YEAR: 1971
The Precocious story can be taken up at a point where prominent Auckland owner Andy Carmichael and Hawera trainer Doug Grantham in 1963 purchased from veteran Akaroa breeder Jack Ferguson a yearling filly by Johnny Globe from the successful Light Brigade trotting mare Dauphine. The filly was a full sister of Au Fait, who had won the 1961 Dominion Handicap for her Wellington breeder Jack McKay and was subsequently sold to America at a high price. Mr Carmichael, successful in business through Broadway pies, and over the years a good winning owner with horses like Prince Polka and Chequer Board, decided that Grantham should train their acquistion. Grantham was only too pleased to oblige in this role, but when, as he built up the work schedule for the young filly, she kept putting on condition instead of shedding it, he was at a loss to understand her. A vet solved the problem. The then 2-year-old filly was in foal. A hasty conference was called, and on checking back the filly's state was traced to a night when an Aksarben colt, appropriately named All Gallant, had got over a fence and in amongst several yearlings on Mr Ferguson's property. Mr Ferguson most apologetically offered to replace the in-foal filly with another, but Andy and Doug decided that whatever will be will be. They gave the filly time off to have her foal - most aptly named the young mother Precocious and the foal Over Fence; put Precocious back into work and produced her for her first racing a a 5-year-old in the 1967-8 season. That she was as forward at coming forward on the racetrack as she was for Mother Nature, Precocious showed by winning four races and gaining two seconds, a third and three fourths in her first campaign - during which Mr Carmichael bought out Grantham's share (after three wins) and placed her with Bob Mitchell at Cambridge. At six, Precocious had 10 starts for one win, two thirds and a fourth, and at seven two wins and seven minor placings from 18 attempts in NZ and one win in Melbourne on a brief Australian sojourn at Inter-Dominion time. A costly persistence to tangle early in her races led her connections to think either she was feeling the tracks of she was averse to racing right-handed as they do in many northern tracks. Meantime, Mr Carmichael, who had paid $20,000 to secure the up-and-coming Chequer Board from Northland owner Dave Jessop, had placed him with successful results with Templeton trainer Jack Carmichael (no relation). The southern horseman, after driving Precocious to the second of her wins as a 7-year-old at Cambridge in January 1970, was invited to take her south to his stable to produce as an 8-year-old. By this time on the fringe of good class, Precocious still persisted with that costly tangle early in her races and her first 22 appearances as an 8-year-old resulted in four seconds, a third and two fourths. Ironically, it was when Jack Carmichael brought her back to Auckland in May 1971, that Precocious broke through for her first win for his stable - bolting away with an impressive double in the St Andrews and Remuera Handicaps at the Auckland winter meeting. They were her last two starts for the 1970-71 season, and she carried on the good work in the season under review, winning three of her first seven starts before placing fourth in the Worthy Queen Handicap at Addington on NZ Cup day. Then it was the big one, the $10,200 Dominion Trotting Handicap on Show Day at Addington, November 12 1971. Precocious, on the strength of her lastest good form, was sent out 1-2 in the order of betting. And she didn't let the army of fans she had now established down in any way. Jack Carmichael, bounced the 9-year-old mother out from the limit mark in good style, and with no sign of that earlier chink in her armour she settled in to trot solidly handy on the outer with a good cover. She was going so well that her trainer-driver let her forge through to the front crossing the top with two and a half furlongs to travel. She was never in danger of defeat, coming in with two lengths and a half to spare from Merrin. Northerner Easton Light was a good third after covering much ground and Marius close up next, best of the others. The winning time of 4:18 2/5 was the seventh-fastest in the 70-year-old history of the race, the record for which is held at 4:15 4/5 by none other than Precocious' sister, Au Fait. But Precocious could obviously have gone a lot faster. The win brought her earnings to near $25,000 and while she appeared to train off a shade after that she was back in the winners' circle