CLICK HERE TO GO BACK

HORSES

 

YEAR: 1938

QUITE SURE

One of the more surprising successes at the stud in NZ was Quite Sure, a double-gaited horse imported her in 1938 by Miss Julia Cuff, then based in Southland. The Peter Volo stallion stood for some years in that province and his last years in Rakaia when Miss Cuff moved north.

Although most of his best offspring were trotters Quite Sure actually took his best lifetime mark of 2:01.8 pacing, though his sire, a son of Peter The Great, was a champion trotting stallion as a yearling and each season through to four years. Quite Sure's sons and daughters had mixed reputations but properly handled gave great results to patient trainers.

For a stallion whose offspring generally needed time to show their best, Quite Sure made an instant impact. From his first crop came 26 individual winners of 102 races. They included the juvenile champion Walter Moore, another top pacer Special Force and many others. The best known is the almost legendary Certissimus who, Even Speed and all, is probably the best young trotter this country has ever seen.

Certissimus had a tremendous action and in a tragically short career (he died from an accident as an early 4 year old) he became a wonder horse, returning one scintillating performance after another in the war years. Another champion trotter from the sire's early crops was Will Cary, the first trotter in NZ to better 4:20 for two miles and a Dominion Handicap winner.

Quite Sure's first winner was Bomber, trained by Bill Doyle at Leeston. Bomber went on to win a Dominion Handicap, and Bill has another cause to remember the stallion for he later leased and trained Gold Horizon. A lot of people will tell you that Gold Horizon's equal as a trotter is yet to be produced in NZ. He won more stakes than any other of his gait either here or in Australia at the time and won more than 20 races though the Dominion eluded him.

There were numerous other grand trotters by Quite Sure. Jimmy Dillon won 16 races and held two Australasian records. Blue Horizon was a mighty trotter, also holding records for some years, and he numbered the Ashburton Cup among his many wins. Then there was the brilliant, but unsound Toushay, holder of the 1¼ mile record for a number of years and winner of the Trotting Free For All. Sure Gift was another topliner and with Fairy Dell gave Quite Sure wins in the Trotting Stakes.
Ripcord was another champion trotter by Quite Sure, winning over all distances against top company and holder for a while of a world record over 11 furlongs. He won 11 races in all. Like another top trotter in Super Note, by Quite Sure he had some success at stud.

There were a number of other top horses by Quite Sure. Included among them were Copper Trail, a good Southland pacer and winner of the Gore Cup, Sandy Duval, Rerewaka (NZ Trotting FFA), Karnak (who beat a handicap field at two years), Stuart Lee (who won seven successive races), Imperial Trust, Monagh Leagh, Minora, Quite Happy and Quite Likely, holder of a two-year-old national mark over a mile for fillies. His best pacing son however was Whipster who won eight races until injury terminated his career. Whipster was a successful sire of Massacre, Don Hall and Glint among others.

Quite Sure also had considerable success as a broodmare sire. Quite Sound produced a top class trotter in Rock'n Robin. Glamour Girl was the dam of Flying Maiden and Halberg who won 15 races between them, Flying Maiden being the dam of current top three-year-old Cool Cat. Pleasure Bay is a Quite Sure mare assured of undying fame through her grandson Cardigan Bay. Ballyhaunis was the dam of Jennifer who has produced eight winners at stud and Sure Romance was the dam of Royal Mile, a juvenile trotter of great speed who held the national mile record for a time. Quite Evident, who won five races herself, was the dam of eight winners including Call Boy, who won nine including the Great Norther Derby, and Farlena an Australasian record holder and winner of four including the Sapling Stakes.

Little Doubt, a daughter of Quite Evident, produced six winners including For Certain, an Oaks winner. Maid Myra won five and was the dam of Pohutukawa, winner of 11 races in this country, and Cosy Del produced five winners and is grandam of Balgove. Karnak was the dam of five winners including Scimitar, winner of nine, and Ruer, who is the dam of the champion Australian trotter and sire Delvin Dancer. Credere was the dam of Deodatus, who won seven including the Trotting Stakes, and Salamis produced several winners including Sally Walla and Similas, the dam of Viking Water.

Luronne produced Ascot King a top Australian winner. Sporting Edition was the dam of Spring Edition, who won seven and produced five winners. Quite Contrary is the grandam of Ripper's Delight, Ilsa Voss and Rip Silver. Other good winners fron Quite Sure mares include the juvenile champion Vivanti (winner of the Oaks, Sapling Stakes, Welcome Stakes and holder of several records), Lassoloc winner of seven, Rascal five wins, Knighthood six wins (at either gait), Sure Charge winner of 11 (trotting), Dourglo, Prince Garry and April Hall, the dam of six winners.

Quite Sure sired 254 winners all told of 891 races and $705,749. In his second eligible season he was ninth on the list and remained in the top ten until 1954. His higest placing on the overall list was third in 1948-49, his offspring winning nearly $83,000. Other sons of Quite Sure made their mark at the stud including Desmond's Pride, a brother of Certissimus who himself served a few mares as a colt with success, Concord and Rest Assured.

Some trainers were not keen on Quite Sure's stock and Bill Doyle, who had more success with them than most explains why: "They could be very flighty and hard to handle," recalls the Leeston sportsman, "and didn't take kindly to harsh treatment. But once they were sorted out they were top horses and especially top stayers."

Credit: David McCarthy writing in NZ Trotguide 8Jun77

 

YEAR: 2008

CYRIL WHITE

A lot has changed in the world since Cyril White was born during New Zealand Cup Week in 1918. When Lucky Jack won his first Cup in 1937, White was working as a 'cowboy' at Arthur Nicoll's Durbar Lodge in Ashburton, which meant he was more often tending to and milking the cows.

"Gordon Stewart was the Manager at Durbar Lodge then, and Wrack was nearly finished (as a sire)," recalls White. "I used to ride the hunters as pacemakers and we'd get very strong arms from spending hours on dry brushing the horses. In those days the streets were paved with grass," he added.

Wrack's famous son and three-time Cup winner Indianapolis was unplaced from 72 yards in 1937, as Lucky Jack won for trainer/driver Roy Berry and Ashburton breeder/owner Bill Lowe, but the 18 year-old White was too busy working in a woolshed at Middleton to be anywhere near Addington.

Cyril White will turn 90 on Tuesday, November 11, which also happens to be Cup Day, and life today revolves around waiting for his 'meals on wheels' and the nearest he will get to Addington this year is his Trackside channel. He was hoping to get to Ashburton on Monday to see the 'new wonder horse' Auckland Reactor, but mention the name Purdon to Cyril White and he asks after Roy and whether he is still 'about' too.

White would also do stints with such famous horsemen as Manny 'Dil' Edwards at Yaldhurst and 'F J' Smith in Auckland before the war, and set up stables in Ashburton when he got back from "four years and a fortnight" away fighting in North Africa and Italy for the 8th Army. A horseman with a reputation for his 'old school' methods which most often worked and a skill if not cunning to win when the time was right, White was still training well into his 70s and in the 1989/90 season, when he won a couple of races with the Noodlum mare Willsee. The first of those was a Methven around Cup Week in 1989 when Willsee scored at long odds for local identity Dave Lemon with his son John driving.

Before that there were wins with trotters Reign Hi and Baywood along with pacing mare Opening Night at Methven, and White has fond memories of a good trotting mare in the early 80s called Cathy Crockett who won six races and had a lot of placings along the way. The daughter of Crockett won five races in the early part for White, the last of those at Addington and at good odds, before she raced from various other stables for over two years without showing any form at all. White then got her back as a 9-year-old, and at Ashburton on Boxing Day in 1986 she won the feature class five trot downing Novander at odds of 14-to-one. she was raced by her breeder Les Moore, a long-time supporter of the stable. "She was a funny old thing - early on she would jump everything in sight, but you always had to give her her head." There are stories about how it helped when Cyril allowed the sulky wheels to run freely enough too though.

That same day at Ashburton, the class three trot was won by Pat O'Reilly jnr and Tyron Scottie, a horse that White lined up a couple of times the previous season after converting him to trotting for Ashburton owners Alan and Ian Neumann. Tyron Scottie was a Noodlum gelding who had been bought as a pacer at the yearling sales for $4000. He had been broken in by Allan Dunn and "made to pace" by Gordon Middleton, and White spotted him trotting while being jogged on a lead around the roads one day. "His legs had been cut where the hopples went, and I said to the owners I think I can make a trotter out of him. After starting him a few times, I told them that the horse was going to travel, and I was getting a bit past all that." Tyron Scottie was winning his fourth race that season from his six starts for O'Reilly, and would win 21 races and about $300,000 in all.

