Month: July 2020

Nick Wigley and Victoria Woodley at Riccarton last Saturday. RIGHT: Phar Lap’s close relative Monte Carlo wins the 1956 Victoria Derby for Nick’s grandfather owner-breeder Ken Austin

by Brian de Lore
Published 31st July 2020

The grandfathers of both Nick Wigley and Victoria Woodley between them made two purchases between 80 and 90 years ago that determined the destiny of the family of Phar Lap and set the scene for the future success of Inglewood Stud in North Canterbury.

Nick Wigley and Victoria Woodley are both long-time members of the Canterbury Jockey Club and, for many years, knew one another by sight only, but had never had a formal introduction. Both were oblivious to the fact that their respective grandfathers were well-known to each other, and one would sell to the other a mare in 1939 that would bring to the fore the vision and genius of Ken Austin.

Last Saturday at Riccarton, they met for the first time, via an introduction through The Optimist, and traded notes on their respective grandfathers who, between the two of them all those years ago, controlled most of the family of the immortal Phar Lap.

Nick had only minutes previously as an owner-trainer won the two-year-old event with his impressive debut runner Matchmaker, a daughter of Makfi and the Australian bred mare Somebody, by Fastnet Rock.

And just as a by-the-way, some of the occurrences revealed in this story won’t be found in any of the books on Phar Lap and are only available here as a result of hours of research in studying the Wigley family records of Ken Austin and searching meticulously through old newspaper archives.

Victoria’s grandfather was highly successful Christchurch businessman Fred Armstrong who owned two large draper-milliner stores that traded as T.J Armstrong & Company. In 1932, he decided to enter into the horse breeding business with a purchase at the Kaituna Stud dispersal sale – held eight days after Phar Lap had won his final race in the USA at Agua Caliente.

Phar Lap’s breeder A.F (Alick) Roberts had died in August of 1931, and the sale held at Addington showgrounds was a dispersal of all his Kaituna Stud stock, which included Phar Lap’s sire Night Raid and his dam Entreaty.

Although Phar Lap was by now world-famous, the sale took place at the height of the Great Depression and was so soon after the Agua Caliente success, prices reflected the times and disappointed the trustees of the estate. The local Press reported that “over 500 attended and while the bidding generally was brisk, prices were low.”

Phar Lap’s then 13-year-old sire Night Raid was passed-in at 2,500 guineas and his dam, Entreaty, two years younger at 11, sold to Fred Armstrong for 1,500 guineas – the buyer making his first-ever thoroughbred purchase. The Press reported that Armstrong had often expressed his wish to own a thoroughbred, and anticipating a depressed market, he instructed Riccarton trainer Fred Jones to go up to 1,500 guineas for Entreaty – she had a colt foal full-brother to Phar Lap at foot and was in-foal to Night Raid again.

It was an inspired purchase. The 1,500 guineas Armstrong paid, converted on the CPI government Reserve Bank calculator has a 2020 value of $182,000. It was the time of the Great Depression, a domestic market only and, therefore, cannot be compared to today’s globalised market prices for mares, which regularly sees $1 million sales and up to $4.2 million in the case of Sunlight earlier this week.

Eight days after the Kaituna Stud dispersal sale on April 5^th, Phar Lap was dead from arsenic poising, which made headlines in racing pages around the world and, if anything, substantially increased the value of the Entreaty three-in-one broodmare package.

Fred Armstrong was a businessman more than a breeder. He had a small property Riccarton property at 106 Waimari Road on which he kept horses, including family ponies, and on which he would later build-up his small band of mares – Mick Murfitt was the groom looking after all the horses.

The stables on the property are still standing today, converted into a sports pavillion, and the property is now the Ilam playing fields used by the University Rugby Club and cricket in the summer. The unmarked burial plot of Entreaty lies near the 10-metre line on the rugby field adjacent to the old stable block.

The Alick Roberts Kaituna Stud dispersal sale was also significant in that Night Raid was passed-in for 2,500 guineas. It opened the door for Nick Wigley’s grandfather, Ken Austin, to negotiate a standing arrangement for the stallion to take-up residence at Elderslie Stud near Oamaru. In 1931 Ken Austin moved to the stud from Australia to take over full management and was subsequently instrumental in turning Elderslie into the most successful stud in the country.

