driving in the Series: "Australian drivers, after trying to observe the NZ rules, said that in the three-heat Series they would drive hub to hub in Australian fashion and take the consequences. Western Australian driver Bob Johnson said that he did not want to drive in New Zealand again, because he would be tempted to 'flatten NZ driver Bill Doyle'."

The second sensation concerning False Step on the second day came when he fell at the start. He paced off the mark, became unbalanced and tipped Devine from the sulky. False Step did not attempt to bolt, and Devine jogged him back to the enclosure, the horse minus some skin and a little stiff. That heat resulted in an all-the-way win for Damian, owned and trained by Aucklander Les Barrett (for whom he was driven by Doug Watts) and one of three progeny of the grand producer Bashful (Grattan Loyal-Bonny Logan by Logan Pointer) in the Series. Her two other sons, Guiseppe (also owned by Les) and Diamond Hanover (raced by J H G Peterson), along with Damian, qualified for the final. It was a unique distinction for the broodmare Bashful. Queen Ngaio (Felix Newfield)and Redwin (Pere Hall) followed Damian in.

A win in the other second-day heat for Arania sparked off a rowdy demonstration, as she had raced poorly on the first day. At an inquiry into her form reversal, an explanation that she had been left in the open on the first day was accepted.

Misfortune, which seemed to be doing the rounds, carried over to the Australian camp. Filling developed in the foreleg of Sultana and Kiwi Dillon failed to settle to his surroundings. The West Australian pair were forced to withdraw from the third and final days.

The third day, however, belonged to Australia. Redwin and Three Aces (SA, Rex Robinson)won two-mile heats, in each case having to fight off all challengers in the run home for narrow verdicts. The grand mare Arania, then a 4-year-old and seven months later to become the fastest mare bred outside of America with a 1:57 mile on Lexington's Big Red Mile in Kentucky, wound up leading point scorer when she annexed the other two-mile heat.

Trainer George Noble had one regret about Roy McKenzie's Arania:"in my opinion she went to America too soon; before she really had an opportunity, to show her real worth in New Zealand," he said. Noble, long-time trainer for Sir John McKenzie and then Roy, had been a top horseman in his own right in Australia before immigrating to New Zealand, where he was also to be to the top of his profession. Arania, by U Scott, was from Local Gold, a daughter of one of New Zealand's first 2:00 horse, Gold Bar. After her American campaigning, Arania returned to New Zealand to prove a successful broodmare.

With points awarded on the basis of 4,2 and 1 for the first three placegetters and 2 for the fastest time among the first four, the final table read: Arania(11), Damian(10), Rustic Lad, Three Aces(7), Diamond Hanover(6), Robert Dillon(5 1/2), False Step, Teryman, Redwin, Invicta(5), Guiseppe(4), Massacre, Gentry(3), Queen Ngaio, Smokeaway, Maestro's Melody, Samantha, Lady Belmer(2 1/2), First Kiss, Scottish Command, Fourth Edition(1).

With Rustic Lad and Invicta ineligible, Victoria's Maestro's Melody (third behind Caduceus and Apmat in Sydney a year earlier and fourth and second in the Addington heats) and Lady Belmer were chosen from the five with two and a half points to make a field of 13 for the Final. Cecil Devine had wound up with Jim Smyth's False Step and Teryman, whom he owned himself, in the Final. He applied though his solicitor to drive False Step. When the Executive endorsed the Rule of Trotting stating that no licensed person having an interest in any horse competing in a race shall drive any other horse not owned by him, Devine solved his own problem by scratching Teryman.

The pace was on from the start in the Final, with Guiseppe (Fred Smith) going for the doctor. It was apparent that False Step, who had added 12yds to his 48yd handicap when he swung out at the start, was faced with a stupendous task. Throughout the race all eyes were on False Step as he steadily whittled down the deficit. Recovering like the great horse he was, he straightened up for home wide outside and almost on terms with Diamond Hanover and Robert Dillon, who had drawn past the tiring Guiseppe. Massacre was coming fast into the picture wider out than False Step; Arania was diving for a wide gap on the inside; Lady Belmer was just in behind in the middle of the track and back on her outer was Redwin, making a remarkable recovery after tangling twice in the early running. Arania drew up to False Step and Massacre, and the three fought out a battle royal. False Step and Massacre flashed past the post locked together and only a neck ahead of Arania. Most, including the drivers, were sure that False Step had won and capped a remarkable New Zealand career in his last start before departing for the United States.

There were incredulous mutterings when judge Harry Spicer called Massacre first before calling for the photo, adding that "it was close for first and second". Doug Watts congratulated Cecil Devine on his success as they returned to the birdcage. Recounts Watts: "I finished a wheel behind Cecil, and we thought he had won by half a length." But the camera had the last say, and False Step, though he had won three NZ Cups, had been denied the triumph that would have capped his great 'Down Under' career.

Devine, who had come confidently back to the birdcage at the head of the field, was dumbfounded by the result of the photo-finish. "I would have been prepared to wager any amount at all that I had won. I have driven a lot of winners at Addington and have never made that mistake before," said the former Tasmanian, who had in his great New Zealand career won five NZ Cups and a Royal Cup. False Step was for all that credited with a world record for the 13 furlongs, of 3:21, cutting .4 sec from the record he clocked when second in his heat on the opening day. Lady Belmer had got up for a good fourth, a long neck from Arania, while Redwin headed the others.

The 1957 NZ Cup winner Lookaway, owned by Clarry Rhodes and now trained at Invercargill by veterinarian Cliff Irvine, emerged to win a consolation race. He had missed the second day after injuring a shoulder in a fall the first day. Scottish Command (the Auckland Cup winner of 1959) took the other consolation in a close finish with Invicta (who was to win the NZ Cup the following November) and Queen Ngaio.

Massacre's sire Whipster had been a good racehorse before being injured and retired to stud, and among his other progeny was Overdrive, the dam of an Australian champion, Lucky Creed. Whipster was by the imported Peter Volo horse Quite Sure, eight times leading sire of straightout trotters in New Zealand. Whipster's dam Bantam was by Jack Potts, sire of the first Grand Final winner at Addington, Pot Luck. Terrace Lass, the dam of Massacre, was by Nelso Derby, a son of Nelson Bingen and Norice, imported American-bred parents. A good winner herself in New Zealand, and runner-up to Monte Carlo in the first NZ Cup in 1904, Norice became ancestress of a prolific winning family.

Credit: Ron Bisman & Taylor Strong writing in 'The Inter-Dominions

Gold Bar & Allan Holmes

GOLD BAR

Gold Bar, 1:59.6, a champion pacer up till 1946, died at the property of his owner, A Holmes, Yaldhurst in November 1956.