Shortly before that, White had raced a talented pacer called Rock On, who won five races for him including a Kurow Cup. A Dancers Boy gelding, Rock On won the Oamaru Juvenile Stakes on debut and as an early 3-year-old at Ashburton, when White was 60, he also drove him to win his second start that season at odds of 12-to-one. White's last win as a driver was with Rock On as a 4-year-old at Addington at 21-to-one downing Carnival King, a good sort trained by the late Pat O'Reilly snr, along with Captain Clive and Seafield Hanover. White bred Rock On from Widow Grattan, by Widower Scott from Nimble Grattan, a Josedale Grattan mare who had been a handy trotter for him back in the 50s.

Josedale Grattan, who won the 1941 New Zealand Cup for F J Smith, had been "a real gentleman of a horse" during White's time with the renowned Welsh horseman. "We used to go to a few dances with widows (from the war) and they could be quite nimble, and that's how Rock On got his name," laughed White.

Life wasn't much fun though when White was a lad and working around various farms and stables before volunteering for the war. He didn't always have a lot to do with the horses in those days, outside of riding work and cleaning up afterwards. Top horses like Josedale Grattan, Van Derby, Ironside and King's Warrior made an impression during his time with Smith though. Van Derby was a beautiful horse and F J thought he would win the Cup with him, but something went wrong. King's Warrior and Ironside started in the Cup before Josedale Grattan, an American-bred horse which Smith had bought and imported as a 2-year-old, ran away from Gold Bar in 1941. F J was very meticulous in everything he did, and caused a bit of a fuss as a driver because he wore gloves. He would give the horses a body wash with methylated spirits - he would never put a hot horse under cold water. Mind you, we often didn't have a hose and running water anyway."

One horse he does remember very well back then was Tonioro, who won a trot during a galloping meeting at Ashburton in May 1940, during his time working for the Vivian brothers at 'Shands Track'. He had been set to win by Lester Maidens and paid fourteen pounds, and I had 'ten bob' on him and that paid for my new teeth. I had them done in stages as I could pay for it."

"In those days we were still learning to drink, which could be quite handy at such times. A schooner (45oz) of beer would cost sixpence, and there would be a lot of them. Now a jug costs seven dollars - it's just as well I don't need much."

White can also well recall in those pre-War years taking care of horses such as the good George Barton-owned mare Santa Fe and Bittersweet on trips to the West Coast, and how often the bridges would get washed out and they'd have to walk them for miles for dry lodgings at night.

White was 21 when he signed up for the War and 22 when he found himself "going back and forth across the desert with Rommel. You didn't think much about the situation then because it was just a way of life, and you got on with it. They were pretty clever though at turning you into a soldier inside of three months." White spent most of his time in the infantry and in Africa, but never got further than Italy during "the last push". "We won through in Africa eventually because Montgowery was a mate of Churchill and he got the equipment he needed. "Freyberg didn't get that, and at the end of the day it was just aboutwho had the most guns and gas."

White lost a lot of mates, but the only time he was hurt if was his "own silly fault. We had taken over a position from the Brits and they had dug the trenches about six foot deep. I was sitting up there one day when a couple of shells came over and landed about fifty feet away. I thought I'd better slip down out of the way, but it was a lot deeper than I was used to and my knee blew up like a balloon. I reckon they must have been coalminers." Towards the end of the war in Italy, White can recall the trotting meetings at Trieste where Tom Gunning also figured, and "mule racing just below (Monte) Cassino."

When White got home in 1945 he set up his own stables in Ashburton, and married Olive McDowell, who went into a Home about five years ago. "Like a lot of lads in my time, I thought I might become a jockey, but I was too big-boned. I kept riding for most of my life and actually had a (galloping) licence for a time (in the 50s) as well after the War. But I saw one lady come off and get hurt quite badly, and that put me off riding very much. I preferred to drive the trotters after that."

Apart from his own mare Nimble Grattan, there were good ones like the Quite Sure entire Super Note and the Light Brigade mare Tronso for Bill and Ray Jamison. White "had to give up" Tronso about a month beforev she won the Dominion for Colin Berkett, who he says would "short change" horses by not jogging them enough. He also recalls about the stock of Quite Sure that "they were quite flighty and too thin-skinned to wear hopples".

White obviously has a lifetime of stories to tell, all of which would in some way be colourful, but one that sticks in his mind was a trip to Nelson in the late 50s with a nice team of horses in Nimble Grattan, Our Bridget and Stylish Petro. "We had been at one pub and then had a bit of trouble getting past (the pub at) Leithfield. We got past Kaikoura and one fellow was snoring away, and the driver hadn't realised something had come adrift from the truck - every time we went around a corner, something wasn't right. Eventually we pulled up and realised we had lost a wheel. One fellow caught a ride to Blenheim with the wheel to get it fixed, but by the time he got back we had sorted something else out. Anyway, by the time we got to the track, the races had begun and we just unloaded Our Bridget and she went out and won."

White actually (offically) trained and drove Our Bridget and Stylish Petro to win early on the first dat of the meeting. Our Bridget didn't win later that same day,but she did win again at good odds on the second day. Nimble Grattan didn't win on that trip and had to wait until a few seasons later when she was a 7-year-old and won three races. The first of those was at Kaikoura and the second was a Ashburton, when White drove her to upset Ahumai and Wes Butt and pay £64. She would later win in Auckland from another stable, before White got her back as a well-out-of-form 11-year-old and he won with her again at a Hororata meeting paying £16.

They could be "tough old birds" in those days, and it seems "they don't make horses the way they used to".
Needless to say, the game has changed and there aren't many Cyril Whites left about either.




Credit: Frank Marrion writing in HRWeekly 6Nov08

 

YEAR: 1982

BILL DOYLE

It was back in October 1948 or 1949, the year doesn't matter much. Bill Doyle had his trotting mare Passive down at Oamaru and was with her in the box before the race when a stranger stuck his head over the door. "Do you want to sell your horse?" was the visitor's opening gambit. "No." "Are you sure you don't want to sell her?" "Quite sure. I brought her down here to race, not to sell," was Bill Doyle's firm reply. The stranger left. The race over - she was either third of nowhere depending on the year - Passive was on her way back to her stall when they encountered the would-be buyer again. "You haven't changed your mind?" he asked. Hopefully. "No." "You know you've got the best bred mare in the country there, don't you? Seeing your not going to sell, you may as well have this."

And with that the stranger handed the visiting trainer a piece of paper and walked away. Now, more than thirty years later, Bill Doyle scrambles around a draw in the lounge in his spacious old home and produces that piece of paper. The ink-pen writing is still easily legible, even though the paper itself is almost coming apart through many foldings. "There it is," he says. "Passive's breeding right back. He must have spent countless hours, months, finding all this out and putting it down." And there it is too, Passive's pedigree all the way back to the pure-bred imported Arabian mare who was mated to Traducer in the 1860's sometime. Traducer, an English thoroughbred, was by The Libel and foaled in 1857.

Bill Doyle had never seen the would-be buyer before that day...and he hasn't seen him since. Didn't even find out his name. "But he must have been right," Doyle concedes. Passive's breeding record bears that out. Her record is better than just about any other in the Stud Book. At the end of her racing career - and she won a good number of races for Doyle - she produced foals to Ripcord twice, champion sire Light Brigade six times and Flying Song once. Eight of those were winners, six producing winners themselves, while even Passive's grand-daughters have kept the current chain going.

Currently keeping the Doyle name among the leading lights of trotting owners is About Now, a pet around his Leeston property and winner of 22 races as well. She's won four this term for stakes of more than $21,000 and, at this stage, must be a Rowe Cup prospect. But back to Passive.

Bill Doyle bred her himself out of Violet Wrack (by Wrack from Violet Wilkes), a mare he trained and raced for his friend Dan Robertson from Hakataramea. "I won a lot of races with her. When she finished I asked Dan if I could breed from her. 'Take the first foal,' he said, so I put her to U Scott to get Passive." The youngster couldn't have pleased her breeder more. "I'll tell you how good she was, I would have started her in the Sapling Stakes as a trotter if she hadn't broken a leg when she was two. She was a real flying machine," Doyle recalls with obvious pleasure. Later, when the leg mended, she showed a fair amount of ability. Still, it was some years after the accident she finally hit the track again. Doyle hadn't intended to race her but was persuaded by a friend from down south to at least try her again. "She trotted with a stiff leg, a real old peg-leg getting along, she was."

Her first foal was Reflective, by Ripcord. Reflective herself left winners in Jeepers Creepers (dam of Deep Hanover and Kenwood Song), Journey Home, All Alone, In Disguise and Let's Think. Chances Are (by Light Brigade) left five winners, Big Spender (dam of Ready Money and Lay Off), Rebel Statesman, Main Chance, Chichester and Smart Move. As well, her three other daughters Chance Again (Sly Chance), Hello Stranger (Espiritu) and Passive Lady (Leica Lady and Poker Night)have produced winners. Then came When.

"What a great mare she was." Doyle, relaxed in his lounge, surrounded by photographs of some of his winning horses, trophies galore, savours the memory. "She was the fastest of them all." When held the NZ mile record at 2:02.8 in 1963 when Doyle took her to America. "She was never right over there. The virus got to her but not as badly as it did some. They were dragging horses out of the barns only two or three days after we had got there. And it seems to hang on to them."

