MR HAZLETT SELLING UP

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32466, 28 November 1970, Page 1

MR HAZLETT SELLING UP

"The Press" Special Service

INVERCARGILL, November 27. New Zealand’s leading racing owner, Mr W. E. Hazlett, will sell all his racing and breeding stock at a special sale in Southland on February 25.

Because of ill-health Mr Hazlett has decided to offer , all' of his thoroughbred interests —more than 100 horses, including the imported sires, Lomond, Hawa, Royal Student, and Bellagioca.

The offering will include more than 40 broodmares, 15 yearlings, about 20 racehorses in training and about 20 at present spelling. The brood mares and young stock wijl be sold at the Chelandry Stud at Taramoa, near Invercargill, and the racing stock at the Riverton Racecourse.

Details of the offering are at present being compiled by the auctioneers, Wright Stephenson and Company, Ltd, in conjunction with Pyne, Gould, Guinness Ltd. One of the highlights of the sale will be the offering of the English-bred sire, Lomond, a ten-year-old son of Preciptic, whose oldest stock are racing this season as two-year-olds. He was represented by his first winners at the recent Southland meeting when Tourie and Caledonian Lass won their respective divisions of the Southland Breeders’ Stakes.

Lomond, the highest stake winner and the most costly sire brought to the South Island when he was imported by Mr Hazlett three years ago has made a big impact on breeders and his stock have been keenly sought whenever they have been offered. It is anticipated that there will be a wide overseas in-

terest in Lomond when he is put up for sale. The'ls' yearlings to be offered will include a half-bro-ther by Lomond, to the Wellington Cup, Grand National Hurdles, and Great Northern Steeplechase winner, Eiffel Tower. Among the horses in training are Stranger, Pole Star, Kiblah, Crystal Palace, a sister to Eiffel Tower, Towering, a half-brother to Eiffel Tower, Bill O’Groats, Ayrshire Dawn, Free Frenchman, Naratam, Verey Light, White Wine and Radiant Light. , Included in. the broodmares are several by Kurdistan, the sire of the Melbourne Cup winner, Baghdad Note. More than 60 years ago the late Mr W. T. Hazlett developed Chelandry Stud into New Zealand’s largest priv-ately-owned stud. He became New Zealand’s largest breeder and owner, with teams racing in both New Zealand and Australia. When he died a dispersal sale of the Chelandry Stud stock was held in 1948. For the last 22 years it has been run by its present owner, Mr W. E. Hazlett. Mr W. E. Hazlett decided to make Chelandry Stud sires available to outside mares and began this phase of the stud’s history with the Chelandry-bred Sir Simper, which became a prolific sire of jumpers, a field in which Mr Hazlett devoted much of his interest, and the Englishbred horses, Callander, and ColumcUle. The stud added a further English sire to its strength when it secured the grey horse, Kurdistan, one of the

greatest sires in New Zealand in recent times.

Kurdistan, which died last August after spending the whole of his stud life at Chelandry, proved one of the most versatile stallions imported to this country. He was 23 years of age when he died. Up to that stage he had sired the winners of $76,880 in stakes and on five occasions he sired the winners of more races in a single season than any other sire on the New Zealand list. Although he has bought an occasional outside horse over the years, Mr Hazlett has concentrated on the young stock he bred at Chelandry, and he headed the New Zealand owners’ list for five sue-

cessive years until last season when he finished second. Since he won his first race with Cultivator at the Birchwood Hunt meeting in 1934, Mr Hazlett has been associated with the winners of more than $600,000 in stakes.

The stud has rarely sold any of its stock. The first and one of the very few sold by the late Mr W. T. Hazlett was Lambent. She went to Australia where she became the dam of Flight, the champion mare of her time. Flight won $62,838 and became the dam of the A.J.C. Derby winner Sky High, which won $154,310. The picture shows Mr Hazlett studying the race card at Riccarton recently.