Gold Bar was the greatest individualist ever to wear harness in this country. It was all or nothing with him. He was a horse who strongly resented anything savouring of a "perfect trail." He loved the wide open spaces, and he annihilated many cherished conceptions of rating, pacemaking and driving tactics. Once he reached maturity, there was scarcely a dull moment in any race he contested. Never before in the history of trotting had we seen a horse capable of running the first half-mile, even the first mile and a half, at a speed that would win 99 races out of 100, and carry on to win over two miles.

It was uncanny. Uncanny because mere flesh and blood had never achieved anything like that before; because all staying conventions were throw to the four winds by this machine-like marvel, this pacing Pegasus who left trail upon trail of burnt out carcases in his wake. From barrier-rise Allan Holmes put the trottle hard down on Gold Bar, who responded like Sir Malcolm Campbell's Bluebird. In a matter of seconds they would be away out in front, 50-80 yards, half a furlong clear of anything else. Far from spoiling a race, disorganising a field, or some other uncharitable comment, Gold Bar's lone flights, particularly in Addington's big races, charged the public pulse with an electric anticipation that made him the glamour horse of his day.

Gold Bar first contested the New Zealand Cup in 1941. Until 1945 they caught him every time, but except in 1944, when he burst a blood vessel a long way from the finish, he still beat more than beat him, and in 1945 came his big moment, his greatest triumph: the only horse who so much as saw the way he went in the first £7500 Cup was Integrity. Gold Bar's "scorched earth" tactics proved the funeral pyre of many great pacers generally regarded as "truer" stayers than Gold Bar. Until the 1945 New Zealand Cup the jet-propelled pacemaker had invariably come back to his field, but that year those who sat and waited filed past the post looking for all the world like the remnants of a turtle Derby! Never had the defeat of a Cup field been encompassed with such complete disregard for staying technique, if there is any such thing. And if there ever existed any rules about how big two-mile races should be run, Gold Bar broke the lot of them. He drew up a new set of his own - total warfare from flagfall to finishing post.

There were all sorts of windy perorations about Gold Bar's ruining the Cup as a spectacle. We would have none of this. Many of the same people who later called upon Gold Bar and Allan Holmes to adopt more "reasonable" tactics were just as loud (before Gold Bar put in his appearance) in their condemnation of the crawling pace adopted by pacemakers in big races. You can't have it both ways, and Gold Bar's way was "As You Like It" with the Addington public. Gold Bar's way left no room for the tattered excuse on the part of other drivers that the "got hemmed in" or "met with interference" in a close running field. And the old bogy of club executives of the premier events deteriorating into half-mile sprints was effectively disposed of as long as Gold Bar was on the premises; the sorry spectacle of one horse slowing the field to a jog until all those in attendance were literally climbing over one another and playing hide and seek on the turns was put to rout when Gold Bar was in full cry. The rest had no alternative but to go in pursuit or finish up in a state of total eclipse.

Perhaps all this about Gold Bar has left you with the impression that such a horse, always in a desperate hurry, would naturally be a highly-strung temperamental bloke. Nothing of the kind. He was a docile, beautiful-natured stallion, with a head full of brains. In his yard at home he was as quite as an old sheep, and children could handle him or go into his box with perfect safety.

Gold Bar was retired in 1946, with records of 1:59.6 for a mile, 2:35 for a mile and a quarter, 3:27 for a mile and five furlongs, and 4:14.6 for two miles. He raced from two years (finishing third in the Timaru Nursery Stakes in his only appearance that season), to 11 years, winning 22 races, including six free-for-alls. His stake-winnings amounted to £12,968/10/-. He was by Grattan Loyal (imp) from the Rey de Oro mare Imperial Gold.

At stud Gold Bar's best winners have been Brahman (whose 2:02.2 against time as a two-year-old is likely to stand for some time as the New Zealand and Austalian record), Local Gold, Worthy Gold, Daisy Gold, Congo Song, Bronze Gold, Daisy Bar, Petty Officer, Gold Change, Flagship, Midday, Merry Gold, Regal Gold and Bartender.

-o0o-

'Ribbonwood' writing in NZ Trotting Calendar 12June46

Gold Bar is the most sensational racehorse-sire of modern times, if not of all time in the Dominion.

In the same season that he won the NZ Cup and £5922 in stakes, his son Worthy Gold, has earned £2680, and his daughter, Local Gold, champion 3-year-old filly of the season has won £2585. If any reader knows of a parallel case to this, of a sire and two of his progeny getting into the four-figure class in the same season, the Caledar would be pleased to hear about it.

Credit: 'Ribbonwood' writing in NZ Trotting Calendar 14 Nov 56

FREEMAN WRIGHT HOLMES

As an all-round exponent of all branches of trotting and racing, it is doubtful if Freeman Holmes has had an equal in the Dominion. In his day he rode gallopers on the flat, over hurdles and steeplechase fences, and also figured largely as a trainer and owner of what our American friends term "the runners." To this must be added the success he has achived on the trotting tracks with trotters and pacers. Nor must we forget his benefit to trotting by the importation of high-class stallions and broodmares. With the rifle and shotgun he had few superiors so it is quite evident that in Freeman Holmes we have an all-rounder who is in a class by himself.

Though this article has to do more with his trotting than his racing activities, both branches of the sport must be included to give an idea of Holmes's versatility. Away back in the early eighties, a race meeting was in progress at Ashburton. There was a shortage of jockeys and, when the hack race came up for decision anyone with the smallest pretentions to riding ability was pressed into service. Under the latter category came young Free Holmes, and so commenced a turf career that was to be both varied and colourful. On the occasion under notice it took the midget (then about 5st) all his strength to carry his dead-weight to the scale. There being a shortage of lead, a sack was requisitioned. Into this (so the story goes) were piled blacksmith's tools, lumps of iron and even stray bricks. This conglomeration was lashed to the front of the saddle almost obscuring from view the pocket-edition jockey. Despite these drawbacks, young Holmes gave a foretaste of his later ability by piloting Our John to victory.

Among those who witnessed young Free's debut was the astute judge of both horses and men, Patsy Butler, then at the zenith of a meteoric career. So impressed was the genial Irishman with the boy's display that an offer of employment followed. Thus began an association that Free Holmes still regards as the turning point in his career. One of the first horses he rode work on was that grand steeplechaser, Agent, who carried Bulter's colours to victory in three Grand Nationals. The early tuition given by Patsty and his chief horseman Tommy Lyford, undoubtely laid the foundations for Holmes's subsequent success in the saddle.

One of the proudest moments of Free's life was when, garbed in green and white hoops, he rode Tit Bits to victory in a race at Riccarton. With experience he soon took rank among the best of his profession. He won the Dunedin Champagne Stakes on Butler's erratic but brilliant Thackeray and when that great 3-year-old Manton won the 'triple crown' at Riccarton in 1888 Free had the mount on him in the NZ Cup and Canterbury Cup. At that time he could go to the scale at 6.10, so that he avoided putting up too much dead weight, Wally Clifford was given the mount on Butler's colt in the Derby. Despite the success that had come his way with Manton, Butler was soon in monetary difficulties again. To meet pressing demands all his horses were sold up and Free severed his connection with the stable.

