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HAPPY GIFT - Mystery Mare

This mare from Timaru won a couple of races in several years of trying and was the only winner by her sire the uncommercial Johnny Kawa. Her dam was by Record Time, another 'household name' and the next sire in the pedigree was Colossal, probably best known for one of his daughter's foals who was able to be registered as Colossal Dick without any objection from officialdom!

Happy Gift maintained the family tradition of going to locally bred stallions when sent to Steven Stock, a top racehorse and underrated sire overwhelmed by the rush of imports in the 1980s. The result was a horse called Happy Sunrise who set the racing world on it's ear in the mid 1980s.

Happy Sunrise went to NZ Cup class in less than 12 months winning 10 of his first 14 starts. This was a record under modern handicapping until broken by Derby soon afterward. One of those wins was in the Ashburton Flying Stakes, beating the subsequent NZ Cup winner Master Mood less than 12 months after starting racing for trainer Brian Saunders and driver Ricky May.

The horse made a mess of the NZ Cup; was fifth in a blanket Free For All finish from the outside second row draw breaking 2:27; and was then off to Australia where he was an anti-climax from the word go never winning a stake over $4000. Part of the problem was temperament. Sometimes Happy Sunrise when getting back to the stables after a win had as much action for spectators than the race itself. But it was electric racing while it lasted.

The family soon returned to obscurity until Kevin Fairbairn obtained a mare from it, sent her to top trotting stallions and got Whatsundermykilt and Glenbogle.



Credit: David McCarthy writing in Harnessed June 2016

BILL FARRELL

Bill Farrell, the South Canterbury farmer who bred the brilliant pacer Happy Sunrise, died last week aged 82.

He was a versatile and knowledgeable horseman who trained, drove and bred standardbreds for more than 20 years, many in partnership with Graham Trist.

It was Trist who got him started, and together they bred the winners Winning Choice, Meesha(2.06), top youngster Winning Glimpse(2.03), Haughty Choice and Hunter Hanover(2.06) from the Bachelor Hanover mare Bachelor's Choice, and two winners from the Johnny Globe mare, Apollo Globe. All told they bred 14 horses, and nine of them were winners.

Later, he stood Steven Stock at the stud, and among the mares he had assembled for the horse to serve was Happy Gift, by Johnny Kawa.

In due course, he found himself with too many horses, and he told Trist on Sunday afternoon that he was sending some to a dispersal sale at Ashburton. Trist told him he wouldn't get much for them, and he was right - the Steven Stock-Happy Gift 2-year-old was sold to Brian Saunders for $350. Happy Sunrise went on to win more than $100,000 and take a mork of 1:57.8.

Credit: Mike Grainger writing in HRWeekly 6Jun02