in February, taking the Hagley Trotting Free-for-all at the Canterbury Park meeting at Addington. It was a good season for her, and, as it was only her fourth, there appeared to be no reason why, before she had another look at the matron's paddock, she should not add a lot more lustre to her race record. Meanwhile Over Fence, who, though speedy and a fairly quick qualifier, proved erratic and was not persevered with as a racing proposition. Shortly after Precocious gained her most important win in the Dominion Handicap, Over Fence made her a grandmother by producing a foal to the imported Tartan Hanover. Credit: Ron Bisman: DB Trotting Annual 1972 YEAR: 1992 Few have bred as many winners as J X Ferguson, a prominent Banks Peninsula farmer who continued the Le Lievre family destiny in harness racing. His death recently, at the age of 83, has ended a long association with the sport that began with his grandfather, Etienne Le Lievre. For most of his life Jack lived in Akaroa, but unwilling in his latter years to tackle the hill climb home after a night at Addington, he shifted to a smaller holding at Greenpark. Mr Ferguson quickly made his mark as a breeder, sending the Man O' War mare Polka Dot to Light Brigade. This mating produced the dual Auckland Cups winner Soangetaha, and to U Scott, Polka Dot left Prince Polka, which won the Auckland Cup in 1955 when trained by Noel Berkett. An introduction through Soangetaha's trainer Derek Jones to Andy Carmichael forged a friendship that lasted for many years. Mr Carmichael bought many of the horses Jack bred, including Prince Polka, and they were partners in Good Admiral, which won 18 including the 1971 NZ Trotting Stakes, the Reta Peter Handicap and the Challenge Stakes at Alexandra Park. Jack bought Mischievous, and sent her to U Scott. She left Desiree, the cornerstone of John Butcher's wonderful 'ias' family - notably Abdias, Tobias and Samarias - and Desilu, the dam of the great racemare Delightful Lady. He bred Inter-Dominion Trotting Grand Final winner Precocious from Johnny Globe and Dauphine; Petite Polly, the 1987/88 Victorian Broodmare of the Year; Girl Brigade, which was Southland Broodmare of the Year; and Dels Dream. A family member recalls that Jack regularly bred from 12 to 15 mares, and was a loyal patron at Roydon Lodge when Sandy Green was studmaster. He sold many he bred through the sales, but in more recent years he raced them, from the stables of Noel Berkett, Jack Smolenski and Peter Robertson. His favourite was perhaps Jayex, a colt by Nevele Romeo from Eblouir which won the NZ Champion Stakes and a heat of the Sires' Stakes in a short career. With Glamour Chief, he ran second in the NZ Derby, and Melvander, which was the last he raced, won the NZ Trotting Fee-For-All and finished second in the Inter-Dominion Grand Final. "I think the sudden death of Melvander probably knocked him," recalls the spokesperson. A keen sportsman and a harness racing enthusiast from his earier days, J X Ferguson bred more than 100 winners. He is survived by his wife Maisie, son Peter, and daughters Jill and Lyndsay. Credit: NZ HRWeekly 10Jun92 YEAR: 1988 Jack Andrew Carmichael, who retires this season from driving, was born in Wanganui 65 years ago. His father Andrew and brother Alf were freezing workers who trained horses they owned themselves. Among their winners when Jack was a boy were Kraal, Harvest Boy and Silver Black (later trained in Hamilton). In 1939, Jack went to the Exhibition at Wellington. With £60 in his pocket from shearing, he was "well off". "It was a hell of a lot in those days," he said. He carried on to Christchurch, where he got lodgings with Dave Bennett and a job working in the stable of Wes Butt. "I was there for twelve years. I used to ride Mankind in his saddle work, and rode him when he ran second to Gold Bar at Addington in 2:4. "In those days we did a lot of travelling, all by train. It was nothing for us to take 12 to 14 horses to the Coast. But travel was cheap then, and the meals and board didn't seem to cost anything. You'd find, too, that all the owners would be there to watch them race," he said. His first success came with Dawn Grattan at the Westland Trotting Club's meeting on March 21, 1942, and a significant win in that period was taking the Greymouth Cup with Direct Medium. After marrying Dorothy, Jack bought a farm, where he grew potatoes, then raised pigs and milked 30 cows. He liked the farming life, but agreed to train Coronet Lass and Monopat (dam of Micron and bred by Des Grice) for Ted Graham. Two