His next employment was as trainer and jockey to the Leeston sportsman, Mr Walter Spring. At that time Leeston was a real 'up-and-coming' district - much more so than is now the case. It had it's own racecourse, and quite a number of good horses were trained there. Among the first of Free's charges were Bredalbane, Red Cross, Carronade, The Idler and Magpie. He won races on all of these, including a third in the Grand National Steeplechase on Magpie. Actually the first horse Free ever rode in a hurdle race was Erin-go-Bragh, and thereby hangs a tale. On the second day of a South Canterbury he was having a little flutter in which two pennies placed on a kip played a prominent part. The fates had not been good to him; indeed, he was what is commonly called 'stoney broke.' Just then along came genial Tommy Sheenan seeking a rider for Erin-go-Bragh in the day's hurdle race. On Sheenan making his wants known to 'the school' Holmes thought of a good way of getting some of his own back and on the spur of the moment accepted Sheenan's offer. With an advance on the riding fee Holmes went on with the game in han and was rewarded with a change of luck. During the next few hours he was in anything but a happy frame of mind, but, even though i was against his inclination, free was determined to stick to his bargain. Erin-go-Bragh did not win, but the jockey's fee enabled his rider to get home again.

A few years later Mr Spring decided to retire from racing. This left Freeman Holmes again at a loose end and which determined him to launch out as a public trainer at Riccarton. Again success came his way through the agency of Empire, Ability, Cameo and Cadet, while for Mr Victor Harris, he prepared Strathnairn, Rochester, Searbrook, Epaulet and others.

It was with the name of Liberator, however, that Free's fame was perpetuated. When attached to Butler's stable he had to look after that most brainy of all thoroughbreds, one who could mix galloping, hurdling and steeplchasing as to the manor born. Free had the mount when 'Old Lib' spreadeagled a good field in the Grand National Hurdles of 1894, carrying 12.6 and subsequently landed the Ellerslie double of Great Northern Hurdles and Steeplechase. Not long afterwards the old battler broke down so badly that he was sold for £6. To Free was entrusted the job of patching him up again, with such good results as to enable the veteran to win a few more races. On finally concluding his racing career Liberator was turned out to end his days in fitting ease and comfort. The poor old fellow was nearly blind. One evening he wandered away from his home paddock an next day was found at the foot of a cliff with a broken neck. Is it to be wondered at that Free still has a soft spot in his heart fpr 'Old Lib' whom he maintains was the best all-rounder
and most sensible racehorse ever to look though a bridle.

In the early days of the early days of the trotting sport well-bred American stallions did much to benefit the class of light-harness horses. Robert Wilkins's fine assortment of sires and broodmares laid a foundation that has stood the test of time while in later years Messrs E X LeLievre, Bob McMillan, Free Holmes and J R McKenzie and others, all added blood strains, both through stallions and broodmares. Though he has not maintained an extensive stud Holmes showed excellent judgement during his several trips to America by choosing such sires as Logan Pointer, Rey de Oro and Grattan Loyal, a trio whose influence on the breeding industry has been outstanding.

As Holmes's introduction to the racing world was of a somewhat unusual nature, so also was his entry into the ranks of light-harness enthusiasts. Among the presents he received on the occasion of his wedding, was one from that fine sportsman, Mr Graham Holmes. This took the form of a trotting pony Black Oats. This was his first experience with a light-harness horse and the success he attained with her soon found him just as keen with the trotters as he had ben with the gallopers. He also brought his ability gained with gallopers to bear on the side wheelers.

The first top-notcher to enter his stable was Stonewall Jackson whom he leased from Mr Harry Mace. This over-sized trotter was a remarkable horse for he won races in saddle and harness, some of his best performances being registered on the three furlong Lancaster Park track, generally giving what nowdays would be looked upon as impossible starts. Then came the Australian-bred Vasco, who won many important races on Canterbury tracks. One of these was gained at Ashburton which was a regular Tom Tiddler's course for the gelding and his new owner. It was on this track that Holmes won his first races on the flat, over hurdles and over country. Another coincidence in connection with the Ashburton course was that on it Free won the hurdle race on the opening day of the meeting three years in succession and had a fall each time on the second.

When fairly launched out with the trotters he was successful all alongthe line; in fact he handled winners of most of the Dominion's important races. Free is of the opinion that Great Bingen was the fastest horse he ever sat behind, but even so, he credits his little favourite Trix Pointer with being the best all-rounder. With her he won the NZ Trotting Cup, Free-For-All, National Cup and other big events. Though a slug in training, she was an altogether different proposition when raceday came round. Other winning performances to Holmes's credit are the Canterbury Park Handicap with Logan Chief, NZ Trotting Stakes with Quickfire and the Timaru Cup with Emperor. Consequent on the age limit now imposed on drivers, he is now debarred from holding the reins on race days, but his stable, situated on the Yaldhurst Road, always shelters a few light-harness horses with a galloper or two thrown in. As a reinsman Free had few superiors. He was never in a hurry till the winning post hove in sight and alway displayed fine judgement in calculating pace. His name will go down to posterity as a driver and trainer of the highest rank, and evidently he has bequeathed his ability to his three sons, Freeman Junr, Alan and Maurice.

After several successful seasons Holmes decided in 1915 to go further afield in his endeavour to find new strains of pacing and trotting blood. This took him to America where he secured Logan Pointer, Bonilene and Trix Pointer. On taking up stud duties at Riccarton, Logan Pointer was an immediate success, and, until his death in 1924, he headed the list of winning stallions on eight occasions and later became the leading sire of producing mares. Encouraged by the results of his first trip to the States, Holmes made another trip in 1922. Again his judgement was vindicated by the purchase of Rey de Oro, who proved a worthy successor to the incomparable Logan Pointer. After a short but successful turf career the son of Copa de Oro took Logan Pointer's place in his owner's stud and prior to his death in 1939, Rey de Oro was leading sire several times and later leading sire of broodmares.

Free's next venture to America was in 1930 when Grattan Loyal and Frank Worthy were purchased. Frank Worthy, who survived only four seasons at the stud, got many good horses of both gaits, and considering the comparatively few mares representing him, he put up a remarkable performance to become the leading broodmare sire in the 1847-48 season. Grattan Loyal was an outstanding sire of tough, high-class racehorses. His progeny included Gold Bar, Loyal Nurse, Dundee Sandy, Mankind, Loyal Rey, Loyal Peter, Bulldozer, Loyal Friend, Coquette, Colonel Grattan, Nell Grattan and Renown's Best. Grattan Loyal was never leading sire, but he finished a close second to Jack Potts and others on several occasions, and he sired 294 individual winners of £466,121 in stakes in the Dominion alone. He lived to the advanced age of 32, and in later years he became the leading broodmare sire. Thus, every stallion imported by Mr Holmes was at one time or another the leading sire of broodmares.

