FAMOUS HORSE’S DEATH

Press, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 26662, 22 February 1952, Page 4

FAMOUS HORSE’S DEATH

NOTABLE CAREER OF THE HAWK WINNER OF £28,201 IN ELEVEN SEASONS The Hawk, which was destroyed recently after a long retirement on the farm of his Hastings owner, J. M. Cameron, had a career that Was in many ways an extraordinary one. He was the last link with those vintage years of the early 1920’s when racing on both sides of the Tasman reached a level never since approached. The Hawk was 33 years old. Winner of £28,201 in stakes, conqueror of such famous horses as Heroic, Whittier, Beauford, The Night Patrol, Fujisan, Manfred. Pantheon. Spearfelt. Thespian, Rational, Anomaly, Glentruin, Hertrrioana and Winning Hit, and instrumental in the defeat of Gloaming, Which he later opposed when the Greenwood champion rah his last race, The Hawk earned his huge stakes total the hard way. He proved himself one of the greatest sprinters of the century—and the hardiest, for he raced in .11 consecutive seasons. The Hawk was bred at Kinloch, Little River, by the late Mr J. F. Buchanan tn 1918. The estate of the late W. J. Douglas bought him as a yearling for 180gns, but for many years he raced in the ownership of Jack Cameron, who took great care of the old warrior in his advanced age on his farm, part of the famous Te Mahanga Estate. The first extraordinary incident in The Hawk’s career occurred when he was a yearling. On the way Up to HaWke’s Bay, he was mistaken for a yearling by Martian from Pineta, for which the late Mr K. S. Williams had paid 1150gns. the top price of the sale. The Pineta yearling was being led out to Te Mahanga when Mr Jack Jefferd happened to come along. He saw at once that a mistake had been made, and took steps to have the right animal delivered. Penitent, the high-priced colt, won three races and £525. Debut at Trehtham The Hawk went on to Te Mahanga and fame. It was in the nomination of the Douglas estate that he made his debut at Trentham in the Taita Handicap, when he ran unplaced behind Capping Day, Winning Hit, and Backsheesh. Jack Cameron, who trained him then and later bought him from the trustees of the estate at the end of his four-year-bld career, was not sanguine of success that day, but he expected and got a great race from his charge a fortnight later when he challenged the brilliant Absurd colt, Mermin, in the Welcome Stakes at Riccarton. Mermin had won the Avondale and Wellesley Stakes, but he was all out to beat Tlte Hawk, which ran faster time on the second day when he won the Irwell Handicap. A month later, the Mermin-The Hawk meeting was re-enacted in the Great Northern Foal Stakes, and The Hawk whittled the margin down to a neck. , Beaten in N.Z. Derby The Hawk won other races as a two-year-old at Napier, Trentham and Hastings, and hopes rose high the next spring, when he won the Hawke’s Bay Guineas in a canter. But Winning Hit was his stumbling block in the New Zealand Derby and he was beaten into third place in the Ellerslie classic. However, he was then a tired horse, as he had not recovered from the role he played in running Gloaming off his feet in the Islington Handicap, paving the way for Hector Grav on Thespian to sweep past the champion near the post and hoist record figures of Imin 38 3-ssec for the mile. The Hawk recovered quickly, howcvei, for he beat Solfanello in the snrint at Trentham. and then -won the Waterloo Stakes by a good margin from Thespian and Solfanello in the unprecedented time of Imln 9 4-ssee. an Australian and New Zealand record which was equalled at Riccarton a few weeks later by Chimera. Racing under big weights as a four-year-old The Hawk did not have a very good year, but in the spring of his five-year-old career The Hawk and his ownertrainer went to Australia where they had notable successes. Betting Coup Placed in his first two starts in Sydney, The Hawk thus inspired "confidence for a big betting coup in the Hill Stakes at Rosehill when Jim Pike—who lode him in all his Australian successes— brought him home, a six-to-one Winner, by two lengths from the 5-2 favourite. Beauford, Gloaming’s conqueror in two of their four races. In his next start. The Hawk ran a gallant fourth under 9-7 in the Epsom Handicap, behind the imported Clarfssimus horse Claro. Freshened up for