horses soon became four and then a team, with Tekapo Queen, Gold Globe (by Johnny Globe)who won six races in the early 60s, followed by Dorstan, Bonny Rachel, Rocky Star, Chequer Board, Hindu Star, Precocious, Globe Bay and Worth Seein'. "Precocious was a great old stayer - she'd just keep going, but I think Globe Bay was the best I had. He was a lot better than what people thought. He was a very nervy horse and early on he was stood down for breaking in a race. He was always a bit funny when he looked like being squeezed up and his form leading up to the Cup, the year he won, was a bit patchy. Rauka Lad was the horse they were writing up. I remember there was a bit of a skirmish up front with a round to go. I had to pull him down to the inside and then take him back out. Any other time he would have broken, but this time he just cruised round. He was always going well," he said. His one regret as a trainer was losing Worth Seein', a daughter of Johnny Globe and Fifth Brigade, the dam of Berkleigh. She got to c4 and then went down with a liver complaint and died. She would have been a top trotter," he said. For many years Jack was on the committee of the Trainers and Drivers Association and was there during the campaign for a losing driving fee. The trainer of 330 winners has noticed a change of driving standards and tactics over the years. "It used to be a bit easier because you'd be driving against the same fellows. There are a lot of different ones against you now, and there is a lot of different types of driving," he said. Jack has also noticed a change in the style of training. There was a time, he recalled, when there would be no rush to investigate the speed of the yearlings and 2-year-olds. "It's not a bad thing, starting on the young ones earlier, but I still think waiting for them would be better. I know with Micron we didn't do much with him until he was four and he just about went straight through to Cup class," he said. "I'm inclined to think there is too much emphasis placed on 2-year-old racing. People still like to see the older horses, like Lord Module and Robalan race. They like the name horses," he said. With the game nearly up, Jack intends to keep training for another 12 months. "I might retire then. I don't know if I want to keep training horses," he said. Like most others in his era, Jack used to admire Maurice Holmes when he was on the track, but has detected a slip in such considerations in recent times. "Life's changed. The younger ones used to look up to the older ones; nowdays they wouldn't give two hoots," he said. -o0o- Jack Carmichael was No.1 driver for Prebbleton trainer Des Grice ever since Bob Young died. "He has always been a very competent horseman," said Grice. "I think he's one of the best tactical drivers in the country. He would be in the same class as Maurice Holmes and Bob Young. The biggest problem was getting the information out of him after the race; he was good the next day," he said. Credit: Mike Grainger writing in HRWeekly 13Jul88 YEAR: 2011
Old habits die hard in the harness racing game so it is just as well that age is no barrier to success. Ask former top trainer Jack Carmichael, of Templeton. He recently renewed his licence 71 years after he first went racing and soon revealed that old skills also die hard, producing his own Flaming Frieda, driven by Ian Cameron, to win at Timaru. "It was just circumstances, really," says the modest veteran of well over 700 wins. "I retired a few years ago (2005) and handed in my licence so I wouldn't be tempted to take on a horse. I didn't believe in just going on for the sake of it. I was going to breed from a mare I had, Frieda Holmes, and sell the foals as yearlings." He first foal fetched $9000 and the next one $20,000. Then "Hoagy" as he is widely known (after the composer of the famous song Stardust) was unhappy with the $9000 offered for the third foal, Flaming Frieda, and took her home. "I had her here and was working her along and, well, with the cost of training fees today I thought I might as well do it all myself. I was getting up at the same time and pottering around with them anyway. I never changed my routine really, everything was here and I didn't think I had forgotten how." Carmichael's career is steeped in trotting tradition. He began by riding in saddle races on the West Coast in 1940, including the noted saddle pacer, Mankind, a minor legend of the era. Jack drove his first winner, Dawn Grattan, at Hokitika in 1942. "I was related to Wes Butt (whose property was known as Mankind Lodge) who