Trix Pointer, after winning 'everything in sight', made history at the stud. Her son, Wrackler, became the greatest dual-gaited performer of all time - and still is; and her numerous great descendants include other top-notchers of both gaits. Bonilene also became a cornerstone of NZ breeding, and two of her descendants, Adorian and Lookaway, won the NZ Cup. Mr Holmes also imported Estella Amos, dam of the triple NZ Cup winner Indianapolis, and whose descendants continue to include great horses of both gaits.

Free Holmes retired from race driving in 1944. He was then 72. However, a gracious act on the part of the New Brighton Trotting Club, and Free's son, Allan Holmes, saw the veteran return to the sulky in September, 1947, to drive Gold Bar in that great pacer's farewell exhibition at Addington. The 'Grand Old Man' of Dominion horsemen, and the racecourse idol whose forbears Holmes had imported several generations back certainly made a combination and an adieu par excellence.

Three of Mr Holmes's sons, Freeman, Maurice and Allan have been notable trainers and horsemen, and two grandsons, A K (Kevin) and Graham, inherit the family skills. Free Holmes in his peak years was said to have 'no peer in the sulky.' In a race he was a tough man to drive against, giving no quarter and expecting none. His sons were often reported to remark in the dressing room that if "the old man" had given them "an inch of room" they would have won. He was a tremendous 'character,' and is already a trotting legend.

Credit: F C Thomas writing in NZ Trotting Calendar 1Mar67

1945 NEW ZEALAND TROTTING CUP

Nothing looks quite so pathetic as to-day's Form at a Glance the night following the races: unless it is last week's Cup story. As a rule, caution and sporting writers are first cousins. A sort of animal cunning comes to the aid of most people who follow horses with a pair of binoculars and a pencil, but for once in a while it deserted the press gallery at Addington on Saturday.

Free Holmes, sage of the light-harness world, once delivered a homily from a sulky seat to the effect that "it is time enough to count any horse out of any race when it is dead." Free was dead right. Just how many times he has been right since he became trotting's philosopher No.1 we have lost count of. How the old general must have chuckled to himself when Gold Bar's Cup victory on Saturday came home as a crushing rebuke to all scribes and form experts(?) who rushed into print with such high-sounding phrases as "his stamina must be on the wane," "he is not likely at this late stage of his career to finish any closer than fourth," "his function is not to win Cups but to carry the field along at break neck speed"; and so on.

Free, by the way, is "next of kin," to the owner, the trainer, the driver and the winner of this year's Cup. He is, as everyone knows, Allan Holmes's father; and Gold Bar's sire, grandsire and great-grandsire were all imported from America by Free. Gold Bar is by Grattan Loyal, who came from Ontario, Canada, in 1930. Gold Bar's dam Imperial Gold, is by Rey de Oro, who left Los Angeles, USA, for this country in 1922; and Imperial Gold's dam was Imperial Pointer, who came from California to the Dominion in 1915.

What a trotting saga! Nat Gould would have revelled in it. But Nat Gould is dead, so you will just have to put up with the vapourings of the scribe who told you in all seriousness last week that Gold Bar had about as much chance of winning the Cup as Hirohito has of becoming President of the United States. The influence of Free Holmes's importations on the Cup field did not end with Gold Bar, because Integrity, the second horse, is by Trevor de Oro (by Rey de Oro-Logan Maid, by Logan Pointer) and Integrity's dam, Cheetah, is by Grattan Loyal. Furthermore, the fourth horse, Countless, is out of Purple Patch, by Rey de Oro.

The unrestrained enthusiasm that greeted Gold Bar and Allan Holmes when they returned to the birdcage was a richly earned tribute to a horse and a driver who have been leading actors in the principal events of the Dominion for five years or more. Most people will agree that Gold Bar has 'made' the Cup race ever since he joined the select circle. It would be difficult to name his parallel in light-harness history. Vesuvius is the nearest approach to him most can remember; horses that stand out as individualists, pacemakers whose acceleration to top speed from barrier rise led to the survival of only the fittest in each and every race they made, or disorganised, whichever you will.

It was in an atmosphere charged with enthusiasm, and pervaded with a glamour Addington has never known before, that the official party, led by the president, Mr C S Thomas, foregathered in the birdcage after the race for the presentation to A Holmes of the Gold Cup. Thousands of wildly-excited people literally broke all barriers and crowded round the enclosure. Mr Thomas paid a richly earned tribute to Holmes and Gold Bar for the part they played in the Cup race for the last five years. He referred to Saturday's race as "probably the greatest light-harness contest ever staged in the Dominion" and to Gold Bar and Holmes as a champion combination that had consistently provided thrills for the trotting public. Mrs Thomas decorated Gold Bar with a garland of flowers and deafening cheers attended the ceremony.

Gold Bar, who is nine years old, has now won 21 races and £12,078/10/- in stakes and trophies, which places him second to Great Bingen as a money-winner. Of Great Bingen's total of £14,120, £13,320 was earned in the Dominion, and £800 in Australia. If Gold Bar should win Friday's Free-For-All he will have topped Great Bingen's Dominion total, and he now looks likely to become the biggest light-harness stake-winner of the Dominion and Australia. A bloodstock agent made an offer of £5000 for Gold Bar towards the close of last season. The offer came ostensibly with a view to Gold Bar's stud value, but, as Holmes remarked at the time, Gold Bar, apart altogether from his racing career, was worth "a thousand a year at the stud." The thousand a year is now safe as long as Gold Bar lives, and since the offer was made he has earned an additional £5525 in stakes. So it would have been a bad sale, after all.

Gold Bar, after fighting off his only serious challenger, Integrity, won the 1945 NZ Cup by three lengths from Integrity, with Shadow Maid ten lengths away third and Countless a poor fourth. At the start Integrity broke and lost about 30yds, and Indian Clipper would not settle down, being soon out of the contest. Gold Bar went to the front practically from barrier rise and at the end of half a mile had opened up a break of ten lengths on Double Peter, who was followed by Dusky Sound, Shadow Maid and War Guard. Gold Bar increased his lead to 15 lengths with six furlongs covered, and reached the mile in 2:07 and the mile and a half in 3:10. There was still no sign of his weakening. Integrity went after Gold Bar with three furlongs to go, and he reduced the gap to five lengths by the time the home turn was reached, but from that stage Gold Bar fought on too well, and Integrity was not gaining on him at the finish. Happy Man, who led the attack on Gold Bar in the middle stages, tired and came back on Haughty three and a half furlongs from home. Haughty made several futile attempts to get through on the inside of Happy Man, but he eventually came over on her and she put a foot through his sulky wheel. This eliminated both horses just before they reached the quarter post. The mishap probably robbed the race of a good deal of interest, as Haughty appeared to be full of running at the time. Bronze Eagle and all the others had every chance. Bronze Eagle reached third place just after entering upon the final quarter, but he broke in the straight. The fifth horse was Dusky Sound, followed by War Guard, Loyal Friend, Double Peter and Bronze Eagle. The last mile occupied 2:09 1-5, and the last half-mile 1:06 1-5, indicating that Gold Bar's speed again became progressively slower.

