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HORSES

 

YEAR: 1903

RIBBONWOOD

"Horse Of The Year"? Ribbonwood was the horse of a decade! Good as horses like Lunar Chance, Easton Light and Captain Harcourt are, there would have been little hope of their being in contention for the "Horse Of The Year" award had such a prize existed in 1903.

That was the year of Ribbonwood, one of the greatest pacers ever bred in this country and one of the most successful stallions ever to stand in Australia. Only a little fellow, he possibly achieved more in his short career in advancing the popularity of trotting here than any other champion who followed him, with the possible exception of Cardigan Bay.

Bred at New Brighton by Mr Gilbert McHaffie, a prominent administrator at the time, Ribbonwood was by the imported Wildwood from Dolly, a Young Irvington mare of disputed parentage tracing to a thoroughbred source. Wildwood was bred in California and was imported by Mr Henry Richardson of New Plymouth who passed him on to the Kerr brothers of New Brighton for £500 which was not exactly pocket money in those days.

Trained at two years of age by Manny Edwards, Ribbonwood attracted the attention of Dave Price the owner of Prince Imperial and also in earlier times of his dam Princess. Price paid out £250 for Ribbonwood which was easily a record price for a racing proposition in the trotting world of those days. Although Ribbonwood was not much more than a pony, Price was right on the mark with his buying. Ribbonwood quickly established himself as the fastest pacer in NZ and by the 1902 season, when a 4-year-old, he was being handicapped out of many of the big races. In the 1902-3 season he won nine races with one second placing and two fourths. His first two wins were at the November Addington meeting in which he won the NZ Handicap (£200: then our richest race) by eight lengths and the free-for-all by nearly the same margin.

In February 1903 at Addington he won the feature event by fifty yards in Australasian record time for two miles of 4:35.8. Later the same afternoon, he smashed the Australasian mile record held by Fritz, recording 2:11 2-5. Two Australasian marks on the same day must be a unigue feat.

In April of that season, Ribbonwood took part in the celebrated match races with the Australian champion trotter Fritz who was brought over from Australia by his owner J A Buckland. The match was over three heats for £500 a side. Huge crowds attended and the Prime Minister, Dick Seddon presented the trophies. Fritz had been over the Tasman before (in 1899) and was a tremendous favourite with the NZ crowds who supported him strongly on the totalisator, though many were backing from their heasts and not their heads. Fritz was then 12-years-old and well past his best, but Mr Buckland was a sportsman of the old school and refused to let Dave Price's challenge to pass.

Ribbonwood won the first heat by five lengths, the second by a length and a half and the third by eighty yards. In the last heat he again lowered the mile record, this time to 2:10 and he later lowered it again to 2:09 where it stayed for some years. After his exhibition mile of 2:09 on the final day of the meeting, Ribbonwood never raced in NZ again due largely to the six months suspension Price received during the meeting. He took his champion to Australia but there Ribbonwood was sold for stud duties before he raced.

In latter years Price regretted selling his little champion. He parted with for £1000 and the son of Wildwood earned nearly that much for his new owner in his first stud season. Before leaving NZ, Ribbonwood was lightly used as a stallion between races. He left 18 foals here and has the unique siring record of getting 18 winners or a 100% record. But even this paled beside his Australian record and the claim was made some years ago that only Globe Derby has left more winners across the Tasman than the New Brighton-bred stallion.

One of his most successful sons was Realm who was brought over to this country by Bill Tomkinson in 1921. A little black horse like his sire, Realm was enormously popular here as Ribbonwood had been before him and he also held the mile record of 2:03.8 for a time. It was a NZ son of Ribbonwood who had lowered the champion's own time. This was King Cole (2:08.4) who features in the pedigrees of many of our fastest pacers, particularly those bred by Ben Grice. Realm also had success at stud as did Blue Mountain King, a successful racing son of Ribbonwood imported to this country in the late '20s.

Down through the years Ribbonwood blood has continued to have some say in fast mile times. His full-sister Manuka never amounted to anything on the track but she was the fourth dam of Tactician the first NZ horse to break two minutes in a race in NZ and Ribbonwood's son Childewood, a very successful sire, sired Roselawn who was the dam of Lawn Derby the first horse to break two minutes in Australasia. His son King Cole is in the pedigree of Mt Eden, and Ribbonwood appears on both sides of the pedigree of the Australian speedster Reichman who recorded 1:58 on a three furlong track. There are numerous other top horses who carry Ribbonwood blood including Ribands, Apmat, Avian Derby, Dale's Gift, Thelma Globe and the wonderful Harold Logan to name but a few.

Ribbonwood died at twenty years of age. It is said Price sold him in Australia for stud duties because support for him in this country was lukewarm. If so, we encouraged the loss of one of the greatest sires ever bred here.

Credit: David McCarthy writing in NZ Trotguide 5Aug76

 

YEAR: 1934

Walla Walla
WALLA WALLA MATCH RACES

What would you say to a match race between Lord Module and Popular Alm, on a nice roomy track like Addington, with Delightful Lady, Bonnie's Chance and Armalight thrown in for good measure? Obviously such an event would be virtually impossible, to frame or to imagine, but that's just what happened exactly 50 years ago.

It was early in 1934 when the NZ Metropolitan Trotting Club completed arrangements for the glamour Australian pacer Walla Walla to compete in a series of match races throughout NZ, against the best pacers New Zealand could assemble. Considered worthy of taking on such an illustrious foe were dual NZ Cup winner Harold Logan, in the twilight of his magnificent career as an eleven-year-old, most recent NZ Cup winner Red Shadow, ten-year-old Roi l'Or and Jewel Pointer, the latter representing the North Island.

Trotting in NZ has seen many changes since the turn of the century and the days of Ribbonwood and Fritz. Growth was the key word, checked momentarily by events of World War I, trotting had made splendid progress in NZ. Addington Raceway, undoubtedly the mecca of the sport in this part of the world, had seen many personalities, horses and men. Names such as Monte Carlo, Wildwood Junior, Author Dillon, Trix Pointer, Reta Peter, Great Bingen and Wrackler, the Bryces, Holmes, and numerous others had well and truly carved their niche. The period was also significant for the importation of stallions who reshaped the industry - the likes of Nelson Bingen, Harold Dillon, Logan Pointer, Rey de Oro, Wrack and Jack Potts. While economies had plunged into the depths of depression, trotting in the 1930s was little short of spectacular, spurred on by great horses and packed grandstands.

One of those horses was Harold Logan, a gelded son of Logan Pointer and a non-standardbred mare in Ivy Cole, who was by King Cole (by Ribbonwood) from Wisconsin, she being out of a poorly performed thoroughbred mare. Harold Logan rose from total obscurity to become a household name in NZ, the idol of thousands. But it wasn't so much his perfect manners, devastating turn of speed nor undeniable will to win that saw him rise to such heights of popularity. It was his character. Harold Logan was virtually human, so intelligent he was known to train himself and run his own races. One famous instance was after one of his many wins at Addington, his driver commenting Harold Logan was into full stride before he realised the starter had let the field go.

Nobody had heard of Harold Logan when he began his first serious campaign as a seven-year-old, having just been purchased by Mr E Hinds for £100 and joined the stable of R J (Dick) Hunphreys. However, after a North Island campaign in the winter of 1930, where he was unbeaten in four starts at Wanganui, Hawera and Taranaki in the space of a fortnight, he was already among the stars. After winning at Addington, Harold Logan travelled to Auckland where he scored a double, his final start of the season resulting in a five length win in the featured Adams Memorial Cup.

He won his first three starts as an eight-year-old later finishing second in the Auckland Cup from 36 yards to Carmel (front) and winning the NZ Trotting Gold Cup at Wellington by four lengths. He was placed in his final three starts at Addington that season, including a third from 84 yards over two miles. Nobody could believe their eyes when his time of 4:13.4 was posted, the previous best being Peter Bingen's 4:18.8. He was timed from post to post in better than 4:11, figures unheard of and unequalled until Highland Fling appeared on the scene some 15 years later.

As a nine-year-old Harold Logan won his first NZ Cup, coming off a 48 yard handicap to easily beat Kingcraft (front), Free Advice (12) and Wrackler (36). The stake of 1500 sovereigns was half what the Cup had been run for in the mid 1920s. He also won the Free-For-All on the final day pointlessly. Harold Logan returned the following season to win the National Handicap from 60 yards, set new figures for a mile and a quarter in finishing third at Addington in 2:38.4, win the NZ Cup Trial at Wellington, and win his second NZ Cup from 60 yards, beating Glenrossie (12), Roi l'Or (24) and Red Shadow (12) by two lengths in 4:16.4, a race record.

Now trained by his owner at New Brighton, Harold Logan returned at the advanced age of 11 to win at Addington in August, beating Mountain Dell (front), and Red Shadow (36) from 60 yards over a mile and a quarter in 2:38 2/5. However, he was overshadowed by Red Shadow at the Cup meeting, finishing fifth from 72 yards in the Cup and being soundly beaten by that horse in the Free-For-All after uncharacteristically beaking in the run home. It seemed youth was about to be served, but Harold Logan still had other ideas.

Red Shadow was by no means a slouch himself, in fact trainer James "Scotty" Bryce, who prepared no less than five individual NZ Cup winners, considered him the best. The chestnut was a six-year-old when he beat Harold Logan in the Free-For-All and had already won 22 races, including nine and the Great Northern Derby as a three-year-old. Red Shadow's sire Travis Axworthy, a chestnut himself imported from America as a two-year-old in 1924, was a fine upstanding individual and a pacer of top class, actually beating Harold Logan on more than one occasion a few years earlier. Red Shadow was one of those great "lucky to be alive" stories.

Bryce had arrived from Scotland in 1913, presuming his two mares Our Aggie and Jenny Lind would be waiting for him. He had shipped them off two weeks before departing himself. However, their ship had soon gone aground, forcing it back to port, and the mares had to be transshipped to another vessel, the Nairnshire. Two months after Bryce had stepped on to the Wellington wharf, the Nairnshire arrived. It had been a particularly rough and hazardous journey and Bryce's mares were strapped to the deck, the mate having suggested they be thrown overboard. Bryce had already shifted to Christchurch and was soon making "Oakhampton Lodge" at Hornby the most modern training establishment seen up to that time. Only months after arriving, Our Aggie was winning races for Bryce and later she produced Red Shadow.