Entreaty’s new owner was also to send his black mare back to Night Raid to consummate their ninth union in nine years, but after foaling a filly full-sister to Phar Lap (later named Te Uira) she would miss getting in-foal for only the second time. Entreaty would stay on at Elderslie for a tenth consecutive mating to Night Raid, which in 1934 produced a filly foal named Raphis. This filly would become the foundation mare upon which Ken Austin would pivot Inglewood Stud’s future success.

Raphis didn’t go to the yearling sales or get to the races after sustaining an injury at two years. Fred Armstrong bred her as a three-year-old to the stallion Man’s Pal, but she failed to conceive, and when she also missed to the same sire in the 1938 season, he decided to quit Raphis at a Christchurch Easter Bloodstock Sale along with her two-year-old half-brother named Ilam Way (by Iliad) and Entreaty herself.

World War II was only six months old, and the sale low-key as a result. Ilam Way made only 25 guineas, Entreaty (empty for two years and now 18 years old) was passed-in at 100 guineas, and Phar Lap’s four-year-old full-sister Raphis went to Ken Austin’s winning bid of 40 guineas. It was a bargain buy that would ultimately bring years of continued success for Inglewood Stud.

Ken Austin was a man of many talents, and getting barren mares in foal was one of them. Once he had her ready, she went in-foal to the first service by the Elderslie Stud stallion, Solicitor General, and the mare would conceive to Battle Song in each of the next three years, as well.

Her first-foal was the top performer in CJC Champagne Stakes winner John o’ London, the winner of nine races. Unfortunately, she slipped the next year, but the third foal, retained for racing by Austin, was the 1946 Great Northern Oaks winner Swingalong – also second in the New Zealand Oaks.

Ken Austin turned down a big offer from America in favour of winning nine races with John o’ London. But the best Raphis produce was her fourth foal, Count Cyrano (by Battle Song).  As a four-year-old, he brilliantly won the1949 AJC Metropolitan Handicap as the 4/1 favourite, making up 12 lengths in the last half-mile, and was installed a hot favourite for the Melbourne Cup. Randwick trainer Frank Dalton considered Count Cyrano a certainty to win the Cup, but tragically, having his final gallop for the big race, he was killed in a devastating track accident when he collided with two horses coming through the gap onto the track in Melbourne.

The foal after Count Cyrano was the Lord Bobs filly, Bobalong, which would win at Randwick before a breeding career at Inglewood that in successive years produced the top performers in Monte Carlo and Del Monte – both sired by the ill-fated half-brother to Royal Charger in Lucky Bag.

In the ownership of Ken Austin and trained by Frank Dalton, Monte Carlo won both the 1956 AJC and Victoria Derbies. All told, he won 13 races including the AJC Metropolitan and VRC Mackinnon Stakes but in the 1958 Melbourne Cup, Monte Carlo finished an unlucky second to Baystone after striking interference in what was recognised as a roughly run Cup. He later sold Monte Carlo to the USA for a reputed 15,000 guineas.

Ken Austin could easily have had two Melbourne Cups on the mantlepiece, nine years apart, but it wasn’t to be. Where luck and judgement did come to him, however, was through Raphis and all her daughters, which he retained, raced and bred from at Inglewood Stud.

Within ten years of purchasing Raphis, Inglewood Stud was churning out more winners than any other stud in the country. More importantly, Ken Austin went from leasing Inglewood to owning it freehold with the financial flexibility to expand his breeding empire.

Raphis daughters Swingalong, Bobalong, Raphina and Deposit all met with a share of success in the broodmare paddock, helped by judicious Inglewood stallion selections that included Solictor General, Battle Song, Sun King, Lucky Bag, Defaulter and Messmate.   

The Raphis legacy lives on today through horses such as the recent four-times group one winner in Trapeze Artist. And the way this branch of the Raphis family found its way to Australia was through the Inglewood Stud dispersal sale in February 1960 following the death of Ken Austin the previous December.

The sale topper was expected to be the stallion Messmate which Ken Austin would saddle and ride regularly right up to the time of his sudden death at the stud at the age of 78. Jack Lindsay of Balcarres Stud bought Messmate for 4,000 guineas to replace Count Rendered.

However, the top price was 4,100 guineas paid by Mr R. Bowcock of Alabama Stud, Scone, was for Monte Carlo’s sister and Bobalong’s five-year-old daughter Del Monte in-foal to Messmate with a filly at foot by Castle Donnington. Back in the Hunter Valley’s Alabama Stud in the spring, Del Monte produced a brown filly named Lilting – the stakes-placed winner of three races and eventually the dam of Golden Slipper winner Fairy Walk and highly successful Star Kingdom sire Planet Kingdom.