Investments on the race were £34,955 and on the day £182,086/10/-

Full Result

1st: A Holmes's GOLD BAR. Trained and driven by the owner at Riccarton, started off scratch.

2nd: V Leeming's INTEGRITY. Driven by M Holmes, started off scratch.

3rd: G Chemar's SHADOW MAID. Driven by C C Devine, started off scratch.

4th: P A Watson's COUNTLESS. Driven by J McLennan Tnr, started off 24yds.

The winner won by three lengths, with 10 lengths to third and 10 lengths to fourth.

Times: 4:16 1-5, 4:16 3-5, 4:19 1-5, 4:19 3-5.

Also started: Double Peter scr, Dusky Sound scr, Happy Man scr, Indian Clipper scr, War Guard scr, Loyal Friend 12, Bronze Eagle 36, Haughty 48.



Credit: 'Ribbonwood' writing in NZ Trotting Calendar 7Nov45

ADMIRATION - Classic Winner Producing Mare

ADMIRATION (1941 Grattan Loyal-Bonny Logan), USA family of Black Betty; 2:11.0, £3,020; 2 wins; 14 foals, 12 winners. Breeder: Miss P Norton. Foals bred by F G Holmes and G Aitchison (Esteem, Shy, Modest); F G Holmes, West Eyreton (Adoration, Achates); all other NZ foals bred by G Aitchison, Oamaru. A number of foals were bred in Australia.

Sire Grattan Loyal was imported from Canada by Free Holmes in 1930. Leading broodmare sire (stakes-twice, winners-four times), he often finished second or third on the sires list to U Scott, Light Brigade, Jack Potts and Dillon Hall. Grattan Loyal left many stayers among his 322 winners including Bonny Bridge (NZ Derby), Gold Bar (NZ Cup/FFA, first NZ bred under 2 minutes, sire), Loyal Friend (AK Cup), Loyal Nurse (NZ/AK Cup), Sir Vivian (GN Derby). As a broodmare sire, he left Adorian & Integrity (NZ Cup), Ar Miss, dam of Armalight & Zany (NZ Oaks), Blue (NZ & NSW Derbies), Cabra & Great Venture (Dominion Hcp), Damian, Dandy Briar & Unite (AK Cup), Danniels Pride, Rauka Lad & Torrent (Easter Cup), Guiseppe (GN Derby), Leyoro & Lord Mina (WA Cup), Single Direct (AK Cup, NZFFA, WA Cup, ID Pacing Grand Final), Stella Frost (AK Cup, NZFFZ, ID Pacing Grand Final).

The family of Black Betty faded out in North America but prospered in New Zealand through Bonilene (3rd dam Black Betty) and her daughters, led by Bonny Logan, Bon Rey, Bonny Drusus, Bonny Norval and St Helena. Tracing back to Bonilene are double millionaire , three time Australian Harness Horse of Year & Grand Circuit Pacing champion Westburn Grant, NZ Cup Winners Adorian & Lookaway and top race mares Hyperstat & Gina Rosa.

Admiration commenced racing at two winning the Timaru Nursery Stakes and twice placed from three starts including third in the Sapling Stakes. Unplaced at three, two placings at four, two further wins came as a five-year-old at Cheviot and Hutt Park. Twice placed at six, she retired to the broodmare paddock the winner of three races.

ADMIRATION'S MALE PROGENY INCLUDED:
1. Achates, which won 5 races in NZ before his export to Australia. As a three-year-old, he won at Marlborough and twice at Nelson. Two wins as a four-year-old came in the Louisson Memorial at Nelson and the Geraldine Cup, and was placed second in the Nelson and Marlborough Cups. Placed at five and six he went to Australia during the 1959/60 season and was a winner at Wyong in July 1961.
2. Admiral Way won the York Cup at Cunderdin, WA and became a sire of 30 winners including Haddock (ID heat) and damsire (48 winners) of Earth Station (Aust Pacing C/S.
3. Admire won eight races in NZ (2:06.4) before his export to USA in late 1967 (2:04.0US). Wins at Geraldine and Oamaru as a three-year-old, unraced as a four-year-old, 3 wins as a five-year-old - Central Otago Hcp, Kurow Cup (April 1966) and Timaru President Hcp. A second win in the Kurow Cup (August 1966) and Addington together with second placings in the Rangiora Cup, Easter Cup qualifier and third in the Southland Invitation Stakes saw Admire compete at the top level as a six-year-old. His final NZ win came in the Hannon Memorial before his move ton the USA.
4. Chief Wonder, born in Australia didn't race until he was a five-year-old. He won 15 races over the next six seasons including a heat of the Tasmanian Pacing C/S at Hobart (second in another heat, unplaced in final) and Terang Winter Cup.

ADMIRATION'S FILLIES WHICH BRED ON INCLUDE:
1. Adoration, winner of five including four on end with 2 wins on both days od Nelson's 1956 Winter meeting. Her fifth win came at New Brighton as a five-year-old. She was the dam of:
- Louie Lopez, NSW SW and Riverina Derby.
- Taiko News, dam of Milson Edition (WA 4/5 Championship, ht Aust Pacing Championship)
- Tama Trees, granddam of Adrenalin (Southland Oaks), 3rd dam of Thomas Sharp (Northern Southland Autumn Cup).
- Tasman, NZ Railway Hcp Trot (Forbury Park)
2. Esteem, an eight-win mare commenced with a win as a four-year-old at Westland RC followed closely by success in the Epsom Stakes - four at Alexandra Park. As a five-year-old, her three wins were at Timaru, New Brighton and Addington. As a six-year-old a second place in the Methven Cup was followed by victory on Show Day in the Hayward Hcp. Unplaced as a seven-year-old, her final two victories were as an eight-year-old in the Spring Hcp on NZ Cup Day and Smithson Hcp at Addington. Esteem was not bred from.
3. Mirastorm, a winner in Australia was the dam of:
- Acutron, dam om several mainly Tasmanian winners,
- Cover Up, TAS 3yo C/S
4. Shy, won one of four starts as a 5yo at Cambridge and was the dam of:
- Carmen Jones, VIC Her Ladyship-4m.
- Charm, dam of Armbro Free (Cup Day Canterbury Hcp, Hutchinson FFA).
- Devotion, dam of Captain Devotion (NSW Breeders Plate-2)
- Shy Castle, dam of Frosty Castle (NSW Star Trek series), Lincoln Castle (Gloucester Park FFA)
- Timid, dam of Big Chase (Cambridge Gold Cup-3/4), Armadene (NSW Golden Easter Egg-3f); granddam of Bronski Beat (WA Easter Cup, VIC Laidlaw, Hamilton, Yarra Valley Pacers & Maryborough Cups); 4th dam of Sharp Bret (VIC The O' Keefe), Jake Pastime (NSW Breeders Plate-2, Bathurst Gold Chalice-3c).
5. Zany, top class mare won ten races. Unplaced in two 2yo starts, as a 3yo she completed two wins at Greymouth and in the NZ Oaks, also placing third in the Champion Stakes (Ashburton). Three wins at Forbury and another at Alexandra Park resulted during her 4yo career. Zany's one win as a 5yo came in the Ashburton Cup with a second in the Dunedin Cup. At six she won the CPTC's HH Wardrop Hcp and third in the Wellington Cup. Her final season of racing resulted in victory in the National Hcp at Addington and New Brighton's Esplanade Hcp. Zany was the dam of:
- Reporter, Marlborough Cup.
- Stylish Eden, 3rd dam of The Statesman (1:53.0US) at Mohawk, among first 100 Aus bred 1:55.0 pacers).
- Zany Hanover, granddam of Tally Van Gold (QLD Qbred Breeders Classic-4); 3rd dam of Partywiththedevil (WA Higgins Memorial).

