| PEOPLE |
YEAR: 1978
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Mr Daniel Gladstone 'Gladdy' McKendry, a prominent trainer and reinsman for the better part of 45 years, celebrated his eightieth birthday in Christchurch last week.
Born in Lauriston in 1898, McKendry became involved in horses from an early age through his father who he describes as a 'great horseman'. Dennis, his father, had a 2000 acre farm at Lyndhurst and McKendry began working the horses when about 18 years old. It was just a hobby at that stage but about three years later he was persuaded by a friend, Bert McCormick, to take out a trainer's licence himself. "In those days about all you needed was a recommendation from a JP and this I acquired from Walter Good, a friend of the family who lived closeby," said McKendry last week.
A major problem for McKendry to begin with was finance but with a little help from friends he raised enough to take Epigram, an unsound horse he leased from Fred Jones, to Hutt Park for a saddle trot. With McKendry in the saddle Epigram duly won the event and hence started a long and successful career for him. Apart from his father, other members of the family had a great deal of success with trotters. His brother Dennis trained and drove many winners but the main help for McKendry came from a cousin, Frank.
Burns Night, which he owned himself, was undoubtedly the best horse he ever trained. McKendry's father had considered the Prince Imperial blood to be the best about and it was due to this assumption that McKendry came about buying Burns Night. Mr Norman Mason, from Rangiora, bought a mare named Festival at a dispersal sale of the late E C McDermott along with her colt foal Dunmore, by U Scott. Festival, who cost him £4 was by Sonoma Harvester from a mare by Prince Imperial. Dunmore had been passed around more than one trainer by the time McKendry decided to take him on, and it proved to be a worthwhile venture. "He (Dunmore) was very rough in the legs where he had kicked cart shafts and gone through sheep yards and I had to more or less break him in again. But once I got him going he won five or six races for me," he said.
Mr Mason bred two more foals from Festival by U Scott, Gay Piper and Burns Night. It was when McKendry had Gay Piper in work he decided to buy Burns Night. "I knew Gay Piper was ready to win so I offered Mason about £500 for Burns Night, when he was just a foal, thinking the price would go up if Gay Piper was successful." Burns Night developed into a top flight racehorse winning 16 races and £18,020 for McKendry, including the NZ Derby and NZ Champion Stakes, before fashioning a fine record at stud. Burns Night could possibly have downed Adorian in the 1953 NZ Cup, according to McKendry, if he had not broken down on the eve of the big event. "He had been slightly lame but I lined him up and under the circumstances he did remarkably well to finish fourth," he reflected.
Burns Night showed exceptional class at the NZ Metropolitan Easter meeting in 1953 when he broke two world records in one day. He won the Easter Handicap in 3:22 for the mile and five furlongs and three hours later won the Au Revoir Free-For-All over a mile in 2:02.6, then a world record from a standing start.
McKendry feels that it is very hard to make a comparison between the likes of Johnny Globe, Van Dieman and the other great horses of yesteryear to the present day champions. "Horses might be going faster now but tracks, especially Addington, are a great advantage. Generally the horses are very little, if any, better," he remarked.
McKendry feels that a lot of his training success can be attributed to the galloping pacemakers he used in work. "I'm sure the key to success is the use of a galloping pacemaker, making sure the horse pacing is always in front. This gives them a geat deal of confidence," he said. McKendry has a lot of derogatory remarks to make as regards trainers today. "In my opinion the average trainer today is damn poor and the majority of owners are getting a poor deal," he said. He made mention of the days when a trainer would have a horse ready to produce two top efforts on the one day. Now, he says, the owners are paying out for horses that aren't capable or ready for one honest run. He appreciates the problems for young trainers striving to make progress in the sport these days noting that only the discarded horses from 'name' trainers come their way. In McKendry's opinion Maurice Holmes was the best ever reinsman in NZ and went so far as to say that he was the best in the world. "Maurice would always be off a tight spot before the straight whereas today you see drivers waiting for an opening inside the last 100 metres," he said.
McKendry well remembers his last day on his home course of Methven when he produced No Trumps to win the first race and Pharoah to win the last. "I always lent a horse to the Clerk of the Course for the day and on this particular day he used Pharoah for half the day and then swapped to No Trumps while I got Pharoah ready for the last. Ever since he has gone round boasting about the two winners he rode in one day," McKendry said.
Credit: Rod Gardiner writing in NZ Trotting Calendar 1Aug78