From Stud And Stable Lochcourt Is N.Z. Owner’s Cup Hope

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32114, 9 October 1969, Page 4

From Stud And Stable Lochcourt Is N.Z. Owner’s Cup Hope

The little man they call “Mo” is following a wellestablished schedule this year with a New Zealand-bred mare. He hopes the mare will have her crowning success in the Melbourne Cup next month.

“Mo” is the West Coast-born Mr V. P. Bernard, a familiar figure on racecourses in Australia, New Zealand, and England.

His Melbourne Cup hope is Lochcourt, winner last season of the Rotorua Cup and the Bay of Plenty County Handicap and third, a short head and a nose from the winner, Styleman, over two miles in the Chalmers Handicap at Trentham.

"Mo” Bernard follows the sun with his horses. He starts a campaign in Brisbane and works south through Sydney to make a fairly late arrival in Melbourne. There is much to commend such a schedule this year. One of the commentators at Flemington last Saturday said he had never spent a colder day at a race meeting. Lochcourt recently beat all but Tails in the Rosehill Cup. Tails made that form look good in winning the A.J.C. Metropolitan on Monday. The last Bernard-trained horse to race in Sydney was Valuate, which had done his early racing from C. C. McCarthy’s Riccarton stable. Valuate ran second to Striking Force in the 1965 Metropolitan after an unplaced run in the Grantham Handicap, won by Ziema a few days earlier. The A.J.C. committee then caused a stir by announcing that it would not accept future nominations made by Bernard for the horse. Mr Bernard’s troubles did not leave him with the departure for Melbourne. Valuate showed he was making good progress In his preparation for the Melbourne Cup by running

third behind Red William and Ziema in the Moonee Valley Cup, but to the great disappointment of Mr Bernard the five-year-old was balloted out of the rich Flemington race because of a prize-money clause. Valuate had the right of reentry in the event of scratchings, and there was some intensive “lobbying” in Melbourne on the eve of the race, but all to no avail. In that year Light Fingers won the Melbourne Cup by a narrow margin from her stablemate Ziema, which had beaten Valuate by inches for second at Moonee Valley. One of “Mo” Bernard’s most rewarding experiences in his long association with racing was in 1954, when he won the A.J.C. Metropolitan with the New Zealand-bred Commodore. Mr Bernard bought Commodore for 1500gns from Sir James Wattle. The Hawke’s Bay owner was reluctant to sell, and Mr Bernard even offered to take the horse to

Australia, pay all expenses and guarantee to win two races. Finally a sale was made, and Commodore was backed at long odds to win the Metropolitan some time before he- raced in Australia.

After his fifth in the Melbourne Cup Commodore was sold for 5250gns to a client of the Victorian trainer, Fred Hoys ted. Mr Bernard had hia introduction to racing at a picnic meeting at Kokatahi. He got his hands on an old trotter named Garrett and rode It to win a double.

Urged on by his friends in the West Coast village Mr Bernard applied to the New Zealand Racing Conference for a jockey’s licence, but when his mother saw the return letter she destroyed it. The young Bernard was then sent to Wellington to attend St Patrick’s College, and it was there that he was given the nickname “Mo.” Other students at the tea table kept asking the young newcomer from the West Coast his name.

Thinking they were making fun of him, he replied: “Call me Moses if you like.” Moses was soon shortened to “Mo.”