From Stud And Stable Southland Purchases Proved Profitable

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29766, 8 March 1962, Page 4

From Stud And Stable Southland Purchases Proved Profitable

Before he left Dunedin to live in the Waikato some 17 years ago, Mr D. H. Blackie made a purchase which was to have tremendous influence on racing in Australia, and which brought further fame io New Zealand as a nursery of champion thoroughbreds. He bought Island Linnet, which was to become the granddam of the champion, Tulloch.

About the same time, Mr Blackie bought the Winning Hit mare, Winning Flight. She achieved immediate distinction as a producer through the deeds of the brilliant Dixie, one of the best fillies of her time. Winning Flight, a member of the famous Francolin family, was destroyed three years ago. and a year earlier she foaled Winnipeg 11, winner of the Pukekohe Handicap at Franklin last week. Winnipeg II has done most of her racing in Australia, and was ranked second only to Wenona Girl amongst the Australian fillies after she won the Brisbane Oaks last season.

Mr Blackie bought Winning Flight from Mr Alex. Ferguson, of Dunedin.

He wished to* take 'north .representatives of seme of the more successful Southland families, so there was little wonder he should pick Winning Flight, a member of the famous Francolin family. By the time Winning Flight foaled Dixie, Mr Blackie had established Swanee Farm at Cambridge. The property was named by Mrs Blackie. and the first of the Blackie-owned horses through the gate was the Foxbridge-Pelagia filly, which was to be named Swanee and which was to win the Auckland Cup, several other good races and something like £17.000 in stakes. Mr Blackie demurred about the name at first, but gave in after Swanee’s first win which was in a division of a hack sprint at Te Awamutu in December, 1946.

Bargains Mr Blackie bought Swanee as a yearling for 800gns. He also went to 900gns. for a Foxbridge-Sailor’s Love fit. but it was money well spent, for, as Miss Carolina, she won the Matamata Cup and other races and has done well as a producer. Later that year Island Linnet foaled, to Salmagundi, the bay filly. Florida. Florida achieved distinction in her own right by winning four races including the Avondale Cup but, of course, she has really been assured of fame as a producer through the deeds of Tulloch, which was her first foal. Mr Blackie had marked respect for the stock of Salmagundi. and he thinks there was a lot of Salmagundi in Tulloch. He should know, because he saw the champion more, perhaps, than any other New Zealander before and during that great racing career. Florida did not foal again for five years after Tulloch’s arrival. In 1959 came a chest- ~ it Pride of Kildare filly and there was standing room only in the sales pavilion at Trentham in January, 1961, when she was offered. Record Price No one was surprised when a new sales record was established. The filly was bought for 7000gns for Mr George Jamieson, a Californian studmaster. The underbidder was the Randwick trainer, T. J. Smith, who now trains her and prepared her to win a race in Sydney in the spring. Florida's foal last season was a filly by Marco Polo 11, and she will most likely be kept for breeding. Most of the horses that have raced in the Blackie colours have had American names.

It is a long list now: Swanee. Dixie, Oklahoma. Miss Carolina, Milwaukee, Reno, Florida, Minnesota, Cincinatti, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Mississippi and several others. The Blackie family has no direct association with the United States. Mrs Blackie has named most of the horses, and she explains how. “When I used to play the piano I would often string a few tunes together, and would find one American number following the other. I might pla” ‘Dixie,’ then ‘Swanee,’ then something else American.

And that's the way it has been, too, with naming the horses. One American name has followed the other.” One of the Blackie-owned horses not named on the usual lines was Lord Foxbridge. Memorable Day This Foxbridge gelding gave the Blackies a memorable day when he set a New Zealand record for a mile and a half in winning the Auckland Racing Club Handicap on January 1, 1951. Later in the afternoon Dixie won the Newmarket Handicap, six furlongs, in Mrs Blackie’s colours and supporters of the stablemates received £5l 6s 6d for £l. That day. incidentally, Mainbrace narrowly won the Great Northern Derby after a sustained struggle with The Unicom, and Trinidad won the Glasgow Handicap for J. S. Shaw’s Riccarton stable, beating Cimtulla, which was to become the dam of this season's Auckland Cup winner, Floutiila Third was Classowa, the Auckland Cup winner a year later.

’ Mr Blackie surprised many northerners after Swanee’s Auckland Cup win. Interviewers naturally asked him if Swanee was his best ever. Mr Blackie said she was not and that Lance Wing was. Probably many northerners had not heard of Lance Wing, an Irish Lancer gelding whose dam was the Tractor mare, Wingatui. Wingatui was also the home course of this chestnut, which was trained there by the late F. Shaw.

Lance Wing established a mile and a quarter record of 2min 4sec for Southland when he won at Gore in 1945. A week later he won at Invercargill and set a track record for a mile and a quarter, and then, at successive starts he won the Oamaru Cup and the Canterbury Jockey Club’s Sockburn Handicap. He won once more that season, and recorded two wins in the following season, but unsoundness then bothered him and prevented him from recapturing his best form when he was campaigned in the North Island.