Was Padishah the best National winner?

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33601, 1 August 1974, Page 12

Was Padishah the best National winner?

Ihe old question "who was the greatest National winner?” has been a talking point for years.

Brookby Song, Clarion Call. Coalition, Beau 1 Cavalier, and a good many others have been discussed, rated, and judged against one another in mythical races. No owner has had greater success in the race than Mr W. E. Hazlett. Fittingly so, of course, for no owner has put more horses into Grand National fields. Mr Hazlett saw his first Grand National in the early 19205, and apart from when he was ini I South Africa in 1928 with the All Blacks. 1 he has seen them all since. His choice as the best Grand National winner in 50 years? He never hesitated. “Padishah is the’best I’ve seen.” said the giant Southlander, who has raced on a scale un-l matched by any other New Zealander in the .1 last 30 years. “Padishah was a correct jumper, one I believe took some ‘making,’ and of course he had the pace that won for him a Wellington Cup,” ' Mr Hazlett told “The Press.” Padishah’s year in the Grand National Steeples was 1939, and he triumphed in the hands of ‘ the amateur George Beatson under 11.5. TWO HURDLES WINS | A few days later Padishah capped off a great ‘ record at Riccarton by winning his second

Grand National Hurdles. In his two Grand National Hurdles victories he was ridden by A. E. (Bert) Ellis, a member of one of New Zealand’s greatest racing families. Two years after Padishah won his Grand National Steeples. Astral Flame gave Mr Hazlett his first taste of success in the race. Astral Flame was raced by Mr W. E. Hazlett in partnership with his brother. .Jack. The coml bination triumphed two years later with Anglo-French. dt was a partnership that ended sadlv with the death in action in Italy of Jack Hazlett. Bill Hazlett has since won three more Grand National Steeples—with Capet (1959), John O’Groats (1964). and the immenselv popular I Koral (1965). In 1968 Mosque, carrying the Hazlett colours, came home first far ahead of anv of the others, but lost the race through the failure of his rider, R. B. Weaver, to make the weight. Mr Hazlett is convinced he had at least one other horse with the ability to win a Grand National. Its name was Lisheen. “He broke a leg in a mix-up at the fence at the top of the straight in the Homeby the week before the National,” Mr Hazlett recalled the other day. “He was a good jumper, and a horse that had the speed of a high-class sprinter.”