| HORSES |
YEAR: 1945
 |
Wrack came to NZ from the United States in 1924 with outstanding track and breeding credentials. He first stood at a fee of 40gns, the highest up to his time, and higher than any fee being charged today. Wrack reached the head of the sire's list for the first time in the 1932-3 season and remained there in 1933-4 and 1943-5. For the next eight seasons he was either second or third on the list. In 1943-4 he was fourth, and last season he was fifth.
A few of Wrack's early progeny were good, but some of them wavered, and so developed one of those strange 'sets' against the breed that beleaguers many a leading progenitor at some stage of its career. But Wrack survived all prejudices eventually to become the greatest sire of horses of both gaits yet imported to the Dominion. He is the sire of the winners of five NZ Trotting Cups, namely, Wrackler(1930), Indianapolis(1934,5&6) and Bronze Eagle (1944); and of three Dominion Handicap winners, namely Wrackler(1932), Sea Gift(1935) and Peggotty(1941).
Wrack was foaled in Pennsylvania in 1917, imported to NZ by Mr H F Nicoll, Ashburton in 1924. Wrack later went to Southland, and was sold to Tasmania in 1938. He died in New South Wales in 1939. He was by Peter The Great, 2.07¼, the most famous fountainhead of speed ever known. Peter The Great sired more than 600 standard performers, 161 of whom had records of from 1.58¼ (Miss Harris M) to 2.10. He also sired the dams of many hundreds of standard performers, including those of 278 pacers or trotters with records of 2.10 and better. Among the most famous out of Peter The Great mares were Margaret Dillon, 1.58¼, Tilly Brooke, 1.59, Mr McElwyn, 1.59¼, Spencer 1.59¾ and Zombro Hanover 2.00.
Wrack's dam was The Colorado Belle, 2.07½, by Colorado E, 2.04¾, a champion at three years. The Colorado Belle was out of The American Belle, by Rex Americus from Beautiful Chimes, a celebrated brood mare by Chimes, who topped the list of American sires on one occasion. Beautiful Chimes was out of Maid of Honour, by Mambrino King-Betty Mac, etc. Wrack's official record was 2.02¾, but he was credited with running second in a heat in 2.01½, the last half in 58½secs. Wrack raced for three years on the Grand Circuit, and never wore a hopple.
To date Wrack has sired 169 individual winners, but the end is not yet, as he still has a few novices racing who may enter the winning list. Wrack's first winner in the Dominion came to light at Westport in sensational circumstances. This was Bonnie Wrack, a 2-year-old pacer who won an event over eight furlongs and a half at the mid-summer meeting, 1927; but as it was discovered after her fine performance that it is against the rules to race a 2-year-old over more than eight furlongs so early in the season, Bonnie Wrack looked like being deprived of the fruits of her precocity. However, someone stretched a point sonewhere, and she was allowed to go down in the records as the rightful winner of the race. Bonnie Wrack, it is scarcely nesessary to add, was one of Wrack's first season foals, and others foaled in the same year were Wrackler and First Wrack.
Wrackler still ranks as the greatest double-gaited horse bred in the Dominion; for that matter one of the greatest in the world. After finishing third in the Sapling Stakes when a sick 2-year-old, he soon recuperated and scored comfortably in the NZ Derby and Great Northern Derby. Like his sire, Wrackler well earned the title of 'iron horse.' Many of the leading pacing events on the calendar fell to him, culminating in his heat and final victories in the 1930 series for the NZ Trotting Cup. In the final he ran right away from the opposition in the straight for one of the most convincing wins ever seen in the premier event. After finishing fourth in the NZ Cup the following year, Wrackler was changed over to the trotting gait, and with very little race experience he beat a high-class field of pacers in a two-mile event at Addington. He went on to win the Dominion Handicap and other important trotting races, and at one time he held the mile and a half record for a trotter, 3.15 4/5, as well as taking a two-mile record of 4.23 2/5. Only now, nearly 13 years afterwards are Wrackler's great double-gaited feats placed in true perspective. His like may never be seen again.
Wrackler's full-sister, Arethusa, was a great little filly. She was 'ugly as sin,' but what a heart she had! She won the Sapling Stakes and NZ Derby, and at three years she won over two miles in seasoned company and finished up with a two-mile record of 4.24, which stood as a 3-year-old record for some years. She carried on to win many other important races, and was one of the gamest and best of her inches seen up to her time.
Soon after the retirement of Arethusa, the 'set' against the Wrack breed was at its height. This unwarranted prejudice became so strong, and the depression years so accentuated it, that the Wracks could scarcely be given away. That is probably the main reason why Tattersalls saw a lot of them go under the hammer for a mere 'song'. There was Sea Gift at 6gns; Nicoya at 4½gns; Peggotty at 4gns, just to mention three of the greatest sale-ring bargains the world over. As is well known to the majority of trotting followers, these three cast-offs developed into trotters of the highest class and won thousands for their lucky purchasers. With the coming of Sea Gift and Nicoya coincided the high-class pacing performances of Cloudy Range, Tempest, Ironside and Reporter, and there also followed a regular stream of high-class juvenile as well as aged trotters. For instance, White Satin and Gerfalcon, both of whom were 3-year-old trotting record holders in their day.
Most of these were in the top class by the time a rangy, overgrown-looking colt named Indianapolis set tongues wagging the day he ran rings round a field of novices of all ages in his very first race as a 2-year-old. He was narrowly beaten by Taxpayer in the Sapling Stakes and the Derby, but after that he rapidly climbed to champion class, winning the NZ Cup three years in succession and taking a mile record of 2.00 2/5 against time. Many trotting men still regard Indianapolis as the greatest pacer foaled in the Dominion. It is certain he would have broken two minutes if he had been specially trained for the purpose, and his best time of 4.15 4/5 for two miles was probably seconds slower than what he would have done if he had not struck wet tracks for his second and third NZ Cup victories.
One could go on for pages and pages writing about this versatile family by Wrack. Members of it, beside all the rich races mentioned above, have won five NZ Derbys(Wrackler, Arethusa, Ciro, Aldershot and Imperial Jade), and Wrackler is not the only trotter of the breed to win against high-class pacers: Sea Gift gained similar distinction, and this great mare's two-mile trotting record of 4.21 2/5, established eight years ago, still stands.
This saga of the Wrack family would by no means be complete without special reference to the somewhat belated greatness of Bronze Eagle. Enough has already been written in these columns about that aspect of his chequered career. Now he ranks as the Dominion's leading stayer, and is sure to be one of the favourites for the NZ Trotting Cup, a race he won last year by sheer grit and superb racing qualities.
Very few of the Wracks were left entire; the greatest of them, Indianapolis, is the sire of Indian Lad, a winner as a 3-year-old last season; Casanova is the sire of Casabianca, a very fine trotter who defeated Fantom, Desmond's Pride and Blue Horizon in the Addington Trotting Stakes as a 4-year-old.
Wrack mares are proving good producers, among the winners out of them being the present champion trotter Sea Max, one of Auckland's crack pacers Medical Student, Canterbury's leading 4-year-old Jack's Son, and other winners in Larissa, Margaret Hall, Poppotunoa, Punctual, Manpower, Maalesh, Ordinance, Turco, Moana Tama(Sapling Stakes), Night Porter, Tara's Hall, Windermere, Mistydale, Calumella, Betty Maxegin, Oregan, Chinook, Jervis Bay, Fire Water, Forecast, Jill, Radiant Scott, Durability and Frank Scott.
Credit: 'Ribbonwood' writing in NZ Trotting Calendar 3Oct1945