RIDING THE WINNERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 133, 7 June 1926, Page 11

RIDING THE WINNERS.

THE GREAT NORTHERNS. * w I THE~STORY OF THE DOUBLE. "" *' i TOLD BY WINNING RIDERS. tl ! — ! n •Just as England has her Liverpool i ° Grand National at Aintree, so also has ; !I New Zealand its Great Northern, but w while the Liverpool cross-country event ; t is known and recognised the world over ! as the greatest steepleehasing event of ! the turf, the Great Northerns are little : known outside the Dominion. But the n I world is not so big after all. and this was ? proven over twenty years ago when Mr. , Spencer Gollan, then one of the Domin- j . ion's leading sportsmen, took a step of j 'r the courageous order. In 1901 Moifaa, 'i f 1 I then owned by Mrs. Ellingham, won the j Great Northern Steeplechase. Mr. Gollan j ° ' took a great fancy to Moifaa and pur- *' ' chased the gelding. Subsequently he • took the horse to England'and had him a • prepared for the Liverpool Grand j n • National; and the New Zealander did '■■ t ; not disappoint, but won the race in great j 1' . style. The horse was then sold to King I ' Edward, but proved a bad proposition ' t ' when carrying the Royal colours. j t : On Saturday another Great Northern! 0 • Double was entered up in history, f : and almost every little detail in connec- j s : tion with tiie greatest jumping double of ' c s the North Island has been written up. ' I :To own a winner of a "Northern" men j t i have spent thousands of pounds; to pre- 'y pare one trainers have gone to endless j t ! trouble, and to ride one is the great ] o I wish of all our cross-country riders, j " Below is the story of the 192(5 Great I Northern Double as told by the winning ! I riders. * , . i i] : ] W. BOWDEN'S STORY. ~~ ; J To ride the winner of the Great n i I Northern Hurdles is not a new experi- i J j ence for W. Bowden. Since 1014 he has 0 | been riding over fences ana it was early i recognised that he would not be long in t > reaching a high place with New Zea- i i ■ : land's best cross-country horsemen. Many s ; winners were steered "by him, but his Jj 1 first big success came in 1921, when he rode Fisher to victory in the Great i 1 Northern Hurdles and- was also second ! j on the same horse when Poanui won the I J following year. j W hen seen by a "'Star" representative .after winning on Landbird,'Bowden was naturally delighted, but his own opinion 2 is that Kawini was unlucky to be beaten. l I Nearly Down. i j '"I jumped away in front," he said, r - i -and led over the first fence, but when ' } . w e reached the next, in front of the « , ! Trainers' Stand, my horse hit hard and I l I thought I was gone. Landbird made > ' a great recovery and to let him get his ] balance again 1 dropped into a position i , i about fifth or sixth. Llewellyn I could •_ see in front, and Archibald was just in . front of mc. My horse was now jumping , well and going along -so nicely that I ■ thought I would be hard to beat. Ij ] lost si<*ht of Archibald for a time near I . the mile and a-half post, when he j * j dropped back, but when we started oh \ tiie last round he was alongside mc again. I l >\ c were runninf about fourth or j ( ■ fifth, with Llewellyn still in front, with j- ', Zircon following him. Seven furlongs' » ' from honu? I got a glimpse of Lucullent, i , j but he was being hunted along. About ' 1 the six furlongs I gave Landbird aj ■ kick ami moved past Archibald, and as : my horse was going well and Llewellyn : was inclined to run about, I thoughtit ! . , would be best to hoa<l him off. I did I I this at the live furlongs post, and was j ! loft in front. Landbird was doing nicely,; j but I did not know how the others' ! were, and then Kawini ranged alongside! ; mc coming to the straight. I looked at i ' I Kawini. and could see he was going bet- ! ter than my horsp. and to mc he looked y certain to win. I felt Landbird would v never hold Thomson's mount as we j came to the last fence, but while Lar.d----!l bird made a great jump Kawini hit 1 hard, and this knocked all the steam out il , of him. Tt was Kawini"s bad jump at : : the last fence that won the race for mc." 3 I Bowden won the Wanganui steeplej i chase last year on Landbird and the .j horse has proved a profitable mount to s him. In the Great Northern Hurdles a. the winning rider's fee was £126 in 1 addition to which Mr. J. A. MaeFarlane, ! the owner, laid him £100 to nothing. j The Trainer. 2 To ride the winner of a Great J I Northern Hurdles or Steeplechase is ' a 1 always a happy effort in the career of a ! ■' jockey, but the man who is entitled to j considerably more credit than is gener--0 ally given him is the trainer. It is he 1 who puts in weeks, perhaps years, of f ■1 time in moulding out of a moderate <*al-! 3 loper, a horse which will jump with con- j .>, fidence and be presented on race day in ' ; - that necessary condition which will en-' able him to see out a solid test of jump- \ '■ ing and stamina. In the records cover- : • j ing important jumping events in the! 3 j Dominion, one trainer, whose name , I figures very prominently is. V. H. Colt. lello, of Hastings. It is a good many years ago since "Vince" and his brother George rode and "Vince," who prepared . Landbird for Thursday's win, was never j the successful rider "his brother was.' However as a trainer he has made a name for himself, particularly with' jumpers. He won tho Canterbury Grand, National Steeplechase with Sir W. Rus- j sell's mare Nadadcr, and for the same owner prepared Corazon when the latter ;h won the Great Northern Steeplechase in. • r 1911. Another top-notch 'chaser trained .£ by Callello was Braeburn, which won j !3 two Wanganui Steeplechases and other; i- good races. Last winter he won the ■ is Wanganui Steeplechase with Landbird, ■ : but the horse afterwards went wrong.' and it was not until the present winter that the Finland gelding again appeared j on the scene. A race at the Wanganui 2 sharpened him up for Ellerslie, and on; 3 Thursday he credited his painstaking 1 - trainer with the Great Northern Hurdles. 1 i "RANGI" THOMPSON'S STORY. The round of cheering which greeted '"Rangi" Thompson when he brought Dick back to the enclosure on Satur- j j day after the pair had emerged from 2 a close finish with Kawini for the 3 honours attached to the greatest jumpa ing event of the season in the North i Island, was evidence- of the popular 2r esteem in which "Rangi" is held by race-1 goers. Immediately he had turned the j scales "all right," he was surrounded by ! brother horsemen who showered con- j 2 gratulations upon him. He was chang-' 3 ing his "togs" when the "Star" re- ! ia preventative asked for his version of the; c, race as he saw it. "Dick and I have een a great pair," . said Thompson. "I have only ridden him three times and won twice. He is a nice horse to "ride and jumps pretty: _- well, but he stays on. To-day I kept j him handy to the field and he never; ie touched a fence till we went along the' back the second time. I was running es about the middle of the field then, and c "! he hit the hurdle by the six furlongs'

