RACING Another Campaign For Great Sensation

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28669, 20 August 1958, Page 4

RACING Another Campaign For Great Sensation

The ’ Otago Hunt Club’s meeting on Saturday will be the starting point for another campaign by Great Sensation, whose autumn form last season was of a very high standard. Great Sensation won his last four races last season and shaped like a future Cup winner in coming through a campaign of three races in open class unbeaten.

He made a successful f)rst appearance in open company in the Riverton Cup. He carried 7- and was much too good for the others running away in the last furlong to win by four lengths. Two days later he won the Riverton Easter Handicap with 8- then he was brought to Riccarton to win the Sockburn Handicap over a mile and a half against the best available South Island stayers. He achieved those three victories in the space of a week, and those races were worth £2775. His total earnings for the season were £3465. Great Sensation did not start racing till he was four, so this season will be his third in racing. All going well it should also be his best. Great Sensation is by the Irish St. Leger winner Cassock from Speedy, an Irish Lancer mare which won five races.

Speedy’s dam was the Tractor mare. Attractive Lady, which was instrumental in bringing the Brown family of Mosgiel into racing 24 years ago. Attractive Lady was bought when she was 10 years old and at foot was her first foal, a black colt by Straight Course. This was Lord Nuffield, one of the topflight sprinters of his time. Attractive Lady was then carrying a filly by Paper Money, Attractive Note, which became the dam of the good winner. Tenor Royal. 17 Wins Lord Nuffield won 17 races in the colours of Mr J. A. Brown, a brother of Great Sensation’s owner. Lord Nuffield was eight when he won the Stewards’ Handicap at Riccarton with 9-6. Another of his more important successes was the Members’ Handicap at Riccarton. Attractive Note did not race. Her first foal was Tenor Royal, by Royal Chief, winner of 10 races including the Wanganui. Foxton. and Marton Cups. To Paladin, Attractive Lady left The Joker, which became one of the best stayers of his time. He won nine races and his biggest

successes were in the Wellington Cup, the C.J.C. Great Autumn, and Metropolitan Handicaps. Lady Nuffield (by Paper Money) was Attractive Lady’s next foal. She won three races including the Papanui Handicap at Riccarton.

Speedy was foaled in 1942, the year her half-brother The Joker, was recording his major successes.

Speedy’s major successes were the Dunedin Jockey Club’s Grandstand Handicap and the Camp Hack Handicap at Trentham. Great Sensation was Speedy’s second foal. He made a quick return for Mr D. W. Brown once he started racing,leaving maiden class at Wingatui.

He looked as if he would be much above the average when he outclassed a field of hack sprinters in the Paparua Handicap at the Canterbury Jockey Club’s autumn meeting in 1957. A year later he was confirming that, and showing stamina to make him a first-class prospect for a race like the New Zealand Cup in November. Francolin Family for Auction

Ten descendants of the famous brood mare Francolin, owned by the estate of the late D. M. Tweedie will be sold at auction at Riverton on Friday, October 3. The offering will include two brood mares and four racehorses. Francolin was bought at the end of her racing career for £45 and left 11 foals, 10 of them winners. Their combined record was 68 wins and £25,808 in stakes.

The brood mares to be sold are Super Flight and Special Flight, both daughters of Francolin. Super Flight, by Nizami, was Francolin’s biggest winner; she woi) nine races and £7745, including the Riverton arid Wyndham Cups, the Canterbury Jockey Club’s Fendalton Handicap and the Wellington Onslow Handicap. She is in foal to Cassock.

Special Flight, a Salmagundi mare, won eight races and £2900. She has left Ocean Flight, winner of eight races, a record he would have bettered if he had stayed sound.

Among the racehorses to be sold are Jet Flight, a four-year-old Super mare from Special Flight; and Antarctic Flight, a three-year-old Neptune filly from Special Flight, so a sister to Ocean Flight. Antarctic Flight has done little racing but has shown ability.

The other racehorses to be offered are Top Flight and Channel Flight. The other stock to be offered are Southern Flight, an unraced four-year-old mare by Callander from Extra Flight, by Salmagundi from Ortyx by Lord Warden from Francolin; a two-year-old filly by Llanstephan from Super Flight; a two-year-old filly by Llanstephan from Special Flight; and a yearling filly by Llanstephan from Super Flight.