| PEOPLE |
YEAR: 1980
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If he were a public trainer, Fred Fletcher reckons he would have very few people bringing horses to him. He wouldn't get anyone wanting a quick return anyway. His theory about training - and it is one which seems to have worked to perfection this season - involves taking a lot of time getting a horse to the races. And preferably not racing them as 2-year-olds. These days, with rapidly rising costs everywhere, there are not too many owners willing, or in a position to wait long for a return on their investment.
However, the success Fred Fletcher has had this term - it's only his fourth since getting his licence in July, 1976 - might make some see the wisdom of patience. The Templeton studmaster has only had nine horses to the races this season. Between them they have had 104 starts for 21 wins and 43 placings. Of the nine, only Wejover Star has not won. He had just one start for Fletcher before being sold to America where he has since won his first three starts with a best time of only a fraction of a second outside two minutes.
Stable star over the past two seasons, undoubtedly, has been Roydon Scott. And there is nothing surer he will be racing in America, too, before next season is through. Winner of the Wellington Cup last year, the big Scottish Hanover horse has been plagued by misfortune since missing the Inter-Dominions at Addington and the NZ Cup, through injury both times. But he proved he was right again by running a slashing second to Trevira in the Easter Cup and in the process unofficially breaking Young Quinn's 4:06.7 for the 3200 metres. "He'll probably go to the States about halfway through the season," Fletcher said last week. "He's being handicapped on back marks for invitation races, and apart from them there are only free-for-alls and the big cup for him. Even in the Easter Cup he was off 15 metres...and that was only the second time he's run 3200 metres. He would be good in the States. He's tremendous away from the mobile gate and he'll go some good miles."
Roydon Scott, winner of three races this season, has a best time of 1:58.9 set as a 3-year-old. That's more than a second slower than the other stable star, the game little mare Philippa Frost, who finished third in the Easter Cup and clocked 1:57.7 when running second in the Pan Am Mile Consolation. Fletcher has trained her to win six races this season, a major contributor to his tally of 41 since getting his open driving licence in May, 1977.
Others on his winners' list this term are fine young trotter Game Captian, Who's won four from five starts, Reuben James (also four), Chantilly Belle, Game Mander, Spangled Partner and Star Blazer. The latter, a winner at Rangiora recently, is the first horse Fletcher has raced on his own account. His wife, Fay, races Reuben James herself and has leased Chantily Belle to "the boss", owner of Roydon Lodge, Roy McKenzie. And while the training of racehorses has been a successful sideline for Fletcher, it's the running of Roydon Lodge that is his main occupation. "The racing's only part time. The stud's what we're here for."
Fred Fletcher, now 41, started at Roydon Lodge when the McKenzie establishment was divided into racing stables and the stud 11 years ago. Now it comprises about 300 acres, in two properties. One provided grazing and feed crops for the stud and stables. Fred was there when the present Roydon Lodge property was set up. With a couple of helpers, he "built everything" up from scratch to establish the stud with Scottish Hanover and Armbro Hurricane the stud sires. He went to the stud after seven years working for George Noble at Yaldhurst when Noble was in charge of the McKenzie horses. There he was involved mainly in stud work, a job which didn't seem to appeal to many people. "There is usually too much work involved," Fletcher said. "When people want to get involved with horses, a racing stable is much more attractive. There is more glamour and the chance of a drive is always there." The problem today, even in racing stables, was to find the right person with the right dedication to the job. Stable work was a tough life but a lot of those who applied for jobs seemed to want to drive fast work within a few days. "They all want to be Morrie Holmes," Fletcher said.
He himself had only just started a job in a bakehouse when he had seen the Nobles advertising for an assistant at the stud. He applied. The job was his when a prviously successful applicant had considered the house which went with the job too small for his family. It didn't deter Fred, Fay and their two daughters, Wendy and Fiona. "People said we were mad when we sold our own home in Burwood and moved out to Yaldhurst. But it was a good move." It was a good move if only for the reason that Fred was able, in between stud work, to observe a fine trainer of racehorses in action. "George believed in a long slow build-up. I suppose I got my initial ideas for my own methods from working with the Nobles," Fred said.