She is also grandam of three times group one winner Cheyne Walk while Deposit, which also found its way to Australia, is the second dam of AJC Doncaster Handicap winner Authentic Heir.

The success achieved by the descendants of Entreaty is extraordinary but far too extensive to list here. It’s fair to say that the late Ken Austin at Inglewood Stud made the most of his opportunity with Raphis, and although much less famous, Raphis was to Ken Austin what Eulogy was to George Curry.

Inglewood Stud was producing more winners than any other stud in New Zealand within a decade of starting and in the 1954-55 season also topped the prizemoney list. It didn’t happen by accident.

The sale of Raphis to Ken Austin in 1939 for only 40 guineas was Fred Armstrong’s loss, but no one could have managed the mare better and drawn so much success as Ken Austin did. The ownership of Raphis wasn’t the only transaction that took place between the two grandfathers of Nick Wigley and Victoria Woodley, and Fred Armstrong was well ahead financially on the Entreaty purchase within a couple of years of making his investment.

In late 1934, Hailey’s Bloodstock Agency, on behalf of an English stud farm, inquired about the possibility of purchasing a relative of Phar Lap. Acting for Fred Armstrong, Ken Austin negotiated the sale of Te Uira, the then unraced two-year-old full sister to Phar Lap, for the sum of 2,000 guineas – 500 guineas more than he had paid for the three-in-one package when Te Uira was in-utero.

Fred Armstrong also rejected several offers for Entreaty, including a proposal to breed to Night Raid to English time. The offer was for the 1935 season when the mare was rising 15-years and hadn’t been bred the previous spring after foaling Raphis.

The newspaper report of the day said that Fred Armstrong would agree for a fixed-price for a living foal irrespective of its condition or conformation. It also stated that “Mr Armstrong considered he was justified in asking a good figure.”

But when the letter came back from England it rejected the proposal owing to the large amount requested.

Ken Austin was undoubtedly one of the most gifted horsemen God ever put breath into. But he was also multi-talented on many fronts – an extraordinary horseman both as a rider and blessed with his own version of ‘horse whispering’ – able to do anything with any horse. His full story could only be done justice in a book, and this blog is merely a snapshot of what he achieved.

He was also an accomplished auctioneer, polo player, artist, bloodstock agent, administrator, studmaster, and commanded so much respect he literally ‘walked with kings.’

In 1920 he was officially entrusted with the task of finding suitable mounts for the Prince of Wales (aged 26), Lord Louis Mountbatten and Admiral Halsey when they visited Sydney on the battleship H.M.S. Renown, and he and the Prince (Edward VIII who was then heir to the throne but abdicated in 1936) rode a full track gallop on the course proper at Randwick.

The New Zealand-Ken Austin connection started in 1916 when he received in Sydney a letter from Canterbury owner George Greenwood requesting he inspect the Melton Stud yearlings at the Melbourne sales and select a colt that would be value-for-money. Together with his boss, H. Chisholm, they conducted the inspection and purchased for 230 guineas a colt by The Welkin from Light, which would be sent to New Zealand and later named Gloaming – the winner of 57 of his 67 starts.

In 1946, Ken Austin, along with J.G Alexander of Cranleigh Stud, Alister Williams of Te Parae, and T.C. Lowry of Okawa founded the New Zealand Thoroughbred Breeders Association – Ken Austin was elected its first president. His list of achievements is extensive.

Today, Inglewood Stud operates under the astute management of Ken Austin’s great-grandson, Gus Wigley. There is a noticeable spring in Gus’s step as he looks optimistically forward to the first yearlings of War Decree and runners in 2021-22 season, and continuing the tradition and standards set on this historic property by his highly esteemed forefather.

by Brian de Lore

Chris and Susanna Grace with the 1884 Wellington Cup. Graphic is a Grace-bred horse to have won the Wellington Cup but dual Flemington Group One winner Shillelagh is the best horse they have bred

by Brian de Lore
Published 17 July 2020

When you’re a descendant of one of the most successful owner-breeders this country has ever known, pressure may exist to uphold the family tradition, but the truth is Christopher Grace QSM isn’t a man who was ever looking back, and for most of his youth he was blissfully unaware of the racing and breeding successes achieved by his great-grandfather, G.G.Stead.