That trip, as Doyle assesses it, could have produced a sensation in NZ breeding circles. Ha almost bought a Russian mare to cross with the local blood. "What a horse. I can see her now as plain as day. The length of that lovely big chestnut...I fell in love with that mare." A pause in proceedings to search the myriads of photographs and cuttings from the time so the beauty of the beast can be shared. Apparently she'd been stabled in the box next to When. Both were down to contest the international trot series at Yonkers, an event conceived by raceway owner Martin Tananbaum. "I really took a fancy to her. I'd be into the box with her all the time. She was being looked after by a doctor and a professor and, while they couldn't speak English, I got on well with them through an interpreter." The Russians told Doyle she was for sale, along with another mare, a grey, they had brought over for the series. I told them I couldn't afford to pay too much but would talk to them again."

Off on a different tack for a moment to explain how the series was organised. The Americans would pay all expenses for owner and horses and then would share any winnings, fifty-fifty. "Tanabaum himsef was out here and he wanted When so much, he agreed to my terms in the end. The first race was mine...I'd play ball with the rest. We really sweated over that." That first race was for about $65,000, Doyle recalls. He was confident that after it he'd be able to buy the Russian mare. But it wasn't to be. When finished only second, beaten by an Italian 'gentleman' driver, a count, and his horse. He disorganised half the field at one stage and the stipes were waiting for him. They asked me to testify that the Italian had been to blame, but I wouldn't. I would not have liked to win the race that way."

Doyle produced a huge photograph of two smiling drivers, himself and the count, shaking hands after the event. "I really felt like kicking him. In the end, he bought both those Russian horses with his prize money. They would have provided a great cross for our blood. They belonged to the old Vladivostok line." (Incidentally, they finished at the rear of the field.)
Back home, When made a brief and successful reappearance on the racetrack before going into the broodmare paddock to produce winners in Now Charles, Time To Go, Now, Live Twice, Dining Out, Forget It and Now or Never.

So Rare, another by Ripcord, produced Perfect Answer, who qualified and a winner in Rarify. Asia Minor, winner of a host of races, was Passive's next foal by Light Brigade. At three the gelding - "I wouldn't have a colt on the place" - won the NZ Trotting Stakes for Doyle. Then came Remember When, a winner herself and dam of Boadicea, Anniversary Day and Now Then. Remember When, too, was by Light Brigade and was a sister to Wipe Out who developed into a Cup class pacer. "He was a big flat-footed horse who took a 65 to 67 inch hopple. He started off trotting but one day he just broke into a pace. We put the hopples on then ...and we never took them off." He was a good horse all through, but Bill Doyle especially remembers his double at the Auckland winter meeting in May, 1969. There, in the hands of Peter Wolfenden, he won the Mark Memorial on the first night and then the Adams Gold Cup on the second. Those trophies rest on the mantlepice today. Wipe Out made it three in a row when he returned home to Canterbury to take out the Louisson Handicap at Addington at his next start, early the following season.
Someday, a top trotter, was the next of Passive's progeny. As well as trotting a winning mile in 2:06, she also became the dam of About Now and Some Evander, an unraced colt who is now at stud. Snoopy, by Flying Song, was Passive's last foal and he was a good winner in America.

Passive, though, isn't the only broodmare to have given Bill Doyle a top-line family. He has just as much time for Within, a Wrack mare from Lady Swithin who raced in the 1930s and early 40s. For instance, she trotted an Australasian record 3:32.2 for the 13 furlongs of the Holmwood Handicap at Addington in 1941. "Often I'd line her up against the pacers...and we'd beat them too," he says, producing the photograph of the finish of her record breaking run. He'd bought her off her Auckland breeder, Jim Paul, "a great man with trotters."

Doyle was up there in the north with Bomber some years later to win a Dominion Trotting Handicap for his trainer. "Bomber had never raced before. He chased every seagull off the course that day at Alexandra Park and still won. He could trot." Bomber was by Quite Sure. And that win gave Bill Doyle something to laugh about to this day. Apparently Miss Julia Cuff, from Hinds, had promised a new suit to the trainer of the first Quite Sure winner in NZ. Eventually it went to the owners of that trotting machine Certissimus. "But Bomber's win came months before," Doyle contends. "After that I'd often remind her she owed me a new suit. I never did get it."

Among several talented trotters (With You and Encircle for instance), Within also left Circlette, herself a winner and dam of half a dozen more. Circlette (by U Scott) left Certain Smile, Caught Napping, Villa Caprina, Country John, Going and Mercury Montego. Certain Smile is the dam of Emme Smile and Mini Smile and the grandam of an up-and-coming young trotter, Mini's Pride. Villa Caprina is the dam of Villa Katrina and top-flighter Relinquish, and grandam of recent double winner The Stag. There are more to come. Going, of course, is the dam of Sid and Let's Go.

Pictures around the wall. Every one evokes a story. Some can be told, others shouldn't. Horses, top horses almost without exception. Horses like Gold Horizon, another by Quite Sure, and the top trotter of his era. Bill Doyle leased him as a 9-year-old. At that stage he had had six wins from 24 starts. Then he really started to blossom. Over four seasons he lined up 35 times for another 14 wins and 11 placings and stakes of more than £15,000. When he retired in the late 1950s, Gold Horizon had won £18,260, a record amount for a trotter in Australasia. He was second twice in the Dominion Handicap, the first time to Barrier Reef, and the second when he conceded the winner, Vodka, 60 yards. He also won a couple of NZ Trotting Free-For-Alls and an Ashburton Cup against some of the better pacers around.

There was Lament, too, original wearer in the 1930s of the white bridle the Doyle horses used for more than forty years. "I think it's probably still around here somwhere," Doyle, now 77, says. Lament won "just about every trotting free-for-all there was" for Doyle.

Top mare In The Mood provided one of the most sensational incidents of his racing life. She was by U Scott, out of Princess Napoleon, and was a yearling buy from J R McKenzie. "I should have won the NZ Cup with her but she got into trouble early, was last into the straight, only to finish fourth," he reckons. He then took In The Mood and War Form north "to win the Auckland Cup." About the time of the war, Doyle recalls, and there were only five or six starters that year. His horses finished a furlong last. An incredible result. And, if that wasn't bad enough, when they got home they hardly had any hair left. And neither had the attendant who had been with them all through the trip. Doyle shakes his head. It's not the heat, or the screeching of the tame guinea fowl outside, which give him cause to wonder. "They were got at," he said. "Good and proper." He did, though, have some luck in Auckland Cups. He drove the winners of two...Nedworthy in 1940 and Loyal Friend in 1943. Betty Boop also took the big Auckland prize in 1944. She won the NZ Futurity for Doyle. "I sold her lease the night before the Futurity, win lose or draw."

In The Mood, the winner of £12,000, left three colts, all to Light Brigade. The first was Showdown who won an Ashburton Cup in 1958, the second was Reason Why who went on to make his mark as a sire in Western Australia, and the other was Light Mood, one of the few horses Doyle has sold through the yearling sales. Light Mood won nine races, beating Robin Dundee by three lengths in his last victory.

-o0o-

Part two NZ Trotting Calendar 16Feb82

Bill Doyle has had a huge amount of success with his horses, pacers and trotters, over the years. He's bred his own and he's bought them. So what does he look for in a potentially good horse?

"First there's is the feet, then the legs, the body, and some character should show through the head," he says. "A good horse should have decent wide black feet. I feel your judgement's slipping a bit if you look at a foot with a lot of white in it. They can give you a lot of trouble."

His training methods, he reckons, are "pretty orthodox." Feeding and individual attention are essential for all horses. "If you can't feed them properly and get attached to them, you shouldn't have horses." And is Bill Doyle attached to all his horses? "I should say so. There's the occasional one you've got to square up, but once you've won that round, yes, then you get attached to them."

The Doyle horses lack nothing in attention. He spends hours every day getting the mud out of their feet and brushing hooves with tar and oil; interminable hours grooming the racehorses, a master practitioner of the dying art of 'dressing' a horse. He studies each one carefully and works out what they need to eat. Those ready for racing usually get their evening meal in two halves, rather than filling up all at once. And when the season's right, they can take their share of wind-blown pears which lie on the ground under the old tree in the yard. Even pick the ones which haven't fallen , if they like. He can call out to any of them - his youngsters, too - and they'll respond. Come to his hand.

He admits he's past doing his own shoeing these days and says there's no real secret to it - rather a method of trial and error until you come up with something that works. "I often get asked for advice. 'Try everything' I say." Variety in training is also essential, although the days of working around the roads are gone now. "There's too much traffic...and most of the drivers show no consideration to anyone with a horse on the road. It's out of the question." But there's plenty of room on Doyle's property for the horses in work to have a change of scenery nearly every other day. "They've got to have variety. They get sick of being bottled up in one place." Sometimes, by way of a change, the horses are sent to another Doyle property, where they're hacked around his cattle.