Only three years after his arrival in the Dominion, Bryce was the leading trainer, a position he retained for seven consequtive years, then again in the 1923-24 season. He was also leading reinsman on five occasions. Apart from his NZ Cup successes with Cathedral Chimes (1916), Great Hope (1923), Ahuriri (1925,1926), Kohara (1927) and Red Shadow, Bryce won six Auckland Cups, three Sapling Stakes, three NZ Derbies, four Great Northern Derbies, four Champion Stakes, four Dominion Handicaps and a Rowe Cup, a record unapproached to this day. Other top class performers shaped by him were Admiral Wood, Man o'War, Shadow Maid, Taurekareka (the first horse to win the Sapling Stakes, NZ and Great Northern Derby), Whispering Willie, Moneyspider, Matchlight, Alto Chimes, Taraire and Whist.

Bryce was meticulous in detail, his horses were always fit and healthy, inside and outside, and he was one of the first horsemen to introduce swimming as a regular part of training. Bryce had arrived in NZ with his wife and five children. Two of his sons, Andrew and James junior, were also noted horsemen for many years while his daughter Rona was an accomplished horsewoman at shows and gymkhanas and was associated with the training of several galloping winners.

The 1930s saw a succession of champion performers and the 1933 NZ Cup meeting was no exception. In the event before the Cup, top four-year-old Indianapolis had come from a 36 yard back mark to win the mile and a quarter Empire Handicap by four lengths, while later in the day Huon Voyage won the Dominion Handicap from 60 yards. The Cup itself went pretty much as expected, with Mrs M Harrall's Red Shadow and Royal Silk finishing comfortably clear of the rest. This is the only occasion an owner has quinellaed the Cup. Red Shadow also won the final event of the day over a mile and a quarter. The meeting was also significant for the success of the six-year-old are Worthy Queen, who won twice on the second day and again on the third, beating top trotters Todd Lonzia and Huon Voyage. The NZ Derby was won by the unbeaten Man o'War youngster in War Buoy. The M B "Dil" Edwards trained gelding was out by six and twelve lengths over subsequent NZ Cup winner Morello and Gay Junior, the only other pacers that bothered entering the event. War Buoy who went on to win his first ten races, set a new race record for the mile and a half of 3:16.2.

So devastating had Red Shadow been at the meeting, winning all four principle races, that he was installed favourite over Walla Walla and Harold Logan for the first round of match races on March 31. However, everyone knew Red Shadow would be produced in his usual immaculate condition, so most of the attention was focused on the "veterans", Walla Walla and Harold Logan, who were both virtually twice Red Shadow's age. Roi l'Or and Free Holmes had beaten Harold Logan on his merits in their younger days, but his form was indifferent now and he was thought to be past his best. Twelve-year-old Jewel Pointer had been one of the north's best performers for many years, but with advancing years was only given a runner's chance.

Walla Walla was really something of a mystery, in fact most had not even heard of him, paying little attention to events across the Tasman. However, when some of his performances around the tiny Harold Park circuit were related, suddenly he took on awesome stature. Walla Walla's career had been along parallel lines to Harold Logan. He made his first appearances as a five-year-old in Sydney in 1928, winning the Gunning Show Cup and the Tooth's K B Lager Handicap. Hopples or no hopples, it made no difference to Walla Walla, and in July of 1928 he won his first registered start in Melbourne, unhoppled. It was the start of a record breaking career, culminating in his 2:02.4 mile at Harold Park in May of 1933, a time which was easily the fastest outside America. The NZ record for a mile was Acron's ten-year-old mark of 2:03.6 at Addington, while Harold Logan's best mile time was a 2:04.4 effort at Forbury Park, a track considered seconds faster than Harold Park.

Walla Walla was bred, owned and trained throughout his career by Les Martin, a grazier and storekeeper of Dalton, New South Wales. Martin had been a great admirer of an outstanding pacer of the 1910s in Globe Derby, and when that horse was embarking on a stud career, purchased two mares in Princess Winona and Purple Ribbon to breed to him. Princess Winona, an unraced trotting mare by imported parents in Dixie Alto and Winona, duly produced a particularly handsome colt. However, as a two-year-old the colt was "all head and legs" and Martin lost interest in him. He was untouched until a late three-year-old and for a while fiercely resisted being handled. However, Walla Walla was soon proving himself a class above anything else in Australia and often so long were his handicaps, he was to become immortalised by the saying "further back than Walla Walla." Among his numerous successes were wins over 12 furlongs at Goulburn from 168 yards and at Harold Park from 180 yards, while his longest handicap was 288 yards in the 1929 Goulburn Cup when he finished third.

Thus when Walla Walla stepped into the Addington birdcage to do battle with New Zealand's best, the scene was unprecedented, or at least for 30 years when Fritz and Ribbonwood had set the trotting world alight. It is impossible to recapture the excitement of the day in words now, so for a while we will step back into history, remembering we are 50 years in the past, and let the noted scribe of those years, "Ribbonwood" (or Karl Scott as he was better known) recall the events.

(Published April 5, 1934, NZ Referee).
"From a very early hour the trams and taxis did a roaring trade. People were seen walking to the course from 9:30am and by 11:30 traffic control at the course entrances was a most difficult task. They continued to arrive in thousands until the appointed hour of the Invitation Match, and by this time grandstand accommodation was at a premium. Inside and outside the course every possible vantage point was taken. The Showgrounds fence, and the back fence of the course, cattle trucks and carriages in the railway yard, the workshops roof, and the roofs of private houses adjacent to the course were loaded with humanity. From the crowd covering the lawns came a steady drone that could be likened to the roar of an Eastern market place.

"But the crowd round the totalisator dispersed much earlier than usual, and five minutes before closing time the totalisator was being patronised by only a few stragglers who were probably imbued with purely gambling instincts, and who were not particularly desirous of obtaining the best possible view of the race. It is safe to say that many thousands did not make any investment on the race. They went solely to see the champions in action, and monetary interests became a secondary consideration with many of the 22,000 present.

"The CJC as well as retailers, hotel keepers and bording house keepers have benefitted by the enterprise of the Metropolitan Trotting Club in arranging the match races. One incident will give some idea of the tremendous interest it has engended. Of nine men staying at one hotel, six admitted that it was the first trotting meeting they had attended. That is a large percentage and does not hold good in all cases. But one can safely assume that the increase of £11,985 in the totalisator investments on the first day was represented by the drawing influence of the Invitation Match.

Walla Walla was the first horse to enter the birdcage and when he was driven round by his owner, unstinted applause came from the dense crowd around the birdcage. It had an unsettling effect on Walla Walla, who got on his toes immediately and showed nervousness during the preliminary that his owner stated was due to the surroundings and a multitude his champion had never seen before. When Harold Logan appeared, prancing along to the plaudits that only a public idol receives, the hero of 'ten thousand' fights was given the warmest reception of all the contestants. He has gained a place in the estimation of the sporting public that will never be surpassed, even when his memory is dimmed with time. Red Shadow, the best conditioned horse of the field, made a marvellous impression in his 'Sunday waistcoat' as he was enthusiastically received. Roi l'Or, who, perhaps, did not look as though he had all his medals on, also came in for a tremendous round of applause, and little Jewel Pointer was received as a battle-scarred old veteran with a runner's chance.

"Walla Walla and Roi l'Or were both restive at the start, and they held up the despatch for nearly two minutes. Harold Logan stood like a statue, and Red Shadow and Jewel Pointer gave little trouble. Walla Walla continued to rear up and back out, but eventually they were all caught nearly in line. Walla Walla began ver fast and was soon showing out from Harold Logan and Red Shadow, while Roi l'Or and Jewel Pointer were slow to muster their speed. Walla Walla drew out by two lengths clear of Harold Logan at the end of a quarter, and Red Shadow was about the same distance back, and then Jewel Pointer and Roi l'Or at close intervals. Jewel Pointer moved up to be almost on terms with Red Shadow three furlongs from home, but from this stage the race was a duel between Walla Walla and Harold Logan. Walla Walla reached the straight with Harold Logan challenging on the outside of him.

"The crowd had cheered wildly from the outset, but when Harold Logan drew up to Walla Walla a furlong from the post, the mingled advice and exhortations were deafening. 'Harold Logan wins' came from thousands of throats and halfway down the straight the New Zealander certainly appeared to have the measure of the
Australian. About 50 yards from the post they drew level again, but Walla Walla had a little in reserve, and gradually drew out from Harold Logan, and passed the post a neck in front. Red Shadow, flat out, was three lengths away, Jewel Pointer four lengths farther back, and Roi l'Or about two lengths away.

"The crowd literally went mad with delight. They would have liked to see our champion beat Walla Walla, but the fact that the Australian came again when apparently beaten, and won the most hair raising duel ever witnessed at Addington, left them hoarse but satisfied. It took the police all their time to prevent a section of the crowd from mobbing the winner when he was returning to the birdcage, but more was to follow. On their way back to the sheds, Walla Walla and Mr Martin were effectively mobbed. Police protection had to be availed of, and, before the crowd dispersed, several volunteers had to be called upon to protect the police, or assist them. 'My greatest hope has been realised,' stated Mr Martin. 'The demonstration fairly staggered me.' 'The best horse won,' said Mr E F C Hinds, owner of Harold Logan. 'I am quite satisfied.'"

The best horse had won and in world record time for a standing start mile of 2:04.2.

The subsequent invitation races at Addington, Alexandra Park, Forbury Park, Oamaru and Wellington were understandably anti-climatic, with Walla Walla failing to reproduce his best.

