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DESILU - Classic Winner Producing Mare

Desilu (1960 U Scott-Mischevious) NZ family of Rita Bell; unraced; 17 foals, 12 to race for 11 winners/1 qualifier. Breeder: Jack Ferguson. All foals bred by: DWJ(Dave) Anderson except Mac Splash (Jim Dalgety), Bann Eain (Jack Hughes).

Desilu was sired by U Scott. Her dam Mischievous (Dillon Hall from the Logan Pointer mare Monaive) was purchased for £350 by Dave Anderson in 1962 as a seventeen-year-old from Akaroa breeder Jack Ferguson with the U Scott filly Desilu at foot. Anderson was in earlier years associated with John Butcher's stable that leased and then bought from Ferguson for £500 Desilu's full sister Desiree. This led to a long line of success for the Butchers with Tobias, Josias, Abidias, Samarias, Zedechias, Elias, Mathias just a few from the Desiree branch of the family of Rita Bell. Others of note from the Desiree branch included Stabilizer, Nebulizer, Buck The Odds & Pascale Bromac

The family of Rita Bell (Bellman out of an unnamed Berlin mare) is noteable for two branches emanating from Mischievous - Desiree and Desilu. From Desilu's third dam Galindo Lou (Logan Lou, 10 wins, National Hcp twice) to Monaive (granddam of Nebula, 10 wins; dam of Cloudage, 9 wins, Rangiora Cup) to Desilu, there was a winner or winners of top class.

Desilu was unraced due to a mysterious shoulder ailment likely the result of being kicked as a youngster. She became only the second recipient of two Broodmare of the Year awards in 1980 and 1981 (Deft, Interchange, Sheesadoosie, other dual winners). The most successful of this exceptional family of classic progeny were by Tudor Hanover, full brothers Delightful Pal, Jacron and full sisters Delightful Lady, Daveys Jill. Desilu was humanely put down aged 33 in June 1994 after being afflicted with chronic arthritis for several years.

Desilu's male progeny included:

Davey Be Good, winner of twelve races in Australia (1:59.3, 1700m), four at Gloucester Park.

Top Cash, two win horse (Claudelands, Cambridge) and USA winner ($100k earner, 17 wins)

Davey Jack, unplaced at 2 and 3 before winning 5 as a 4yo (Cambridge - Morrinsville, Te Awaumutu clubs; Hutt Park - Otaki, Masterton clubs; Alexandra Park) before export to North America (1:59.3US, $200k earner, 22 wins)

Delightful Pal, winner of 8 from 24 starts with 5 at three from nine outings (Waikato, Alexandra Park & Cambridge twice each). He won the Kumeu Stakes at 4 off 20m for Roy and Barry Purdon before 2 further wins at Alexandra Park at five were followed by his export to USA.

First Batch, four-win horse for Reg Weatherley. Placed at two, he won 4 races at three (three at Alexandra Park including the GN Derby; Cambridge)and the Franklin Presidents Hcp at four. A further 2 wins were recorded at Claudelands as a 5yo before his export to North America.

Jacron, a nine-race winner for Auckland Trotting Club officials Ron Robertson, Jack Maich and Wayne Fleet, he had three victories in his first season at four (Hutt Park, Alexandra Park & New Plymouth) for trainer Ken Sefonte. Interspersed with 6 wins at six including four at Alexandra Park and 2 at Cambridge (Johnstone Memorial) for Mike Stormont, Jacron did not place at five or seven. He was retired suffering from thrombosis caused by a worm build-up in his blood.

Desilu's fillies included:

Auckland's Lady, unraced, dam of one winner, her eighth and final foal in Electric Kiwi (Caduceus Club Classic at 2, Queen of Hearts, Franklin Breeders Cup), dam of four winners including Electric Chapel (9 wins). Bann Eain, winner of 1 race over four seasons at age three - Cambridge (dam of four including three in Australia, Dark Baron (9 wins), Highfields Gem (5 wins), Son Gorgeous (6 wins). Daveys Gene, unraced dam of two winners, Gene Hills (Otaki Cup, 4 NZ/4 Aus wins).

