FROTH BROOD MARE OF YEAR

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32737, 14 October 1971, Page 8

FROTH BROOD MARE OF YEAR

I' roth became one of the controversial performers on the racing scene after she returned a positive test following her victory in the 1959 Auckland Cup.

But before then, and later, she showed she was a mare of top class—and she has matching deeds as a pro* ducer.

It is no surprise that she has been awarded the 1970-71 Brood Mare of the Year title by the council of the New Zealand Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association. The council met in Auckland earlier this week and endorsed the choice of Froth, which was made by Miss Pat O’Brien, .of Wright, Stephenson and Company, Ltd, and the racing columnist, S. V. McEwen.

Besides winning the Auckland Cup, Froth won the New Zealand Northern Oaks, the W.R.C. the A.R.C. Queen Elizabeth Handicap, and the Jackson Stakes. Four of her progeny offered for sale as yearlings have realised more than $52,000, the last of them, a Ally by Agricola, realising the record auction price for a filly at $27400 in 1970, the youngster then becoming the possession of the Foyster familv. Froth’s first foal, Agrifo, was bought at Trentham for $6300 and has won 20 races and $20,000 including the S.A.J.C. International Stakes.

Her second foal, Swift General, £SJL so,d to J. B. Cummings for and won seven races and $33,000 including the South Australian St Leger. and the Duke of Norfolk Stakes, over two miles.

Laelia, winner of the Adelaide Cup last . season, was offered in 1969 and was bought for $9OOO by the Te Parse Stud, which has at times reversed roles at the Trentham sales to buy fillies from families of quality for breeding purposes. Te Parse Stud leased Laelia until the end of her five-year-old season to patrons of the Cummings stable who had raced on lease the brilliant but ill-fated Lowland.

When the lease is up Laelia will return to Te Parse to swell the ranks of a notable band of matrons.

Froth was bred and raced by Mrs J. N. Lowry who, with her husband, conducts the Oreka Stud hard by Mr T. C. Lowry’s famous Okawa thoroughbred nursery. Froth belongs to a brand of the Gossip family which has Sven New Zealand racing some stlnguished racehorses Including Bobrikoff, Flnmark, Gascony, and Second Wind. Mrs Lowry has retained two of Froth’s fillies—Frivole (by Le Filou) and Hops (by Agricola) for the stud. As a three-year-old in 1968-69 Frivole won four races including the Awapunl Stakes by three lengths.