post r and we nearly sold out. That was the fence that" brought him down in the big hurdles on Thursday. After that life, I just let him run along his own way till" he settled down, but he was wanting to go with the field, and though I was about tenth, the field was pretty closely bunched, and we were never far away. When we came over I the double I liked my chance, but we . nearly sold out again at the , old waterjump. At mat fence Kendal j made a bad jump and nearly brought Dick down. That was the second life ,we had, but there was no third and last ; time, because he did not touch any ; other fence. Going up the hill I could ! see Kawini was going well just ahead of mc. but Llewellyn was doing .his best, and when I saw Roy Thomson send Kawini to the front I sent Dick after him. I soon headed Llewellyn and Kenj dal and took the. second fence on the j hill behind Kawini. As we raced down j I got alongside Kawini, and we came ; over the— stonewall and last fence together. We were both battling well, but I think my horse took the last fence a little better than Kawini, though neither of us*lost anything. You saw ; the finish; it was a good one, but my | little fellow was just a wee bit too good. I am glad I won, because it is the first ! time I have won a Northern, though I twice won the Grand National at Christchurch on Paritutu and St. Elm." "Rangi" added that he hag been riding j something like 22 years, and practically ' every important jumping race in the 1 Dominion had been won by him at one I time or another. "I'm 39 years of age, j you know," he said, with a smile, "but ] this game is hard to give up once you i get in it." ! The Traines. ' The honour of training Dick goes to W. S. Young, who is established at Trentham. Young was a first-class horseman in his day, both on the flat and over hurdles. In the latter depart- | ment he won the Canterbury Grand ! National Hurdles three times—in 1907 on Shrapnel, 1910 on Paisano, and in 1911 on Continuance. The same year that he won on Paisano he also rode Te ' Arai to victory in the Grand National Steeplechase, thereby bringing off the double.