Daveys Jill, open class trotter, winner of 10 races starting with placings at three. Her first 7 wins came at four (Claudelands, Manawatu twice, Hutt Park & Alexandra Park 3). Sixth in the Rowe Cup at five, her final three victories were in consecutive starts at age six (Hutt Park twice, Alexandra Park) with a third in the Reg Rhodes Flying Mile that year. This was followed by 22 unplaced efforts at seven and eight (fifth in the National Trot). Daveys Jill was granddam of the dual-gaited Hanover Zip (Cambridge, Alexandra Park Winter, Nyah & Echuca Cups).

Davita, unraced due to injury, dam of:
. Davita Lass, dam of Smooth Dave (WA Derby); 3rd dam of Smooth Leyanda (QLD Oaks), dam of:
~ The Holmes Legend, dam of Poacher (Roxburgh Cup)
~ The Falcon Legend (Kawatiri Cup)
~ Jerry Garcia (Akaroa Cup)
. El Davita, 3rd dam of:
~ Kirchberg (Northland Cup)~
~ Kirchdoff (Methven, Manukau & Hawkes Bay Cups)
~ Kirkoswald, dam of Forever Loyal (Otaki & Wanganui Cups)
. Taya Lee, dam of Slugger (NZ 2yo Championship, Cardigan Bay 2yo Stakes; granddam of Grinaldi (NZSS 2yo NHT & Manukau Cup), The Oyster Man (NZSS HI C&G; 3rd dam of:
~ Fake Denario ($¾m, 1:48.2US, Aus 3yoc Breeders Crown)
~ Extra BG, dam of: Kotare Mach (Welcome & Flying Stakes); Granddam of Kotare Roland, Biella Star (Wyndham & Winton Cups)
~ Kotare Jaeger (Methven Cup)
~ Ross The Boss ($½m, 1:50.0US)
~ Tanisa Bromac, dam of Tijuana Bromac (Otaki Cup)
. Zoleine, dam of Beaudene (Macau Caesars Palace Gold Cup), Smooth Jack (Masterton Cup)

Last but not least, Desilu's crowning breeding achievement was the 'Queen of the Park', Delightful Lady. One of this country's greatest ever race mares, her career record stood at 144 starts for 47 wins and 40 placings (3 in Australia) for earnings of $476,250 ($5,250 in Australia). Thirty eight of her victories came at Alexandra Park where apart from her five consecutive NI Breeders Stakes wins (1979-1983), she won two Auckland Cups (1980, 1981), two Pezaro/Mark Memorials, two Inter-Island Challenge Stakes & Down Under Miles, a Franklin Cup, a Benson & Hedges Mile and Lion Breweries Mile. She finished third in the 1982 Auckland Cup, won an Inter Dominion heat and placed third in the 1983 Grand Final (to Gammalite and Poplar Alm, the first NZ finisher). She is remembered for her only win at Addington (NZ Standardbred Breeders Stakes) and her epic length of the straight tussle with Hands Down before finishing second in the 1980 NZ Cup.

Bred by Dave Anderson, Delightful Lady (Tudor Hanover-Desilu) was 1980/81 NZ Harness Horse of the Year. Her then lessees, Fred & Paul Grant were leading owners ($178,305)the same season. Trained at various stages during her career by Mike Stormont (36 wins, 35 winning drives0 and Gary Hillier (11 wins, 11 winning drives), Paddy Timmins was her other successful driver making up her tally of 47 wins. Nine of those wins came at one mile (1:58.7). Most wins and her highest stake winning seasons came at six (14 wins) and seven (12 wins). She set a number of NZ records over varying distances during her career.

Delightful Lady received the ultimate accolade being elected the eleventh member of the NZ Trotting Hall of Fame. A replica of her in full race trim is located in the NZ Trotting Hall of Fame and the Delightful Lady Lounge at Alexandra Park is named after her. She proved unable to conceive due to a chromosome abnormality, hence no foals were produced by Delightful Lady.

Minor winners from Desilu: Good Time Chief, 5 wins in Australia; Mac Splash, winner at Ruakaka (Northland TC); Daveys Devil, 1:58.3US winner.