The second day of Addington's Easter meeting saw Walla Walla, Harold Logan, Red Shadow, Jewel Pointer and Ces Donald's Lindbergh return for a clash over a mile and a half. Harold Logan won easily after Walla Walla had put his foot through Jewel Pointer's cart with about a mile to run. Walla Walla had begun slowly and was trying to get out of a pocket on the rails when the incident occurred. A youthful Maurice Holmes who drove Harold Logan throughout the series, received some criticism for "walking" the field in the early stages. With Harold Logan reeling of his last half mile in close to 59 seconds, he gave nobody a show, beating Red Shadow by a length with Lindbergh and Walla Walla six lengths away. Harold Logan recorded 3:16.4 for the journey, more than two seconds slower than Worthy Queen took in the main trot later in the day, recording 3:14.2 from 60 yards. Worthy Queen's time was to stand as a record for almost 20 years, Dictation reducing it in the early 1950s.

A few days later Walla Walla, along with stablemate Auburn Lad and Worthy Queen, was back at Addington for a special attack on a 2:00 mile. Auburn Lad, also by Globe Derby, was owned, trained and driven by Bill McKay, who had accompanied Martin to NZ to drive Walla Walla. Auburn Lad had won well on the second day of the Easter meeting, beating Roi l'Or and Kingcraft over two miles. Several thousand enthusiasts were on hand to witnessthe time trials, but any chance of Australasia's first 2:00 mile were extinguished when one of those infamous Canterbury easterlies blew up. Walla Walla was the first to trial and sensationally raced up the Addington straight, into the wind, to pass the first quarter in 28 seconds, carrying on to the half in 58.4. Not surprisingly, he tired noticeably over the final quarter, taking over 34 seconds to complete the mile in 2:03.8. More sensibly handled by McKay, Auburn Lad went through the sections in 29.6, 60.8, amd 1:30.6 and stopping the clock at 2:02.4, equalling Walla Walla's Australasian mile record.

However the star of the show was Jack Shaw's sleek little trotting mare Worthy Queen. Trotting in the style she had become so admired for, Worthy Queen passed each quarter in close to even time, and although tiring as she completed the journey, recorded 2:03.6, a mark which stood as the fastest in NZ for no less than 30 years. Worthy Queen failed to win a race afterwards, being handicapped out of most events and more often than not competing against pacers, where she was placed three times, including a third to Indianapolis at Wellington later in the season. She had her last start in the 1934 Dominion Handicap over a mile and a half, finishing fourth after sharing the back mark of 36 yards with the winner Trampfast, Huon Voyage, Olive Nelson and Wrackler, the latter three being past winners of the event.

The third and fourth rounds of the invitation races were held at Alexandra Park. Harold Logan was an easy winner of the first, leading throughout to beat Auburn Lad and Red Shadow, but in the second he drifted off the rails at a vital stage and allowed Impromptu and Red Shadow through to beat him narrowly. Walla Walla had not travelled north but he and Harold Logan clashed at Forbury Park where the track was so bad they were forced to race in the centre of the course. Walla Walla set a strong pace in the early stages but had no answer when challenged by Harold Logan in the straight. The concluding invitation events at Oamaru and Wellington also fell easy prey to Harold Logan, with Walla Walla struggling. However it was later revealed that the stallion had been suffering from a severe cold.

Walla Walla returned to Australia to enjoy a long and successful stud career at the property of his owner, dying in 1952 at the age of 30. He sired numerous top class performers, including Radiant Walla, Wirra Walla (grandsire of Apmat), Bruce Walla and the dam of Ribands, but unfortunately nothing anywhere near his own class.



Credit: Frank Marrion writing in NZ Trotting Calendar 8Feb84

 

YEAR: 1943

MATCH RACE 27 March 1943

The match race between Haughty and Gold Bar at Addington on March 27 is acknowledged by veteran sportsmen who have seen all the big match races between two horses, to have been the best of all these contests.
Not because a new match race of 2.00 2/5 was made by the winner Haughty, and not because of the interest it created.

The Ribbonwood-Fritz match brought a record crowd from all parts of the Dominion and the Native Chief-Great Bingen was another highly-publicised event that drew many thousands from Auckland to the Bluff. But the Haughty-Gold Bar match was a "last-minute" arrangement, and there was no large purse to act as a spur to record-breaking. And so the majority of the public were expecting little and came away highly delighted at being treated to such a magnificent duel.

The general idea before the race seemed to be that a mile in around 2.04, with a last half in about a minute, would be all that would be asked of the champions, and the fact that the speed was on all the way and the first half was run in 59 1/5 secs was a pleasant surprise for the thousands of lovers of a good horse who were present. They accepted it as a nice compliment on the part of the owners and drivers to their interest in the sport, and it is safe to say that all connected to the two horses have gone up considerably in the estimation of all sporting folk.

Mr Ben Grice was as pleased at winnnig this match race as he was at winning the NZ Cup, and so was the driver, O E Hooper. Free Holmes, who drove Gold Bar, was a real factor in the success of the contest because of the manner in which he got Gold Bar away on terms with Haughty at the first time of asking. There was no suggestion of 'sparring.' In fact, the co-ordination between starter A J Hastings, the drivers and the horses was clockwork in its precision. And it was certainly a great day for the Grices.

Credit: 'Ribbonwood' writing in NZ Trotting Calendar 7Apr1943

 

YEAR: 1958

BURNS NIGHT

The death was reported recently of the 1949 NZ Derby Stakes winner, Burns Night. Burns Night died suddenly on the property of his owner, the Methven trainer, G McKendry.

Burns Night, a son of U Scott and Festival, was one of the best pacers of his era and won over all distances, being outstanding over a mile and five furlongs journey.

On the third day of the NZ Metropolitan Trotting Club's Easter meeting in 1953, Burns Night accomplished something unique in the annals of the light-harness sport when he created two world records in the one day. That day he won the Easter Handicap in 3.22 for the mile and five furlong journey and in the concluding event, the Au Revoir Free-for-all he paced the mile journey from a standing start in 2.02 3/5, both records. Those times have since been lowered, the first by Ribands and the second by Johnny Globe.

Burns Night was bought by McKendry for £500 when 10 days old and he won £18,020 in stakes. In all, Burns Night gained 16 wins and 25 placings, two of his wins being in free-for-alls. He may not have been an idol of the public such as Harold Logan, Highland Fling or Johnny Globe, but there is no doubting he was a grand pacer.

-o0o-

Two world's records were broken by Burns Night at Addington on Saturday, the concluding day of the NZ Metropolitan TC's Easter Meeting. He won the Easter Handicap in 3:22 for the mile and five furlongs lowering the previous record of 3:22 3-5 standing to the credit of Vedette since 1951.

Three hours later Burns Night made short work of a great field in the Au Revoir Free-For-All, his time for the mile being 2:02 3-5, a world's record from a standing start. The previous record in harness was Walla Walla's 2:04 1-5, put up in the first of the Invitation Match Races at Addington in 1934. In saddle, from a standing start, Gold Bar won in 2:03 3-5 on the same track in 1942.

Burns Night won the Easter Handicap to the accompaniment of a noisy demonstration from a section of the crowd. It appeared, however, that there was as much clapping and cheering as booing. An inquiry was held into Burns Night's previous unplaced performances at the meeting and it was decided to take no action. Burns Night was never near the fence over the last mile of the Easter Handicap, and it was a great effort on his part to come from sixth - very wide out - at the home turn and win going away by a daylight margin. Burns Night's time, 3:22, is a 2:04 2-5 mile rate, a phenominal run from an exacting handicap and over a good deal of extra ground.

The mile free-for-all was just as easy for him. Drawn in the second line, about 6 yards behind the front row, he overcame this disadvantage with a fast beginning and he was soon racing close up on the rails about the middle of the field. He had Petite Yvonne and Johnny Globe measured off at the distance, and although Vedette finished well, he had no chance with Burns Night, who won most convincingly. This time the whole crowd cheered wholeheartedly. Burns Night gave a superlative exhibition of pacing and the fact that he went at least 6 yards more than a mile adds to the merit of probably the greatest sprint race performance registered outside America - it is certainly the greatest ever recorded the world over from a standing start.

Now a 6-year-old, Burns Night was out in strong juvenile seasons; among his contemporaries at two and three years were Young Charles, Van Dieman, Soangetaha and Morano. Burns Night was the hard-luck horse of the 2-year-old classics in the 1948-49 season. He made only four appearances, being beaten by a length by Morano in the Timaru Nursery Stakes, going under by the same margin to Young Charles in the Welcome Stakes, coming second, six lengths behind Young Charles,in the Oamaru Juvenile Stakes, and trailing along a poor fourth behind Farlena, Young Charles and Van Dieman in the NZ Sapling Stakes.

But things brightened up considerably for him when he turned three. At his second start he brought off one of the big surprises of the NZ Cup carnival by defeating the hot favourite Young Charles, with Van Dieman third and Soangetaha fourth, in the NZ Derby. He gave that form some endorsement by running Morano to a neck, with Vedette third in the NZ Metropolitan Challenge Stakes a week later and decisively winning the NZ Champion Stakes at Ashburton, from Van Dieman at his next start. Van Dieman beat him narrowly in the Charles Cross Stakes at New Year, but that was no disgrace as things turned out: Van Dieman developed into a NZ Cup winner.

Burns Night, as a 4-year-old, opened the 1950-51 season with a flourish, winning at his first appearance, the Geraldine Cup. He looked a coming young stayer the day he won the Moorhouse Handicap at the Canterbury Park New Year Meeting, 1951, in the good time of 4:19 4-5 in this 4:40 class and, following a lapse of form for the next two months, he came into his own again with a slashing victory over a seasoned field in the Timaru Centennial Cup in March, 1951.

