RACING Ben Lomond Impresses U.S. Bloodstock Expert

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31585, 24 January 1968, Page 5

RACING Ben Lomond Impresses U.S. Bloodstock Expert

(From Our Own Reporter) WELLINGTON. Efforts to buy Ben Lomond for an American owner started soon after the colt brilliantly won the Wellington Derby on Monday, but Mr E. Montgomery declined to put a price on him.

“The approaches were made on behalf of Mr Humphrey S. Finney, head of the Fasig-Tipton company, which sells thousands of yearlings in the United States every year.

While disappointed that he could not do business, Mr Finney said he quietly applauded Mr Montgomery’s refusal to put a price on his brilliant young galloper. “Here you have a man in his eighties who has waited all these years to get a classic winner. For him to sell a horse like Ben Lomond would be like selling a son,” Mr Finney remarked yesterday. Deeply Impressed Mr Finney said he had been deeply impressed by Ben Lomond’s winning performance in the Wellington Derby. “He’s as fine a mover as I've seen in many a day. He lengthened that great stride like a perfec* athlete, and he has all the qualities of a topclass stayer with speed. “This just shows you the value of your yearling sales in New Zealand,” Mr Finney said. “A colt like Ben Lomond was bought out of the sales for 2500 guineas. A stallion that sires a horse like Ben Lomond in his first crop has got it made.” Mr Finney, who bought two fillies at the sales for Japanese clients, feels that the quality of New Zealand yearlings is better now than it was five years ago.

I “There are better individuals in this sale, and they are better presented,” he said. “Very few of the youngsters in this year’s sale would not be accepted for the big sales at Saratoga and Keeneland in the States.” Sires Important Mr Finney believes that sires sell yearlings more than anything. “It’s a trend I don’t altogether agree with, but you have to accept that buyers of yearlings go for the yearlings by fashionable stallions rather than for the ones from the top mares. Show them the yearlings by Agricola and Alcimedes and they’re off and running.” Mr Finney said the two fillies he had bought at the sales for Japan would be placed in training in New Zealand and would be mated to northern hemisphere time with New Zealand-based stallions before being sent to their owners. Mr Finney will leave Auckland for Australia on February 1. He will attend the South Australian yearling sales and after business visits to Melbourne and Sydney he will return to the United States by way of Manila, Tokyo and Honolulu. Mr Finney went to the United States from Manchester, England, as a boy. He started with draught horses, moving on to hunters, polo

ponies, and saddle horses in Ohio. Early Judge Mr Finney was one of the earliest licensed judges of the American Horse Show Association. During the war he was with the Coast Guard Mounted Beach Patrol in Florida and Washington, and later had the job of overseeing the sale, all over the United States, of 25,000 horses that were the property of the U.S. Government. In 1945 Mr Finney helped the late Mr K. N. Gilpin rebuild Fasig-Tipton Company in which period he helped dispose of about ssm worth of horses for the Louis B. Mayer estate in a period of four years. In 1952 he organised a group to purchase control of Fasig-Tipton, becoming president in 1953 Mr Finney agrees with many other notable judges as to what constitutes a future performer. It is the age-old combination of “balance, hips and hocks.” Farm Visits In his rounds before the sales in the United States, Mr Finney likes to visit as many vendors as possible. “It’s not just looking at an individual when you go on a farm. You notice whether the owner is a good housekeeper, a good feeder, or whether it is a rough and tumble outfit “When a yearling is brought out for inspection, I notice if he comes out smartly or like a snail. Also I see if he acts mean or nervous and what impression he gives.” After visiting stud farms for over half a century, Mr Finney believes that if something on a stud farm strikes him

as a fine individual, he is usually looking at an outstanding performer or producer. “There is a relationship between class, breeding and conformation,” Mr Finney says. “More than likely the animals with the best credentials on any given stud farm are also likely to be the most handsome group. There’s a great deal to the looks of them. Sound Investment “One thing statistics over the last 25 years have shown is that it is an advantage to invest in a top-class filly,” Mr Finney said. “She may not race well, but her progeny can be of value for generations to come. People are finally coming io the conclusion, as the English did long ago, that to invest in a top-class thoroughbred filly is as good as any stock or bond yoc can mention.” Mr Finney agrees that good winners come in all sizes, but he believes one should be chary about buying an overlarge animal. “Big turnips are often hollow. “In a thoroughbred you want a good sloping shoulder. That is the most important thing to balance. If you have a good front end, the hind end will follow. I never saw a good horse yet that didn’t have a good shoulder. “Again, we get back to the medium-sized, well-balanced, top-bred, sound Individual and hope for the best.”