Fred had always wanted to work with horses, even when he was a youngster living in Blackball, where his father was a bushman. The only boy in a family of four, Fred had big ideas about being a jockey 'until I grew a bit big'. He got his interest in horses from his father, an avid racegoer. "He loved horses, gallopers and trotters. And even though he wasn't a big bettor, he followed them all over the Coast, around Nelson, across to Canterbury. I used to go with him." It is with a little sadness the Fletchers recall Fred's father's death. "He died just when Fred was getting going," Fay said. "We often think what a thrill it would have been for him to have seen Fred winning." At 13, Fred and his family had moved to Christchurch. Two years later he left Shirley Intermediate to start a job with the logging gang working the Burwood Plantation. "I didn't go to high school. I thought I knew enough at 15," Fred joked. The choice on leaving school was between working in a grocery shop, signing on as an apperentice jockey at Riccarton, or the plantation. The bush won, mainly because it meant Fred was constantly working with horses, a team of five draught horses, nibbing logs from the plantation. And he didn't have to worry about weight. The job lasted nine years. And when Fred left, the tractor had gradually superseded the horse. "The timber was just about finished and there was just one horse. Not really enough to keep me on for." So it was on to the bakehouse, Yaldhurst and then, 11 years ago, to Roydon Lodge.
"For a start we used to break in the young horses here and give thm an early education before sending them on to Mr McKenzie's other trainers. But once the Yaldhurst property was sold, he had no trainer in the South Island. He had the idea that it would be a good thing, seeing the horses were born here and were broken in here, if we could take them further. It was only a matter of more staff, and getting a licence." Fletcher was granted his professional trainer's licence in July, 1976 and a licence to drive only in matinees and trials a month later. He wasn't granted a full driving licence until a year later than that. "I think I was a bit hot at the time about having to wait but I think it was a good idea. The trials gave me the chance to show them I could drive. It was a good experience."
Roydon Scott was the first of his ten winners that first season and it was the same horse who's given him his biggest driving thrill...the 1979 Wellington Cup. "The boss was really keen to win that one," Fred recalled. "We wanted everything to go right." How hardly anything went right for Roydon Scott that night is now part of trotting history. But then, so is the fact that Fletcher and his charge looped a wall of horses at the top of the Hutt Park straight, collared Van James short of the line and won by one and a half lengths.
Now Fred takes each race as it comes. "They're all a battle of wits but it's easier if you do your homework. It's usually the last thing I do at night, checking the fields to see what the opposition is and what the others are likely to do. You can plan, but there's no way you can know what is going to happen in the actual race. That's why I like to see the horses running along in front at home. And if you can do that at the races, you're out of trouble."
Fred's a bit critical of the interference that goes on in a lot of our racing, especially in the lower classes. The big fields didn't help; and strangely enough, neither did the bigger tracks. "The bigger the track, the longer everyone seems to sit in the pack, just waiting for everyone to spread out in the run home." Fast-run races are always the cleanest. "With the pace on, there are few problems." Fred said he drove to win every race he could. And it was just as big a thrill winning somewhere out in the country as it was on the metropolitan tracks. He was always pleased to win a lower class or maiden race. "They're harder to win than the big ones. There are an awful lot of average horses around and in the top races, not so many to beat."
Training was a lot easier than the stud work. "That is daylight to dark. You are handling horses all the time and you get some pretty rough ones at times." With a staff of five counting Fred - Fay 'does the books' - the stud has an average of 300 mares a year. With numbers like that "we're almost neighing at the end of the season," Fred said. "Taking a horse away to the races, even if it is just for a couple of days, is almost like a holiday for us." The mares are handled on average every second day at least; and then there was the work with the yearlings, weaning, breaking in and all the other work involved with young horses. It was work no-one would do unless they liked it. The only part he didn't like was a bad foaling. "If you have got any trouble at all, then it is usually big trouble. And you don't like to loose a horse," Fred said.
It was work which meant you had to be on the place most of the time. And this made it difficult to take holidays. And to give the staff a break at the best times of the year. Still, he had good staff all through and this has made it possible for the Fletchers to make a couple of visits to the States. Fred, on one visit, had worked on such notable establishments as Lana Lobell, White Devon and Hanover Shoe Farms. And while that had been a tremendous experience, it was equally good to learn that here in NZ we were really just as advanced in just about all our stud work.
