Rough Trip To N.Z. By Traducer Recalled

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32321, 12 June 1970, Page 8 (Supplement)

Rough Trip To N.Z. By Traducer Recalled

By

M. O'BRIEN

There can be few men about who have had the pleasure of imbibing with such a wonderful racing personality as William Coles Webb, who owned and conducted the Bush Inn for 40 years until shortly after thtflurn of the century.

But one such is Mr Dan Spence who lives near the western entrance to the Riccarton Racecourse in Carmen Road. Mr Spence‘will be 92 on July 4 but still retains vivid memories of the past. By present standards the Bush Inn is on a grand scale and covers a lot of ground but in Mr Webb's time, besides running the hotel, he controlled racing stables on the property and as a hobbyist farmer worked a property which extended roughly from Riccarton Road to what is now Memorial Avenue. Mr Spence, too. was in the hotel business. He held the licences of the Imperial, the White Swan and the Carlton Hotels in Christchurch and once was at the Bluff Hotel, Coalgate. While at Coalgate he prepared a galloper or two with some success. Later he owned the Metro Theatre in Sydenham and was well known in the entertainment world through his association with Christchurch Cinemas. Mr Spence raced trotters and gallopers for many years, the best galloper perhaps being Honest Sal, which he trained himself and which won the Timaru Cup. Honest Sal is the grandam of the present-day gallopers, Anvil and Winchman, from Wingatui.

In France In his day there was not a better known racing man than Mr Webb. Born in Berkshire, England, in 1834,

he served his early years in racing with Sam Scott of Ascott Heath, then with John Day. It was from there that he joined the establishment of Tom Jennings who, at .that time was training at Chantilly, France, for the Count Lagrange. The Count bred the great Gladiateur, the first horse to break the supremacy of the British racehorse on the English Turf by winning the Derby. Through Tom Jennings Mr Webb learnt the best training methods. This stood Mr Webb in good stead when he set up training at Riccarton. But'on his trip with a consignment of horses from England Mr Webb must have had some misgivings. They left in the Kensington on New Year’s Day, 1862. and after a week at Cape Town did not arrive in New Zealand until June 21.

Poor Condition Several times it seemed that the horses would be put overboard, so low and weak in condition had they become. In fact a Mr Innes, of Harris and Innes, who had a Clydesdale stallion on board, bought the lot from their importer, Mr Lancelot Walker, a few days before port was reached. What a tragedy it would have been for New Zealand breeding had catastrophe overtaken the consignment, as it included the afterwards world-renowned Traducer. which, among other notable achievements. sired'Sir Modred, a Dunedin Cup winner and the first New Zealand-

bred horse to go to the United States, and the illustrious Mermaid, ancestress of a host of New Zealand's great horses. Traducer was little used for the first few years after his importation. Thoroughbred mares were few and far between. He was bought by a Wanganui breeder but Canterbury breeders soon realised their mistake and the horse was brought back. Mermaid made early history at the stud when she produced Lurline and Le Loup. Lurline was a great stayer and won the Canterbury Clip (two miles and a quarter) twice. She carried a stone over the weight-for-age scale when she won the Dunedin Cup.

In Australia she won the Australian Cup and the Adelaide Cup. while at the stud she left Darebin. a V.R.C. Derby winner and South Australian St Ledger winner. Darebin also won a Sydney Cup and was a stud success in both Australia and la the United States. Le Loup won the race now known as the New Zealand Cup and sired the New Zealand Cup winner of 10 years later. Wolverone. which also won the Canterbury Cup Down through the years Mermaid's family chiefly through Waterwitch, has continued to do well. Natator. like Lurline and Le Loup, by Traducer. was the first of the family which won a Wellington Cup. but Cynisca made history when in. 1892 she completed a sequence of three wins in that race

Two Champions The late Mr Harry Knight, of Racecourse Hill, did particularly well with members of the family and he bred the champions, Limerick and Ballymena.

Classic winners in their numbers trace to Mermaid and in more recent years three winners of top-class races, weight-for-age and important handicap events were the Riccarton horses, Bruce, Royal Tan and My Hero. They won two Wellington Cups, two Canterbury Cups, and a Caulfield Cup among many important victories. Always There, an outstanding Australian three-year-old now in the United States, is the most prominent descendant in the last two or three years.