From Stud And Stable Toparoa Refuses To Grow Old

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29824, 17 May 1962, Page 4

From Stud And Stable Toparoa Refuses To Grow Old

What does one do with a horse that refuses to grow old? The Riccarton owner-trainer, Mr N. H. Macdonald, seeks the answer to that question.

Mr Macdonald retired his Melbourne Cup winner, Toparoa, five years ago.

Now he finds he has a sprightly 13-year-old about the place, and he is taking “the old fellow” to the Riccarton course each day with other members of the team “to keep him quiet.”

Toparoa certainly refuses to act and look his age, and

he enjoys his daily pace work tasks. When he finished racing late in the season of his Melbourne Cup win, Toparoa spent some time as a hack in the Kaiapoi district. He enjoyed the life, too, but another home had to be found for him when his guardian became ill.

Then he was sent to another farm in Canterbury. He was put out with the cows “and chased them till they dropped,” as Mr Macdonald reports. Then, when switched to the sheep paddock, the old Massowa gelding disgraced

himself further by putting bis teeth into woolly backs, and tossing the sheep over the fence.

Next adventure in a busy life was a move to a farm at Highbank.

"The people who had him down there loved the old bloke,” says Mr Macdonald, "but he got so fit running about the place they could do nothing with him.” So it was back to Riccarton, and life about the Macdonald stable again for Toparoa.

These days Toparoa does his round or two of pace work on the sand, and he seems to be thriving on the treatment Mr Macdonald said he has been approached by a friend asking if he will lease Toparoa with another racing programme in mind. Nothing has been done on those lines, but Toparoa might get to the level of fitness where he could be tried again in the Macdonald colours.

“I don’t want to bring him back, and he will have to do a lot of work before I ever decide to give him a run," said Mr Macdonald.

Sailorman’s Family

Set Sail, a very good winner in the colours of the late Dr. J. E. Rogers, did not leave one as good as herself.

But Sailorman, winner of the main race at Ashburton last week when having his third test in open class, could revive some of the distinction of the family as a five-year-old next season. It was good to see Sailorman go into winter quarters with a win, for he has been wonderfully consistent when he has had the tracks to suit. Next season could be his best, and he could then develop something like the record fashioned by Set Sail, his great-grandam, in the l»2o’s. Dr. Rogers bred Set Sail. He bought her dam, Strathpeflter for lOOgns. at Mr J. B. Reid’s dispersal sale of the Elderslie stud in 1919. Strathpeffer was a daughter of Birkenhead (by Orme) from a New Zealand Cup winner in Ideal, by Apremont from the imported Idalia, dam of Sir Modred (New Zealand Derby. Canterbury Cup, New Zealand Cup), Betrayer (Canterbury Cup), Cheviot (New Zealand Derby), Fair Nell, Ravenswing, and Sir Lancelot.

Set Sail was foaled in 1921 and developed into a grand and versatile race mare. In five seasons she won 21 races and. was 25 times placed. Her earnings were £8336 10s, and by today’s values that was a small mint of money. Set Sail won five races at three, and five more as a four-/ear-old. At this time she had done most of her racing as a sprinter and had won over six furlongs at Trentham in Imin lllsec. Bright spots on her five-year-old programme included a win over Circulation, Ravenna and others in the Invercargill Cup; second to Shirley in the Great Easter Handicap, and third behind

Pupithair and Football In the Great Autumn Handicap.

When she was six she won her second Invercargill Cup with 9-6; the Geraldine and Oamaru cups; ran third to Star Stranger and Pink Coat in the Wellington Cup; and third to Reremoana and Booster in the Great Autumn. Set Sail won her second Geraldine Cup when she was seven. At the stud she had eight foals, and all won. Her first, Night Sail (by Night Raid) was a moderate, but she managed to win a maiden race at Tapanui. The others following Night Sail found the way a bit easier, and some of them showed fair class.

Sailorman’s granddam, Sea Lady, won six races and at one time was joint holder of the Winton six-furlong record of Imin 12 2-ssec.

Sailing Lady won nine races and would have done even better if she had been tractable in her races. It was not easy to ride this erratic mare with much judgment.

Set Sail’s best winner was Southern Sail. She won the Dunedin and Wyndham Cups as well as six other races. After she finished racing she was bought by Mr D. H. Blackie, the man who bred Tulloch’s dam, Florida, from another Southland - bred mare.

But Southern Sail did not leave anything of any account before she died in October 1958.

Orsova (by Lo Zingaro) was of no account as a racing proposition and started her stud career disappointingly by losing a Foxshar foal. She was not served that year, and Sailorman arrived two years later. He was bred by Mr and Mrs W. L. Aynsley, of Waikaka, who sold a half-brother by Knight's Romance at the last national sales for 1550gns to a West Australian owner.