Bill Doyle is, in his own assessment, first and foremost a farmer, a cattle farmer with a hungry market to satisfy. "Cattle breeding and fattening is my priority always." He held a professional licence once but gave up public training a long time ago to put the farming first. Even these days, when he's gradually cutting down his cattle operation, his horses remain a hobby, a relaxation.

The Doyle family has always farmed in the area around Leeston...and it's always had horses. Bill's grandfather, J H Doyle, came out from Scotland in the 1860s and settled not far from Leeston in the area now known as 'Doyleston'. He, too, was a successful horseman. Bill Doyle provides the proof. Amongst racing books spanning almost a century, there's one with results from a Southbridge race meeting some time during 1875-76. There, winning a three mile saddle trot for the princely sum of five sovereigns, is one J H Doyle. "My grandfather." Bill's father, also W J, was also a farmer and worked with a lot of horses, quite apart from his racing team. He handled a lot of horses during World War I, mainly gun horses. And then, too, he supplied many of the local fishermen down at Lake Ellersmere with horses for their traps.

It was more than sixty years ago that the present Bill Doyle started with racehorses, riding in saddle races. He particularly remembers his first win, on a horse called Wirey trained by his father. "It was a one and a quarter mile saddle race at Greymouth. I remember Dad saying to me before the race 'if you don't come first in this , there won't be a home for you'." Doyle chuckles at the memory. "I won that race by ten lengths." And from that time the wins have come regularly. How many over the years? "I couldn't tell you within a hundred." He's even owned a Grand National Steeplechase winner, Thurina, who took out the country's premier jumping event in 1933. Bert Ellis rode the horse that day. The trainer was Bill's sister. Bill himself says he was always too heavy for the thoroughbreds.

Today, Bill Doyle regrets that trotting has grown to "too big a business. The sport's gone, the pleasure of being involved with a sport has been lost. There are so many horses around (and there's usually no more than a dozen on his property at once) it's become a liability to have one. More and more people are buying horses and breeding them, going into it thinking it's an easy game. But it's not. It's tough." You can't make it just by training a small team. You have to sell. "The American market keeps most going. They'd be shot without that." Rules and regulations now had taken most of the pleasure away. Which is why he is drifting away slowly. "I feel my hands are tied now." Those same rules and regulations had allowed the inexperienced to get licences, to allow people who might not have even seen a horse until a couple of years previously to drive. "In the early days you found that those with licences had worked with stock all the time. They had a big advantage."

"You only had to compare the attitudes of some of the less experienced drivers today with those of men like Maurie Holmes, Peter Wolfenden and Bob Cameron. The topliners think about their drives for days, during the preliminary all they're concentrating on is the job in front of them. You don't see them chatting away to other drivers during the preliminaries. And at the start, they're not waiting for the tape to go past them, they're watching the starter all the time.By the time the tape's gone, so too have the top men. They don't wait."

Doyle's also critical of drivers pushing and shoving during races. "Those old hands don't push and shove...but at the same time, they wouldn't give you an inch. They know where everyone else is, and once they get to where they want to be, they stay there. And they're entitled to. Generally you get only one chance in a race and you've got to take it when you can. Not barge your way through when it's too late. They're not plough horses these fellows are driving. They're sensitive racehorses and must be nursed through, otherwise they're ruined." Doyle fully agrees with stipendiary stewards taking a hard line for interference. "They must be given the message somehow," he contends.

He recalls with some feeling the days when he could drive himself. "I had my greatest fun then. You pitted yourself against some of the finest chaps in the world, men like Gladdy McKendry, Dil Edwards, Freeman Holmes, Ces Donald, Ossie Hooper, Maurice Holmes, Maurice McTigue...the list goes on. They asked for no quarter, you gave them none. They were good friends, and if you fell out, well you just started off again."

It's time to bring the horses in, to start to get them settled for the night. There are some hours of work left yet and the bookwork hasn't been done this afternoon. Bill Doyle calls out as he goes from paddock to paddock, talks to those in their separate yards. The ones he wants follow him into the barn where they'll get their feet seen to...a brush and a feed.They're all individuals with their own needs. You've got to see they get them. Good food and good shelter. That's the story.

You leave him oiling a hoof. Late afternoon. Bill Doyle will be out and about again at five the next morning. A bit tough when your 77? Not really. That is when his morning helper arrives. "And I probably take the record for going to bed early. That helps."



-o0o-

Article in HRWeekly 28Apr88

The death occurred on Monday of Bill Doyle. Regarded as someone special with the trotter, Bill was 82.

From Leeston, a farming area half an hour south of Christchurch, Bill Doyle became a legendary horseman right from the start of his career in harness racing.

At the age of 20, Bill took over a team of horses trained by his father. One of them was Prince Author, who soon after won the Reefton and Hokitika Cups. Like his father, Bill trained gallopers as well as trotters, and in 1933 prepared Thurlina to win the Grand National Steeplechase in the hands of his good friend Bert Ellis.

While his father had the store at Doyleston and ran his team from there, Bill bought a property at Leeston during the depression years. Prince Author was followed by the top trotter Mountain Mist, All Peters, Olson and the top racemare Violet Wrack, who left Passive. From nine foals, Passive produced eight winners - Reflective, Chances Are, When, So Rare, Asia Minor, Remember When, Wipeout, Someday and Snoopy.

In 1934, the stable was represented by the fine young pacer Subsidy, who finished second in the Sapling Stakes, then came out the next season to win the Great Northern Derby. Then came some outstanding trotters, notably the dashing Gold Horizon, When, Lament, Bomber, Going, About Now and Elite Rey.

Gold Horizon won the Worthy Queen Handicap, the Hambletonian Handicap (twice) and the NZ Trotting Free-For-All (twice). Lament won nine free-for-alls. Bomber won the Dominion Handicap in 1943 and When was invited to race in New York by Yonkers officials in the early 1960s.

Top pacers trained over the years included Betty Boop (winner of the 1944 Auckland Cup and the NZ Futurity Stakes). In The Mood (placed in the NZ Cup), Ned Worthy (winner of the Auckland Cup in 1940), Wipeout (10 wins), Showdown, Warform, Reason Why, Chances Are, Encircle, Now, Someday, All Alone and many others.

Until about 18 months ago, Bill was still training the young trotter Look. Quiet and modest. Bill Doyle was never one to dwell on the past.

Credit: Graham Ingram writing in NZ Trotting Calendar 9&16Feb82

 

YEAR: 1968

CARDIGAN BAY

"He's done it!"

This simple exclamation conveys more than a Poet Laureate could write to pay tribute to our one and only Cardigan Bay, the first millionaire standardbred in all light-harness history; bred at Chimes Lodge, Mataura, Southland, by D (for Davey) Todd, sold to Mrs Audrey Dean for $5000, for whom he won a fortune and was sold for a fortune; and went on to amass (overall) ten-fold the price the American syndicate paid for him.

Cardigan Bay, the seemingly indistructable pacer now in his 13th year to NZ time (he would have been 12 on August 1 last if he remained here) has already more than Tennyson's Brook - he has not only gone on for ever - he has become a worthy offspring of Old Father Thames as well!

With only three years of racing on American tracks under his belt, the durable gelding has already proved a star of stars. From coast to coast, he became recognised as a 'personality.' His duels with some of the all time greats of pacing have gone into the harness racing archives as some of the greatest races ever witnessed in the history of the sport. In 1964, he took part in three thrilling races with the speedy Overtrick, beating him only once, but two of the races were so close it took the judges several minutes to seperate the horses in the photo-finish picture. Appropriately, the two races were named after a pacing immortal, Dan Patch.

Again in 1966, another young rival, the speediest pacer ever, Bret Hanover, was the opposition. In their first meeting, 'The Pace of the Century' at Yonkers Raceway, a crowd of 36,795, which bet a season's record handle for all tracks of $2,802,745, saw Cardigan Bay beat the great Bret by a length. Bret came back to whip Cardigan Bay in subsequent races but it is that first meeting in 'The Pace of the Century' that fans still talk about.

Last year at Windsor, Ontario, for example, on March 8, despite a 22 degree temperature, he broke all kinds of records in winning the Provincial Cup Pace. Other Windsor track records racked up by Cardigan Bay were: 1) Most money bet on a horse, 2) Most money bet on a single race, 3) Most money bet on a programme, and 4) Record crowd.

It is a tribute to the training ability of Davey Todd, Peter Wolfenden and Stanley Dancer that this aged gamester kept going so long and tirelessly. He broke the two-minute mile mark many times and holds all-time track records of 1:57 2/5 for the mile at Hollywood Park, California, and 1:58 1/5 at Yonkers Raceway. He scored victories in practically every important event available to free-for-allers in America. In NZ and Australia Cardigan Bay, at least in the eyes of th present generation, replaced the legendary thoroughbred Phar Lap as the greatest equine hero Down Under.

