HECTOR GRAY DEAD

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28222, 9 March 1957, Page 7

HECTOR GRAY DEAD

CLEVER JOCKEY; STORMY FIGURE

"The Press” Special Service AUCKLAND, March 8.

The death occurred today of Hector E. Gray, widely regarded as the cleverest and most successful jockey in New Zealand’s racing history, and certainly its stormiest figure from 1920 to 1930. He was aged 71. Recently he had been training a small team of horses at Takanini. It has been said that Gray was a genius with horses. There is no doubt that he was a born rider. His successes came on the

best horses. He won flat races over various distances, from half a mile to two miles and a half, and was successful the only time he rode in New Zealand over hurdles. During a period in England when he was engaged on a retainer by Sir Hugo Cunliffe-Owen he rode nearly 100 winners, and he also had many successes in Australia. Gray had various periods of disqualification, two of them for "life,” but he is reckoned to have won more than 1000 races, starting in April, 1902, and ending in 1932, when his licence to ride was finally revoked by the NeW Zealand Racing Conference. Fir«t Australian Win Gray’s greatness as a rider was shown on dozens of occasions. One was in the autumn of 1914 on his first visit to Australia. Arriving at Flemington racecourse only in time io get ready and weigh out, Gray won - the Essendon Stakes on Wallalo, a horse he had not seen before, on a track of which, it is claimed, he had not even seen a picture. A short time later, Gray won the Australian Cup on Wallalo, but within a fortnight, after an incident involving the same horse, he was disqualified for two years and was not afterwards allowed to ride in Australia. In England, France and in Belgium Gray’s first ride was also a winning one. Gray was associated with all the great horses of his time. The more notable in the Dominion were Desert Gold. Gloaming. Sasanoff and Thespian, and the English-bred Arrowsmith. It is a remarkable coincidence that Gloaming was beaten only three times in the Dominion —by three different horses, each ridden by Gray, and on the only occasion Gray rode Gloaming he won. The horses on which he beat Gloaming were Sasanoff, at Christchurch, Desert Gold, at New Plymouth, and Thespian, at Ellerslie. Disqualification

In May, 1925, Gray was disqualified for life for a corrupt practice. After nearly five years he had his licence restored, and in only eight months of the next season he headed the list of successful riders in New Zealand with 75 wins. On six ocasions he rode more than 60 winners in one season.The winning oP three races on end on 29 separate occasions was another of his most notable feats. On five occasions he won four successive races, and he once rode the winners of seven successive races. Success also attended Gray in the business of training horses, which he took up on being disqualified from riding, first at New Plymouth and for the most part at Takanini. The good performers he prepared included Iwo Jima, Hot Pursuit, Brazen Bold and the hurdlers Spirillum and Folkstone.