Chris was undoubtedly influenced by his father, though. George Grace showed he had racing in the blood but was also a dedicated farmer and family man and much more measured about horse ownership. He introduced Chris to racing on a rationed basis with a limit of one horse only on the farm for a then enthusiastic teenager.

In 1957 George took the then 16-year-old Chris with him to attend the Alton Lodge dispersal sale and funded the young Grace into the purchase of the then seven-year-old mare Tenderfoot for 350 guineas. It was a purchase that would set Chris off on a thoroughbred career path to countless breeding and racing successes.

Since that Alton Lodge Dispersal, Chris Grace has quietly built a thoroughbred empire with consistent success as a breeder, and has raced over 200 winners as an owner. The green, gold and white colours of Chris and Susanna Grace in more recent times were carried to victory in two group ones by their outstanding mare Shillelagh at Flemington, and last year in New Zealand by Hinerangi in the listed James Bull Rangitikei Gold Cup – a win that meant much more to the Graces’ sentimentally than it did for the stake or black type.

But Chris had a tough start to ownership – one that would have demoralised most enthusiastic young breeders trying to make their way with one broodmare. In consecutive years Tenderfoot was bred to Chatsworth II, and those matings produced fillies that he was required to sell to comply with his father’s one horse limit.

The first one sold was the 1961 weanling, in the birdcage at Awapuni, bought for 50 guineas by an astute judge and breeder Lorraine Jamieson

In those days, an auction of horses would often take place in the birdcage after the last race on selected race days. The first one sold was the 1961 weanling, in the birdcage at Awapuni, bought for 50 guineas by an astute judge and breeder Lorraine Jamieson.  And no purchase could have been more astute as that filly would be subsequently named Chantal and would sweep all before her both on the racecourse and at stud.

Chantal won nine races, including three group ones – the George Adams Handicap at Trentham at three, before Sydney where at four years she took the 1965 Epsom Handicap by five lengths from subsequent Melbourne Cup winner Galilee, and the George Main Stakes. At stud, she was sensational, producing seven winners of which four were stakes winners and two stakes-placed.

The year older yearling Chatsworth II filly was also sold in a birdcage following another race meeting and fared better at 150 guineas. Named Like Fun at home and Our Fun in Australia, she won seven races including the VRC Edward Manifold Stakes and was second in a Doncaster handicap and both the AJC and VRC Oaks, and later produced two top performers in Go Fun and Such Fun.

Our Fun and Chantal were the last two named foals out of Tenderfoot who died at a relatively young age before she could produce a foal from her final mating to Le Filou.

With the two Chatsworth II fillies sold, the now 21-year-old Chris attended the following Trentham Yearling Sale (1963) where he would make his first big purchase, after scraping together every pound he could muster, running three little businesses and moonlighting whenever possible. It was the O.E. savings for a trip that would never happen.

Hakawai won seven of her 12 races

For 230 guineas, he purchased a Le Filou filly out of the ARC Railway Handicap winner Foxbridge mare Te Awa (11 wins). Named Hakawai after a farm owned by his grandfather, she was trained by former top jockey Billy Aitken and proved top-class at two years, winning the inaugural Wakefield Challenge Stakes over seven furlongs at Trentham, and the Eulogy Stakes. She won seven of her 12 races but bad luck struck soon after her retirement when she died aged only four years.

Being by Le Filou who was known for siring stayers, Chris later lamented his decision to race Hakawai as a two-year-old, but conceded that when you’re only 21, and you’ve virtually been sleeping with the horse, there was no thought of being patient.

In those days training fees were around £10 a week which was twice Chris’s weekly pay. But the blow of losing Hakawai was at least softened by the insurers – Lloyd’s of London who paid out £10,000 which financed Chris into his first farm. It would take him another ten years to get the money together to make a serious broodmare purchase.

In the ensuing ten years, Chris and Susanna would owner-train 14 winners and have many more seconds – getting the horses fit with hill work on the ups and downs of their Hunterville farm.

South Australian trainer Colin Hayes purchased a four-times winning mare named Clearaway, which was a three-quarter sister-in-blood to Hakawai

Around the time of buying the farm, at one of those birdcage auctions at Fielding South Australian trainer Colin Hayes purchased a four-times winning mare named Clearaway, which was a three-quarter sister-in-blood to Hakawai, and Chris had never forgotten it. He had put his capital into the farm but now, ten years hence, he decided he would contact Colin Hayes to see if he could buy back into the family.