Credit: Peter Craig writing in Harnessed Sept 2015

The Duchess of Kent presents the Cup to Hands Down's owner Bill McAughtrie

1980 NZ TROTTING CUP

It was only a year ago. Winning the 1980 New Zealand Cup was the furtherest thought in Bill McAughtrie's mind. "In fact," he confessed only minutes after his tough five-year-old gelding Hands Down had indeed won the Cup, "I had a horse I knew had a ton of ability, but I never thought he'd ever win a race. He was a wayward animal," Mr McAughtrie said before being hustled off to receive the gleaming trophy from the Duchess of Kent.

But in the last year, most of it in the hands of Templeton trainer Derek Jones, Hands Down has lost just about all those wayward tendencies and has won a dozen races in the meantime. From maiden to New Zealand Cup winner in a matter of months...a fairy tale of progress for Bill McAughtrie, a farmer from Omararama, and his wife.

And equally meteoric has been the rise of Hands Down's driver, twenty-five-year-old Peter Jones. Last Tuesday's was his first drive in the Cup. And in it he was able to achieve what father Derek, astute horseman that he is, has been unable to do in his twenty drives in New Zealand's premier race over the years. Peter was also able to credit his father with his first training success in the Cup after having many horses in the past who have made it to Cup class. Hands Down was Derek's thirteenth runner in the race, a point that prompted him, with usual quickness of wit, to suggest to the nearby reporters: "If I'd known that, I would have backed him."

Hands Down, though, has long been marked as a top Cup prospect. He won his first race at Timaru last December and then proceeded to win his next three as well. He missed a few times before winning a class four and five free-for-all at Addington in February, scored a third and then failed in three more races. Then again he lined up at Addington in April to begin an unbroken sequence of six unbeaten starts, four at the end of last term and two fine performances at the National meeting on the course in August.

The first of those August wins took him into the Cup and his win on the second night, a tough performance in anyone's language, marked him as the horse to watch if he lined up in New Zealand's premier staying race. A stayer Hands Down certainly is. He's taken five of his dozen victories over the exteme distance,more than any of his rivals last week.

He's big and strong and, according to Peter Jones, he's a lovely horse to work with at home. He's still relatively lightly raced (he hasn't had thirty races yet) and this, along with losing a lot of confidence after falling at the start of one of his early races at Forbury, contributes a little to his "greenness". The stipes weren't all that impressed with his Forbury performance and put him out for a month and made him trial to their satisfaction before they let him race again.

"Quietly confident" before last weeks event, Jones said he first knew the Armbro Del gelding was extra good when he missed away in a four-year-old race at Invercargill last December and yet still thrashed the likes of Lincmac, Historic Moment and Matai Dreamer.

It was no thrashing, though, Hands Down handed out to this year's star-studded Cup field. At the line, he had only a neck to spare from the brilliant northern mare Delightful Lady, whose run for her placing in an incredible 4:06.1 was a feature of the race. Hands Down's time of 4:07.2 was a record for the race. Delightful Lady, in turn, was four lengths to the good of old Sapling with another northerner in Greg Robinson three lengths further back.

Where Hands Down lost ground at the start, "The Lady" too was a little slow but soon made up her 15 metre handicap. She tagged onto the back of the main bunch, four lengths in front of the breakers Hands Down, Trio, Canis Minor, Roydon Scott - and the luckless Lord Module who let the others get 200 metres in front before moving off for John Noble. At the half-way stage Hands Down was tucked up behind the mare but soon after Jones took off in search of the lead with Wee Win, Mack Dougal and Trevira. He was outside Wee Win at the 1000 with Mike Stormont and Delightful Lady now back in the second line but three wide.

Hands Down mastered Wee Win at the 600 and at that moment Stormont started his charge. These two sorted themselves out and set sail for the judge some lengths clear of the rest. Delightful Lady actually got her head in front of Hands Down half-way down the straight but he fought back well to take the decision. Third-placed Sapling, in peak of condition, was, according to driver Doug Mangos, held up by a tiring Trevira at the 500 metres. "The leaders got away on me then and those three or four lengths I had to make up were just too much," he said. "Still, he ran on really well. It was a top run."

