Durban Chief well in U.S. retirement

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32901, 27 April 1972, Page 9

Durban Chief well in U.S. retirement

(From Our Own Reporter)

WESTPORT.

A former New Zealand champion trotter, Durban Chief, now rising 20 years, is still in good condition and he enjoys a regular jog round show ground tracks in the United States after several years in that country. Durban Chief was one of the top trotters of his time in this country and numbered the Dominion Handicap in 1957 and 1958 among his many successes.

News of Durban Chief was obtained recently in Westport from a close friend of Mr F. Kite, of (aliforma, who has cared for the former champion for some years.

When Dr and Mrs E. Briggs were preparing for a trip to New Zealand earlier in the year, Mr Kite gave them the address of Mr A. Hansby, of Westport, and they promised to make every effort to cal) on the people who had been connected with the old horse earlier in his career. > The travellers were eventually able to make a short call at Westport, but missed Mr Hanaby and the horse’s regular driver on New Zealand tracks, W P. Walsh, both being out of town. • Dr and Mrs Briggs were able to talk with many people who knew Durban Chief well and they were able to tell them of his career in the United States. They showed great interest in the early career of Durban Chief—once described as the horse with a thousand owners, all from Buller. In a later letter to Westport, Mrs Briggs gave some interesting information on the kind home found by Durban Chief with Mr Kite and his wife, both lovers of a good horse.

A former owner of a large never won a race at Westport.

Mr E. Walsh recalls much anxiety about Durban Chief ever reaching America. He accompanied the horse when he was sent by air by Mr N. dairy in Sacemento, Mr Kite has several standardbreds on his hay ranch, each horse being housed in a spacious stall, with an irrigated green paddock on which to run. Mrs Briggs said that a wide bridle path ran for several miles along a . reek that winds through the Kite pro-

petty, and along this stretch Durban Chief got a good run almost every day. ROAD HORSE CLASS Mrs Briggs, who has had a high regard for horses since her childhood and who confesses happiness in her husband's tolerance of that hobby, enclosed a photograph of “The Chief,” as he was affectionately known in Westport, taken at a horse show about three years ago. He was appearing in a road

horse class, in which the horses are sent at a road gait the wrong way and then returned at racing speed. She said that such events were very popular at shows. Durban Chief finished third in that particular race. A note from Mr Kite disclosed that the New Zealander had won $9964 in his fourteenth year, the last allowed by American trotting authorities, and his total stake money was $BB,OOO. Added

to the $lB,OOO he won in this country, it makes a substantial return by the former Westport horse. He established a record of 2min Isec for a mile at eight years. Mr Hansby said that he was greatly thrilled to know that the old horse was doing so well in such kind hands. “I have not been so closely in touch with him of late, although I knew that he had a good home with the Kites. It was great to hear through Mrs Briggs that he will always be well cared for.” EARLY OWNERS Mr Hansby’s sister, Mrs Moyna Collins, first raced Durban Chief in partnership with Messrs R. J. Woodcock and E. Walsh, but later Mr Hansby took over the Collins’s share. He had been closely interested in Durban Chief from his first outing. Strangely enough the horse Simpson with some gallopers, including that good performer, Up and Coming, which played up badly. At one stage, before he was offloaded during the trip, Mr Walsh felt that the galloper would kick the aircraft to pieces.

The photograph shows Durban Chief in action in a road horse class race at a show held about three years; ago.