had a big team then and worked with him. I was in the army at the time. We were sleeping under the public stand at Riccarton and training there. I managed to get weekend leave to go over and drive and it was hard to get in those days." Those were the days when it took 12 hours for the average equine rail trip to the West Coast, after which horses campaigned there for weeks at a time, giving rise to the quip "trained on the train". "You certainly didn't do much with them between races. They often raced twice on the same day and with the travelling that was about it." Carmichael went on to star in much bigger arenas. He trained and drove the 1973 New Zealand Cup winner Globe Bay for Christchurch garage proprietor Stan Wheatley, who bought his dam after her half-sister, which he owned, was "nobbled" at a Hutt Park meeting. Coronet Lass started Jack off in the training ranks after years of working with Butt and farming. Chequer Board, Glen Moira, the erratic but brilliant Micron, and Astralight were among his many stars, but his record in Inter-Dominion trotting finals with Precocious(1975) and Yankee Loch(1989) were special highlights. The aptly named Precocious had an unusual career. When she was a two-year-old, an unnamed colt jumped the fence and put her in foal. The resulting filly, appropriately named Over Fence, was not only a good winner but later left a high class trotter in Precocious Lad. "I only trained Precocious at odd times. Bob Mitchell had her at the 1973 Inter-Dominion and I went over to drive her. We were off the back mark and it wasn't going to be easy. An old bloke there took me aside and told me the locals would make things tough for me in the final but I should remember that stewards might give me a 'holiday' but they wouldn't take the race off me. Sure enough, one driver in particular tried to push me off the track for a whole round. I gave as good as I got, remembering that advice, and won the race. There was a long enquiry but the old bloke was right. They gave me a month's suspension but we kept the race. The other driver, Bert Alley, became a good mate of mine." It was experience against the tough Australian drivers which paved the way for the second Inter-Dominion triumph with Yankee Loch in 1989, also held across the Tasman. "I had a good mare called Kate's Return. She frustrated me until I found out she loved going to the front. When I went over to Australia they just attacked me all the way and ruined her chance. So when Yankee Loch's turn came and I knew he would race best in front, I rang an Australian driver, Jim O'Sullivan, who had won big races at Addington at that time and asked him to drive him in the series. Jim went to the front and they didn't attack him like they would have if it had been a Kiwi driver. Yankee Loch beat the hot favourite, True Roman." Jim Curtin drove Yankee Loch in New Zealand to win several major races. But Ian Cameron is the "stable driver" at the moment. "When you go to the trials, fellows like Jim are either away at the races or booked up. Ian has always driven quite well in my opinion and he helped me out when I went to workouts. He's done nothing wrong." Jack bears no grudges against Australians, incidentally. His wife, Dorothy, comes from there and they have had a long and successful marriage. Besides his work with horses, Jack put in years of administration with the Owners and Trainers Association running trial meetings at Addington. He is one of the select few elected to Addington's Hall of Fame. So are there any more champions in the pipeline? "No, I wouldn't say that. Flaming Frieda (by Courage Under Fire) is a little bit better than average. She went through a bad spell when I had to tie her up to do much with her but it was Jim Dalgety who reminded me that perseverance was the key to success. She can do more yet and I have some Badlands Hanover youngsters out of the mare. I have tried one of them (Harvest Boy) and when he lined up I even put a fiver on him because I think he will be alright, but he needs a bit of time." Time is something Jack Carmichael feels he still has plenty of. "I've been lucky but I notice a lot of horsemen seem to live to a good age. I think the early-to-rise and early-to-bed might have something to do with it." Jack, 88, this year and the oldest professional trainer in the country, is still fascinated by horses after 75 years working with them. By any standards, the career of a genuine stayer. Credit: David McCarthy writing in The Press 2 July 2011 YEAR: 2013 JACK CARMICHAEL YEAR: 1914 BERTHABELL |