| PEOPLE |
YEAR: 2003
 |
| Natt Hall, Barry Anderson & Commissioner after the Timaru Nursery Stks |
Nat Hall, who died suddenly last week at the age of 71, was a loyal and long-serving committeeman of the Rangiora Harness Racing Club. "When Nat had a job to do, you could always depend on him to do it well," said past-president, Erin Crawford.
Hall stood the stallion Farm Timer, but his flagship was the grand pacer Commissioner whom he trained himself. By Play Bill from the Scotland's Pride mare Preferable, Commissioner won three races at two, and beat Noodlum in the Champion Stakes at Ashburton in 1974.
As a 3-year-old, he won the NZ Metropolitan Championship from Don Lopez and In Or Out, and one of his two wins at four came at he expense of Trevino in the NZ Premier Stakes. Driven mostly by Barry Anderson, Commissioner won the New Brighton Cup at five from Lunar Chance and Sole Command for Bob Nyhan, who also drove him in his last win, over Cyclone Lad and Stanley Rio, in the Lion Brown Invitation Stakes.
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David McCarthy writing in NZ Trotguide 4Dec75
Most readers are aware that no matter how much scientific research is put into bloodlines, nearly every top class horse has at least one factor of luck or chance in his breeding history.
Just how far chance can go toward getting the desired result is evident in the history of Commissioner who won the third leg of the Triple Crown series at Addington recently. In winning the $7,000 NZ Premier Stakes for 4-year-olds and having taken the 3-year-old equivalent last season, the Play Bill horse nearly took the $10,000 bonus which the NZ Metropolitan Club is offering to the first horse to win all three legs. Noodlum was Commissioner's stumbling block for he won the 2-year-old leg, the Welcome Stakes in 1974 after Commissioner had broken at the start. Noodlum was out of action when the 3-year-old leg was decided and of course sidelined by a similar injury this time. Nevertheless he would have been working to top his old rival for Commissioner sped over the 2600m in 3:21.4 and the Rangiora pacer is obviously one with a very bright future.
Yet it is only by a series of coincidences that we are seeing Commissioner at all. His dam Preferable had as her grandam the brilliant Sonoma Harvester mare Garner whom E C McDermott bought for the great sum of $35 in the early 1930s and proved one of the finest trotters of her era. At stud, among others, she produced Lady Josephine to the Rey De Oro stallion Gaillard. Owned by Bill Allen at Addington, Lady Josephine had a reputation for being able to get in foal at any time to any stallion and she was sent down the road to the Addington stables of Alf Bourne in 1947 to be mated with Scotland's Pride who had just been retired for the track after a successful but frustrating career.
Scotland's Pride won races alright but he had a major problem in that while his right foot turned inwards his left turned outwards and Bourne claims he is the only pacer to have raced with "two left feet". There was no stud fee for him apparently as long as you were prepared to deliver your mare and take it home after servicing. Preferable was the result of this informal arrangement and she got her name when the Allens found that they were one name short on the application form but told officials the first name they wanted was preferable to the second. Preferable became the third name and this was the one ultimately given.
Preferable showed some promise as a trotter as a young horse and ultimately won at that gait though she never set the world on fire and had periodic bouts of unsoundness. As a six-year-old she was retired to stud. Though two of her first three foals were winners Preferable looked set for a breeding career to match her racing until she was allowed to run in the paddock with the Hal Tryax horse Lucky Tryax. Her second foal from this arrangement was leased by 'Snow' Whitford with the right of purchase and this was of course the outstanding juvenile pacer Sam Tryax. Before this colt showed his worth, however, Preferable was sold to Nat Hall for $25 with another $25 thrown in if the now ageing mare had another foal.
She was over 20 years old by this time and showing it. But she retained the breeding qualities of her own dam and produced Infallible to Fallacy before dropping Commissioner to Play Bill - not a bad return on $50. Now 27 years old Preferable is still being bred from and Nat Hall has a Regal Yankee colt Chancllor bred in 1973. While he is showing promise his owner will be surprised if he is another Commissioner.
A Rangiora farmer Nat Hall has been actively engaged in training for about six years though prior to that a number of horses he bred had been leased out, among them the good trotters Indira and Smokey Bear. Not a pretentious man and one who has something of a reputation for avoiding the limelight which he thinks he hasn't fully earned. Though he dislikes taking Commissioner to the parade ring and prefers to watch the 4-year-old from the top of the straight near the stables entrance, Nat is direct when asked the reason for deciding on Play Bill as a breeding mate for Preferable: 'The old mare had no teeth and Freeman Holmes had a lot of grass at his stud' says Nat. Such refreshing candour in a day when some breeders might be disposed to give you a long lecture on the 'nicking' of bloodlines surely deserves a horse like Commissioner.
Commissioner's immediate future includes a crack at the Miracle Mile on Staturday in which he has drawn well and might well attempt to lead from start to finish. Certainly anything that takes him on over the first 400m is going to know they have been sprinting. It is possible he will go to Auckland for the Cup carnival though as Commissioner is having quite a busy season at stud (having served 20 mares so far) Nat might be inclined to settle for the Canterbury Park meetings at New Year.
Whatever happens, Commissioner seems destined for a grand career - and all because Nat Hall bought an old toothless mare for $25. It all shows yet again that unfashionably bred horses still can make fools of the most expert student of breeding.
Credit: NZ HRWeekly 19Nov03