Of the four stallions at Roydon Lodge, American-bred Scottish Hanover was probably the Fletchers' favourite. "He has been around the longest and you tend to get more attached to them as they get older," Fred said. But now at 20, it will be a little easier for him in th coming seasons. "We will probably cut him back to about 50 mares this year," Fletcher said.
Credit: Graham Ingram writing in NZ Trotting Calendar 15Apr80
YEAR: 2012
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Q. You seemed to come into race training and driving a bit later than some. Where did it all start?
In racing not until I was 28 when I got a job at the old Roydon Lodge in Yaldhurst. We came over from the Coast when I was 12 and I was brought up with horses. Later on, I worked a team in the bush for a while. I played league right through the grades and was still playing when I went to Roydon Lodge after I answered an ad in the paper. I broke my jaw playing football soon after and that was the end of the sport. Captain Adios had just passed on when I started and Thurber Frost was the star stallion then. I worked under Ralph Bonnington who was the stallion manager.
Q. You didn't train there though? How did you find it later on taking on training a good team without the background some have had?
The granddam, Aspiring Lass, was a good mare in America and Charlie Hunter trained her down here. She had a twisted bowel at one stage. I got her back for a last season and she won the Canterbury Park Cup for us. The dam (Aspiring Gal) broke a pelvis. But she had showed plenty as a two year old. I was going to try her again but it didn't come to anything. But it was no surprise she would leave fast horses.
I spent a lot of time watching George Noble. There weren't many people who were better to learn from. A lot of it was just what you know and common sense.I started training after we set up the new Roydon Lodge at Templeton. That was a big job and it took time to get it organised. Scottish Hanover was our anchor stallion then and he did a great job. When that was up and running I was breaking horses in and thought I might as well be training them.
Q. Talking of Scottish Hanover, Roydon Scott was your first star?
He was a brilliant horse, a great horse really. I don't think people realised how good he was. I firmly believed he would be the first to run two miles in four minutes here and I think he would have done it. He had a big long stride and everything seemed effortless to him. He battled navicular disease for a long time and when Dr Irvine changed the medication rules on what we were treating him with it finished his career really.
Q. He still ran as favourite in the New Zealand Cup?
It was the owner's decision to run and you can understand wanting to win a Cup. I have to say I would probably not run had it been up to me.
Q. He was a different sort from Roydon Glen who ended up with the better record?
Roydon Glen had a lot of ability but he was always "seeing things" which made him a hard horse to drive. Peter Wolfenden drove him up north for us and didn't actually seem to think a lot of him and I had to take over when he won the Derby by lengths up there. But I could understand why Peter thought like he did. You had to be careful what you did with him in the race and where you put him. Sometimes driving him what punters might think was the right way was the wrong way.
Q. His third in the Cup must have been your biggest disappointment?
There wern't any other races to match it. He drew in, actually began too well, got into the trail and when they eased in front we were four and five back on the fence. Then when I was going to work off the fence I got held in. He flew home of course and should have won it but there wasn't a lot else I could have done.
Q. He didn't really succeed as a sire apart from the trotter Lyell Creek, and Roydon Albatross was a bit disappointing too?
Yes, you wouldn't believe Roydon Glen wouldn't have been a great success with his pedigree. Roydon Albatross was by Albatross but his maternal line was not as strong. He had the bad luck to be foaled down here late in one season instead of early in the next. That meant when he won the Nelson Cup in record time he was really a three year old and it showed what a good stayer he was.
Q. Phillipa Frost was a mighty wee mare too?
A super little mare, tough as they come. Bluey Steel, who worked at Roydon Lodge then had bred her. There was nothing of her but she wore a long hopple for the size she was (59 inch). I liked horses in long hopples. Roydon Scott wore a 64 inch hopple and Roydon Glen a 61 inch. Philippa Frost's length was really massive for her size. She had to battle Delightful Lady in the mare's races and she ran third to Hands Down and Lord Module in the NZ Free-For-All. We got a bit mixed up at the start. Slim Dykman was next to us and told me he was going to do one thing but he did it differently when the gate went. When you look back at her record and what she raced against she was a terrific mare.