Greg Robinson, in the hands of Peter Wolfenden, pleased his owner Max Robinson with the way he stuck on after getting a good run mostly, even though a little wide down the back. And at the same time Robinson confessed, not without the inevitable smile however, to being a little disappointed after the race. "We thought we'd go home with the horse having won $100,000 in stakes." However his $6,000 for fourth took him to just on $96,000. "But we'll hit the target over the next few weeks once we get home," Robinson said. "They're easier up there." On his horse's performance last week, he wasn't being too optimistic. Greg Robinson was down to start in last Friday night's $20,000 Franklin Cup, a race Stormont was taking Delightful Lady back north for as well.

Stormont was a little critical of one aspect of last Tuesday's race, the lack of a tape on the 15 metre mark. "She was standing back when they went; we might have been 20 metres for all anyone knows. And then she was waiting for the tape. When it goes, she goes," he said explaining her slight tardiness at the start. He was returning home almost immediately because the stake at Franklin was better than for the Free-For-All and the northern opposition was weaker. "In the Free-For-All she'd have to go hard again and with the Addington track as hard as it is, her splints would make he a bit scratchy," he said. Besides, they'd be racing on their home track. however, he would return to Addington for another crack at the Breeders' Stakes, a race she won earlier this year.

The favourite, Roydon Scott, missed the start and really never had the chance to show the form that saw him unbeaten in his two other starts this season. Trainer-driver Fred Fletcher thought perhaps the big horse might have been "a bit fresh" in spite of some hard runs at the recent trials. "It's a long time since he's done that, and you can't do it in a race like this. It was a hopeless task trying to make up that ground".

If Roydon Scott's task was hopeless, Lord Module, well backed by the Addington crowd, set himself an impossible job by refusing to go again at the start. Last season's pacing sensation, starting from the unruly mark on 10 metres, didn't go for a long time and tailed the field by a long way all through. I was the final ignominy when he was later barred by the stipendary stewards from racing off standing starts. How quickly the mighty fall from grace. But amongst the jeers from a section of the 20,000 strong crowd, as Lord Module and John Noble went past on their own, there were more than a few murmurs of sympathy for a previously great performer. On looks alone on Tuesday, he should have won his second Cup.

But, realistacally, for the beaten lot there were no excuses. Hands Down and Delightful Lady trounced them well and truly.


Credit: Graham Ingram writing in NZ Trotting Calendar

Hands Down & Delightful Lady

Great Races: 1980 NEW ZEALAND TROTTING CUP.

If the 1979 New Zealand Cup had been a spectacular sight, the 1980 edition promised even more, and it didn't disappoint in going right to the wire - literally. On paper there had never been a better field of protagonists, or since for that matter, and in a full field of 15 for the first Cup to carry a stake of $100,000, a good case could have been made for at least 10 of them.

By the time the big day rolled around though, the class, form and champion status of Delightful Lady, Lord Module and Roydon Scott had been well established and it seemed the winner would come from that trio. But also in contention were such fine stayers as Greg Robinson, Sapling, Trevira, Trusty Scot and Wee Win, and then there were the Hannon winner Idolmite and Kaikoura Cup winner Sun Seeker, along with a 'young' upstart in the form of 5-year-old Hands Down.

Delightful Lady was a 7-year-old and in career best form. She had downed Lord Module in the previous Auckland Cup and been much too good for her northern rivals in five straight races in the spring, only going down in her last lead-up event when beaten two heads by frontmarkers Trio and Dictatorship fron 25m in the Rondel Handicap on October 29. Against her was the 15m backmark and the record book though - a mare had not won the Cup since Loyal Nurse in 1949, let alone from a handicap.

Lord Module looked and seemed in great shape for a second Cup win when resuming with a strong finishing second to Wee Win in the Ashburton Flying Stakes, but then things began to turn to custard when starting a hot favourite in two races at Forbury Park in mid-October. Kevin Williams, son-in-law of owner-trainer Ces Devine, had been employed to drive Lord Module at the start of the season, but on the first night in Dunedin the stallion had swung sideways at the start and taken no part in what was the first sign of things to come. Devine then engaged Jack Smolenski, but on the second night Lord Module refused to move at all, and when he repeated that performance in the Cup Trial he was made unruly.

