FROM STUD AND STABLE Hazlett dispersal sale in Southland today

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32540, 25 February 1971, Page 8

FROM STUD AND STABLE Hazlett dispersal sale in Southland today

(From Our Own Reporter)

INVERCARGILL.

The big question of the week in Southland is: What price will be on offer for the imported stallion, Lomond, at the Hazlett dispersal sale today? Which leads to the question: Will the best bid offered be good enough to reach the high reserve placed on him?

The Irish-bred Lomond, the costliest sire imported to the South Island and now represented by a promising crop of two-year-olds, was the subject of an offer of $lOO,OOO late last year.

But Mr W. E. Hazlett declined to do business and soon after announced that the Preciptib horse would be offered with his other horses at today’s sale. Early arrangements for the sale were made last year at a time when Mr Hazlett was ailing and under orders to undergo surgery in Christchurch. Mr Hazlett has made a good recovery from the operation, and anyone thinking that every entry in today’s catalogue is for unreserved sale, is likely to be disillusioned.

No other owner has raced on the same scale as Mr Hazlett in New Zealand in the last 40 years. His readiness and capacity to keep big teams in training have done much for the well-being of Southland racing in particular and his love of a good jumper has been reflected much further afield.

Jumpers He has bred, and his private trainer, W. J. Hillis, has developed horses many trainers would have welcomed in their stables as Cup prospects. But the almost standard procedure for the Hazlett horses has been restricted to racing on the flat and early entry to. the jumping ranks. Happily Mr Hazlett marked time long enough with Eiffel Tower to allow that freak stayer time to win a Wellington Cup, run a close second in another, and run a place in the New Zealand Cup. But Mr Hazlett probably took even greater pleasure out of Eiffel Tower’s win in a sensational Great Northern Steeplechase and in two Grand National Hurdles. Eiffel Tower has certainly been a truly great product of the Hazlett-owned Chelandry Stud where selling operations will begin this morning.

It is doubtful if the Chelandry Stud, birthplace of so many good horses, including ancestresses of and producers of the likes of Sky High, Flight, St Razzle, Koral, Anglo-French, Capet, and Eiffel Tower, will be removed : from the Southland scene. But today’s sale might effect a change and a scaling down in the operations of a mighty breeding and racing empire, one that has con- i tributed so much to the sue- , cess story of the South Island ] thoroughbred scene. Largest Chelandry Stud was founded by Mr W. T. Hazlett, father of the present owner, in the early 1900 s and be- . came the largest privately- ! owned stud in New Zealand. On the death of Mr Haz- 1 lett a dispersal sale was held 1 in 1948, and the stud has 1 been run by Mr W. E. Haz- 1 lett for the last 23 years. He changed the earlier policy by i making stud stallions avail- ’ able to outside mares. 1 With the acquisition of < Abemant’s half-brother, s Kurdistan, a Tehran horse I

brought to New Zealand by Mr T. Deegan, of Winton, an early chapter in a notable success story was written. By the time the old grey was humanely destroyed late last winter the deeds of Kumai, Eiffel Tower, Koral, and the like had been responsible for some brilliant chapters in a sire record, and in winning the Melbourne Cup last November, Baghdad Note carried the message to Australia that the North Island has not had a monopoly of stallions with ability to transmit stamina and class. Smart colt Efforts were made to buy the two-year-old, Solar Flight, after his win at Wingatui on Tuesday but the price put on the Summertime colt by the owner Mr S. P. Vickery, will ensure that no business is done. The North Island bloodstock salesman Mr P. J. Kelly was prepared to go to $20,000 for Solar Flight but he was only half-way on the youngster. Solar Flight was having his third start when he won

on Tuesday and this was his first win. It has been established that he is the last horse sired by Summertime, the Precipitation horse which had a profound influence on New Zealand and Australian racing. Central Flight, the dam of Solar Flight and a member of the renowned Francolin family, missed foaling in 1969 but last spring she foaled to Pakistan II and is now carrying a foal by Summer Magic. A youngster by Summer Magic would be a three-quar-ter relation in blood to Solar Flight Summer Magic, which stands at a stud established near Gore by Solar Flight’s trainer, E. A. Winsloe, was one of the best sons of Summertime to race in New Zealand. Undecided The Queensland owner of Stormy Seas, Mr A. I. Milne is now uncertain where his three-year-old will do his future racing. Until the eve of the New Zealand Derby Mr Milne had planned to give the chestnut a short spell and take him to Australia to join a Brisbane stable, but after the Riccarton classic Stormy Seas was out of sorts and was returning to Southland to spell. Stormy Seas has had four races this time up and each time he has been placed. But nothing he has done has suggested he has made other than than average improvement “I can’t get Piko out of my mind,” Mr Milne remarked this week. "Over here Piko was a top horse but he never fired in Australia, If it can happen to Piko it can happen to Stormy Seas.”

“Unlucky” The Wingatui jockey, E. J. Didham regarded Susan Jane as the unluckiest of the unlucky in the Lady Norrie Stakes at Te Rapa last Saturday, but has no doubts that the brilliant Battle Wagon filly will come up better than ever for the New Zealand Thoroughbred Breeders’ Stakes at Te Aroha on Saturday. “The Te Rapa race could not have taken anything out of her by the time I found a run for her she only had about 50 yards to go,” Didham told “The Press” this week.