Purchased by Stanley Dancer in 1964 for $100,000, Cardigan Bay had to end his American racing career at the close of 1969 according to an agreement Dancer signed with the previous owner, Mrs Audrey Dean of Auckland. A clause in the the contract stipulated that "Dancer will ship Cardigan Bay at his own expense back to Mrs Dean when he is retired from racing, but no later than the age of 13 years." Actually, the purchase price was $100,025.70. The $25.70 was a service charge levied by a Melbourne bank for handling the transfer of funds to Mrs Dean's account in Auckland. Add to this the shipping costs of Cardigan Bay, plus a six months quarantine in England, would be about $106,025.70. For this investment, Cardy has returned to his owners, Irving W Berkemeyer and the Cardigan Stable the bonanza of over $825,000. His grand total is $1,000,671.

The saga of our Cardigan Bay began at Chimes Lodge, a training and breeding farm at Mataura. Davey Todd, a veteran trainer, had a considerable reputation for having a knack with problem horses. With his brother Sandy, Todd runs Chimes Lodge. Cardigan Bay was gelded while a weanling, a common practice with the Todd Brothers. Cardigan Bay did not race as a 2-year-old. He started only eight times as a 3-year-old, winning twice and finishing second once. He was campaigned lightly again at four, and this was largely because he was laid aside for three months at the height of the season because of a cold. In four outings, he won three times and finished second on the other occasion. One of these races, incidentally, was in saddle on January 11, 1960. Cardigan Bay finished second. This was one of the last races in saddle in the harness sport in NZ. At the conclusion of his 4-year-old season he was sold for $5000 to Mrs Audrey D Dean of Auckland.

Today, an observer can tour NZ and literally meet hundreds of horsemen who claim that they could have bought Cardigan Bay but didn't act quickly enough to grasp the opportunity. It was ever thus. In most of his subsequent engagements, while owned by Mrs Dean, Cardigan Bay was trained and driven by Peter Wolfenden, one of the top reinsmen in NZ. Martin Tananbaum, president of Yonkers Raceway, who pioneered the International Pace in 1960, first held discussions in Perth about inviting the gelding to the International Pace held annually at Yonkers Raceway. The Inter-Dominion Grand Finals were about three days off and it appeared certain that every attendance and betting record at Gloucester Park, Perth, would be toppled when the exciting Cardigan Bay raced for the Inter-Dominion Championships.

At Cannington track, a training oval some six miles outside Perth, Cardigan Bay was put through a light jogging session by a groom attached to the stable of Billy Wilkins, who was 'standing in' for Peter Wolfenden as trainer-driver at the time. As the lad dismounted and held the reins lightly, one of the sulky wheels suddenly crumbled and collapsed, some say due to a flat tyre. The usually easy-going Cardigan Bay was startled and bolted from the grounds through an open gate dragging the damaged cart behind him. He headed, terror stricken, for his stall. Before anyone could could flag the great animal down it was too late. He had crashed his right hip severely against one of the walls tearing his flesh open to the bone and it looked as though a merciful end, at the hands of a veterinarian, was the only future for Cardigan Bay. As a matter of fact, one story current at the time was that if Cardigan Bay had been insured, he would have been destroyed there and then.

Most of the credit, according to Australian and NZ sources, for the miraculous recovery of Cardigan Bay should go to a Perth trainer named Ted Greig. He insisted the horse could be saved and arranged for special slings and contrivances to shift the weight off the injured member. The damaged hip was actually six inches lower than the other. Greig once told newsmen: "I know you'll think me silly but Cardigan Bay was almost human. He never kicked or nipped me, or anyone else and he had lots of brains. Somehow he knew he was badly hurt by his accident and so he rested for a long time, until he himself knew he had the strength to move. When I took him out to graze," Greig related, "he was very unsteady and I had to brace my body against his so he could lean on me. I'll never know how really big his heart is," concluded Greig.

Cardigan Bay was out for four months and when he went back to light training his pronounced limp was easily visible. Nevertheless, by the time the Inter-Dominions of 1963 rolled around in February, Cardigan Bay was ready. On hand at Adelaide again was president Martin Tananbaum of Yonkers Raceway with a firm invitation to Mrs Dean to bring the horse to the 1963 International. On the first night of the Inter-Dominion Championships Tananbaum met Mrs Dean and her husband, Merv, near Cardigan Bay's stall. "Mr Tananbaum," said Mr Dean, "speaking for my wife, anyone can have the horse beginning right now for £25,000 sterling ($70,000 American currency), I mean" continued the husband, "starting tonight all the purse money goes to the man who buys him."

That night, after the races, the overseas telephone operator from Adelaide was kept busy as the Yonkers track president realised that only through a purchaser could he hope to obtain the services of this obviously great horse. He had no luck after contacting several of the leading standardbred owners in America. The conversations all raged along the same lines. "Seventy thousand dollars for a 7-year-old gelding. What's the matter, Marty, are you nuts or something?" Had any of the men contacted by Tananbaum, taken his advice they would have immediately reaped a return of $30,000 from the Inter-Dominions against their $70,000 outlay.

With Peter Wolfenden back in the sulky, the year 1963 was undoubtedly a most remarkable season for Cardigan Bay. He won the Inter-Dominions after four gruelling heats. In the first qualifying heat, which he won, a horse put a foot through his wheel that almost unseated Wolfenden. Cardigan Bay also won the second qualifier easily but in the third he was unable to avoid a three-horse pile-up and somersaulted over the fallen horses. Wolfenden was hurled from the sulky onto the track. Even the Final was not without incident. Handicapped from 24 yards back,Cardigan Bay got up to the field but on the final turn was forced very wide by another pile up yet finished strongly enough to win setting a track record at Adelaide, South Australia.

That same year, 1963, Cardigan Bay also became the first horse to win both the Inter-Dominion Championships and the NZ Cup in the same year, a feat which had eluded such great horses as Caduceus, False Step, Johnny Globe and Highland Fling. He won several more classics in his native NZ and as his reputation grew so did the crowds. A record 26,107 turned out for the Auckland Cup in which he beat the field from a back mark of 78 yards. Cardigan Bay continued to break attendance and track records from handicap marks of 30, 42, 60 and 78 yards in various races. In December, 1963, at Hutt Park, he paced against time in a blazing record of 1:56 1/5(the fastest mile of his entire career) to round out a most remarkable year for a horse whose racing days had been declared finished by veterinary surgeons the previous year, and his 1:56 1/5 is still the Australian and NZ record.

The news of the last performance of Cardigan Bay was by January, 1964, well-known to most horsemen in American harness racing circles, but the alert Dancer, it appears, was first to act. He contacted some friends in Australia and NZ who confirmed that Cardigan Bay was indeed as good as the press clippings indicated. When Martin Tananbaum, made plans to attend the Inter-Dominion Championships in Melbourne, to invite horses to the 1964 International Pace, Stanley Dancer asked if he could accompany the Yonkers boss and try to purchase Cardigan Bay. Tananbaum himself, although he was to make a third attempt to invite Mrs Dean, went with little hope of collaring the fabulous gelding. Transportation plans were changed as Dancer and one of his owners, Dr Thomas Siciliano, embarked on the trip Down Under with Tananbaum.

Instead of heading directly for Melbourne a six-hour stop-over was arranged at Auckland, the home of the Deans. In the modest brick house, over traditional tea, scones and biscuits, Dancer bid $90,000 for Cardigan Bay. Mrs Dean said that her price was now $140,000, double that of a year previous. It was agreed after some preliminary discussions that they would continue their talks after Dancer had a chance to see Cardigan Bay train and perform in Melbourne. Strict orders were given that Dancer could not test-drive the swift pacer. It was a "look but don't touch" edict.

In Melbourne, one Thursday morning, before the first heat of the Inter-Dominions, scheduled two days later, Dancer saw Cardigan Bay in only one work-out. He turned to the group around him and said: "He's mine if I can buy him. I'll give her $100,000 for him." Later, in an automobile heading back to his hotel, Dancer was asked how he could make a judgement to spend so vast an amount of money after only one work-out. Dancer revealed that he was impressed with Cardigan Bay's stamina, and the way he had shrugged off an unbelievable work-load in only one week of training sold him on the gelding. That and, of course, the 1:56 1/5 mile he had paced on the small track with a heavy sulky at Wellington the previous December. Stanley said: "When I saw him work on that Thursday morning he paced an easy mile in 2:20 and then when Peter Wolfenden blew him out he did the mile in 2:03 3/5." The secret to Dancer's decision was the fact that Peter Wolfenden in conversation had revealed that on this same morning he had jogged Cardigan Bay some 17 miles. His jogging schedule seemed to run between 17 and 20 miles at least four days a week, plus a mile or more of hard work every day.