Minor winners from Admiration included: Modest, two wins on the same day at Nelson while from other foals born in Australia: Craigs Admire, four race winner; Newport Boy, five-race winner; Craig Junior, a winner at Wayville, Adelaide.

Credit: Peter Craig Writing in Harnessed June2015

CLARRIE RHODES

Horsepower has dominated the life of Clarence Leslie (Clarrie) Rhodes. From as early as 1914, horses were introduced to his life. Not trotters or gallopers, but those animals used to pull the hansom cab operated by his father. The four-legged mode of transport was pushed to the back of Clarrie's mind in the early 1920s when he took over a Buick car agency in Ashburton.

The ability to sell 13 cars in nine weeks, a territory record for the vehicle in those years, and one which many car dealers today would envy, gave Clarrie the opporunity to visit America. Working for General Motors and living in an apartment at 99 Street and Third Avenue, Clarrie sold cars for $US600 each. For every vehicle sold he received $US28. Those years he spent in America were during the prohibition, the era of Al Capone, days when it was best to mind your own business if you knew what was good for you.

In 1926 Clarrie Rhodes returned to NZ. He came from America by boat and it was a trip that was to change his life. "I was feeling homesick," said Clarrie. "On the same boat was Free Holmes. He had been in America to buy a stallion, Grattan Loyal, and was returning to NZ."

Clarrie struck up a good relationship with Free Holmes and on their return to NZ he was a regular visitor to the Holmes' homstead. So regular that three years after returning from America he married Free Holmes' daughter, Daphne. Inseparable since, the couple have been married for 54 years. It was that meeting with Free Holmes and the marriage that rekindled the old feeling for horses. Not that cars were completely forgotten. The C L Rhodes Motors Company was formed, and, along with that and a rental car and truck business, it is still thriving some 50 year later. A momento that Clarrie cherishes, his drivers licence for petrol driven vehicles, is still in his wallet. The date of licensing - 1921.

Clarrie made an inauspicious start to the light-harness industry. His father-in-law gave him the Sonoma Hanover gelding Harvest Child in 1933. Then eight, Harvest Child had been extensively raced with a good deal of success. After gaining no return from the horse for some time, he leased him to Mr L A Maidens. Harvest Child went on to win three further races and this success stimulated Clarrie's interest. It is an interest that has not let up.

The first horse to race in Clarrie's name and colours was Worthy Need. A son of Frank Worthy and Necessity, Worthy Need was leased out in his early life. The horse was so small as a foal that he looked no bigger than a dog. However, under the guidance of J J Kennerley, Worthy Need developed into a promising two-year-old. Kennerley, who trained at Addington, had another promising juvenile in his stable, Southern Chief. Both horses were destined to have their first attempts on raceday in the Timaru Futurity Stakes in March of 1935. The two worked a mile in good time leading up to the race, but Worthy Need got out of his yard just before raceday and met with an accident that set him back more than a season. Southern Chief went on to score an easy two length win in the race. Raced on lease till the middle of his 5-year-old season, Worthy Need was taken over by Clarrie and placed with Free Holmes. The horse raced on till a 9-year-old and won seven races and gained 37 placings for stakes of £3126, good money in the late 30s and early 40s.

In the next ten years, Clarrie accumulated several horses, mares like Safety Pin, Bel Hamed, Escapade, Golden Pointer, Pauline Dillon, Ivy Peterson, Betty Ducrow, Suspense and Diversion. Diversion was the second foal of Escapade. She was secured by Clarrie towards the end of the 1939-40 season. When retired, Jack Litten, who had owned and trained her to win early in the 1939/40 season, joined Clarrie in a breeding arrangement with the mare. Diversion had the bloodlines to be a top class breeding proposition. Her dam Escapade was a half sister to Rustic Maid. She was the dam of Chamfer (NZ Cup and Great Northern Derby), Free Fight (NZ Derby), Slavonic (NZ Sapling Stakes), Scottish Lady (NZ Derby and dam of Scottish Brigade, Great Northern Derby) and Little Taff (dam of Student Prince, NZ Derby).

Diversion's first foal was the Grattan Loyal filly Sapience. She was unraced but left the Australian winners Pastime, Wise Leader, Wise Admiral and Crompton. An unregistered colt by Josedale Dictator followed in 1945. The mare was not served in 1942 and missed in 1943. His Majesty was the third foal produced. He won for Clarrie before being put to stud in Australia. In 1948 it was Jack Litten's turn to breed from Diversion. He had a sire selected to send the mare to but, after gentle prodding from Clarrie, elected to send the mare back to Light Brigade, the sire of His Majesty. The resultant foal was a colt named Fallacy.

Fallacy left his mark in no uncertain terms. As a 3-year-old he was a racing sensation. In his first six weeks he won five races, including the NZ Derby in NZ record time. Later the same season he won the NZ Champion Stakes and NZ Futurity Stakes. During his career on the racetrack, Fallacy won seven races. At stud he left a record that many sires will never repeat. False Step, winner of three successive NZ Cups, was Fallacy's first progeny to win. In all, Fallacy sired 240 individual winners.