During the 1951-52 season Burns Night developed into one of the finest handicap horses in the land. He made a somewhat timid opening with his third placing behind Te Maru and Realm Again in the Heathcote Handicap at the Metropolitan August Meeting and a poor showing in hs following race at New Brighton, but at his next appearance he rang rings around Star Rosa and Palava in the Methven Cup. In successive starts at the 1951 NZ Cup Meeting he finished second to Laureldale in the Empire Handicap, won the Australasian Handicap from Adorian and Mundanity, and the Flying Mile from Adorian and Mighty Song in 2:05 2-5. His next three runs resulted in a meritorious third from 48 yards in the Boxing Day Handicap at Ashburton, in which he registered 3:10 3-5 for a mile and a half, and wins in the Canterbury Handicap and the Mason Handicap at New Year, 1952. In these latter two races he defeated such high class pacers as Van Dieman, Vedette and Parawa Derby.

Came the NZ Metropolitan TC's Easter Meeting, 1952, and Burns Night, after finishing third in the Rattray Handicap to Maori Home and Johnny Globe, proved much too good for Zulu and Maida Dillon in the Williams Handicap on the second day and, started in the Electric Stakes, of a mile and a quarter, later the same afternoon, he gained his first free-for-all success, the minor placegetters being Zulu, Vedette and Van Dieman.

This season Burns Night's form has not been easy to follow. He took some time to reach his best in the early part of the season. He had a profitable time at Forbury Park in January, finishing second in the Forbury Free-for-All to Soangetaha on the first day, and winning the principal event, the Irwin Handicap and finishing second to Johnny Globe in the Champion Free-for-All, on the second day.

He was one of five champion pacers to go to Timaru for an exhibition mile race last month, but he went very poorly indeed. Again on the first two days of the Metropolitan Easter Meeting his performances were abject in the extreme, and the public were scarcely prepared for his sharp recovery on the concluding day, hence the annoyance of some of the onlookers.

Burns Night was bought by G McKendry from his breeder, Mr N G Mason, before he raced. Burns Night has now won 15 races and £16,430 in stakes. He is a good type of brown entire by U Scott from Festival, a mare picked up on the bargain counter by Mr N G Mason, of Rangiora, who has bred Burns Night and Gay Piper from her. Mr Mason bought Festival at the late E C McDermott's dispersal sale in 1938 for a few pounds. Dunmore one of Festival's earlier foals bred by McDermott, was a good performer for McKendry as far as he went - in his first season on the racetrack his record was six wins, five thirds and three fourths in 16 starts.

Festival was a tidy stake-winner for McDermott in depression times when £100 to the winner was quite a pile of money. She began racing as a 3-year-old and won her first two starts, both at Nelson. At four she started ten times for the very creditable return of four wins and a second. She won two races and was once second in 15 starts as a 5-year-old. She was more than useful over all distances, and in training she could reel off a mile and a quarter in 2:41, which was well above average in the early 1930s. Festival was got by the American horse Sonoma Harvester, from a mare by Prince Imperial. It is one of the shortest pedigrees in the Stud Book, but the calibre of her progeny - all of her five foals that have raced have all been winners - indicates that there must have been a good deal more behind her than these meagre details suggest. She was certainly no nondescript herself, being a clean-gaited, level-headed pacer, and her two sons, Gay Piper and Burns Night, both show breeding.

Credit: NZ Trotting Calendar 12Nov58

 

YEAR: 1948

Harold Logan & Maurice Holmes at the start of a NZ Cup
HAROLD LOGAN

Harold Logan died last week at the age of 25 years. The owner, Mr E F C Hinds, stated that Harold Logan's heart weighed four pounds. His lungs were still perfectly sound, but his teeth and gums were gone.

Harold Logan was a horse who became an institution with the racing public. His name was a household word. He was almost human. Everybody idolised him. Can't you still hear the cry re-echoing through the grandstands? "It's Harold Logan coming through." The cry was taken up by thousands, until it swelled into a mighty roar as the hero of a hundred fights broke another world's record. Harold Logan's deeds live on as an epic. He was, indeed, one of Nature's finest little gentlemen. Homer never sang of a greater hero than this courageous piece of pacing dynamite.

Harold Logan rose from comparative insignificance. His dam, Ivy Cole, was never threatened with fame, and when Harold Logan was born in a yard at the back of the Springfield Hotel, he was regarded by the natives as just another horse. But what a horse! As near perfection in racing qualities as we are ever likely to see. Harold Logan's third dam, Charity, was a thoroughbred, but was a poor galloper, and her track performances would scarcely have done credit to a back-country hack. To Duncan Abdullah she produced Wisconsin. For some years Wisconsin did duty as a shepherd's hack. Later she was raced, but was a decided moderate. Her owner, Mr J J Coffey, mated her with King Cole, the result being Ivy Cole, a good-looking sort; but she was injured and did not race. Ivy Cole, if she had never left another foal, earned immortality as the dam of Harold Logan.

Harold Logan had his first race at a Waimate Hunt Meeting as a 5-year-old in the 1927-28 season, when with his owner, the late F R Legg, in the saddle, he won easily over the mile and a half journey. He raced four times as a 6-year-old, but without any return. In fact, it was not until he came into the ownership of Miss E Hinds, at the small outlay of £100, and joined the late R J Humphrey's stable, that he began to show his real worth.

Nothing succeeded quite like Harold Logan. His onslaught on the West Coast of the North Island curcuit in the 1929-30 season was one of the cleanest sweeps on record. He took everything before him, and was later successful at Addington and Auckland, in all sorts of going. Each of his wins was more impressive than the last, and already he was recognised as a coming champion. By the time he had passed the 8-year-old mark he was among the stars. His victory in the Oamaru Handicap that year is still regarded by many experienced observers as one of his greatest performances. Buffeted from pillar to post, he was apparently out of the contest more than once, and it was a supreme effort in the straight that enabled him to get up and win in a blanket finish between four of the best stayers of that time. The public could not believe the watch when the world's record race figures of 4.13 2/5 for two miles were hung up for his third placing in the Midsummer Handicap at Addington in 1931. The previous best figures were Peter Bingen's 4.18 4/5. Harold Logan was time in 4.11 from post to post. Already he was one in a million.

His first victory in the NZ Cup came when he was nine. A brilliant win in the Weston Handicap at Oamaru pointed to success, but in the first division of the NZ Cup he was driven wide out practically all the way and just managed to struggle into fourth place and qualify for the final. He was allowed to go out second favourite in the final, but, more judiciously handled, he came away from Kingcraft in the straight after pacing his last half-mile in the sensational time of 58 2/5secs. The Free-For-All fell easy prey to him.

Harold Logan had now reached ten years of age, and he celebrated his birthday by returning after a spell to down Red Shadow in the National Handicap. He set new record figures for a mile and a quarter when he finished third in the Avon Handicap at New Brighton in 2.38 2/5, and subsequently won the NZ Cup Trial, a prelude to his second victory in the NZ Cup, in which he set a new race record of 4.16 2/5.

The following season he created a surprise at the August meeting by winning from a long mark over a mile and a quarter. His dividend was well into double figures and many and varied were the tales of people who 'let him go.' But now was to follow a period of eclipse for the champion. He failed to gain a place in the NZ Cup, was beaten by Red Shadow and Kingcraft in the Free-For-All, and it seemed that the new champion in Red Shadow was entitled to the crown.

It was soon after this that the NZ Metropolitan Trotting Club made arrangements for the Australian champion Walla Walla, to appear in match races with Red Shadow, Harold Logan, Roi l'Or and Jewel Pointer - and tremendous interest was displayed by the public in the track work of all these horses weeks before the event. Such an impression Red Shadow made by his NZ Cup and Free-For-All victories, that he was a firm favourite over Walla Walla and Harold Logan. The first of the invitation races was run over a mile, and Walla Walla, beginning very fast, set a new world's record of 2.04 1/5 from a standing start and narrowly defeated Harold Logan, with Red Shadow a fair third. This was the only race in which Walla Walla was seen at his best, and in all but one of the other five - run at Auckland, Forbury Park, Oamaru and Wellington - Harold Logan was the victor. These highly exhilarating contests - they put new life and enthusiasm into the sport throughout NZ - were the crowning glory of Harold Logan's 12-year-old career.

Enthusiasm knew no bounds when he opened up his winning account in the Avon Handicap, of a mile and a quarter, at New Brighton the following season. He started from the seemingly impossible mark of 84 yards. Those in front of him included such proven sprinters as Silver de Oro, Kingcraft and Craganour. Once again Harold Logan paid a large dividend; but winners and losers alike put their hands together and roared themselves hoarse when they realised that the irresistable Harold had bagged another world's race record. His 2.36 3/5 was then a world's winning race record.

This would have been enough for one season for most champions, but just by way of variety Harold Logan gave the record roster another jolt by finishing third from 72 yards in the NZ Cup and clocked 4.12 2/5. This was a world's pacing record for two miles, with no reservations whatsoever, and it stood for thirteen years. For this meeting a special two-mile Free-for-all, with lap prizes had been included in the programme, and Harold Logan was equal to outstaying Roi l'Or decisively after taking the prize from the second lap and collecting an additional £50. The mile and a quarter Free-For-All was just as easy for him.

Now wearing on for thirteen, Harold Logan was evidently at last beginning to take toll of his years, but his vitality still proved invulnerable, and he gained another victory in the NZ Cup Trial at Wellington. He did not contest the NZ Cup, in which his handicap would have been 84 yards. In the Free-For-All he was beaten out of a place. He again failed from a long mark at Easter, but one was still loath to write 'C'est finis' to a grand and glorious career.

And just as well, because, without Dr Voronoff or anybody else, he came back as a 14-year-old, finishing fourth in the NZ Cup, third in the Louisson Handicap, and winning another Free-For-All. He was given an official farewell at this meeting, and enthusiasm ran high when a garland of roses was placed around his neck by Mrs J H Williams. The crowd went hysterical with delight. One dear old lady showered the 'horse that time forgot' with rose petals, and children round the birdcage gave him a warm 'hand.'

Everybody loved this horse. His uncanny intelligence, unflinching courage, and perfect manners appealed to all. His terrific bursts of speed from rear positions round the best of fields always sent the pulse doing overtime and brought thousands to their feet to do honour to the horse who proved time and time again that nothing was beyond him.

