FROM STUD AND STABLE Breeder’s Death Recalls Fluke Purchase Of Champion

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30981, 10 February 1966, Page 4

FROM STUD AND STABLE Breeder’s Death Recalls Fluke Purchase Of Champion

Lieutenant-Colonel Giles Loder, M.C., who died last week at Cannes at the age of 82, had a very notable connexion with racing and breeding in Great Britain dating back over SOyears.

He won a Derby with Spion Kop, and the 1000 Guineas with Cresta Run, but New Zealanders might remember him mainly for his association with the mighty Foxbridge.

Foxbridge, a sensational success as a sire in New Zealand, and a horse whose fabulous record is being extended through the deeds of his daughters as producers, was JMred by Lieutenant-Colonel Loder in 1930. He was by Foxlaw from Bridgemount by Bridge of . Erin from Mountain Mint by I Spearmint which had won ' the 1906 Derby in the colours of Major Eustace Loder, an uncle of Foxbridge’s owner. Foxbridge raced against some high-class horses, including Hyperion and Firdaussi, but he fashioned a solid record. At three years he won the Liverpool Atlantic Cup by four lengths. A performance equally I good, perhaps better, was his: 1 third in the rich Eclipse [Stakes to top class horses in 'Loaningdale and Firdaussi. It was as a result of that performance that he was sold 'to the Argentine. Turned Down A famous professor of veterinary science was asked to pass the horse for export. He decided to make the inspection a field lesson for his class, and several of his students found that Foxbridge had a slight blemish on one eye, so they turned the horse down. The professor then advised the British Bloodstock Agency that he could not pass the horse.

The transaction was terminated, but later Foxbridge was submitted to Trelawney Stud with the strongest possible recommendation and at a price that had been substantially reduced. Luck certainly plays its

part in the evolution of the! ! thoroughbred. Foxbridge arrived in New i Zealand in 1935, his first | I yearlings were sold at the i 1938 national sales, and when! j his second crop came up for I sale had had only one win-! ■ ner Buyers’ opinion then was that Foxbridge was just another stallion. The first of the Trelawney: , draft that year was a blackl filly out of Aureola, and she; was knocked down to the ■ ; Takanini trainer, W. Clifton, < for llOgns. 1 This was the filly later to! be known as Foxola, which I !won 13 races from six fur- ; longs to one mile and a half,■ i i then achieved fame as a pro-!, i ducer. Great Record 1 h ) Foxbridge sired five Derby ! winners—four colts in Regal) t Fox, Al Sirat, Fearless Fox, p and Fox Myth and the filly: i Lady Foxbridge; and six Oaks'* I winners in Alcyone, Chicka- j < idee, Foxmond, Idle Jest, j i Lady’s Bridge, and Aenith'l (2). £ Foxwyn and Swanee eachjt won an Auckland Cup, Cat-|i terick Bridge the New Zea-1

! land Cup, and Fox Myth the I Wellington Cup in record j time. 1 Another notable feat came i on Auckland Cup day in 1944 ! when stock of Foxbridge won six races in succession on the I rich programme. Al Sirat started with a win | in the Great Northern Foal ; Stakes. Then, in order, came ■Foxwyn (Auckland Cup), ! Hormuz (Queen’s Plate), Neejnah (Railway Handicap), [White Blaze (Nursery Handicap), and Exeter (Christ-) ■ mas Handicap). : Foxbridge was destroyed jin 1957 at the age of 27 to ' | save him pain, but it will ; I be some time yet before the i [complete story of his great ■ I record can be written. Foxbridge sired the dam ! of Peterman, the champion j 1 j three-year-old this season, j; and he has several other dis-), tinguished representatives at ■ New Zealand studs. Lieutenant-Colonel Loder j t also owned and bred two j i other stallions now at stud j < in New Zealand. One is The) Cobbler, which was unbeaten I at two years and was beaten) only by a head by My Baibujt in the 2000 Guineas. |t The other is Arctic Ex-1 i

! plorer, winner of the Eclipse ■ Stakes in 1957, told to Ausj traiia as a sire for over 40,000gns, and last year resold to New Zealand —only months before the V.R.C. Derby victory of his son, Tobin Bronze.