The early 30s, when Clarrie started to build up his racing and breeding stock, saw him purchase the Rey de Oro mare Ivy Peterson. She was the second foal of a non-standardbred mare Lady Peterson and was bred by Peter Todd of Lincoln. Clarrie raced Ivy Peterson for four seasons and the mare won four races and gained seven placings for £572. Sent to stud in 1940, she founded the "Peterson" family which has won numerous races for the Rhodes family over the years. Ivy Peterson was the dam of ten foals. Nine raced and seven won. Lord Peterson was the first. By Grattan Loyal, he won four and was placed ten times for £1022/10/-. Sir Peterson followed with seven wins and over £2800. Admiral Peterson scored six wins and 19 placings worth £4095 while Jack Peterson (1949 NZ Futurity Stakes) won eight and was placed 13 times for £4866. Colonel Peterson and Princess Peterson were the poor relations of the first strain of Peterson blood. Neither won, Colonel Peterson managing four placings and Princess Peterson three. Overall, from the purchase of Ivy Peterson, Clarrie not only had the start of a very successful standardbred family, but a line that in its first generation won 41 races and £17,321, a great deal of money some 40 years ago. And money which was quickly put back into racing with the purchase of Peterson Lodge, a 150 acre farm at Templeton (formerly the late Roy Berry's training establishment).

Though success came in abundance in the early years, Clarrie also had many more horses than most owners during those years. Not all, though, were of great ability and many never saw a racetrack. Like all owners, Clarrie had to wait a good while before the glory of a classic winner came his way. It was 13 years after Harvest Child was given to him that On Approval scored a half head win over Darkie Grattan in the 1946 NZ Sapling Stakes. On Approval had been bought by Clarrie as a yearling from a Mrs Frost of Cust. He paid £50 for the colt and a similar contingency. But the glory of seeing the win was not there. Clarrie was tucked up in bed at home when the Sapling Stakes was run, recovering from a bout of pneumonia. However, he did hear the race. The Sapling Stakes was the first race to be broadcast in NZ and Clarrie had the added honour of owning the winner. He says that his doctor could not believe the remarkable recovery he made after the late Dave Clarkson confirmed On Approval as the winner. The day after, Clarrie was sitting up in bed like a new man.

The dream of all owners is to have your horse win a NZ Cup. That, too, was Clarrie's dream. In November of 1957 that dream came true. Lookaway, the only 4-year-old in the race, created NZ history when he became the first of his age to win the Cup in its 53 year history. Trained and driven by Maurice Holmes, Lookaway came right away from a talented field, that included False Step and Caduceus, to win by five lengths. Clarrie rates Lookaway's win in that Cup as his most prized of all. However, the Cup never came his way. At the presentation it was not a cup that was given as a trophy but a silver tray. Lookaway holds a special place in Clarrie's memory. Lookaway's dam, Raceaway, was bought from Mrs C E Hunt of Burwood. Raceaway won three races for Clarrie before being put to stud. Her first foal was Lookaway. Two starts as a 2-year-old brought little reward for Lookaway but as a three and four-year-old he notched 16 wins. Nine came at three, his first at Greymouth in October of 1956 with Leicester Roper driving. Lookaway's last win at three came in the NZ Futurity Stakes, winning by five lengths from Gentry. His nine wins that year were scored by margins ranging from one to nine lengths. At four Lookaway was the top earner for the season. His bankroll of £10,285 was £2000 more than his closest rival, Highland Air.

Wins in the National Handicap, NZ Cup and NZ Free-For-All were topped with what Clarrie thinks was the horse's best performance. In the first mobile mile on the grass at New Brighton, Lookaway came from lengths off the pacemakers, Caduceus and False Step, on the turn to win by two lengths in 2:01.6. Along with Caduceus and False Step, Don Hall, Light Nurse, Our Kentucky, Ricochet and Tactician were among the beaten runners. More wins followed. At five Lookaway won the Hannon Memorial. At six, when Clarrie was in Australia, he received a phone call from a close friend Cliff Irvine. Irvine said Lookaway was at his best and he wanted to take the horse to Auckland. Being thousands of miles away, Clarrie was uncertain about the trip. However, a suggestion by Irvine that he lease the horse for a month was accepted by Clarrie. The horse duly won and on his return from Australia, when the horse was back in his ownership, Lookaway won the Au Revoir Handicap at Auckland for him. Au Revoir was another top horse that Clarrie raced. He won 13 races for him with the National Handicap and consolation of Tactician's 1955 Auckland Inter-Dominion being his best wins. The following year Lookaway himself scored a win in a consolation of an Inter-Dominion. This was at Addington in 1961 when Massacre won the final and four races later Lookaway won one of the consolations. Lookaway won another race in his final season at eight. The Ollivier Handicap fell his way with a youthful Bobby Nyhan driving and Leicester Roper training. In seven seasons of racing, Lookaway won 21 races for Clarrie. Added to the wins were 13 placings for total stakes of £20,976.

It was around the time of Lookaway's retirement that Clarrie struck up a good relationship with Martin Tananbaum, president of Yonkers Raceway in New York. In 1956 the control and operation of Yonkers was placed in the hands of Tananbaum and two of his brothers, Alfred and Stanley. Four years after taking control at Yonkers, Martin Tananbaum made his initial trip to NZ and Australia in search of the best pacers from 'down under.' It was during this trip that Clarrie and Tananbaum met. This is how the International Pace, one of the richest challenge races between American, Canadian and Australasian horses came about.

NZ's first entrant in the event, back in 1960, was Caduceus, trained by Clarrie's life-long friend Jack Litten. Tananbaum and Clarrie Rhodes organised horses to represent NZ and Australia and exported them to America. They would race in their NZ interests (owners). The owner and wife, trainer and wife and driver would all travel to America free of charge. Caduceus was NZ's only entrant for the first series in 1960 and deadheated with Champ Volo in the first of the three-race series. However, bad luck struck when he was relagated to fourth. There were also teething troubles for Clarrie and Marty over transporting the horses to America. They were unable to gain rights to fly the horses direct to America. Instead they had to ship the horses by sea from either Bluff or Lyttleton to Sydney and then fly from there to America. It was a costly operation and one that went for several years. Orbiter, who was the Kiwi representative in the 1966 International series, was one of the last horses to be transported to America in this way. Orbiter was one of a 20-horse flight of NZ and Australian pacers to America in February of 1966. The flight, originating from Sydney, was hailed as the largest airlift in equine racing industry. This has since been bettered in the now modern age of air travel. Some time after this, air rights were given to Clarrie and Marty Tananbaum and direct flights started from NZ.

The purchase by Tananbaum of a 440-odd acre property at Rochester, some 400 miles from New York, sparked the start of an exodus of NZ horses to America by Clarrie and Marty. Called the White Devon Farm, the property was managed by Harry Moss. Clarrie and Marty would buy horses in NZ, mainly mares, transport them to America and race them. Once retired they would breed the mares to top American stallions then return the subsequent foals to NZ. This operation went smoothly. At the same time, Clarrie would send four of his staff at a time to White Devon Farm to help out Marty Tananbaum and for the lads to gain experience. Each of the staff members spent a maximum of two years in America.