It had been an inspired purchase by Hayes for Clearaway founded her own South Australian dynasty by producing three stakes winners including the SA Derby winner Clear Prince, So Clear, Well Clear and the stakes-placed Clear Queen amongst her seven winners.

Following a trip to Lindsay Park Stud, Chris purchased Clearaway’s three times winning daughter Clearness which had contributed to Without Fear’s record-breaking first crop two-year-old season. And a year later he went back to Colin Hayes and bought Clear Queen by Ruantallan, so confident he was about the family.

He paid $100,000 for Clearness, returned her to New Zealand and bred from her the winning Zamazaan mare Hinewai which in turn produced the eight times winning Telegraph Handicap and Matamata Breeders’ Stakes winning mare, Morar (Otehi Bay).

More than forty years on and six generations after Clearaway, the Grace broodmare band is still dominated by the No.13 family that produced Hakawai, and success has been rewarded with the arrival of each and every generation.

The ecstatic young jockey that day was non-other than an apprentice experiencing the winning highlight of his career – Dave O’Sullivan.

As a point of interest, Hakawai’s dam Te Awa won her Railway Handicap at Ellerslie on Boxing 1953 witnessed by HM The Queen. The ecstatic young jockey that day was non-other than an apprentice experiencing the winning highlight of his career – Dave O’Sullivan.  

Hinerangi’s win in last year’s listed James Bull Rangitikei Gold Cup was significant for Chris and Susanna Grace for many reasons including Chris having been awarded the Queen’s Service Medal in 2014 for his services to the Hunterville community. Also, the race was named in honour of the late James Bull who Chris farmed alongside and who he was closely associated with during Chris’s long tenure as a committeeman of the Marton Jockey Club.

In 2001 Chris decided he needed to diversify and add new blood into the broodmare band. He commissioned Roger James to look at the Sydney Easter Yearling Sales at which he bought the Flying Spur filly later named Trocair.  On the track, she didn’t progress beyond winning a maiden, but when bred to Savabeel, she produced Tullamore which won five races including the 2011 Brisbane Cup for Gai Waterhouse.

The fifth foal of Trocair was Shillelagh, and while fate again played its part, this time, luck was in favour of the Graces. Chris had planned to sell Shillelagh as a yearling, but she came up with a haematoma at Christmas time about a month before the sales and was withdrawn.

Shillelagh currently resides in Australia and is in-foal to I Am Invincible to which she will return this coming season.

So, while George Grace may have denied his son the chance to keep Chantal all those years ago, that decision ultimately led to the purchase of Hakawai and later the pursuit of her family which has produced a numerous flow of top-class winners over so many years.

George Grace won two Grand National Steeplechases in 1939 and 1940 with a horse gifted to him named Clarion Call

Chris says his father couldn’t afford to have many horses although his did race and win two Grand National Steeplechases in 1939 and 1940 with a horse gifted to him named Clarion Call. He had 672 acres, a wife and four children, all of which he sent to private schools, and he determined that one horse at a time was enough. His mother also raced a jumper named Hi There and with him she won a Wellington Steeplechase and a Pakuranga Hunt Cup.

George Grace and Bob Stead of Sasanof Stud fame were first cousins and good friends, and Chris recalls the story of when Bob’s good Star Kingdom filly Starlit raced against Hakawai in the 1963 Champagne Stakes at Ellerslie, with Starlit winning. The two cousins and Auckland Racing Club President Alexander McGregor-Grant sat around a table with some open bottles and never saw another race.

Chris’s grandfather was a very active owner. He passed away when Chris was only three-years-old but in his time William Russell Grace had raced many good horses including the Great Northern Guineas winner Smoke Screen, the top two-year-old of her year, Mother Superior, Avondale Guineas winner View Halloo and the Wanganui Guineas winner and granddaughter of Eulogy, Russian Ballet, a filly by Nightmarch bred in 1935.

W.R. Grace was also a prominent committeeman at the Wanganui Jockey Club and was its president at the time of his death. He had farmed the property named Hakawai at Pahiatua before buying a 650-acre farm on the Borough at Wanganui.

Great-grandfather George Gatonby Stead won the New Zealand Derby 13 times

Great-grandfather George Gatonby Stead won the New Zealand Derby 13 times and the New Zealand Oaks nine times. He won the Auckland Cup three times, The NZ St Leger four times, the CJC Champagne Stakes 16 times, the ARC Royal Stakes 10 times, the Wellington Cup four times and the Great Northern Foal Stakes 10 times.