Devine had been reluctant to race Lord Module after Forbury, as a repeat mulish display would have resulted in him being stood down from racing and starting in the Cup, and also compounding his problems was the fact that Lord Module was now also suffering from quarter cracks in his hind hooves as well as the front. Then the week of the Cup Trial, Smolenski had also been suspended for an indiscretion at Kaikoura and an appeal had failed at the 11th hour, forcing Devine to turn to the experience of John Noble. It was hardly an ideal build up, but the Cup still loomed as and promised to be an epic battle between 'The Lord' and 'The Lady.'

Roydon Scott would actually run the favourite though, on the strength of two brilliant wins at Addington in September and the Cup Trial, and the fact he was a normally smart beginner and off the front. He resumed by breaking his own NZ standing start 2000m record in the Laing Free-For-All and was no less impressive with a last to first performance in the Hutchison FFA a fortnight later. Not known at the time though was that the Cup would be the last race for the injury-troubled Scottish Hanover gelding, and that he would be humanely put down inside of a year when arthritis took its toll.

Sapling was a 7-year-old entire and coming to the end of his sterling career, but had shown with a runaway win at Forbury Park that he was still a big threat in any race. Greg Robinson was the same age and while overshadowed by Delightful Lady his staying credentials were never in question either. Another 7-year-old in Trevira, third in the Cup a year earlier, had streeted his rival in the Easter Cup that year in a track record 4:06.9, and downed Sapling at Ascot Park in the spring in NZ record time, while the 8-year-old Wee Win had shown at Ashburton that he was far from finished too. The 1978 Cup winner Trusty Scot, also now eight, had downed Trevira and Sapling at Gore in late September, also adding to the form puzzle.

Almost forgotten and neglected while all this was going on was Hands Down, who had qualified for the Cup with an outstanding double in the Louisson and National Handicaps in August. A one-time rogue who had improved to be just a very wayward customer in the early part of his racing career, Hands Down had finally turned the corner for trainer Derek Jones in breaking maiden ranks the previous December. The National was his sixth straight win and 11th in less than eight months, a sequence which had included the Canterbuy Park Winter Cup in 4:09.3 after a great tussle with Bonnie's Chance. But he had not shown up in two further races - at Forbury Park he had been tripped up by the shifty track and been stood down for a month and until trialling satisfactorily, and at Kaikoura he had been checked and galloped - nor was he placed in the Cup Trial.

But a then 25-year-old Peter Jones was still quietly confident in what would be his first Cup drive. "At that point he was still fragile and easily tripped up at the best of times (referring to his Dunedin and Kaikoura failures), but in the Cup Trial I just kept him 'in behind' and he had been travelling as easy as any of them," recalled Jones last week. "I think he fell from favour mostly because he had got there (to Cup class) so quickly, and had become overlooked particularly given the quality and experience of the others. When it might have seemed the bubble had burst, his career was actually still in the ascendency when most of the others were in the descent," he added.

The start of the 1980 NZ Cup was almost as sensational as the finish. Lord Module played up and eventually just stood there, figuring 200 metres was about his correct handicap, while Roydon Scott also missed away badly and lost all chance along with Canis Minor and Trio. Hands Down was also tardily away and settled down well behind Delightful Lady, who had started from more like a 20m handicap with on tape behind the 10m line, and had been slow starting because of it. Delightful Lady was normally a very smart starter, but a flying tape was her signal to get into gear.

Mack Dougall took up the early running from Trevira in the open, but it wasn't long before the fireworks began - Wee Win and Bob Cameron were soon off and around them when the pace eased and led a mile from home. They had been tracked forward by Hands Down, and Delightful Lady had attempted to follow him, but was shoved four-wide a lap out by Lordable and Denis Nyhan.

Jones pressed on to join Wee Win at the 1100m and Delightful Lady camped three-wide outside them, until the 700m mark when Mike Stromont tuned up the wick and Hands Down and Delightful Lady went clear and set sail for the judge, going at it hammer and tongs. The great mare seemed to have the measure of Hands Down on the home turn and Stormont glanced to his right to see no other threats were coming. Half a length up at the furlong, Delightful Lady looked certain to have the Cup in the bag, but Jones was just foxing and when he finally went for Hands Down, the rugged gelding responded and gradually pegged the mare back, in the end drawing away by a neck right on the line.