The tragic death of Martin Tananbaum some years ago was a blow to Clarrie Rhodes. In one of the largest private sale transactions ever, Clarrie purchased the whole White Devon Stud contingent following the death of Martin. Among the contingent was a stallion named Lumber Dream, who had been imported to NZ in 1964. It seemed appropriate that the horse was now Clarrie's property as Lumber Dream's dam sire, Dominion Grattan, was a grandson of Grattan Royal, sire of Grattan Loyal, imported by his father-in-law so many years ago.

With the success of his operations in America, Clarrie's Australian business was also well in operation. Horses he has leased or owned outright have to this day won 198 races across the Tasman. Kiwi Peterson and Garrison started the ball rolling, Garrison winning 30 odd races before going to America and Kiwi Peterson taking a lifetime mark of 2:06.1 and winning over $68,000.

American stallions imported to Australia, like Truant Hanover and Typhoon Hanover have also found their way to NZ, along with Canny Scot and Emory Hanover. Another stallion that Clarrie has a place for in his heart is the Fallacy entire True Averil. True Averil gave Clarrie his second win in the NZ Cup 14 years to the month after Lookaway. Driven by Doody Townley, True Averil got home by a neck from Radiant Globe after being four wide for the last half. The winning drive by Townley was in some way compensation. Townley, the regular pilot of Stella Frost, had lost the services of the mare for the Cup after she had been taken to America to race in the International Pace. So in some way Clarrie Rhodes paid Townley back by giving him the drive on True Averil. True Averil stood in NZ for some time before being exported to Australia. Clarrie recently bought the horse back to NZ and he is to resume stud duties from this season.

With over 43 years of experience in the light-harness industry, Clarrie Rhodes has plenty to offer younger trainers by way of advice, but the now veteran of over 500 wins as a breeder and owner is not as outspoken as in his earlier years.

-o0o-

Article in NZ Trotting Calendar 24Jun86

When Clarrie Rhodes died last week at the age of 80, NZ lost one of her most successful breeder/owners of standardbreds. Clarrie died early last Thursday after several years of heart problems.

It is difficult to do justice to a gentleman, and he was in the true sense of the word, whose involvement with standardbreds spanned all of 50 years. Clarrie did not confine his interests to NZ, being represented by over 200 winners in Australia and also having close ties with harness racing in North America since 1960.

He had his first success as an owner almost 50 years ago when Bill Grattan won at the New Brighton Trotting Club's Spring meeting in September of 1937 for trainer/driver Free Holmes. Fittingly, Clarrie's last win in NZ came in great style, Free's Best accounting for the NZ Oaks in national record time last month. Best Dream, exported to California but still owned by Clarrie, was his last winner, scoring at Fairplex Park in Pomona a few weeks ago. There were well over 500 wins, mostly in Clarrie's familiar colours of a black jacket, red sleeves and cap, between Bill Grattan and Best Dream.

The highlights of Clarrie's involvement with standardbreds was undoubtedly Lookaway's runaway win in the 1957 NZ Cup. Trained and driven for him by his brother-in-law Maurice Holmes, Lookaway became the first 4-year-old to win NZ's most prestigious harness race when he crossed the line five lengths clear of Thunder, La Mignon and False Step. For most, winning a NZ Cup is just a dream, but Clarrie had the added thrill when he won the event again in 1971 with True Averil. Clarrie not only bred and owned the entire, but trained him as well. Doddy Townley was the driver.

There was also an added thrill when Clarrie won his first major classic race, On Approval narrowly winning the NZ Sapling Stakes at Ashburton in 1946. Clarrie did not see the youngster win by half a head, he was stuck in bed at home with a bout of pneumonia, but he heard Dave Clarkson's commentary in what was the first radio broadcast in NZ.

Horses, and horsepower, have always dominated Clarrie's life. Among his earliest memories is the cab operated by his father and the horses which pulled it. Clarrie made his name selling motor vehicles in the 1920s, initially in Ashburton and later in North America. He remained a motor vehicle dealer for most of his life. On his first trip home from North America in 1926, Clarrie struck up a friendship with the legendary horseman Free Holmes, who had just purchased what was to be an outstanding sire in Grattan Loyal. Clarrie and Holmes' daughter Daphne married a few years later.

Clarrie's first love over the years was always the breeding industry, and much of his success can be attributed to his knowledge. Clarrie owned dozens of stallions throughout Australasia notably Lumber Dream here and Hondo Hanover in Australia.

Lady luck was not always on Clarrie's side. In the late 1940s he entered into a breeding arrangement with a life long friend in Jack Litten over a mare called Diversion. Clarrie bred Diversion to Light Brigade and got a useful winner in His Majesty. The following year, Litten bred Diversion to the same sire and got Fallacy, a brilliant racehorse who later sired over 240 winners. Fallacy sired triple NZ Cup winner False Step from his first crop, while he later left True Averil for Clarrie.

Clarrie's other good winners included Jack Peterson (1949 NZ Futurity Stakes), Gerfalcon (1942 NZ Trotting Championship), Au Revoir (Cup class), Safe Return (1961 Kaikoura Cup), Best Bet (1977 NZ Trotting Stakes), Alec Peterson (1979 Methven Cup), Bel Hamed and, more recently, the likes of Hondo's Dream, Best Dream, Chataway and the trotters Armbro Almont, Bossy Boy and Quick March, the latter a top mare in New South Wales. No doubt, there were many stories behind every winner for Clarrie and many, many other stories he could have shared. Sadly, a part of trotting's heritage passed away with him.

Clarrie is survived by his wife Daphne, sons Alan, Freeman, Gerald and Peter, and daughter Mary.


Credit: Brian Carson writing in NZ Trotting Calendar 27Sep83

CUPS KINGS - GRATTAN LOYAL

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.

GRATTAN LOYAL 1920
(Grattan Royal-Gwita-Wildbrino)(Died aged 31)
Four WINS, Two WINNERS, Six BROODMARE WINS, Zero SIRE SON WINNERS = 75 points

Grattan Loyal, a black was imported by Freeman Holmes in 1930 as a moderately performed 10 year old. He was from the tough American/Canadian "Grattan" line yet ironically his best horse was the brilliant speedster Gold Bar. Loyal Nurse was his other big winner here, taking both Cup events. The Grattan Loyals were tough to gait and generally scorned trotting(his sire left only two qualified trotters in a long career in North America) but they were game and durable, winning a lot of trainer's hearts.
His first broodmare Cup credit was with Integrity in 1946 and the last was Stella Frost 24 years later. All the more amazing because his first crop here arrived in 1932. He never won a premiership (he had most winners in 1947) but was leading broodmare sire.

TRIVIA FACT - Grattan Loyal's sire, Grattan Royal, went from Chicago to Canada to Iowa before his first Canadian owner tracked him down only days before he was to be shot because of a serious leg injury and no patronage. On returning to Canada he became a huge success and made the Canadian Hall of Fame in 1981


Credit: David McCarthy writing in Harnessed Nov 2016