He also made many successful raids to Australia and was well known for relieving the bookmakers of their wealth. He won the inaugural NZ owners premiership in 1892-93 and repeated that feat 11 times in the ensuing 12 years.

Good thoroughbred families keep coming up with class racehorses. Christopher Grace has spent many years studying them, and has cashed in on the Bruce Lowe designation of No.13 which keeps coming up on his roulette wheel despite the number’s superstitious undertones.

He may not have looked back too seriously on his own pedigree, but it’s difficult to believe it hasn’t played a prominent role in the success story outlined above.

The End

Fake racing news only paints the glossy picture 

by Brian de Lore
Published 17 July 2020

Truth is stranger than fiction as the saying goes but the problem with racing today is that no one is telling the truth, and therefore the racing public cannot make the comparison.

We know the fiction dished up to racing people is strange but it’s becoming even more curious, and the fiction was again on show this week when some non-des-plume writer posing as ‘Newsdesk.’ wrote a story entitled, ‘Outgoing McKenzie hails Racing Industry Act.’

Subsequent inquiries to NZTR has revealed the author of this advertorial journalism is Andrew Birch.

It’s a hard headline to swallow given that Dean McKenzie and RITA was diametrically opposed to most of the changes made to the legislation between the first and second reading (and there were a lot of changes), but he is now displaying his versatility by adapting to it like a chameleon and is happy to accept the credit for all the gains made in legislation, given he is the boss of racing’s reform.

New Zealand racing administration has seen plenty of chameleons

The ability of the chameleon to change colour and adapt immediately to the environment in which it resides has long mystified the scientific world; in New Zealand racing administration, however, we have seen plenty of chameleons come and go.

The opening salvor in this article fails to convince in saying, “McKenzie believes his time at the helm of NZ racing is ending on a high with the passing of the Racing Industry Act.”

Let’ s get this straight! The Racing Bill reads only the way it reads because of a focused Transport and Infrastructure Select Committee who met most of the wishes contained in the well over 900 diligently written submissions including almost 100 who fronted personally for the oral hearings. They are responsible for this legislation – not the lines of arguments put forward by RITA, which performed poorly at the hearings (McKenzie) and was against many of the issues the industry wanted, such as retention of the IP (Intellectual property).

Further on in this story, McKenzie continues to use the pandemic excuse by saying, “COVID-19 was the ultimate curveball,” but Treasury throws cold water on that excuse in a paper that appeared on it’ s website that can be found at:

file:///C:/Users/User/OneDrive/Documents/NZRB-RITA/TreasuryRacingb20-initiatives-ia-4278244.pdf

On Page 4, Clause 5 says: “note, that due diligence on the RITA has confirmed that there were significant commercial and ownership issues that existed prior to COVID-19, and that the long-term commercial viability of RITA may be in question unless significant reforms are made.”

Treasury had PWC looking at the RITA books in March and Clause 5 confirms everything The Optimist has been saying about RITA’ s financial state over the past year.

Clause 6 confirms what Minister Peters alluded to in his pre-budget announcement: “note, that RITA is likely to require further additional support in the future to position the industry for recovery.”

It’ s not that difficult to conclude if you’re the recipient of $50 million from the Budget 2020 but still require further funding with a big question-mark on the long-term commercial viability, according to Treasury’s advice from PWC, then you’re skint.

…budget figures disclosed did not add up to delivering the funding for the codes for 2020 ($139.6 million)…

RITA still hasn’ t posted the full half-year report on their website, only an abbreviated version in News. It was put up briefly but taken down quickly and has not reappeared. The reason possibly because the budget figures disclosed did not add up to delivering the funding for the codes for 2020 ($139.6 million) committed to by Dean McKenzie and RITA. You can only cover up for so long – the truth will have to come out but no one is telling it at the moment.

McKenzie talks about how well he’s done with the legislation but fails to mention RITAs debt level to the ASB which is still reputed to be at $45 or $47 million.

Remember, it’s election year, and our Minister will not want any bad news for racing until at least September 20^th. To catch the votes, lousy news must be toned down to a minimum, and that’s why we are supposedly racing for the same stakes – the $139.6 million – although there’s nowhere near that amount of money available coming in on current revenue levels.