When on the following Saturday night Cardigan Bay threaded his way from a 36-yard handicap through a 12-horse field to win for fun by four lengths Dancer was determined more than ever to acquire Cardigan Bay for his syndicate, which was headed by Irving W Berkemeyer who also owned another great gelding - the trotter Su Mac Lad. Negotiations began early the following Sunday morning, Dancer was scheduled to leave for the United States at 3pm. The deal appeared to be at a standstill at the $100,000 mark until Dancer, remembering the many cups and trophies, and other momentos, back in Mrs Dean's living room in Auckland, sensed the deep devotion and affection she had for Cardigan Bay, promised to ship the horse back to her at his own expense when the gelding's racing days were ended. A hurried, hand-written agreement was drawn up, signed and witnessed, and Dancer was on the plane headed back to America with minutes to spare.

The rest is now history, and already two journalists, one in NZ, the other in America, are planning to write books about him. And he has, perhaps, also been NZ's greatest ambassador. The men in Parliament must have ideas along these lines, because it has been mooted that his feat will be marked by the issue of a special stamp in NZ. Trotting interests have made representations to the Department of Internal Affairs and to the Postmaster-General(Mr Scott), who has shown interest in the idea.

Cardigan Bay was by Hal Tryax(imp), 3, 2:00, from Colwyn Bay(4:25 for two miles), by Josedale Dictator(imp) from Pleasure Bay, by Quite Sure(imp) from Helen's Bay, by Guy Parrish(imp) from Gold Patch, by Geo M Patchen. Gold Patch, foaled at Green Island, Otago, was out of Trilby, who was claimed to have been a thoroughbred and is probably the same Trilby who appears in Vol II of the NZ (thoroughbred) Stud Book. That Trilby was by Torpedo from Christina, by Javelin from Cascade, by Sledmere. Trilby was apparently of little account on the racetrack, but some of her relatives were good - one in particular her full-brother, Torpina, won three times in a row as a 3-year-old, including a hurdle race at Riccarton. Torpedo, sire of Trilby, was by the famous imported sire Musket, sire of the immortal galloper Carbine, winner of the Melbourne Cup as a 5-year-old in 1890 carrying 10st 5lb, still the highest weight ever carried to victory in one of the world's greatest races. Carbine later went to England and became an outstanding stud success. Torpedo himself was a capable racehorse. In the 1890-91 season he won his first seven races on end and later on in the same season he won four more on end.



Credit: NZ Trotting Calendar 18Sep68

 

YEAR: 1961

CHRISTCHURCH - MASSACRE
The glorious uncertainty of racing was seldom better illustrated than when Massacre landed the Grand Final at Addington in Christchurch 1961 - in one of the closest finishes on record. Massacre, a rugged sort of a 4-year-old but a virtual unknown, had won a mere four races before the Series. He was placed in two of the heats and scraped into the final.

But the merit of his performance could not be written down. He joined the select band to win the race as 4-year-olds when, after measuring strides with champion False Step through the telling home-stretch duel, he prevailed by the barest of margins over that great performer - to the dismay of thousands who were willing False Step to win and thought he had. False Step conceded Massacre 48yds, but had the race been run under ordinary handicap conditions the difference in Massacre's favour would have been 216yds.

What a finish it was. Massacre was declared the winner by a nose over False Step, and in fact the margin was a bare inch. Arania was a half-length back, third, and Lady Belmer was right up fourth. The outsider but one at 10-10 in the order of betting, Massacre paid £31/13/6 for £1 to win and £5/15/6 for £1 for a place.

It was the ultimate result for Massacre's amateur trainer, Duncan Campbell, who raced the gelding in partnership with Mr A Wilson on lease from Mr T E Prendergast, all of Ashburton, Mid-Canterbury. Campbell, a milk-bar proprietor, had served his time as an apprentice jockey before a stint as a coalminer on the West Coast of the South Island, and Wilson was a mechanic in a knit-wear factory. Neither had enjoyed anything out of the ordinary in the way of racing success, although a couple of years earlier, Campbell, treating trotting merely as a hobby, had raced the mudlark Bedivus for several wins in looser grades. He had leased Massacre as a weanling and driven him as a 3-year-old to win at the South Island country courses Reefton, Methven and Waikouaiti.

When Massacre was included in the line-up for the heats, experienced reinsman Doug Watts was engaged. Watts, a former jockey himself, and a driver with past Inter-Dominion experience, had achieved a record of some distinction when he drove the first seven winners on an eight-race card at Reefton in 1954. He had also won New Zealand Cups driving Integrity (1946) and Our Roger (1955), and the 1956 Auckland Cup with Unite.

Rather modest about the part he played in Massacre's Grand Final win, Watt gave a large slice of the credit to fellow reinsman Maurice Holmes. Said Doug "the horse was not going away at the start and Maurice told me not to let him begin but to wait for him." This amounted to not giving the horse his head immediately the barrier strand was released, and resulted in Watts getting Massacre away safely.

Holmes had driven Massacre in his other win before the Championship, a dead heat with Kingsdown Patch in the Templeton Handicap at Addington in August 1960. And Holmes was on the sideline during the 1961 Series with injuries he received in a race fall at the inaugural night meeting at Forbury Park, Dunedin, a month earlier. He had been driving star 4-year-old Sun Chief, who was also forced to miss the Series. Earlier that season, Sun Chief had won the Louisson Handicap at Addington and the Hannon Memorial at Oamaru and pushed False Step to the brink in that outstanding pacer's third New Zealand Cup win.

The absence of Holmes and Sun Chief prefaced a series of setbacks for the NZ Metropolitan Trotting Club in staging the 1961 Inter-Dominion carnival. Another came when prominent pacers Rustic Lad (third top points scorer), Invicta and Lookaway were barred from starting in the £10,000 Final because their connections had not obtained the special permission of the Championship Programme Committee to withdraw their horses on the first day.

Trainer Jim Ferguson had left the scratching of Rustic Lad as late as possible in the hope that his good pacer would recover from a bruised foot, and had overlooked the relevant clause. While it was acknowledged that the onus was on the owner or his agent to observe the conditions, it was claimed that the club should have drawn the attention of the trainers to the clause when the scratchings were made, giving them a chance to seek the required special permission to 'pass'. The condition had applied to Inter-Dominion programmes in New Zealand and Australia for some years. It was introduced because trainers of horses who had gained sufficient points to earn a start in the Final had scratched from the last set of Heats. The condition decreed that, unless a veterinary certificate could be produced saying the horse was not fit to start, the three Heats had to be contested.

False Step stole the limelight on the first day when runner-up to Diamond Hanover (Doody Townley) in the world record time of 3:21.4 for 13 furlongs. False Step had added to his 48yd handicap by galloping at the start, then improved to join the leader near the half-mile, fighting back in his best style. Scottich Command, given every chance, was third, NSW rep Redwin fourth.

Teryman, stablemate of False Step, and by Cecil Devine's 1951 NZ Cup winner, the U Scott horse Van Dieman, won his heat well from Smokeaway, with Massacre making up ground for a creditable third. Robert Dillon, driven by F G (Freeman) Holmes, took his heat in clear-cut style from Guiseppe (who had been forced by a shoulder abcess to miss the Grand Final in Sydney a year earlier) and the NSW visitor First Kiss.

USA horseman Delvin Miller provided a sidelight on that first day when he piloted the Jack Litten trained Lavengro to win the Sydney Handicap under a vigorous drive. Miller, the man who bought and developed as a sire the immortal Adios, three days later guided trotter Jewel Derby home at Alexandra Park in Auckland from 66yds. New York trainer Eddie Cobb also drove the same day at Addington as Miller, without success, but showed his worth driving Stormymaid to win at Hutt Park, Wellington, the same week.

Rustic Lad buried his rivals for speed in the first heat, at a mile and a quarter, on the second day, clocking 2:35.6, a 2:04 mile rate. It was after this that the announcement came that although he would be allotted any points he should earn on the third night to add to his then equal top score of seven, he would be ineligible for the final.

Before False Step lined up for his heat on the second day, it was revealed that Devine had raced him in illegal gear when he set his world record on the first day. Chief Stipendiary Steward Len Butterfield ordered Devine to remove a neck pricker from False Step. The pricker consisted of a few tacks with points blunted, protuding through the inside of the neck-band. It was used with the object of preventing the horse veering out at the start of his races. A pricker of a type approved by the NZ Trotting Conference is a leather disc, about 2 1/2 inches in diameter, fitting between the bit and the jaw.

Writing in the Melbourne 'Sun', Jack McPherson commented: "the False Step scandal rocked Australians in Christchurch, but this city of horse-lovers took the cruelty quite placidly. Chief Stipeniary Steward Mr L A Butterfield, while admitting the use of neck-band prickers is absolutely forbidden, said 'often the use of unauthorised gear will provoke a fine, but in this case Devine won't be penalised." Cecil Devine, trainer/driver of False Step, did not consider the use of prickers made 'all that difference'. Earlier McPherson expressed the discontent of his fellow countrymen driving in the Series: "Australian drivers, after trying to observe the NZ rules, said that in the three-heat Series they would drive hub to hub in Australian fashion and take the consequences. Western Australian driver Bob Johnson said that he did not want to drive in New Zealand again, because he would be tempted to 'flatten NZ driver Bill Doyle'."