The race had been a true test of stamina - Hands Down's 4:07.2 off the front broke Johnny Globe's equivalent race record and was the fastest 3200m recorded at Addington since the introduction of metrics - and the stretch duel was a truly stirring, strength sapping and memorable one. Delightful Lady was gallant in defeat, not giving an inch until the final strides after such a tough run, while Sapling finished on gamely for third four lengths away after being held up at a crucial time by the tiring Wee Win. Greg Robinson was fourth another three lengths as the rest of the field filed in at intervals, with a last ironic and sarcastic cheer being saved for Lord Module as he actually finished the race, a very long last, only to suffer the ignominy of being barred from standing starts.

Delightful Lady, who was credited with a placed time of 4:06.1 in the Cup, underlined her greatness when she trekked back to Auckland and won the Franklin Cup three days later in 4:05.8 from 55 metres. This gave her the record 'no ifs or buts' over Young Quinn's 4:06.7 recorded at the Auckland Inter-Dominions five years earlier - Young Quinn having bowed out from the spotlight by parading at Addington on Cup Day. Delightful Lady would win 12 races that season, careering away with a second Auckland Cup in another all-comers' national record and claiming the Horse of the Year title, and was no worse than third in 18 races that year.

But Hands Down's triumph from seemingly certain defeat in the NZ Cup was certainly no less a performance that day. "I would have been quite happy to sit outside Wee Win, but when Mike (Stormont) made his move down the back, he forced me to go. Hands Down never got tired and even when Delightful Lady got half a length on us, I knew we weren't going away - it was just a matter of whether she would come back to us and in the end she did. Hands Down couldn't go the Auckland way, but on his day at Addington, he was pretty much unbeatable." He had the last say over Lord Module in an equally exciting NZ Free-For-All after trotting speedster Scotch Tar had taken them through the first mile in 1:57.4, and the Allan Matson proved a mere formality.

Hands Down would start in five more Cups without success, being third a year later behind Armalight and fourth in 1983, and only Roi l'Or, Tactician and Master Musician would start in more Cups with seven unsuccessful bids. When retired with 31 wins, 23 had come at Addington to break Lordship's record of 21, and also included three Easter Cups and four Louissons.

For Derek Jones, his son had provided him with his first Cup winner after 21 drives himself, which included the likes of Auckland Cup winners Soangetaha ( for his solitary third place behind Adorian almost 30 years earlier) and Leading Light. When informed that Hands Down was his 13th individual starter in the race during his famous quick wit - "bugger, if I had known that - I would have backed him."

For breeder/owner Bill McAughtrie, a humble and semi-retired farmer from Omarama, Hands Down's overnight success was a reminder just how fickle the game can be. As he accepted the gleaming trophy from the Duchess of Kent, McAughtrie reflected that year earlier "I knew I had a horse with a tonne of ability, but I never thought he would ever win a race."

Hands Down, by the successful Tar Heel horse Armbro Del, belonged to the maternal line of previous Cup winners Cardigan Bay and Globe Bay and a host of other top performers. McAughtrie had been involved with the family for 20 years, when he leased the first foal in Slick Chick from Snow Jane, an unraced U Scott half-sister to the dam of Cardigan Bay. Slick Chick won a race with Jack Fraser jnr as the trainer, but when he gave the game away, McAughtrie gave the Brahman gelding to Jones and he won another six. McAughtrie then bought from Christchurch breeder Harry Kay his sister Snowline for $1000. She won three as a 3-year-old, but was then so badly injured in a fence that it seemed she was finished, and McAughtrie bred he to Fallacy to get the dam of Hands Down - Snow Chick.

Put back into work, Snowline won another nine races, including a 2:00 mile in the New Year FFA at Addington. In March 1971, Snowline won her last race at Greymouth, the same night that Snow Chick won a maiden race for Jones and then training partner Jack Grant, and both were soon retired.