The get-out clause of a quarterly review on stakes money is sure to be used. And that’s why this good news story about McKenzie, who like Allen before him, is only fake news, strangely posted on the NZTR website.

Why would such a story appear on the website of NZTR promoting someone who has caused them the most grief in the past 18 months? NZTR supposedly represents the participants of the industry, and in fact, is in place to serve the industry in the best manner possible.

Where is the leadership? Racing people in New Zealand at the very least deserve some honesty, but no one from any organisation is currently providing it.

by Brian de Lore
Published 10th July 2020

True Enough’s 87-year-old owner-breeder Mick Preston is the only man remaining on the planet today who can claim he was once the ‘handler’ for the great English Derby-winning sire and worldwide thoroughbred influence in Hyperion.

Greatness in the thoroughbred world is often contentiously debated, but on the score of sheer racecourse talent coupled with success in the breeding barn, Hyperion easily ranks in the top dozen horses ever foaled, if not the top six.

The year 1933 was pivotal in this story. Brendan Arthur Vivian (Mick) Preston was born in May of that year, and less than a month later, the diminutive racehorse Hyperion would come out in the first week of June at Epsom and trounce a talent-laden Derby field by four lengths. Fast forward 19 years and Mick and Hyperion would come together for an unlikely liaison in quirky circumstances.

Someone decided Brendan should instead be Mick at a very young age, and the nickname stuck, just as his well-known dad, Arthur Edmund, was always known as Ted which may well have come from the need to differentiate Ted from his father who was Arthur Edward.

This well-known family of Wellington butchers were also successful horse-breeders and owners, but it was Ted who founded West Derby Stud at Levin and stood the highly successful Knight’s Romance who made his stud debut in the spring of 1952. Mick was absent from West Derby for the arrival of Knight’s Romance because he had arrived in England after the long sea voyage from New Zealand to spend most of the year learning from the best at Lord Derby’s Woodland Stud at Newmarket.

Mick’s nine-month UK stint at Woodland Stud had been arranged by J.G. (Jack) Alexander of Cranleigh Stud

Mick’s nine-month UK stint at Woodland Stud had been arranged by J.G. (Jack) Alexander of Cranleigh Stud fame and financed by Mick’s father, Ted. Jack Alexander was the man who bred La Mer amongst many good horses but was also internationally recognised for his Romney ram breeding operation near Wanganui from which he had developed contacts all over the world.

After his arrival in February of 1952, still only 18-years-old, Mick remembers handling the teaser in freezing-cold conditions with snow on the ground. The stud was divided into blocks, and Mick’s duties at Woodland revolved around the Arab stallion teaser, leading him from block to block to tease the mares, which took more than three hours every day.

Using his Kiwi number eight wire inventiveness, Mick decided he could shorten-up the teasing time if he rode the Arab teaser from broodmare block to broodmare block. The problem for Mick was that no one on the stud knew if the smallish Arab chestnut stallion had ever had a rider on his back, but Mick gave scant consideration to the possibility of any adverse consequences.

At the age of 87, you could forgive anyone for struggling to recall the detail of things that happened almost 70 years ago, but not Mick Preston. Not only can Mick recall all the dates, but his answers are all swift and eloquently delivered in good voice with deliberation as if it happened yesterday.

“I landed in England on 23^rd February 1952, and it was the first time I had ever ridden in snow,” said Mick, which proved that point.

My research for this yarn took place at Mick’s home in Taupo, where getting back to the question of riding the Arab stallion, I asked, “Did you think it might be risky?”

Mick Preston: We cut the teasing time to just over an hour

“No,” retorted Mick with speed, “I was thinking about how far I was walking – We cut the teasing time to just over an hour.”

Mick related the story of how he borrowed a saddle and bridle and a girth strap in which he tied a knot to use on the skinnier girth of the Arab. Once saddled up, he climbed aboard to discover this was one well-behaved stallion who adapted to the role quickly apart from his habit of stumbling as he circumvented the stud.

As he said, Mick had never previously ridden a horse in snow but soon discovered the snow was compacting into a ball of ice beneath the hoof, causing the stumbling. From that time, he found himself regularly dismounting to remove the build-up of snow.

Soon afterward, Mick’s riding plan came to an abrupt halt when Woodland Stud had an outbreak of strangles, and one of the blocks had to go into lockdown quarantine. The Arab teaser had been visiting each of the blocks daily, and as a consequence had to quarantine in his box for the next six weeks.  