At the barrier! He would stand there, the whole field in front of him, and, ears pricked and not a move out of him, he would watch the starter, as keenly as any driver ever watched him. And I heard one of his drivers admit that on more than one occasion old Harold was into his stride and full speed ahead before even his pilot realised that the barriers had been released. He has a sense of anticipation that would have lined up with Bert Cooke's!

In training Harold Logan was also little short of human. He knew the training track from the racetrack as well as any trainer, and he would not go any faster than he had to. But if any strange horse was brought along to work with him, he would go like fun to beat it, just to prove he could, and once he had done so he would not bother his head about it again. Now, that's one for Ripley, because it is on record that Harold Logan could size up his opposition as well as his trainer or driver. At the races, however, he was just the opposite, becausehe never stopped trying, no matter how gigantic the task.

They are not foaled better than Harold Logan.

-o0o-

Frank Marrion writing in NZ Trotting Calendar 8Feb84

Harold Logan was a gelded son of Logan Pointer and a non-standardbred mare in Ivy Cole, who was by King Cole (by Ribbonwood) from Wisconsin, she being out of a poorly performed thoroughbred mare. Harold Logan rose from total obscurity to become a household name in NZ, the idol of thousands. But it wasn't so much his perfect manners, devastating turn of speed nor undeniable will to win that saw him rise to such heights of popularity. It was his character. Harold Logan was virtually human, so intelligent he was known to train himself and run his own races. One famous instance was after one of his many wins at Addington, his driver commenting Harold Logan was into full stride before he realised the starter had let the field go.

Nobody had heard of Harold Logan when he began his first serious campaign as a seven-year-old, having just been purchased by Mr E Hinds for £100 and joined the stable of R J (Dick) Hunphreys. However, after a North Island campaign in the winter of 1930, where he was unbeaten in four starts at Wanganui, Hawera and Taranaki in the space of a fortnight, he was already among the stars. After winning at Addington, Harold Logan travelled to Auckland where he scored a double, his final start of the season resulting in a five length win in the featured Adams Memorial Cup.

He won his first three starts as an eight-year-old later finishing second in the Auckland Cup from 36 yards to Carmel (front) and winning the NZ Trotting Gold Cup at Wellington by four lengths. He was placed in his final three starts at Addington that season, including a third from 84 yards over two miles. Nobody could believe their eyes when his time of 4:13.4 was posted, the previous best being Peter Bingen's 4:18.8. He was timed from post to post in better than 4:11, figures unheard of and unequalled until Highland Fling appeared on the scene some 15 years later.

As a nine-year-old Harold Logan won his first NZ Cup, coming off a 48 yard handicap to easily beat Kingcraft (front), Free Advice (12) and Wrackler (36). The stake of 1500 sovereigns was half what the Cup had been run for in the mid 1920s. He also won the Free-For-All on the final day pointlessly. Harold Logan returned the following season to win the National Handicap from 60 yards, set new figures for a mile and a quarter in finishing third at Addington in 2:38.4, win the NZ Cup Trial at Wellington, and win his second NZ Cup from 60 yards, beating Glenrossie (12), Roi l'Or (24) and Red Shadow (12) by two lengths in 4:16.4, a race record.

Now trained by his owner at New Brighton, Harold Logan returned at the advanced age of 11 to win at Addington in August, beating Mountain Dell (front), and Red Shadow (36) from 60 yards over a mile and a quarter in 2:38 2/5. However, he was overshadowed by Red Shadow at the Cup meeting, finishing fifth from 72 yards in the Cup and being soundly beaten by that horse in the Free-For-All after uncharacteristically beaking in the run home. It seemed youth was about to be served, but Harold Logan still had other ideas.

Thus when Walla Walla stepped into the Addington birdcage to do battle with New Zealand's best, the scene was unprecedented, or at least for 30 years when Fritz and Ribbonwood had set the trotting world alight. It is impossible to recapture the excitement of the day in words now, so for a while we will step back into history, remembering we are 50 years in the past, and let the noted scribe of those years, "Ribbonwood" (or Karl Scott as he was better known) recall the events.

(Published April 5, 1934, NZ Referee).
"From a very early hour the trams and taxis did a roaring trade. People were seen walking to the course from 9:30am and by 11:30 traffic control at the course entrances was a most difficult task. They continued to arrive in thousands until the appointed hour of the Invitation Match, and by this time grandstand accommodation was at a premium. Inside and outside the course every possible vantage point was taken. The Showgrounds fence, and the back fence of the course, cattle trucks and carriages in the railway yard, the workshops roof, and the roofs of private houses adjacent to the course were loaded with humanity. From the crowd covering the lawns came a steady drone that could be likened to the roar of an Eastern market place.

"But the crowd round the totalisator dispersed much earlier than usual, and five minutes before closing time the totalisator was being patronised by only a few stragglers who were probably imbued with purely gambling instincts, and who were not particularly desirous of obtaining the best possible view of the race. It is safe to say that many thousands did not make any investment on the race. They went solely to see the champions in action, and monetary interests became a secondary consideration with many of the 22,000 present.

"The CJC as well as retailers, hotel keepers and bording house keepers have benefitted by the enterprise of the Metropolitan Trotting Club in arranging the match races. One incident will give some idea of the tremendous interest it has engended. Of nine men staying at one hotel, six admitted that it was the first trotting meeting they had attended. That is a large percentage and does not hold good in all cases. But one can safely assume that the increase of £11,985 in the totalisator investments on the first day was represented by the drawing influence of the Invitation Match.

Walla Walla was the first horse to enter the birdcage and when he was driven round by his owner, unstinted applause came from the dense crowd around the birdcage. It had an unsettling effect on Walla Walla, who got on his toes immediately and showed nervousness during the preliminary that his owner stated was due to the surroundings and a multitude his champion had never seen before. When Harold Logan appeared, prancing along to the plaudits that only a public idol receives, the hero of 'ten thousand' fights was given the warmest reception of all the contestants. He has gained a place in the estimation of the sporting public that will never be surpassed, even when his memory is dimmed with time. Red Shadow, the best conditioned horse of the field, made a marvellous impression in his 'Sunday waistcoat' as he was enthusiastically received. Roi l'Or, who, perhaps, did not look as though he had all his medals on, also came in for a tremendous round of applause, and little Jewel Pointer was received as a battle-scarred old veteran with a runner's chance.

"Walla Walla and Roi l'Or were both restive at the start, and they held up the despatch for nearly two minutes. Harold Logan stood like a statue, and Red Shadow and Jewel Pointer gave little trouble. Walla Walla continued to rear up and back out, but eventually they were all caught nearly in line. Walla Walla began ver fast and was soon showing out from Harold Logan and Red Shadow, while Roi l'Or and Jewel Pointer were slow to muster their speed. Walla Walla drew out by two lengths clear of Harold Logan at the end of a quarter, and Red Shadow was about the same distance back, and then Jewel Pointer and Roi l'Or at close intervals. Jewel Pointer moved up to be almost on terms with Red Shadow three furlongs from home, but from this stage the race was a duel between Walla Walla and Harold Logan. Walla Walla reached the straight with Harold Logan challenging on the outside of him.

"The crowd had cheered wildly from the outset, but when Harold Logan drew up to Walla Walla a furlong from the post, the mingled advice and exhortations were deafening. 'Harold Logan wins' came from thousands of throats and halfway down the straight the New Zealander certainly appeared to have the measure of the
Australian. About 50 yards from the post they drew level again, but Walla Walla had a little in reserve, and gradually drew out from Harold Logan, and passed the post a neck in front. Red Shadow, flat out, was three lengths away, Jewel Pointer four lengths farther back, and Roi l'Or about two lengths away.

"The crowd literally went mad with delight. They would have liked to see our champion beat Walla Walla, but the fact that the Australian came again when apparently beaten, and won the most hair raising duel ever witnessed at Addington, left them hoarse but satisfied. It took the police all their time to prevent a section of the crowd from mobbing the winner when he was returning to the birdcage, but more was to follow. On their way back to the sheds, Walla Walla and Mr Martin were effectively mobbed. Police protection had to be availed of, and, before the crowd dispersed, several volunteers had to be called upon to protect the police, or assist them. 'My greatest hope has been realised,' stated Mr Martin. 'The demonstration fairly staggered me.' 'The best horse won,' said Mr E F C Hinds, owner of Harold Logan. 'I am quite satisfied.'"

The best horse had won and in world record time for a standing start mile of 2:04.2.

The subsequent invitation races at Addington, Alexandra Park, Forbury Park, Oamaru and Wellington were understandably anti-climatic, with Walla Walla failing to reproduce his best.

The second day of Addington's Easter meeting saw Walla Walla, Harold Logan, Red Shadow, Jewel Pointer and Ces Donald's Lindbergh return for a clash over a mile and a half. Harold Logan won easily after Walla Walla had put his foot through Jewel Pointer's cart with about a mile to run. Walla Walla had begun slowly and was trying to get out of a pocket on the rails when the incident occurred. A youthful Maurice Holmes who drove Harold Logan throughout the series, received some criticism for "walking" the field in the early stages. With Harold Logan reeling of his last half mile in close to 59 seconds, he gave nobody a show, beating Red Shadow by a length with Lindbergh and Walla Walla six lengths away. Harold Logan recorded 3:16.4 for the journey, more than two seconds slower than Worthy Queen took in the main trot later in the day, recording 3:14.2 from 60 yards. Worthy Queen's time was to stand as a record for almost 20 years, Dictation reducing it in the early 1950s.

The third and fourth rounds of the invitation races were held at Alexandra Park. Harold Logan was an easy winner of the first, leading throughout to beat Auburn Lad and Red Shadow, but in the second he drifted off the rails at a vital stage and allowed Impromptu and Red Shadow through to beat him narrowly. Walla Walla had not travelled north but he and Harold Logan clashed at Forbury Park where the track was so bad they were forced to race in the centre of the course. Walla Walla set a strong pace in the early stages but had no answer when challenged by Harold Logan in the straight. The concluding invitation events at Oamaru and Wellington also fell easy prey to Harold Logan, with Walla Walla struggling. However it was later revealed that the stallion had been suffering from a severe cold.