Q. We always have to talk about Sundon at Roydon Lodge but Game Pride smoothed the path for him.
He was really the first of the modern trotting sires here, the ones who could leave horses with speed. He did a terrific job year after year once he got established. One thing which surprised me about him is the ability he had. His race record didn't show it but he was a dumpy little guy and we used to have to work him in the cart a bit to get the condition off him. The speed he showed when you chirped him up amazed me. There was a stallion close up in his pegigree called Bill Gallon which the Americans rated highly even though he was not as fashionable as some. He turned up in Sundon's pedigree as well so there was something in it.
Q. Sundons had a mixed reception with many trainers and probably still do. What do you put that down to?
Basically I think they have so much speed that if you let then show too much of it you can have problems. I had Jo Anne early on and she just had phenomenal speed. But Sundon was a lovely relaxed horse. He would spend a lot of time sleeping. One odd thing about him was that he would pee just before the start of every race he had. His sire Arndon was a bit different. I saw him run his world record at the Red Mile. He was sore then and drifted out into the middle of the track but still ran the fastest mile ever. Phenomenal speed. But he wasn't the relaxed horse Sundon was.
Q. There was a bit of a tizz over a positive swab with Sundon at an Inter-Dominions?
A veterinary error. I think vets should be made more responsible for their actions in these sort of cases like they are in some other countries. The owner and trainer have to carry the can.
Q. And you didn't get to drive him when he won the Dominion?
That is a bad memory. I was given three months for not giving him every chance in the Trotting Free-For-All on Cup Day. You wouldn't not try in a $35,000 race then especially a free-for-all. We were the victim of circumstances but the stewards didn't want to know. Peter Jones took the Dominion drive. He had been driving some of my team in the spring and we had talked about Sundon earlier. Then after the Dominion the siren went and they inquired into whether Sundon had checked something early in the race! My charge was quashed on appeal. It left a sour taste.
Q. Morgan James was another good horse I remember?
Just one of those great everyday horses. My friend from Perth, Mick Lombardo, talked me into selling him in a weak moment. He ended up winning $600,000 over there. Just went on and on year after year until he was about 13.
Q. First Jinja Girl and now Royal Aspirations both give you and (grandson) Sam Smolenski Harness Jewels triumphs. How confident were you this year?
Very confident. I told Sam it was his race to lose and drive accordingly and he did. Sam has a great temperament for driving. He does his homework, listens to instructions and is patient. He doesn't worry about things and thatis an asset in big races - to stay cool.
Q. On paper the immediate breed looked sort of just okay. Did you come from another angle?
The granddam, Aspiring Lass, was a good mare in America and Charlie Hunter trained her down here. She had a twisted bowel at one stage. I got her back for a last season and she won the Canterbury Park Cup for us. The dam (Aspiring Lass) broke a pelvis. But she had shown plenty as a two-year-old. I was going to try her again but it didn't come to anything. But it was no surprise she would leave fast horses.
Q. Royal Aspirations is a horse which can go on?
He's smart as well as fast. He got mixed up at the start of a race at Addington but he still tried to head for the birdcage. He knew where the winners went and wanted to be there. He has a good spell now but he can get better yet.
Q. You are a man of many talents, especially with the manipulation of horses. How did that start?
I suppose it went back to my sporting days in a way, getting over injuries and that. I started to read up on acupuncture and similar treatments and taught myself how to do them watching others and practicing. I started doing it with the race horses to stretch them before a race like an athlete does with hamstrings and other muscles and then started post race treatments. The horses are running around in circles after all and they can develop specialised ailments. A lot of problems happen in the paddock because the circles they are running in are that much smaller. So I don't like to see them turned out after a treatment as some recommend.
Q. You are also a "heartbeat" man with yearlings?
I probably did 100 horses this year at the sales. No special science, I just listen to the heartbeat. You can tell quite a lot from it. Some of them sound like a Mack truck. I think it is a fairly credible thing and more people seem to be asking me to do it. Anything you can find out about a horse someone else might not know is an advantage.
Credit: HRWeekly 25July2012