Mick’s replacement teaser meant he was back walking the length and breadth of the stud, but it was worth it because the new teaser was the then 22-year-old Hyperion himself – given that job as well as serving the mare’s when ready to cover.

When asked how he saw that situation, Mick said, “I’m probably the only human being left alive that handled Hyperion, and I consider that to be a great honour.”

Mick considered that it was already an honour just working at Woodland Stud for most of 1952 – that hallowed breeding ground having previously been the home of great stallions such as Chaucer, Swynford, and Pharos before Hyperion. In Mick’s year of 1952, Hyperion had already been Champion Sire on five occasions, and he would capture a sixth title in 1955 when aged 25 as well finishing second four times.

To get Mick to Woodland Stud in 1952, his father Ted had arranged to have Mick’s compulsory three-months military training deferred until the following year. Mick arrived home in November and was required to commence his training in an early January intake, causing him to miss the National Sales at Trentham at the end of the month.

The Preston family story as Wellington butchers, horse breeders and owners is remarkable for many reasons, not the least for its longevity which goes back almost 130 years to original settler Arthur Edward Preston who arrived from Liverpool in the 1890s. Two generations later, Mick watches every race from his Taupo home and has had Group One success this season as an owner-breeder with his six-year-old gelding, True Enough.

The lightly raced True Enough has won nine of his 22 starts, including the Cambridge Stud Zabeel Classic Gr.1 on Boxing Day after taking out the Coupland’s Bakeries Mile Gr.2 at Riccarton in November. His last and only two starts this year has produced seconds in two group ones, and despite earning prizemoney in 20 of his 22 starts including seven seconds, his career prizemoney earnings amount to only $559,225 – a further inditement on prizemoney levels in New Zealand racing.

Mick Preston isn’t complaining, though, because True Enough was an accidental mating when the dam Valda’s Dream was inadvertently bred to the wrong stallion (Nom Du Jeu), and True Enough was the result.

The Preston dynasty began with Arthur Edward Preston (1873-1947), who arrived on the Petone foreshore with nine pence in his pocket from Liverpool in the 1890s. His family were butchers in Liverpool involved in the meat markets.

Arthur Edward Preston walked over the Rimutaka Range to Tauherenikau in the 1890s, which today would take more than 12 hours

He walked over the Rimutaka Range to Tauherenikau, which today would take more than 12 hours, but in those days would have been on a very rough track, to try and get a job in a sawmill. With no jobs available, he made the walk back to Petone. Eventually, he secured a job with the Gear Meat Company, where he worked for several years before starting his own business in Wellington. His subsequent success at butchery saw him open several shops around Wellington.

When financial enough, Arthur bought a filly he named White Cliffs, named after the last piece of land he saw before leaving England, and achieved some success with her as a broodmare

Mick’s father, Arthur Edmund (Ted) Preston (1905-1992) carried on the butchery business, expanding it and also inheriting his father’s interest in horses.

Mick remembers that his father always had horses, including a mare and also some showjumpers. While his business was butchery, he expanded his horse interests by leasing a block of land at Ohau just south of Levin and over some years leased several stallions, including Defoe, which he had for three years.

Ted then bought Tararua Road as the Preston family called it before it was named. It was 1945, and he paid £8,000 for the 83 acres for the property he would later call West Derby Stud. The name came from his father’s birthplace of West Derbyshire, which was just over 100 kilometres east of Liverpool where Arthur had learned the butchery trade, and not far from Aintree Racecourse where one could imagine the Preston family took an interest in proceedings.

Ted Preston kept his butchering business going in Wellington and never lived on West Derby but would go there on weekends. He was meticulous about the horses and their welfare. He raced a lot of horses and would travel up to the farm every Friday to check on the horses but never had any other interests in life outside his business other than horses.

Ted had six sons of which Mick was the eldest. All the sons did their apprenticeship in butchery, and while at school, they all worked in the butcher shop, but weren’t allowed to leave school until the parents considered they were ready.

Mick was keen on farming and talked his mother into letting him leave one May school holiday when barely 17, but the first job he ever got paid for was plucking wild ducks. All the doctors and accountants would bring them into the butcher shop to get dressed in the duck shooting season.

Ted had gone back to Wellington because he still had seven butcher shops, and less than two years later, a young Mick was at Woodland Stud in Newmarket using Hyperion as the teaser.

Nothing would ever have deviated Mick Preston from a career in horses after that experience.