Snowline's dam, Snow Jane was also the dam of 1976 Inter-Dominion Trotting Grand Final winner Bay Johnny, Snow Globe (10 NZ wins trotting), good Australian pacer Toliver Bay and the dam of a brilliant one in Apre Ski (Vic Marathon, US1:56).

Snowline had 10 in all with nine of them being fillies that amounted to little on the track, but the first colt from the first of them, Snow Chick, was Hands Down.

Credit: Frank Marrion writing in HRWeekly 12Jul06

JIM DALGETY

Among the host of mares cropping the lush grass out at Lantana Lodge there's one Jim Dalgety can hardly wait to see foal. She is Jovial Jeanie, a spectacular mare when going through the grades a few seasons ago, and now a month overdue.

Jim Dalgety, though, shows no concern. "That's not unusual for a maiden mare." She's due to foal to Colonel Kenton, who Dalgety stands at his West Melton stad at a considerably more modest fee than the one he had to pay to get this fine mare. And the expenses didn't stop with the $12,500 fee for champion American stallion Most Happy Fella. Jovial Jeanie is out of Bellajily, a Van Dieman mare who won the NZ Derby before being sent to America to race.

Dalgety noticed her name in a race card while on a trip to the States about ten years ago. Not for her, then, the town hall company of her Derby and Oaks contemporaries. Instead, her American performances impaired by a throat infection, she was restricted to lowly claimers. "I got an American friend to claim her for me; she was mine for $2600," Dalgety explained last week. No more racing for her. Dalgety sent her to Blue Chip Farms to be mated with Gene Abbe. "You had to pay the fee for a live foal. Ours caught a virus and died after three weeks. Ten or twelve thousand down the drain for a start." Bellajily stayed at Blue Chip and produced Jovial Jeanie before coming home. "We had to pay $12 a day for more than two years, plus expenses of $100 a month, to keep her at the farm in those days. Mind you, it's a lot more now with Most Happy Fella's fee around $40,000 I think," Dalgety said.

Now both mother and daughter are among the sparkling band of mares roaming the Dalgety acres. Inquisitive creatures, mistaking the Calendar vehicle for a block of blue salt lick while 'Jeanie' gets her photo taken. Dalgety insists there must be performance as well as breeding on both sides of a family. Without those two ingredients it is unlikely any progeny will have the heart or ambition to win, so essential in these cost-torn days. Jovial Jeanie's mate was unraced, but Colonel Kenton, by Local Light out of Petulus (thus a brother to top filly Golden Oriole), was, according to Dalgety, as fast as any horse he's had. "I worked him for a while and he had a ton of speed. Good gaited, too." He's served a lot of the Dalgety mares and a few well-bred outsiders as well - mares like Robyn, the dam of Game Lad and Game Two, Effie Wave, a half-sister to Sapling winner Glide Time and Laura Blue, a sister to Bachelor Blue.

When Dalgety is looking for a mare, it must come from a strong family of good winners. And over the years the policy has paid off. He and his wife Faye are recognised as one of the more successful breeders in the business. "In this industry, the racing is as important as the breeding ...and the breeding is the most fascinating," Dalgety said. He recalled how he bred and sold Module, the dam of Lord Module, for $100; how he once leased champion broodmare Desilu before sending her back to Dave Anderson ("that Delightful Lady must be one of the best mares in the world - certainly the best we have seen"); Double Agent, Gallant Guy ("they never stop winning") and Milford Mary, the three of them big successes in Australia.

He has had dozens of success stories here: Bolton Byrd (now at stud himself) and current rising star Melton Monarch, both from his Bachelor Hanover mare Nikellora, among them. But he claims a lot less success with the other side of the racing business, the thoroughbreds.

At the moment he's working a 2-year-old filly - one of about a dozen horses he has in work - and "she goes really well." She's by Main Adios from an Out To Win mare out of a Goodland mare, out of a Bachelor Hanover mare out of Karen. Basically, she's a product of stallions Dalgety has stood at Lantana Lodge. He imported Bachelor Hanover ("he really got me started here") and Out To Win, and stood Goodland on lease. Bachelor Hanover died in 1975 and he is buried with a commemorative headstone at the main gate of Dalgety's 450 acre property.