For Harold Logan the series with Walla Walla could easily have been his crowning glory, but still there was much more to come. He returned the following season and stunned the trotting world when he won the mile and a quarter Avon Handicap at Addington from 84 yards. Eleventh favourite in the 13 horse field, Maurice Holmes got him home by a length in 2:36.6, a record which stood until the suicidal Gold Bar clocked 2:35 in 1942.

Starting from 72 yards in the 1934 NZ Cup, he found Indianapolis (12 yards) and Blue Mountain (front) impossible to beat, but on the second day he easily won a free-for-all over two miles, beating Roi l'Or and Red Shadow, and on the final day he won the mile and a quarter free-for-all by three lengths over Roi l'Or. In the Cup that year Harold Logan recorded 4:12.4, a record which stood for 13 years.

He was back again the following season to win the NZ Cup Trial Handicap at Wellington by three lengths after starting from 60 yards over a mile and a quarter, but did not attempt the Cup. Some idea of the ridiculous handicaps now imposed on Harold Logan was in evidence when he lined up on the second day, starting from 72 yards in a mile event. Indianapolis won fron 48 yards. He was a close fourth on the final day in the free-for-all won by Indianapolis over stablemate Tempest and Roi l'Or.

By now one could easily have been excused for writing "C'est finis" to a grand and glorious career but still Harold Logan had other ideas, returning as a 14-year-old in 1936 to finish a fine fourth in Indianapolis' third NZ Cup, then win the free-for-all on the final day over Tempest, Red Shadow, Roi l'Or and Indianapolis. This was finally Harold Logan's crowning glory and gave rise to a highly emotional scene when he was decorated in the birdcage afterwards. It was his last start for the season and seemingly he was retired with a record of 29 wins and 20 times second or third in 108 starts, earning just over £10,000.

But, incredibly, Harold Logan was leased and brought back into work as a 16-year-old, recording a couple more placings before the curtain fell on the career of a horse who really defied description. Appropriately Harold Logan's final start also brought to a close the career of his remarkable sire Logan Pointer, having been foaled only a year or so before Logan Pointer was fatally kicked by a pony, dying at the age of 15.


Credit: 'Ribbonwood' writing in NZ Trotting Calendar 21Apr48

 

YEAR: 1881

THE 1881 CLASH BETWEEN NATIVE CAT AND OUR PONY

It is 1881 and there are no standardbred stallions in New Zealand, no trotting clubs in the South Island, no races for top horses. The stakes in the races which were part of gallops programmes were pitiful and influenced the amazing "rorts" which haunt trotting to this day. Yet 1881 produced one of the most dramatic and most publicised trotting races never mentioned in our past.

One of the two runners went on to earn a unique place in our harness history. Native Cat, named after his odd grey and white flecked coat, was the first New Zealand trotter to win a feature race in Australia - in 1882 four years before the first full trotting meeting was even held in Christchurch.

Owners of good horses then could only make real money through "matches", backing their horse against all comers, usually on the roads. They became as common as race meetings are today. Some were for sums as small as £5 or to forfeit the losing horse to the winning owner. A few were for sums up to £1000. None compared with that between Native Cat and a little horse accurately named Our Pony in a special match at Forbury in January, 1881. Both owners, Billy Kirkwood and William Philip put up £500 (it appeared a Mr Gloyden actually owned Native Cat) and with betting reliably reported at over £3000 this was trotting with a profile never seen before. The stake was more than twice that Princess won in trotting's first feature meeting eight years later, and wasn't equalled for over 20 years.

Kirkwood was a Wanganui publican who had assembled a strong team of pony trotters - horses less than 14hh. He won Our Pony in a forfeit match in Christchurch involving another of his ponies Titokawaro, named after the Maori chief who terrorised Wanganui during the Maori Wars. Kirkwood, who died in Rotorua in 1913, later moved south and started a boom in pony trotting in Canterbury.

Native Cat was from further south and regarded as unbeatable in match races. When the syndicates put up their stakes excitement about the trotting match far exceeded anything the sport had experienced previously. Once again it was the Dunedin Jockey Club - which later promoted the historic 1889 meeting where Princess became a star - organising the race. Canterbury Jockey Club officials of the day would probably have rather been seen bathing nude in the Avon than advancing the cause of the "illegitimate" sport. Small wonder some trotting fans have never to this day forgotten!

However the erudite local racing editor Joe Chadwick, gave it plenty of space (he later claimed to have had a share in Our Pony earlier in its career) and he had been the handicapper for the first trotting club in New Zealand in Wanganui. Our Pony, which had won several lucrative matches in Wanganui (Kirkwood once unwisely also backed himself against the rival owner in a 100 yard foot race as well as the foot race. His opponent, J H Pollock, was a near champion sprinter and gave Kirkwood 20 yard start, and still beat him) and was an utterly reliable betting horse on the big day. By Ake Ake, a respected sire of road trotters then, she was ridden at Forbury by Harry Goodman, later a famous New Zealand gallops trainer.

However the betting men of Dunedin, flush with their goldmine funds, thought Native Cat, who towered over his 13,2hh rival would do the same on the track. The race was part of the Otago autumn carnival and a record crowd fronted up for the momentous occasion. Native Cat's record meant he was required to give five seconds start. As it happened the race was a non-event. Native Cat turned on a rodeo act breaking several times during the race, which was out of character. Little Our Pony, foolproof on such occasions, drew out to win easily. There were a lot of empty wallets in Dunedin that night.

With no other big stakes in the wind Native Cat was sent to Australia and at the Sydney Driver's Clubs meetings, beginning in 1882, he won several feature events against the best trotters in Australia. For a time he was trained by Frank Balwin, an American who had emigrated to Australia and was the leading professional of his time Balwin once described Native Cat as "an exceptionally kind and obedient animal". For much of his later career the grey was trained by Bill Kelso, who went on to become a famous Australian thoroughbred trainer, as was his son.

Our Pony posted another milestone as a winner at the first trotting meeting held in Canterbury, at Heathcote in 1886. She should have won two races but at a somewhat shambolic meeting, two horses which had dropped riders carried her off the course. Soon after she foaled to Balderdash in 1890 she was kicked by another horse and had to be put down.

Oddly, Native Cat met an untimely death the same year. Used out hunting, he took what seemed an easy jump over a small tree, fell and broke his neck trying to recover. His owner was distraught and the honest and kind horse's demise was of sufficient stature to find its way into Australian newspapers.

It is easy to dismiss iconic events like the Native Cat versus Our Pony events as too long ago to bother with compared to the "star of the week" achievments of today. Wrong. They took us from where we were and did not want to be to another level. Horses like Native Cat and Our Pony played a pivotal role on the harness highway and were as well known as horses like Smolda are today. Actually, to be honest better known. Halls of Fame, where are you?

Credit: David McCarthy writing in HRWeekly 13Jun2012

 

YEAR: 2010

PHIL COULSON

Phil Coulson, the man who caused the biggest sensation of all Interdominion Pacing Championship upsets at Addington in 1971, died this month. He protested to the last his innocence of the subsequent charges which earned him an unprecedented disqualification of seven years.

The Perth trainer-driver stole the Interdominion final with Junior's Image, suddenly rushing clear with 600m to run - a rare winning tactic at Addington - leaving his rivals flat-footed. He held on by a neck from Stella Frost to win the $26,000 first prize. Five days later it was announced the horse had a positive to caffeine and some months later it was disqualified along with Coulson.

Even in New Zealand there was disquiet over the case and Coulson's friends still point to his professionalism as the major argument against his conviction. "He was an absolutely meticulous horseman," recalls a Christchurch friend, Robert McArdle. "Everything in Phil's stables was immaculate, spotless. When he came to Addington he bought the horse a new feed bin because he didn't approve of Addington's ones and when the horse fretted a little over the trip he bought some pot plants and hung them around his stall. He could never have been sloppy enough to do what was claimed."

Coulson was no "wild west" horseman like some from his home state. He had won the 1967 Interdominion with Binshaw (his favourite horse) and only Frank and Fred Kersley won more driving and training premierships in Perth. He reined over 1000 winners and was an inaugural member of the West Australia Hall of Fame. He was the West Australian Sportsman of the Year in 1966.

"When a search was made of his stable area after the swab there were traces of the caffeine everywhere. As they said at the time it looked as though it had been sprinkled with a salt shaker. Nobody who knew how Phil operated would accept it could have been like that," McArdle said. McArdle and Aussie Eddie Sims had an option on Junior's Image going into the Interdominion and sold him to American Dunkin Donuts founder Bill Rosenberg, for whom he was a good winner.

Richard Trembath, a long time editor of the Australian Trotting Weekly, was another who never accepted the Junior's Image positive test. A good friend of Coulson, in 1978 he conducted a thorough investigation into the affair which he now describes as "a scandalous miscarriage of justice". The two-page feature which resulted helped earn him the annual Coulter Award for the best harness article of the year in Australia. "Phil always believed he had been set up. Some things I found out were disturbing. For example, the amount of caffeine found in the horse was very small. You could have got as much performance boost as from a cup of tea. A leading New Zealand horse won a Derby about the same time, returned only a slightly smaller dose, and the penalty? The trainer was fined $300 and the horse kept the race. One person on the committee (the hearing lasted three days) later admitted he nodded off listening to the evidence. There were a lot of question marks over the case and there still are."

Junior's Image would have been the first Australian-trained horse to win an Interdominion in New Zealand had he held the race. There were suggestions that agitation from people whose reputations might be affected by that played a role in the severe penalty handed down. "In the 40 years I covered Interdominions, Phil's drive was the best I saw from a tactical point of view," Trembath said. "In a single move he won the race. I am not saying Phil was a saint, but he would not have done some things with horses that were marginal, because the competition is such that most horsemen do at some time or another. But I would stake my life he would never have done it the way it was made out with the caffeine everywhere. It was just not his way. As a person he was a fine bloke. I was proud to call him a friend. He always assured me he had done nothing wrong with Junior's Image even years later when it didn't matter. But mud sticks and it is a shame many people over there only remember him because of the Junior's Image case."