The second sensation concerning False Step on the second day came when he fell at the start. He paced off the mark, became unbalanced and tipped Devine from the sulky. False Step did not attempt to bolt, and Devine jogged him back to the enclosure, the horse minus some skin and a little stiff. That heat resulted in an all-the-way win for Damian, owned and trained by Aucklander Les Barrett (for whom he was driven by Doug Watts) and one of three progeny of the grand producer Bashful (Grattan Loyal-Bonny Logan by Logan Pointer) in the Series. Her two other sons, Guiseppe (also owned by Les) and Diamond Hanover (raced by J H G Peterson), along with Damian, qualified for the final. It was a unique distinction for the broodmare Bashful. Queen Ngaio (Felix Newfield)and Redwin (Pere Hall) followed Damian in.

A win in the other second-day heat for Arania sparked off a rowdy demonstration, as she had raced poorly on the first day. At an inquiry into her form reversal, an explanation that she had been left in the open on the first day was accepted.

Misfortune, which seemed to be doing the rounds, carried over to the Australian camp. Filling developed in the foreleg of Sultana and Kiwi Dillon failed to settle to his surroundings. The West Australian pair were forced to withdraw from the third and final days.

The third day, however, belonged to Australia. Redwin and Three Aces (SA, Rex Robinson)won two-mile heats, in each case having to fight off all challengers in the run home for narrow verdicts. The grand mare Arania, then a 4-year-old and seven months later to become the fastest mare bred outside of America with a 1:57 mile on Lexington's Big Red Mile in Kentucky, wound up leading point scorer when she annexed the other two-mile heat.

Trainer George Noble had one regret about Roy McKenzie's Arania:"in my opinion she went to America too soon; before she really had an opportunity, to show her real worth in New Zealand," he said. Noble, long-time trainer for Sir John McKenzie and then Roy, had been a top horseman in his own right in Australia before immigrating to New Zealand, where he was also to be to the top of his profession. Arania, by U Scott, was from Local Gold, a daughter of one of New Zealand's first 2:00 horse, Gold Bar. After her American campaigning, Arania returned to New Zealand to prove a successful broodmare.

With points awarded on the basis of 4,2 and 1 for the first three placegetters and 2 for the fastest time among the first four, the final table read: Arania(11), Damian(10), Rustic Lad, Three Aces(7), Diamond Hanover(6), Robert Dillon(5 1/2), False Step, Teryman, Redwin, Invicta(5), Guiseppe(4), Massacre, Gentry(3), Queen Ngaio, Smokeaway, Maestro's Melody, Samantha, Lady Belmer(2 1/2), First Kiss, Scottish Command, Fourth Edition(1).

With Rustic Lad and Invicta ineligible, Victoria's Maestro's Melody (third behind Caduceus and Apmat in Sydney a year earlier and fourth and second in the Addington heats) and Lady Belmer were chosen from the five with two and a half points to make a field of 13 for the Final. Cecil Devine had wound up with Jim Smyth's False Step and Teryman, whom he owned himself, in the Final. He applied though his solicitor to drive False Step. When the Executive endorsed the Rule of Trotting stating that no licensed person having an interest in any horse competing in a race shall drive any other horse not owned by him, Devine solved his own problem by scratching Teryman.

The pace was on from the start in the Final, with Guiseppe (Fred Smith) going for the doctor. It was apparent that False Step, who had added 12yds to his 48yd handicap when he swung out at the start, was faced with a stupendous task. Throughout the race all eyes were on False Step as he steadily whittled down the deficit. Recovering like the great horse he was, he straightened up for home wide outside and almost on terms with Diamond Hanover and Robert Dillon, who had drawn past the tiring Guiseppe. Massacre was coming fast into the picture wider out than False Step; Arania was diving for a wide gap on the inside; Lady Belmer was just in behind in the middle of the track and back on her outer was Redwin, making a remarkable recovery after tangling twice in the early running. Arania drew up to False Step and Massacre, and the three fought out a battle royal. False Step and Massacre flashed past the post locked together and only a neck ahead of Arania. Most, including the drivers, were sure that False Step had won and capped a remarkable New Zealand career in his last start before departing for the United States.

There were incredulous mutterings when judge Harry Spicer called Massacre first before calling for the photo, adding that "it was close for first and second". Doug Watts congratulated Cecil Devine on his success as they returned to the birdcage. Recounts Watts: "I finished a wheel behind Cecil, and we thought he had won by half a length." But the camera had the last say, and False Step, though he had won three NZ Cups, had been denied the triumph that would have capped his great 'Down Under' career.

Devine, who had come confidently back to the birdcage at the head of the field, was dumbfounded by the result of the photo-finish. "I would have been prepared to wager any amount at all that I had won. I have driven a lot of winners at Addington and have never made that mistake before," said the former Tasmanian, who had in his great New Zealand career won five NZ Cups and a Royal Cup. False Step was for all that credited with a world record for the 13 furlongs, of 3:21, cutting .4 sec from the record he clocked when second in his heat on the opening day. Lady Belmer had got up for a good fourth, a long neck from Arania, while Redwin headed the others.

The 1957 NZ Cup winner Lookaway, owned by Clarry Rhodes and now trained at Invercargill by veterinarian Cliff Irvine, emerged to win a consolation race. He had missed the second day after injuring a shoulder in a fall the first day. Scottish Command (the Auckland Cup winner of 1959) took the other consolation in a close finish with Invicta (who was to win the NZ Cup the following November) and Queen Ngaio.

Massacre's sire Whipster had been a good racehorse before being injured and retired to stud, and among his other progeny was Overdrive, the dam of an Australian champion, Lucky Creed. Whipster was by the imported Peter Volo horse Quite Sure, eight times leading sire of straightout trotters in New Zealand. Whipster's dam Bantam was by Jack Potts, sire of the first Grand Final winner at Addington, Pot Luck. Terrace Lass, the dam of Massacre, was by Nelso Derby, a son of Nelson Bingen and Norice, imported American-bred parents. A good winner herself in New Zealand, and runner-up to Monte Carlo in the first NZ Cup in 1904, Norice became ancestress of a prolific winning family.

Credit: Ron Bisman & Taylor Strong writing in 'The Inter-Dominions

 

YEAR: 1960

GOLD HORIZON

The death was reported recently of Gold Horizon, one of the greatest trotters ever to race in NZ and leading stake-winner among those of his gait with £18,260 to his credit.

Gold Horizon won almost every important event on the calendar for those of his gait, several of them twice. He was the poetry of motion when in action and wore a minimum of gear. Apart from the usual harness he wore only shin and ankle boots behind.

Gold Horizon commenced racing as a 5-year-old in the 1947-48 season, when owned and trained by his breeder, J G Gillard. At his first start, Gold Horizon won the Claudelands Handicap at the Waikato Trotting Club's summer meeting on January 3, 1948. At his next attempt, Gold Horizon finished out of a place but made amends by winning at his next two appearances. He finished that season with a third placing and his record was six starts, three wins and a third.

As a 6-year-old, Gold Horizon won two races and gained a second placing, his most important success that season being in the February Handicap at the Auckland Trotting Club's February meeting. The race was run over a mile and a half and Gold Horizon trotted the journey from 12 yards in 3.22. Gold Horizon did not race in the 1949-50 season and won only one race the next term in 10 starts. He had been driven in all his successes up to this time by J G Gillard.

In the 1951-52 season, Gold Horizon was leased by the Leeston owner-trainer, W J Doyle, who has experienced outstanding success with trotters over a long period. At his third start for Doyle, Gold Horizon finished fourth against a field of pacers in the Elgin Handicap at Ashburton and followed that placing by winning the Wishful Handicap at Oamaru, beating Dictation, Highland Kilt and Barrier Reef. Four more successes came his way that season in addition to several placings. He won the Ashburton Trotting Cup Handicap, the NZ Hambletonian Handicap, the R A Armstrong Memorial Handicap and the Hambletonian Handicap at the Canterbury Park Trotting Club's winter meeting. Gold Horizon's improvement under Doyle was remarkable; he became as 'solid as the Rock of Gibraltar,' and developed outstanding stamina.

The next season Gold Horizon won the Wishful Handicap at Oamaru for the second time and followed up that success by winning the Greyhound Handicap at Addington from 48 yards, trotting the mile and five furlong journey in 3.27 4/5, which was then the winning record for the distance. Also for the second time, Gold Horizon won the NZ Hambletonian Handicap at Addington trotting the two mile journey from 60 yards in 4.18. At his last appearance for that term, Gold Horizon easily won the Steward's Trotting stakes at the Easter meeting at Addington, beating Sure Charge by two lengths in 2.42 1/5 for the mile and a quarter journey.

Gold Horizon carried on his winning way in the 1953-54 season to record three wins and two seconds in six starts. His successes were gained in the Christchurch Handicap at the National meeting at Addington, the NZ Trotting Free-For-All and the Steward's Trotting Stakes for the second time. This event, of course, was run under free-for-all conditions.

