NEW ZEALAND CUP WINNER

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26262, 6 November 1950, Page 6

NEW ZEALAND CUP WINNER

Calibrate Was For Sale For £3OO

MANY MISSED A BARGAIN The winner of £13,670, Calibrate, which made a brilliant finishing run from the tail of the field to win the £lO,lOO New Zealand Cup at Riccarton on Saturday, was a bargain missed by a number of racing men. Only 14 months ago, he was on the market for £3OO, but not one of the many men who inspected him was prepared to give his owner, Mr Clive Matthews, two contingencies at £5O each out of his first two wins. As a yearling, Calibrate waa bought at the Te Rapa sales for. £225 by Mr Matthews,, who runs a 500-acre bullock raising farm only one mile from Frankton Junction. He had one race as a three-year-old and then hie partner offered to buy out Mk Matthews’s share, A hitch occurred. The partner wanted to pay Mr Matthews £l2O for his share but Mr Matthews wanted £l5O. So Calibrate went under the hammer at Paeroa races, and Mr Matthews bought him in for 440 guineas. He has returned him a rich profit by six wins. Calibrate came into his own as a stayer at the last Wellington Cup meeting where, after being balloted out of the cup, he won two big races. “Calibrate is full of brains and nothing worries him,” said Mr Matthews after the New Zealand Cup. “Manv looked at him when I was offering him for sale but none was prepared to buy at the price. I wonder what they are thinking to-day. Of course. Calibrate did not then look such a racehorse as he does td-day. He did not materialise until he was a five-year-old.” ’ i Mr Matthews conies from a racing family, as his father, Mr R. J. Matthews (who died only .two years ago at New Plymouth at me age of 96 years) owned Star Rose which won the 1906 Exhibition New Zealand Cup. His father raced under the name of “Mr R. Shore,”, being the Waitara manager of the Bank of New Zealand. Captain Shannon won the Stewards’ Handicap that day and a sole Taranaki bettor, who had posted £1 to the club, collected the whole of the doubles pool of £2061 18s. Sold Champion for £lO But luck has not always been Mr Matthews’s lot. He was the owner of All Irish when the depression struck him badly and he sold the horse for £lO. All he received was £6 13s 4d, as the blacksmith who made the sale had been promised one-third of the purchase money. All Irish developed mto an outstanding steeplechaser and went on to win more than £7OOO, his wins including a Great Northern Steeplechase. With a good hurdler in Borak, he won the Trentham Hurdles and the last time he was successful at Riccarton was with another hurdler Gala Day: on the day Gala Day won, Mr Matthews was in bed in a Christchurch hotel with an attack of influenza. “Not a penny,” answered Mr Matthevzs when he was asked whether he had had a good bet on Calibrate, as he had made no secret of his confidence in Calibrate to his many racing friends before the race. “My wife told me I wasn’t to back him, as he never wins when I have a bet on him. I had £3O on him straight out at Motukarara a week ago, and he ran disappointingly.” “Yes, he always ptits a hoodoo on Calibrate when he backs it,” said Mrs Matthews. She placed £5 on the horse on the doubles machine and took The Hob, the winner of the Stewards’ Handicap. among her second selections. A shy man. Mr Matthews declined to attend the Cup presentation and Mrs Matthews received the Cup from the Governor-General, while he sheltered in the weighing room. When the function was over, Mr Matthews walked out to the birdcage and expressed his delight in sharing Mrs Matthews’s happiness by kissing her. How Winner was Named The cup winner was named by Mrs Matthews. The horse was by Contact, which suggested a connexion with flying. Their only son was flying in Burma during the war and after operations he carried out calibrating tests with rtdar. That suggested the name. The cup winner's dam was Hauteur, a mare bred and raced by the late Mr G. D. Greenwood, of Teviotdale, Hauteur being by his Derby winner Honour from the Demosthenes mare Egotism, a good race mare. Calibrate was the seventh foal of Hauteur bred by Mr J. L. Mackay, jun., of Te Awamutu. “As a stayer, Calibrate comes up to the mark of the best I have ridden," said the Riccarton-trained jockey, L. J. Ellis, after his cup ride. “Really, Calibrate cannot go in the early stages. It was not till five furlongs from home, that I began to improve my position. I took him out wide in the straight and I had to ride him hard and keep him going. I had to pull the stick with three parts of a furlong to go. otherwise Calibrate would have pulled up. I had a good run to the straight at the tail of the field. Calibrate is a good stayer over the latter part of a journey." This was the fifth cup win by Ellis, whose first winner was Oratrix in 1928. He also holds the record as the trainer-jockey of Golden Souvenir. Canterbury-bred Derby Horse As with Calibrate, the breeding of the Derby winner, The Unicorn, was also of Canterbury distinction. The Unicorn's dam, Brief Melody, is owned by Mrs John H. Grigg, of Longbeach. As a yearling, The Unicorn was sold by Mrs Grigg at the Trentham sales tor 2200 guineas. “Mr Goosman if a good, bold buyer and he was right,” remarked Mr Grigg after the Derby. Mrs Grigg has at Longbeach a two-year-old, still unbroken, by Peak Halyard from Brief Melody, who is being mated this season with Pherozshah. She has followed the policy of breeding only every second season from Brief Melody, which was leased to a flying officer and ran only once at a nontotalisator meeting. Brief Melody was by Solicitor-General—High Note, by Masterpiece—Sopra, by Ampelion— Trebelli 11. Trebelli II was imported from England by Mr Grigg’s father; she was by the champion miler Thrush. “Why shouldn't The Unicorn stay?” asked Mr Grigg. “He comes from the same family as Miss Medley, a winner of the Great Northern St. Leger, Autopay, and Rebel Song.” ‘ Now known on the turf as “Lucky Goosman,” the Minister of Works had his first Derby win with The Unicorn. In company with one of his three trainers, F. J. Smith, of Takanini, he decided to buy him because he was “an excellent individual.” Mr Goosman and Mr Smith always work together in buying horses and the combination has made Mr Goosman an outstandingly sucecsstul owner. “I felt that if the race was run to suit him The Unicorn would win." said Mr Goosman. “The race was run that way.”