Coulson, 77 when he died of cancer, served several years of his disqualification working on a crayfish boat off Perth in which he had an interest. Junior's Image was in fact the least able of many stars he either trained or drove. Coulson was credited by outstanding dual-gaited Perth horseman, Fred Kersley, as an "inspiation to my career".

Among the great horses Coulson trained, drove or both, were Village Kid, Gammalite and the mighty Pure Steel. His drive on Pure Steel in a famous match race with Satinover in Perth, when he used the champion's great stamina to wear down his brilliant rival, which had won 29 races in a row, was a highlight. Another was his drive on Village Kid to beat hot favourite Preux Chevalier in the West Australian Cup. The cup was Perth's equivalent of the New Zealand Cup and a race for which he prepared a record seven winners. Coulson was also credited with changing the style of racing in Perth with his introduction of the two and three-wide train and putting pressure on from the front after years of single file racing.

In spite of the Junior's Image affair, he was a popular personality and a hit with the media during his short stay in Christchurch. Some attempt was made by friends of Coulson here to review the case. Transcripts and evidence was gathered but it came to nothing. Coulson later said he did not fight the case personally (he stayed in Perth) because a story appeared in the Christchurch media before the evidence was heard. It said if he was not found guilty all the clubs in New Zealand would be up for the costs. So he was never going to get a fair hearing from then on.

Whatever the truth of that assertion and whatever the truth of the Junior's Image affair, the rest of Coulson's career proved he was indeed one of Australia's great harness horsemen.

Credit: David McCarthy writing in The Press 17 July 2010

 

YEAR: 2000

CES DONALD

Ces Donald was among the rare breed who became a legend in his own lifetime.

When he trained his 1000th winner in NZ - Forest King at Addington in February, 1972 - he was the first horseman to reach that milestone and in thoroughbred circles, it is a feat only matched in recent years by Rex Cochrane. To put this achievement into perspective, one has to appreciate that when Donald was in his prime in the 1930s and 40s, there were approximately 50 meetings per season, plus the odd races held at galloping meetings, and often eight races per meeting. Even towards the end of his career in the 1960s there were still only about 120 meetings a year with nine races - it was the early 1970s when licences began to be despatched like the Allies were dropping 'windows' along with bombs over Germany in WWII.

The most successful trainer in modern times is Roy Purdon, who joined Donald in the 1000 Club in 1985 when the majority of his winners came after a 15 year period when well over 200 meetings a season were the norm. This is not obviously in anyway meant to belittle Purdon, who when he retired in partnership with son Barry in 1995 had moved on to a staggering 2021 wins.

When Donald won his ninth Trainer's Premiership in 1963, he bettered the record held by James Bryce, whose eight titles were in the formative years of trotting. Purdon won three and tied for another on his own account, and another 17 along with Barry. A more appropriate yardstick is perhaps Derek Jones, who has now been training for about the same length of time as Donald's career. A two time Premiership winner with Jack Grant, Jones is presently sitting on 977 wins.

Donald's story is the stuff that books are made of - the names that passed through his famous Belfast stables read almost like a who's who of trotting annals - and one cannot do it full justice here, but we will attempt a condensed form.

Born in the Heathcote Valley, near Christchurch, to Joseph and Florence Donald, who emigrated from the Gurnsey Islands in the English Channel, Donald was practically riding bareback before he could walk. First taking out a licence in April, 1922, Donald had his first win as a trainer/driver later that year when the trotter Mangoutu won at Addington. A Galindo mare, Mangoutu had won twice in five seasons and had not won in 18 months when as a 10-year-old, Donald took her over and produced her to win the two mile Seaview Handicap from 36 yards by four lengths as eighth favourite. She won another five races for Donald, including the Forbury Park T C feature, the Dominion Handicap, from 72 yards.

In his first full season of training, Donald also won the Greymouth and Westport Cups and the 500 sov. Liverpool Handicap at Addington with Harbour Light, a son of Wildwood Junior who had been around the traps prior to Donald buying him for himself. People were already starting to sit up and take notice, but half way through the 1924/5 season, Donald was suspended from driving for 12 months when Wharepiana, after winning at Ashburton by five lengths, staged a dramatic form reversal at the Forbury Park Summer meeting. The Hal Zolock filly had failed to show up on the first day, but won easily on the second and was disqualified.

After serving his time, Donald bounced back in dramatic fashion when the newcomers to his stable in the 1926/7 season included the imported American pacer Jack Potts and the Author Dillon mare Auditress, both from other stables. They were to prove a decisive turning point in the young Donald's career in more ways than one - not the least of which was later combining to produce the NZ Cup winner Marlene.

Despite being troubled by unsoundness, Jack Potts proved a top class pacer. At the 1927 Auckland TC Summer carnival, he was beaten a head by dual NZ Cup winner Ahuriri (both off 36 yards) in the Auckland Cup and won the President's Handicap from 60 yards, beating among others Jewel Pointer, Peterwah, Kohara and Sheik. Line-bred to two of Hambletonian's famous sons in Dictator and George Wilkes, the aristocratic Jack Potts, who was owned by Alex Anderson after arriving as a 2-year-old, did however have a fair degree of non-Hambletonian blood in his pedigree, such as the 'Clays' and 'Hals.'

With five crops racing, Jack Potts was leading sire in 1938 and occupied that position for nine consecutive seasons, only being dethroned by the arrival of U Scott and Dillon Hall. Jack Potts sire numerous Cup class and classic winners, among them Inter-Dominion champions Emulous (48) and Pot Black (38), NZ Cup winners Lucky Jack (37,39) and Marlene (40), NZ FFA winners Pacing Power (NZ Derby), Indian Clipper, Knave of Diamonds, Fine Art and Clockwork, Sapling Stakes winners Frisco Lady, Twos Loose (NZ Derby) and Sir Julian, Horsepower (GN Derby) and further NZ Derby winners in Gamble and Air Marshall. His daughters were to produce the likes of Van Dieman, Tactician, Thelma Globe, Lady Belmer, Patchwork, Thunder, Rupee and Young Charles.

Many of the fine performers sired by Jack Potts came from Donald's spacious and immaculate 30 acre property at Belfast - now a wasteland situated between the Styx River bridge and the Pentland subdivision. Donald would later relate how Jack Potts initially stood in the Depression years at £7 and many breeders would pay the fee off at a pound a time when they could afford it. Even when leading sire he still only stood for 25 guineas and it was only towards the end that he commanded an appropriate fee. He was never really rushed by breeders at any stage.

Donald's stables were into top gear by 1930, the year he first won the Trainers' Premiership with a record 45 wins, and over the next decade he occupied that position seven times. Among the horses who reached the very best classes, or close to it, during this period, were Plutus (17 wins, Inter-Dom Heat), Lindberg (14 wins, NZ Cup division), Kempton (Dominion, Rowe), Royal Silk, Carmel (Auckland Cup),Bessie Logan (NZ Cup trial), Sir Guy (11 wins), Writer (Dominion), Great Way, Accountant, Baron Bingen, Blaydon, Brook Pointer, Clockwork, Dilnon, Ferry Post, First Flight, Grand Canyon (Australasian Hcp), Morning Sun, Night Beam, Quality, Pearl Logan, Pluto, Real Light, Ron, St George, Sir Author, Village Guy and Blondie, the latter a distinctive cream pacer.

Tonic, Stand By, Tan John (Dominion), Ambition, Biworthy (2nd Dominion), John Mauritius, Wahnooka and Mr Penalty were all high class trotters. Wahnooka, among many who arrived from other stables with little apparent future, had looked promising as a pacer, but was a notorious knee knocker. Donald discovered his trotting ability however and won 13 races with him - shod as a pacer. The trotter Captain Bolt and the pacing filly De La Paix were fondly remembered by Donald for their ability, but who failed to realise their ability. Captain Bolt, who won eight and would have won many more if he had been at all reliable, beat the champion mare Sea Gift in a match race, while De La Paix was considered better than Marlene before she contracted strangles.

Along with Jack Potts in the 1930s, Donald also stood his son Gamble, the imported sires in Lusty Volo and Calumet Axworth and the thoroughbred Airway at Belfast and at the height of his breeding activities the broodmare band numbered around 90. Dabbling with the odd galloper, Donald owned and trained along with others Crash, a sprint record holder at Riccarton for a time. Donald had also seen the potential in dairy farming in the 1930s and purchased a rundown sheep and cattle station at Bullock Hill near Okuku which he transformed into a showplace holding. He made various sizeable investments in this area - some of which were to practically bankrupt him on occasions over the years - and at one point controlled over 3000 acres of farm land. He was a regular at the Addington sale yards with truckloads of fat cattle and in later years also ran a pig farm.

Donald was very much a three meals a day man, a philosophy he took to the stables. "Meat three times a day" for the men and "the best of oats," crushed on the premises, for the horses. "If you don't feed them, they can't work" was a well known quote. Donald would also later relate that horses were not treated "as a mob." "They are all individuals. They are all different. Some want to be alone. Some go haywire if they are left alone. Each one is handled with understanding, no matter how nervous, or mad, or bad it may be when it first arrives here. None of the head lads or stable boys are allowed to hit a horse. We don't molly-coddle them, of course, but the rough stuff is out. Firmness, by all means; cruelty never. I only allow three horses to each lad."

If the 1930s were pretty much a Donald benefit, he showed no signs of slowing down in the following decade. In fact, it began with perhaps his finest training feat. Marlene, who had won the Auckland Cup the previous season, had for all intents and purposes broken down after winning twice at the Met's August meeting and had not raced for three months going into the 1940 NZ Cup. Noticeably lame prior to the race, and afterwards, she won in a ding-dong struggle with Dusky Sound over the closing stages with Donald's brother Ron at the helm. Ron Donald was generally regarded as a better driver than his brother - in fact a quite brilliant all-round horseman - but his light was to fade as he lost his battle with the bottle. Marlene only raced a handful of further times without winning and then only left three named foals. Donald also won the Free-For-All with Plutus and the Dominion with Tan John, beating Captain Bolt, while Superior Rank and Repeal were also successful at the meeting.