Jim Dalgety, himself, got started in the horse business at 17 when he left his parents' farm south of Oamaru (his father stood Jack Chance) to work for Cecil Devine, moving later to Maurice Holmes. "It was tough going to start with but learning the business was more important than the money. They were both great teachers, really two giants in their field." While working with those two, Dalgety was in close contact with two of the best horses he ever saw. Lookaway winner of the NZ Cup as a 4-year-old was a "brilliant" animal ("I took him to Auckland once"), while "there wouldn't have been another horse anywhere who could do a last quarter with Van Dieman. He was phenomenal." Dalgety also rates Mister Chips, who beat horses like Lordship and Robin Dundee before going to America where he just couldn't adapt to changes in conditions, as one of the best he had anything to do with.

Dalgety, now 48, himself has worked in America. He accompanied a shipment of horses to the States in 1967 and stayed on to work with Stanley Dancer for five months. It was then he first met Vernon Dancer - "one of the nicest men in the business in America" - and his wife Caroline. The Dancers owned Out To Win and his latest stallion purchase, the Race Time horse Farm Timer. "Vernon used to train Scottish Hanover and was sure he would make a good sire. He told me that years ago. He said the same thing about Out To Win and he was also quite sure with this fellow. "I didn't particularly want a Race Time horse but I really liked the look of him; he was a good performer and he comes from a great old family which seems to be getting better all the time." Fan Hanover, top 3-year-old filly in America at the moment, is closely related to Farm Timer. "He should leave them with early speed."

Back in 1967 Dalgety couldn't help but notice how everyone wanted a horse who could go quickly early. "It was high pressure stuff," he said. "No one waits in America. There is no bringing a horse in and turning him out for six months to strengthen. They either make it or they don't. If a horse is not ready, it's too bad. The situation is the same today. With so much money available for youngsters, the pressure is on to get horses racing. In New York alone, there are millions available for horses bred in the state, and other states are not too far behind with their own sires' stakes programmes. Such a scheme "would be a hell of a thing for the business here. But it would have to be backed by the Government," is Dalgety's assessment. "They would get the money back eventually anyway. As well a sires' stakes programme would boost sales, would get new owners in, would boost betting...I'm sure it's the only way trotting in the future is going to bloom - that is for the Government to put some back. The smaller clubs are under a lot of pressure. And it's not their fault they're being screwed down by the tax they have to pay the Government. Businesses and individuals like Max Harvey and Bob Owens can only keep sponsoring races for so long. There must be some move by the Government." At the moment, stakes were not keeping pace with inflation and there were too many horses in the looser classes. "We've reached saturation point with the maidens. And if somethings not done soon, a lot of good owners are going to drop out through being disillusioned by not getting starts."

Another problem contributing to the excess of horses was the breeding of too many horses from second-rate mares from the poorer families. "People are quick to breed from a mare who has failed on the track but it doesn't work. The Ashburton sale proved that. Mares from good families got the money; the others couldn't be given away. Racing must be the only industry in which people insist on breeding failures."

There is no way anyone could say Jim Dalgety himself has been a failure. But, success that he is, he's never forgotten what Cecil Devine said to him when he first started out more than thirty years ago; "You're now in the toughest profession in the world." "And he was right. He also told me you'd never get far up the tree if you didn't have the help of a few solid mates. I have been lucky. Don and Doris Nyhan have never stopped helping me from the time I first started out, and people like Wes Butt and Derek Jones used to help me along by sending me some of their young horses to educate. Maurice Holmes and Clarrie Rhodes, too, have done a lot for me both with horses and in the business sense."

There had never been a time when it was so important for those in the industry to work together. It was under a lot of pressure right now, Dalgety said. "It's a hard life but you can't neglect anything, otherwise you don't get the results on raceday." And you need more than a little luck, too. Dalgety is not usually upset whe one of his horses gets a rough passage like, say, Melton Monarch did in the Methven Cup the other week, meeting check after check and being pushed almost off the course. "You can't get worried about things like that. That's all part of racing. If you don't have luck on your side, you just don't get paid.

Credit: Graham Ingram writing in NZ Trotting Calendar 6Oct81