| PEOPLE |
YEAR: 1960
 |
| W T Lowe, Lucky Jack & R B Berry |
One of the most successful breeders and owners of pacing and trotting horses in NZ, Mr William Thomas Lowe, of Hinds, died at Christchurch last week. He was 83 years of age.
With a lifetime association with the sport, Mr Lowe was a good judge and had a natural interest and love of horses. He had raced more than 70 horses for stakes amounting to more than £80,000 and bred about 200 horses. His most notable success was with Lucky Jack, an entire who started three times in the NZ Cup for two wins and a second.
When he was 17, Mr Lowe went to work for Mr Max Friedlander, of Ashburton, who bred thoroughbreds and trotters on his stud farm at Lyndhurst anf raced them with success. From this interest in the sport, Mr Lowe bought his first pacer, Yankee Lass, from Mr Carl Nordqvist, of Methven, for £40, winning two races before retiring her to the stud.
Although she never won a race, Jessie B, purchased for £50, was the foundation mare of a good stud at Hinds for Mr Lowe. She produced Sherwood, who finished first in the NZ Cup of 1921 but was placed second for interference. The 1912 foal of Jessie B, Tairene, a chestnut mare by Wildwood Jun, besides Lucky Jack, one of the finest stayers to race in the Dominion, left a string of winners, including Trenand, Dundas Boy, Dundee and Belle Lorrimer. Her daughters have bred on with outstanding success and there must now be over 100 winners credited to the family. The progeny of some of the mares from Tairene have been responsible for producing such winners as Globe Direct, Trusty Scott, Molly Direct, Gloxania, Flame, Melton, Merval and a host of others.
Mr Lowe also raced, trained and drove Trampfast, one of the greatest trotters to race in the Dominion. Trampfast was one of the very few Logan Pointer trotters to race and he was minus one eye which was lost in an accident earlier in his career. Trampfast was successful against the pacers on more than one occasion and after a lengthy spell from racing during the depression years, Trampfast made a successful return to racing under Mr Lowe and later won several races when trained by the late R B Berry, including the Dominion Handicap in 1934. Mr Lowe had a long and successful association with Berry.
Mr Lowe was born at Mount Hutt and was educated at the Tinwald school. He started work at farms at Chatmos, Isleworth and Lyndhurst. He took up farming on his own account at Bankside and eventually settled on 1000 acres at Hinds in 1912. Over the years Mr Lowe increased his holding and eventually settled his whole surviving family of 12 on farms in the Ashburton county. The homestead block still comprises 640 acres.
Mr Lowe saw service in the South African War and was a former president of the Third NZ Rough Riders, South African War Veterans, and chairman of the Ashburton South African Veteran's Association. He took an active interest in the affairs of the Hinds district and was chairman of the Hinds Domain Board for some years, a member of the Hinds Farewell Committee, sports club and Ashburton Agricultural & Pastoral Association and he helped form the Hinds Bowling Club. He was a past master of Erewhon Masonic Lodge.
Mr Lowe's hospitality and generosity were proverbial.
For more than 40 years Mr Lowe was a member of the Ashburton Trotting Club and when he retired from the committee in 1958 he was elected a life member. He was also a life member of the Marlborough and Nelson Trotting Clubs and a member of the NZ Metropolitan Trotting Club.
He was married in 1903 to Miss Annie Drummond and is survived by his widow, seven sons, five daughters, 40 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Credit: NZ Trotting Calendar 13Apr60