the late summer racing in Victoria, The Hawk embarked on a succession of wins which established him as the greatest horse of the year. He began with an effortless win over Polvtheist and Wyhette in the V.A.T.C. St. George’s Stakes. This earned a 101 b penSlty for the rich Caulfield Futurity Stakes, ut so Impressive was his earlier success that the flood of money for the New Zealand horse caused him to start a 8-4 favourite. He won by three lengths from Sonora and Easingwold. Loss of Form The Essendon and C. M. Lloyd Stakes were won easily at short odds, but there was a reverse when the great Woorak horse, Whittier, and the useful Englefield beat him in the Rawson Stakes. That signalled a loss of form, confirmed by the fact that he could finish only fifth behind Rapine in the A.J.C. Autumn Stakes, and he was last of the four runners in the All-Aged Stakes. In the spring he was taken back to Sydney to fill third place in the Hill Stakes, in which Ballymena sensationally defeated Gloaming. He ran fourth in the October Stakes at Flemington, won the Caulfield Stakes in a battling finish with the even-money favourite Whittier, but failed to make the grade in Purser’s Caulfield Cup. Luck Against Him Luck was against him in the Cantala Stakes, when he ran The Night Patrol to a neck, only to be disqualified when his jockey weighed in 2%1b light. On bad ground. The Night Patrol again beat him fn the Linlithgow Stakes. However, The Hawk soon after won the Hurstville Stakes under 10-3 at Moorefield. An A.J.C. Challenge Stakes victory followed, and he returned to Victoria to win the St. George’s Stakes again. Then another tilt was made at the Caulfield Futurity Stakes, but a betting plunge which would have shaken the Victorian ’’ring 1 ’ was frustrated by Wilfred Stead’s brilliant Absurd 1 colt Father’s Choice, which held on tenaciously to a head margin. Behind them were Mercian King, The Night Patrol, Heroic, and Fujisan. That reverse seemed to stir The Hawk to greater endeavours. He then won the Essendon, C. M. Lloyd, and Rawson Stakes at successive appearances. He set an Australian and New Zealand record of Imin 36jsec to beat Heroic and The Night Patrol in the mile Lloyd Stakes. He was fourth in the Chipping Norton Stakes. The Hawk carried 9-5 into eighth place behind Fujisan in the Doncaster. He was then taken back to Hastings. Race Against Gloaming The Martian gelding was then race and travel weary, but Jack Cameron was persuaded to start him against Gloaming in the Ormond Memorial Gold Cup. The Hawk made the . occasion memorable by running his old rival to a length. A month earlier the result could have been different. After being taken back to Australia in the spring, The Hawk, then in the aged division, sensationally beat that great colt Manfred in the Hill Stakes. Later, it was evident that the up-and-coming Australian champions had his measure. He went back to Australia for the last time a year later, and ran second to the brilliant Vclicare in the Hill Stakes. After two more unsuccessful runs, he was brought back to New Zealand to win the Auckland Racing Club's Newmarket Handicap and the Taranaki Stakes. He won the Wellington Racing Club’s Metropolitan Handicap as a nine-year-old, and that season was successful in the Taranaki Stakes for the second time. He narrowly beat Reremoana, which was badly hampered for room in the straight. A year later, then well down in the weights, the veteran found the going tough, and his Ohly real glimpse of form was his seednd to Vertigern in the Wellington Cup. That was the only season in which he failed to win, for in his twelfth year he won a sprint at Otaki in the spring, and then scored his only victory over a middle distance, when he beat Vertigern and Yoma in the Taranaki Cup. That was to have been The Hawk’s last season on the turf, but he wintered so well that his owner decided to try the old fellow again. Then rising 13 years, he went to Dannevirke to receive a wonderful reception when he decisively beat Shrewd in the cup. It was The Hawk’s last victory. A week later he ran unplaced in the Hutt Handicap at Trentham. Sound in wind and limb, he was retired from racing, which he had served so long and so nobly. Altogether he raced 132 times for 32 wins, 20 seconds, and 20 thirds. He won £11,260 in New Zealand, and £16.941 in Australia.