UNUSUAL FEAT BY JOCKEY

Press, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 26869, 23 October 1952, Page 4

UNUSUAL FEAT BY JOCKEY

11 SUCCESSIVE WINS IN 12 RACES W. KIRK RECALLS 1907 ACHIEVEMENT Any jockey who can ride 11 winners in a season in New Zealand can claim to be moderately successful. But there are few jockeys, in any country, who have a record of riding 11 winners at one meeting, and those in succession. Bill Kirk, now living in retirement at Newmarket, Auckland, and at present visiting the South Island for the first time in 28 years, recalled that little-known record for “The Press” yesterday. Kirk made his notable contribution to the racing records at the Wairoa County Racing Club’s two-day meeting in January, 1907. He was unplaced in the first race, the Maiden Plate, but then rode the winners of the rest of the programme. Banker, Oakbourne, and Linkless each won two races, and his other winning mount was Waiheke, which raced in the same colours as Oakbourne and Linkless—those of Mr E. J. White.

Banker, an aged gelding by Saracen from a Quilt mare, gave Kirk an easy start to his great day. He won the Maiden Half-mile Scurry by three lengths. The winner’s share of the stake was 17 sovereigns, and his dividend was £1 6s.

It was Waiheke’s turn next. This five-year-old daughter of Jet d’Eau did not make hard work of beating Grey Goose, Arai te Uru, and others in the County Stakes Handicap, a race worth 50 sovereigns. Waiheke, the New Zealand Turf Register says, “won easily.” Her dividend was £4 3s.

Mr White’s runner in the Tynron Hack Handicap was Oakbourne, which gave Kirk his hardest ride of the day. Mr J. Prosser’s Water o’ Milk proved a strong opponent, and Oakbourne scrambled home for a nose victory. Linkless gave Mr White the hat-trick and Kirk his fourth win in succession when she beat Te Wiwini, Gladsmuir, and two others in the Telephone Hack Handicap. The Daunt filly “won comfortably.” Then the cycle started over again, Oakbourne being produced to win the Frasertown Hack Handicap, Banker the District Plate Handicap, and Linkless the last race, the Stewards’ Hack Handicap. Second Day’s Wins Kirk started the second day confident that he could improve his winning sequence of seven. He did not ride in the first and second races, but he was on his way again in the third race, the Carroll Memorial Stakes Handicap, “won easily” by Waiheke. Eight straight wins on the record now; three to go. Banker was next. He won the next race, the Electric Hack Handicap. Oakbourne then came out to win the Nuhaka Hack Handicap by a length, and back came the hardy Banker to win the District Handicap by a neck from Te Wiwini and pay £1 9s. There were two more raees on the programme, but Kirk did not ride in them. His record stood at 11 successive wins from 12 attempts. Kirk’s feat has few equals In more widely-publicised jockeys’ records. In December, 1951, J. Naughton rode 13 winners, 11 in succession, from 14 mounts, in Sydney and provincial meetings. The average is not quite as good as Kirk’s. On July 29, 1929, at Townsville, Queensland, W. Thomas astonished the crowd by riding the winners of all seven races on the card. A, Whittaker did the same at Huntly on February .2, 1910. An Australian jockey, A. Holman, rode eight winners in succession in 1946, but they were spread over two meetings. Another day clear in Kirk’s memory and one fondly remembered was the Waipawa County Racing Club’s meeting in January, 1903, when he won two races on Mongonui, a bay mare raced by Jack Cameron, who had great success later with that grand galloper, The Hawk. Mongonui was a daughter of the great Carbine, and Kirk thinks she was the only one of that great horse’s stock to race in New Zealand. Carbine was bred and did his early racing in New Zealand, but he made his fame as a racehorse in Australia before he went to England. Mongonui’s dam was the Australian-bred mare Moonga, which was sold to New Zealand. ( Mongonui was a seven-year-old when Kirk rode her in her two successes at Waipawa. She did not have good class, but she was hardy, and‘won several races for Cameron, who is still training at Hastings. Mongonui’s first appearance at Waipawa that day was in the County Handicap. She carried 7-0 and won decisively from Ballyneety. The unusually-named A.BJST. was "a bad third,” Later in the day, Mongonui carried 171 b more when she won the Flying Handicap.

Training Successes Kirk finished race riding in 1918 and launched out as a trainer. He retired seven years ago. He prepared several good horses, but his favourite is Ruapapa, winner of eight cup races. Ruapapa was by Polydamon from Queen Elizabeth, and among the jockeys associated with him in his wins were Maurice McCarten, Hector Gray, and the late Roy Reed. Kirk’s last trip to Riccarton was in 1924. With him he brought the consistent Ruapapa and the speedy Royal Blood, a black gelding by Our King from Sanguinary. “I think Royal Blood would have won the Stewards’ Handicap that year,” Kirk said yesterday, “but we never got the chance to really find out because we missed the acceptances for the race.” The Stewards’ was won by Peneus, ridden by the evergreen Larry Wiggins. Royal Blood’s chance came in the Electric Plate on the final day of the meeting. He had only two opponents, the fillies Tukia and Shirley, and he beat them easily. He carried 9-8, and Roy Reed was his jockey. Ruapapa djd not win a race on the trip. His best effort at the meeting was his third to Limelight and Mantua in the Metropolitan Handicap. It is so long since Kirk last visited the South Island that he is looking forward to meeting again some of the oldtimers among the South Island trainers. On his programme are visits to the veteran Riccarton trainers, F. D. Jones and Hugh Nurse, also “Put” Hogan, who lives at Washdyke. Kirk rode against Fred Jones, and he still clearly remembers Hogan adding much-needed weight to the jockeys’ scrum in a Rugby match on the Riccarton racecourse in 1914. Hogan was a Southland representative several years earlier, but by this time he had lopg given the game best.

Kirk thinks fields nowadays are too big, with the result that too many improperly trained apprentices are riding. “In our day you wouldn’t see two apprentices riding in a day,” he said. “The fields were smaller, and the trainers and owners could get the services of several top-notch jockeys like Roley Efatch —a great general and a great teacher—Hector Gray, Charlie Jenkins —the greatest I remember—and Tod Hewitt, to mention some of them.”

“To my mind, too many of the boys riding today are slather-and-whack jockeys,” Kirk said. “It would be hard to name 20 really good riders.”