The Tunku’s Surprise Bid For A Colt At Trentham

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29108, 21 January 1960, Page 14

The Tunku’s Surprise Bid For A Colt At Trentham

(New Zeatana Press Association)

WELLINGTON, January 20.

A bid of 1300 gns was made on behalf of the Prime Minister of Malaya, Tunku Abdul Rahman, at the Trentham national thoroughbred sales today, but he failed by 100 gns to buy the colt by Alpenhorn out of Hy-Spin, bred at the Santa Rosa Stud, Rotorua, which went to the Caulfield train-'-, Basil Conaghan. This attempt by the Tunku to obtain the horse of his choice at the rales came as a surprise to his immediate party. Earlier at a press conference at Government House, the Tunku, when asked if he would purchase a New Zealand-bred horse at the sales, said with a reminiscent laugh that racehorses had been his downfall while he was studying in England and he now liked the sport “just as a relaxation.” "In the old days horseracing was the cause of my downfall in my studies,” he told reporters. (The Tunku is reported to have passed his B.A. with a “minimum of safety,” and he was 45 before he managed to pass his law examinations in London.)

So no-one expected he would attempt to increase his stable at the sales. When he was in Australia recently he bought two horses there and shipped them to Malaya. All the talk at the sales was in guineas. The Tunku saw bids, successful and otherwise, ranging from a mere couple of hundred to well over 1000 gns and watched the auctioneer and prancing colts and fillies closely. Several horses he saw appeared to attract him very much, but it was not till just before 12.45 p.m. when he and his party left their ringside seats for lunch that the

colt which really caught his eye was led before the buyers and spectators.

The bidding began at about the 1000 gns mark and then sped on by 100 gns jumps to the final bid of 1400 gns.

The Tunku watched a few more horses sold and left for lunch philosophically. He and his aide-de-camp son Captain Tunku Ahmad Nerang, and their wives, were accompanied to Trentham by the New Zealand High Commissioner in Malaya (Mr C. M. Bennett) the High Commissioner for the Federation of Malaya in Australia and New Zealand (Data Gunn Lay Teik) and the Secretary for Internal Affairs (Mr J. V Meech).