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V W (VIC) ALBORN

Mr V W (Vic) Alborn, whose death has occurred, was one of the most successful and colourful trainers and drivers in the Dominion until the mid-1950s. Vic reached the retiring age of 65 for drivers in 1953. By 1956 he had completed half a century of life with the trotter and pacer.

Alborn was an infant when he arrived from Somerby, England. His father was a vehicle builder and set up business at Westport. Young Vic saw the old coaching days, and he was only about 16 when he had become a fine rider and driver. His first venture as an owner was his purchase for £10 of a pony trotter named Silver. He had a great run of wins with her. She was only a 'dot,' but often beat horses that could of carried her.

In a few more years Alborn had become an owner and trainer of some substance and he laid down a training track at Inangahua. One of his best known winners from there was Dixie Lee, with whom he won the Westport Cup of 1919. The same year he won the Greymouth Cup with Red Prince, and he had other winners round about that time in Fernleigh, Armature, Woodland Rose, Rose Alma, Invictus, Neverwell, Adroth and Repington. At one Westport fixture he won four races on end. With Ringleader and Fore he had a 'trot' at Nelson and Blenheim meetings and carried on to win good money with Fore at Forbury. A little later Alborn did well with three trotters named Merryjigs, Cannonball and Peter Eyre, and with the pacer Denver Wood he won five races in his first six starts.

Then arrived a bold pacer in Vesuvius, one of the greatest 'front-runners' we have ever seen in this country. Vesuvius was the Gold Bar of his day, a genuine racehorse who reached Cup class and was a close second in a heat of the premier event in 1931. He was a very popular horse with the public. Alborn, at the same period, had a great innings with a pacer named Linkman, a plain, heavy-boned pacer by the same sire as Vesuvius - Matchlight. He was a fine stayer, reaching NZ Cup class. Somerby kept the pot boiling for Alborn in the depression days. Somerby was a very capable sprinter, in saddle as well as harness.

A few years before this Alborn had transferred his team from the West Coast to Addington and he greatly strengthened the training ranks at headquarters. In track work Vic could always be relied upon for some fireworks and members of his team invariably put up some of the best trials. He had a successful training arrangement with the late Arthur Cox for some years. Honeymoon was a brilliant trotter trained and raced by Alborn in the 1930s. The best of Honeymoon was not seen on the racetracks. He was unsound. When he could be sent along at speed he was as fast as any trotter - and most pacers - then in training at Addington.

In 1938 Alborn paid £350 for Royal Romance. But she proved a rare investment, winning many races and finishing up in the top flight - her victory in the Dominion Handicap of 1939 put a seal on a splendid career. With Royal Suprise and Nationalist he won the Westport Cup, a race he took a sentimental pride in winning. Burt Scott, a decided moderate over a couple of seasons, and a positive 'ugly duckling' to look at, was purchased by Alborn at the close of his 4-year-old season for £300. Few greater bargains have been secured because Burt Scott, a novice in October of that season, 1941-2, won 10 races and was placed second in his other two starts in the very short space of six months, his final victory that season being in the Autumn Free-For-All at the NZ Metropolitan Easter meeting from a field of champions, including Nelson Eddy(second), Gold Bar(fourth), Bronze Eagle, Lightning Lady and Springfield Globe. Burt Scott carried on to win many more races for Alborn and was one of the biggest stake-winners of his time.

In the pacer Native Scott Alborn also worked a tremendous improvement. So poor had Native Scott's form been that Alborn bought him for £150. He promptly won three races at Greymouth and carried on for many important successes, including the Canterbury Park President's Handicap. Yet another 'derelict' Alborn set on the road to fame late in life was Bulldozer, who cost hin £100 as a 9-year-old and with whom he won thousands. Bulldozer won five races in less than two months and finished up beating some of the greatest stayers and sprinters then racing in the Dominion. He ended up in Cup Company.

Alborn's next star was Dundee Sandy, who had already won good races at Addington for his owner, Mr B Rushton, of Nightcaps, when Alborn was asked to train him. The combination was a lucrative one for five seasons and Dundee Sandy's final stakes total was £17,345. He was another Cup qualifier, his important wins including the NZ Metropolitan Ollivier Handicap and Auckland President's Handicap.

But perhaps his greatest chapter was with Maori Home. Veterans both at the time, Alborn and Maori Home proved an outstanding combination in the 1952-3 season, and for some seasons before that, too. Besides winning the Dunedin Cup a second time, they were successful in the Electric Stakes, the latter race bringing Maori Home's free-for-all to three in two successive seasons. Maori Home had won 17 races and £18,725 in stakes up till July, 1953, more than £10,000 of it after being operated on for a throat affliction. Following the second of these operations, Maori Home was turned out for a long spell - well over a year - and he did not return to racing until he was a 10-year-old. His recovery and eventual development of champion form was the more note-worthy for a horse at one time 'gone in the wind'.

A record Alborn made, and which may stand for all time, was that of winning three races in the one day with the one horse - Colonel Axworthy at the Reefton Trotting Club's meeting on December 11, 1937.

Alborn was the first owner to win a five-figure sum in stakes in the one season. He topped the list in 1945-6 with £10,015. He was also the leading owner in the 1941-2 season with £3,940. Alborn was his own farrier: he shod his own horses practically all the time he was a trainer.

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NZ Trotting Calendar 7Dec49

GENEROUS ACTION OF CHRISTCHURCH TRAINER

Returning from the Reefton Trotting Club's Annual Meeting on Saturday, a party of four racegoers had the misfortune to have their car damaged at the summit of the Lewis Pass about 9.30pm. As not much traffic can be expected over the Pass at this hour, the party settled down, not too hopefully, to await assistance.

After about half an hour a welcome pair of headlights pierced the gloom of the mountainside and these proved to belong to V Alborn's car. Hopes of obtaining a lift however, were dashed when it was seen that Alborn's car had a full compliment of passengers. V Alborn, however, generously offered to tow the stranded vehicle with its four occupants back to Christchurch - a distance of about 112 miles over tortuous roads - and the offer was gratefully accepted.

One of the stranded party said that the unruffled and pleasant manner with which Alborn met all the irritating delays through breaks in the tow rope and so on, impressed upon him that here indeed, was 'courtesy of the road.' The driver of the damaged car added that he had the unique experience of 'getting the perfect trail' behind Alborn for 112 miles.



Credit: NZ Trotting Calendar 22Nov67