FROM STUD AND STABLE Mr J. H. Grigg, Enthusiast, To Stand Down

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30761, 27 May 1965, Page 4

FROM STUD AND STABLE Mr J. H. Grigg, Enthusiast, To Stand Down

Mr John H. Grigg, of Longbeach, is one of the most youthful and most active 70-year-olds one could find anywhere, and his decision, announced yesterday, to relinquish his active association with the Canterbury Jockey Club will be regretted.

Mr Grigg has decided not to seek reelection as a steward and a committee man of the C.J.C.

“I’ve never believed in old men hanging on to jobs on committees, standing in the way of young men who could do those jobs so much better,” Mr Grigg said yesterday.

Mr Grigg said he hoped that the young man who took his place would be interested in jumping and would do everything possible to advance the interests of the “grand old sport." In a long association with racing Mr Grigg has become widely known as a fervent, almost fanatical jumping enthusiast. He was riding in crosscountry races at Riccarton and on other courses soon after World War I and he cherishes memories of a Rorke’s Drift gelding called Fire Eater. In the winter of 1921 Mr Grigg scored a hat-trick on Fire Eater—the Brackenfield Hunt Club Steeplechase with 12-10, and the Christchurch Hunt Club's Hunt Club Steeplechase. both at Rangiora: and the South Canterbury Hunt Club’s Teschemaker Memorial Hunt Cup Steeples, then run over three miles, at Washdyke. Mr Grigg was riding against professionals in the Washdyke race, but his horse won by five lengths. They won the Christchurch Hunt Club's Hunt Club Steeples by a furlong! One of Mr Grigg’s greatest days as an owner was in August, 1954, when Young Prince won the Grand National Steeplechase in his colours.

A few years earlier he won the Great Northern Steeplechase and the Great Northern Hurdles with Streamline. These victories did not come in the one year, but Streamline just missed winning that notable double in 1941.

Esperance Bay beat him by a nose in the hurdles, but G. Ridgway, rider of Mr Grigg’s horse, was unwell and unable to do his mount justice.

Ridgway had recovered when Streamline won the Great Northern Steeples two davs later. Within a few weeks of

Young Prince's Grand National victory, Mr Grigg’s Pherozshah colt, Magic Carpet, recorded one of the easiest Dunedin Guineas wins on record.

I Magic Carpet continued to do well when he was trained I in Sydney. I Now he is baek at Longbeach and is siring some good racehorses. One of his more successful representatives is Flying Saucer, an unlucky second in the Waimate Cup last Saturday. Is Speed Visible? Is potential performance visible in the prospective racehorse? A correspondent of an American racing magazine asks this question while discussing the purchase of yearlings. He writes: "It would be interesting to know which carries the most weight—breeding or conformation—when the choice of a yearling is made. One must admit no little experience is needed to evaluate yearling conformation—so much has yet to be developed—but to knowledgeable judges, it is recognisable. “The old saying ‘a good big one beats a good little one’ (with few rare exceptions) has been discarded for a ‘good medium-sized one lasts longer than either.’ “With some allowable personal difference of opinion, such as quality versus substance, knowledgeable horsemen are conversant with conformation. Animals that possess what some find difficult to define or refer to as ‘quality’ are symmetrically built. They display the necessary conformation to successfully perform the work required of them, whether it dis draf or speed.” He Should Know The present standard of the open-class handicap horses in Canterbury is weak. This is not the opinion of any disappointed patriotic Canterbury man. This is the opinion of the leading trainer, E. A. Winsloe, of Gore. “We seem to have more to fear from our southern horses than from Canterbury horses when we come up this

way,” Winsloe said after the Waimate Cup on Saturday. Winsloe had just won the Waimate Cup with Red Siren. Second, inches away, was Flying Saucer, which was running for R. J. Cochrane's Gore stable. Winsloe’s successful Canterbury raids this season have been numerous, and some have been notable.

His ability to bring members of a big team to form and keep them in form shone through at the last New Zealand Cup meeting

when he won the Champagne Stakes with Summer Magic, won two races with Cassarook, and one with BeH Man. Tidal Rip won for the stable at the Grand National meeting, and when Winsloe made his first-ever trip to a Geraldine meeting in February he won races with Flying Trix and Southern Belle. Tundra did not manage to improve the good Canterbury winning record when she was at Riccarton at Easter, but a Nelson Cup victory was rich compensation.

Magic Mirror was another winner for the stable at Nelson.

Two yeans ago Winsloe had high hopes of winning the Wellington Steeplechase with Vamoose, and it was one of his greatest disappointments in racing when this versatile chestnut had to be destroyed because of an injury that must have been affecting him while he was struggling vainly to keep pace with the field for more than half the race. This year Winsloe will return to Trentham with two jumpers, John’s Mistake and Tidal Rip.

The combined efforts of these two ’chasers accounted for three of the five crosscountry races at Riverton at Easter.

Tidal Rip won twice after his second to John’s Mistake in the Great Western Steeples.