| PEOPLE |
YEAR: 1988
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Memories of Dominion Handicaps run over 60 years will flood back for the now 78-year-old Harold "Chappy" Fisken when on Saturday night he sits at his home at Pukekohe, watching on TV the 77th running of this prestigious event.
Many outstanding trotters have won this time-honoured feature, but few among them would measure up to the mighty American-bred horse Peterwah, raced, trained and driven by "Chappy's" father, the late Robert Fisken, to win in 1926 from 72 yards behind. The Dominion was run the same day as the NZ Cup that year, and, according to newspaper reports of that meeting, although the Cup winner Ahuriri was repeating his victory of the year before, the large crowd was ever bit as generous with its applause of Peterwah's outstanding success.
Bob Fisken - all the way from Gisborne - had become a star harness horseman on the NZ scene. On earlier southern forays, he had won the 1921 Dominion Handicap with Wild Lad and the 1924 NZ Trotting Stakes at Forbury Park with Peterwah, while in 1927 he was to win the NZ Sapling Stakes at Ashburton with Petewah's daughter Enawah.
As he recalls those halcyon days when he was just a lad, a sparkle returns to "Chappys" eyes. It is typical of the man that he retains his zest for living, despite the loss of his son David in an auto accident in Mexico about eight years ago, a stroke then rendered him almost totally paralysed 18 months ago and the death of his wife earlier this year.
As he shuffles on a stick around the silos, crushing machines and conveyor belts of the thriving animal food processing plant that has been his primary vocation for a good many years, he quips: "You'd never think I was for three years Poverty Bay and Hawkes Bay champion runner over a mile and three miles, would you? But I'm coming right; you should have seen me a while ago. I guess I haven't got much more time to go, but I'll get better before I get worse," he insists, adding: "I haven't had a licence to drive a car for a few years, but I've still got my trotting trainer's licence. I've got a couple of old nags out there in the paddock, and I'm causing a bit of havoc threatening to put them back in work." The "nags" are the trotting geldings Zakariah (winner of 6 and now noe 14) and Go Hi (a now-white13-year-old with two wins to his credit).
"Chappy's" father, greatly successful as a stock agent and meat exporter and uncrowned king of the trotting sport at its peak in Poverty Bay, was ruined by the Great Depression of the 1930's. That experience made "Chappy" ever careful not to let his love of horses undermine more reliable means of survival. From small beginnings, he built his food-supply business at Pukekohe into one that last year topped $8 million in sales. "Not bad for an operation with a staff of six and no sign on the gate," he proudly observes. "That figure could be much higher, but you can get too big and go under. We just service Pukekohe and Takanini in the main - it's all I want to handle." "Chappy's"interest in harness racing these days is mainly in the process of Iwanago, a useful Nat Lobell four-year-old pacer being prepared at the Pukekohe centre by his son-in-law Barry Lockyer (formerly associated with the outstanding trotter Highland Flight).
Robert Fisken was a legend in his time in the days when Poverty Bay was one of NZ's strongest trotting strongholds and produced another great horseman in Tom Roe, winner of the 1920 Dominion Handicap with Gold Boy. Fisken fought hard to offset his area's isolation by subsidising by 50% the return rail fares for horses from around NZ to entice them to his local meetings. "Bill Lowe used to come from as far away as Ashburton recalls "Chappy". At one of the last Poverty Bay meetings, in 1926, he had Trampfast (who was to win the Dominion Handicap in 1934) and the pacer Carbine Direct both in the Poverty Bay Cup. Dad drove Carbine Direct for him, and won it, while Trampfast was unplaced."
"Chappy" was 11 when in 1921 his father won his first Dominion Handicap with Wild Lad. A gelding from the Wildwood horse Wildmoor from a Rothschild mare Miss Vera, he came off 12 yards to bolt in by six lengths. The following year, Bob Fisken accompanied Free Holmes and J D Piper to America in search of standardbred speed. Holmes' acquistions on that trip were Estella Amos (who left champion pacer Indianapolis and outstanding matron Tondeleyo) and Rey de Oro (who became a three-time champion NZ sire).
Fisken secured as yearlings Peterwah and Real Guy, the pair costing him a total of £500 landed in Gisborne. Re-sold to Albert Hendricksen, Real Guy, a Guy Axworthy horse, raced only twice, winning one of those starts at Auckland, before siring 69 winners and also becoming a successful broodmare sire.
Peterwah was by Etawah, in his time champion world two-year-old trotting colt with a 2:19½ mark on the half-mile, and Transylvania winner at four in a world record for three heats of 2:03¼, 2:03½, and 2:03½. Janeva, the dam of Peterwah, was by the immortal progenitor Peter The Great. Over 11 seasons, Peterwah had 12 wins between Auckland and Dunedin. In winning the 1928 August Handicap at Addington from 24 yards behind he beat a capacity field of good-class pacers in 4:23 4/5, a world trotting mark for two miles from a stand. Hailed at this point as the greatest trotter NZ had seen, he was the last of his gait before Scotch Tar (1982) to contest the NZ Cup, finishing unplaced in the 1828 event.
Peterwah once won from 228 yards behind at a Poverty Bay meeting. "He was handicapped out of trotting races, and had to compete against the best pacers," recalls "Chappy". Mixing his racing with limited stud opportunities before his owner was forced to sell him with the bulk of his big string of horses to Australia, Peterwah sired 22 NZ winners and a further 21 in Australia. One of these was Enawah, who added 11 other victories to her Sapling Stakes win. Another, Captain Bolt, became "Chappy's" first good horse, winning him four races before being sold to Mrs E A Berryman and becoming an even bigger success under Cecil Donald.
On moving to Rotorua and marrying, "Chappy" gave trotting away for long years, breaking 180 acres into a sheep and cattle farm, and freeholding a plush house on five acres overlooking the lake. "When someone gave me £6000 for it in the 50s, I thought I was made," he said. "It was re-sold for £65,000 and then £102,000 before we changed to dollars and I suppose it would be worth something like half a million dollars now."
One of the horses bought by Hawera trotting stalwart Alex Corrigan when the Fiskens sold up was Robert Earl. This son of Wrack and the Logan Pointer mare Ivy Pointer became a successful sire; and a free service given to him by Corrigan bought "Chappy" back into the sport. "I can't remember what the horse was that I bred, but I was into it again, and since then have always pottered around with a horse or two," he says. Apart from Zakariah, "Chappy's" best winners have included trotters Final Star, Five Star and Pukepoto and pacer Faux Pas. "I even got to Addington once, when I took a trotter Knighthood that I trained for an old bloke up this way after winning at Hutt Park with him; but we didn't get any money down there," he said.
"I reckon, however, that I made it a a sire. My son David, about four years before he was killed, finished 10th in the Boston Marathon." The trophy to mark that worthy accomplishment by David takes pride of place over everything else in the Fisken household.
Credit: Ron Bisman writing in HRWeekly 16Nov88