Although he had reached the advanced age of 12 years when the 1954-55 season opened, Gold Horizon showed he was far from being done with. At his second start for the term he won the Worthy Queen Handicap at the NZ Cup meeting at Addington from 42 yards, trotting the mile and a quarter in 2.39 2/5. Gold Horizon was now racing in the joint ownership of W J Doyle and J G Gillard, but was still being trained and driven by Doyle. Those to finish behind Gold Horizon that day were Slipstream, Fair Isle and Battle Cry. At the same meeting Gold Horizon added the NZ Trotting Free-For-All for the second time. Dictation, Battle Cry and Fair Isle finished in the minor placings.

Shortly after, Doyle's interest in Gold Horizon terminated, and he was returned to his breeder. Although he was raced several times and even tried as a pacer, Gold Horizon did not regain winning form.

Foaled in 1942, Gold Horizon was got by Quite Sure (a most successful sire of trotters), and was the second foal of the Great Parrish mare, Eyre (2.49, P). Eyre was out of Great Eyre, who was got by Great Audubon-Eyrechild, by Rothschild from a Traducer mare. Eyre also left Belcar (3.24, T), to Worthy Belwin. Great Eyre left a string of winners besides Eyre in Golden Eagle, Axminster, Charles Rex, Fighting Friend and Eyre's Last, all of whom were bred by J T Paul at Mangere.



Credit: Írvington' writing in NZ Trotting Calendar 16Mar60

 

YEAR: 1952

1952 NZ HAMBLETONIAN TROT

Gold Horizon(W J Doyle) notches his third important success of the season by winning the NZ Hambletonian Handicap from Single Cash(9) and Fair Isle(4). Signal Light was fourth.

By Quite Sure(2.01¾ - a record he set as a free-legged pacer), Gold Horizon is out of another pacer in Eyre(2.49). This marked his ninth win, his stakes earnings being £7285.

Single Task's effort was meritorious as she might have won but for being badly placed just inside the last half mile.



Credit: NZ Hoof Beats Vol 2 No.12

 

YEAR: 1941

CERTISSIMUS

He raced across the harness racing sky like a blazing comet, hailed on all sides as the greatest young trotter the country had ever seen. It wasn't just hype. He won 13 of his first 20 starts, unheard of for a youngster running against all aged horses in an era when trotting stars hit their peak at about eight or nine. Even the weary scribes who had seen it all lobbed superlatives in his direction.

Then, in freak and bizarre circumstances, Certissimus was gone, before he had had his fifth birthday. His chance to be up there with all-time greats expired on the side of a country road near Pleasant Point but his memory among those fortunate enough to have seen him never faded. Beside his ability he had charisma like no other of his time. There are still horsemen around who rate him the most spectacular trotter they ever saw.

Certissimus was a product of South Canterbury courtesy of the Teahen family of Pleasant Point. Dinny Teahen had purchased the star's American-bred dam for a paltry sum and bred her to American stallion Quite Sure - Though Certissimus raced in the name of Jack Teahen. The clever name meant "most certain". Certissimus started as a pacer.

His granddam Belle Keller had been imported from the US by J R McKenzie in foal to Arion Guy. Roydon's Pride, the resulting foal, showed trainer George Mouritz extreme trotting speed but was too highly strung to do it on raceday. At a Roydon Lodge dispersal sale in 1936 she could only fetch 14 quineas. Her first foal for the Teahens, a Maxegin filly died as a young horse, perhaps an ill omen.

Quite Sure was notable stud announcement of 1939 to stand at the Kennington Stud in Southland by Julia Cuff. Miss Cuff, a one-time publican and Southland's first professional woman trainer in either code, earlier stood ex-Canterbury sires Rey De Oro, Wrack and Grattan Loyal for the locals. With Quite Sure's success sho later moved to Hinds, dying in Christchurch in the 1970s.

Quite Sure was a free legged pacer and the real deal in the States having been runner-up in the Pacers Classic at two to the top juvenile, Calumet Cheater, in world record 2:02.5 and 2:03.5 heats. As an older horse he beat stars like Mc I Win, the dual gaited world champion Raider(who emigrated to Australia) and Cold Cash (1:58.2). He had been recommended to Cuff by prominent US journalist and breeding expert Walter Moore and the stallion's first star, owned by Cuff, was a colt by that name, the best 2-year-old of 1940.

Special Force was another star by him for Peter Gallagher and then Certissimus appeared on the scene. He was a sign of things to come because, against expectations, Quite Sure became a noted sire of trotters. Experts like Bill Doyle later had reason to recall fondly how reliable an in-form Quite Sure trotter was when the money was on. Breeders of pacers, however, soon lost some of their enthusiasm.

Certissimus made his debut at Methven in the spring of 1940, pacing early before living up to his already big reputation by winning easily. His composure, which must have come from his sire, was an important key to his success. Certissimus was so good that in January, 1941 in a historic special Match Race at Timaru he took on the best 3-year-old pacers including Special Force, Gold Chief(later to sire Rupee), Ronald Logan, Walter Moore and Shadow Maid. He broke twice in that event, wanting to pace, but "showed wonderful speed in between proving he was a great colt" one media report said.

Certissimus beat all aged fields at Addington from long marks when it was unheard of for one of his age. In November 1940 he beat a NZ 2400m record by six seconds after losing 40m at the start. In January 1941 from 72 yards he ran six seconds faster than the second horse, the aged Hamel Bay, clocking 3:18, a national 3-year-old record for over 20 years. A year later he received a reception at Timaru after beating the accomplished Dark Hazard rated the "heartiest in living memory". A month later he was dead.

He had gone to another training track (that of Jack Brophy) for a workout on February 24. Jogging home Certissimus was stung on the nose by a bee. He reared, his untied overcheck hooked around the shaft of the cart and he fell heavily on his head on to the asphalt, stunned and severely injured. Certissimus could not be moved, so right there on the road a tent was erected around him and he was attended night and day by a veterinarian and a doctor. A specialist from Dunedin made a special journey to oversee the crisis.

"There is every prospect of the horse making a complete recovery" was the optimistic claim in the media after Certissimus managed to get back on his feet two days later. But recovery was always a long shot and he died soon afterward. There were various claims, rumours ans recriminations about the real cause of the incident over the years. Nothing could bring the horse back.

Roydon's Pride's descendants gave the Teahan family - and others - compensation when Global Hall won them a Rowe Cup, and Deotatus a Trotting Stakes while Don Hall, owned and trained by Ray Teahen and trained also for a time by Cecil Devine, was a top class pacer though now largely famous in trivia quizzes as a principal in the famous whip incident involving the latter. Roy Grattan, a half-brother, was another outstanding pacer from this family and Heber Hewson's "Cord" family, among others, also came from it.

Certissimus was used lightly as a stallion in his racing days with remarkable success. He sired the high class trotter Acclamation and his daughters left the high class Alight as well as Highland Flame a sensational youngster who won the Trotting Stakes, officially, by 100 yards.

We can't be sure where Certissimus's star would have finnally landed in the galaxy of champion trotters because fate robbed him of his chance. That it would have been right up there was never doubted by his many admirers.

Credit: David McCarthy writing in HRWeekly 28Nov2012

 

YEAR: 1941

1941 DOMINION TROTTING HANDICAP

The death has occurred of Mr R H Butterick, for many years one of Canterbury's best-known owners, trainers and breeders. Reg Butterick was one of trotting's 'characters'- a self-effacing, agreeable type of man who had a great deal more ability than ever appeared on the surface.

Reg secured his first real 'break' in trotting one overcast afternoon - it was Wednesday, August 14, 1935, to be exact - when he bid 4gns for lot 13 at a horse sale of nondescripts at Christchurch Tattersall's Horse Bazaar, Cashel Street (now-1962- Gough, Gough & Hamer's premises) and had it knocked down to him. This was a bay mare, seven years, by Wrack from a Nelson Bingen mare, and about the plainest bit of horseflesh imaginable. It took the auctioneer, the late Mr A L Matson, all his time to give her away, and Reg Butterick declared that he "only bought her for a farm hack."

By mere chance Mr Butterick discovered the mare could trot; he put her into training and she proved a goldmine by winning seven races on end. She was then retired to the stud and produced a foal by Quite Sure which strangled itself in a fence. Of a fatalistic philosophy, Reg Butterick decided that Peggotty should not have been retired to the stud, and he put her back into training - she proved better than ever, and won the Dominion Handicap in 1941.

Reg Butterick, who bought the American trotting stallion Josedale Dictator from the late F J Smith and had him at stud for many years, owned a lengthy list of horses, the best of whom were Roy Grattan, who was placed second in the NZ Cup, Macklin, winner of the Auckland Cup, and Peggotty.

Credit: NZ Trotting Calendar 26Sep62



In the event that you cannot find the information you require from the contents, please contact the Racing Department at Addington Raceway.
Phone (03) 338 9094