Soon after, Donald produced the brilliant trotter Rangefinder, whom he believed was 2:00 material at a time when pacers had only just achieved the feat. The son of Frank Worthy beat the best trotters around and on one occasion easily accounted for a field of 23 pacers in the mile and a quarter Strowan Handicap at Addington. Bayard was just a pony pacer and well past his prime when he entered the stable, but Donald gave him such a new lease on life that he finished third from 12 yards in the 1942 NZ Cup when Haughty went a record 4:12 4/5 off the front. Steel Grey was a superb grey trotter that arrived from Auckland late in his career who won the 1946 NZ Trotting FFA for Donald, while Checkmate was a top pacer in the late 40s with 11 wins.

In the early 50s, Ben Grice's brilliant Brahman joined the team as a late 3-year-old and Donald won 10 times with him, including a defeat of Caduceus in the two mile Ollivier Handicap at the 1956 NZ Cup meeting, before he broke a sesamoid the following year on the eve of the Cup, a race Donald was sure he would win. After one of his bad patches in the 1957/58 season where he registered just one win, Donald bounced back with a number of good sorts, none better than the Southland mare Lady Shona. She won 10 races and finished fourth in the 1959 NZ Cup behind False Step, Gentry and Caduceus. Not far away were Falsehood (Dunedin Cup), King Hal, Dandy Briar (Auckland Cup over Cardigan Bay), Gildirect, Urrall and Cairnbrae (NZ Cup), all Cup class pacers for him around the same time and who often formed a formidable bracket - sometimes five of six of them in the same race.

Donald had three starters in the 1964 NZ Cup and opted to drive Ted Lowe's 8-year-old U Scott gelding Cairnbrae himself. After taking over at the mile, they left the likes of Orbiter, Lordship and Vanderford in their wake. In the latter part of the 1960s, the brothers Chief Command (NZ FFA) and Indecision -"who was twice the horse if he'd had any legs"- and Rauka Lad (New Brighton Cup) also raced and beat the best.

While he won with Cairnbrae, Donald was a rare sight in the sulky towards the end, preferring to employ the likes of Doug Watts, Doody Townley, Derek Jones and - when he could - Maurice Holmes. His last driving win was On Probation in April, 1966 - a horse he owned - and appropriately it was the Farewell Handicap at Hawera. He was for many years a keen supporter of the Club and a great friend of Club stalwart Alex Corrigan. Almost to the day, On Probation's win came 44 years after he first took out a licence.

It was in October, 1963, that Donald approached a youthful Bob Nyhan, who was engaged to his daughter Pat, and would marry her the following year, to become his stable foreman and No.1 driver. Ron Donald had long since departed and Kevin Holmes had left to set up his own stable. "Some of the owners had been complaining about having a different driver every week," recalls Nyhan, who had been briefly training on his own account after a stint with Jack Litten. While Nyhan jumped at the chance, he has some mixed emotions about that part of his life.

"Ces had always loved the challenge of a gamble, but towards the end, he really had a passion about stitching up the bookies. there were times when they came unstuck rather badly, and a lesser person might have given the game away, but he always bounced back. There were some horses that had been pulled up that often, when you asked them to go or hit them, they didn't know what to do. I well recall one day - I used to have a bet myself in those days - that I had got a mate to put the money on this horse I was driving, as I was sure it would win. When I arrived in the birdcage, Ces says to me 'you are not to win today'." Asked what he did, Nyhan said "I always did what I was told. You couldn't ask the outside drivers like Holmes and so forth not to try, so I always got the one that wasn't supposed to win. It didn't exactly help my career much at that point," said Nyhan.

Nyhan recalls Donald as being a terrific host, but he never once saw him drunk. "Often, it was when we had lost that he would shout all the boys after the races - and there were six or seven of them. He figured though that when we had won, there was no need to." Then there were the infamous boot parties in the carpark after the races. "Ben Grice, who was a great mate of Ces, often arrived full of gin and Ces would give him water because he didn't know the difference."

Nyhan says that a lot of Donald's horses had unsoundness problems due to the nature of his training track. "It was very fertile ground, but with any rain it became very puggy and hard on the legs. "I recall at times putting a truckload of sawdust on the track four to five times a day for a week just to give it a bit of binding. There was one day where out of 40 horses that were in work, I had to put bandages on 28 of them."

"He was ahead of his time though and was always experimenting with different types of feed. A lot of horses joined the stable that were not known to be very good stayers, but Ces was a great believer in feeding them glucose and they became good stayers. Long before swimming pools were thought of, Ces would stand a lot of horses in cold water. We always used to wash then in buckets of warm water - Ces said to me one day 'would you like a cold shower in the middle of winter?' He was the only one in those days too who would water the track in summer. He did not believe in automation though. Even when walking machines came along, he still preferred to have the staff walk the horses to cool off. I said to him one day that you could save a lot of money on staff with a walker and he just said don't be lazy."

Donald was still training when, literally, he was on his last legs - he had crook hips and was a familiar sight at the track with his walking sticks. A few weeks before he died in August, 1973, he had been told by his doctor that he would had to go into hospital for at least three weeks for complete rest. He only stayed a week - "he wanted to die at home."

Ces Donald presented himself to most, including his family and staff, as being gruff and difficult to approach. But Nyhan says he was amazed at the number of people who said to him at Donald's funeral how much he had helped them. "If someone was short, he had given them money, or if it was a young fellow trying to get started, he had given them gear and equipment. He did untold good for lots of people, but he never wanted anybody to know about it."


Credit: Frank Marrion writing in HRWeekly 5Jul00

 

YEAR: 1977

1977 DOMINION TROTTING HANDICAP

Nigel Craig, without doubt the best trotter racing in New Zealand today, gave further evidence of his class when he took out the Worthy Queen-Dominion Handicap double at the NZ Cup meeting. The Southern Hemisphere's first 2:00 trotter (1:58.8TT), Nigel Craig has encountered something of a big race 'hoodoo' in the past, and for a while it looked as though he might have to be second again.

Part-owner Bevan Heron took Nigel Craig to the front after 400 metres, giving northerner Best Bet the run of the race in the trail. Nigel Craig cut out the first 1600 metres in 2:06.6, a pace which ensured there would be no surprise attacks from the rear at a late stage in the race. After such a torrid pace, it was naturally left for Best Bet to lodge the only serious challenge, and momentarily, it looked as though the perfect trail he had enjoyed would prove the decisive factor in Best Bet's favour. But Nigel Craig showed outstanding fighting qualities, qualities of a true champion, to hold of Best Bet by three-quarters of a length.

Waipounamu ran on solidly for third nearly two lengths back, giving the first three placegetters in the Worthy Queen on the first day the major prizes again, though second and third placings were reversed in the Dominion.

There could not have been a more popular victory than Nigel Craig's and the reception given him on his return to the birdcage was one of the most generous at Addington for some time. It started again when the Governor General, Sir Keith Holyoake, presented the trophy to 73 year old Lance Heron and his 32 year old son, Bevan, who own and train the gelding at Amberley.

The rise to fame of Nigel Craig, in really just two seasons, has been well recorded, but his victory in the Dominion took his tally to 22 from 69 starts, in addition to 24 placings. His stake-winnings now stand at $75,365 in raceday earnings and a further $5100 as a result of earnings from a time trial and match race with Petite Evander.

Nigel Craig is 'still for sale' according to Bevan Heron, but perspective purchasers will have to come to light with better than the $80,000 offer which is the best to date. 'Six figures and he's for sale', said Bevan last week.

Credit: NZ Trotting Calendar

 

YEAR: 1971

FAMOUS FLYING MILE RACES

There have been fairly regular mile races from a flying start almost from the inception of trotting in the Dominion. The Wildwood v Prince Imperial, and Ribbonwood v Fritz matches long since became history to most living light-harness enthusiasts.

Not so the sensational Free-For-All at the NZ Cup meeting of 1924. In that flying start mile race Acron, in beating Realm by a length, with Logan Chief two lengths back, registered 2:03 3/5, which shattered the existing mile record against time of 2:04 1/5, held by Happy Voyage. In that free-for-all the minor placefillers clocked 2:03 4/5 and 2:04 2/5 respectively.

Another memorable flying mile, many years later, was the match between the champion mare Haughty, and the 'scorched earth' entire, Gold Bar, at an Addington matinee meeting in 1943 - the winner was Haughty, narrowly, in the brilliant time of 2:00 2/5 which stands as the match race record (between two horses) to this day.

Tactician became the first horse in the Southern Hemisphere to fracture two minutes in a race when he won the flying mile Rattary Stakes at the NZ Metropolitan Trotting Club's Easter meeting in 1957. His time was 1:59 4/5, which stood as the NZ race record for many a day. Only a nose separated Tactician and False Step, who went 2:00, third was Local Light in 2:00 1/5, and fourth Merval in 2:00 3/5. It was a wonderful contest.

Up till then the starts of these races were on a moving-up basis 'in the open' and one of the most capable officials in this capacity was Mr A J Hastings. The mobile barrier was still a long way off.

Lordship won a mobile mile race at a Northland TC meeting at Alexandra Park in 1967 in 1:58 2/5, which is the existing NZ record. He won by five lengths from Tobias(1:59 4/5) and Elegant Hanover(2:00). Another searing mobile mile at Addington of recent vintage was the New Year Free-For-All at the Canterbury Park meeting in January, 1970. The winner was True Averil, by four lengths, in 1:58 4/5. The second horse, Spry, registered 1:59 2/5, and Stella Frost third in 1:59 3/5.

The trotters too, have put up some excellent times in flying mile races. In 1969 Stylish Major won one of these events in 2:02 2/5, which was a new record for this type of contest; and the following year Johnny Gee lowered the record to 2:01 1/5 in winning the Stewards' Trotting Free-For-All at the Canterbury Park New Year meeting.

Credit: Óldtimer' writing in NZ Trotting Calendar 1Dec71

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