Broken jaw did not stop rugged Kiwi

Press, 7 June 1980, Page 12

Broken jaw did not stop rugged Kiwi

By

J. J. BOYLE

The New Zealand-bred Royal Mail brought off one of the great triumphs of the English jumping season when he won the Whitbread Gold Gup in April.

A film of that race will be* screened on television today,* and should be a great New; Zealand crowd pleaser. The 1976 Grand National Hurdles winner did not go Into that race with a run-of-,the-mill background'. Only six weeks or so earlier he had broken his jaw in two places when he fell about a mile from home in jthe Cheltenham Gold Cup. For a week afterwards the horse was confined to his box but the injury did not affect his appetite and he was always able to eat his mash. After a week Royal Mail was ridden out on a head collar and soon showed enough zest for his work to justify a start in the Whitbread. The big problem for the trainer Stan Mellor was to find the right type of bridle and bit that would not hurt the horse’s jaw in the race. He eventually settled for a home-made combination of a noseband with a straight bit so that the lower jaw was left completely free. Mellor found that the horse was still very sensitive about the whole thing, so he also put a pair of blinkers on him to persuade him to go into his bridle. The distance of the Whitbread is three miles and five furlongs, and Royal Mail’s jockey, Philip Blackler, believed it might be too far for the New Zealand-bred.

when Koiro Scott crashed at ! the last flight: he won by 12 lengths. i The Bally Royal-Lency gelding won a hurdles double at Trentham in the spring of that year, and returned there a year later to win his second Glen Hurdles under 72.5 kg. His attempt to win the Grand National Hurdles for a second time in 1977 produced a third to Sheikle and Charger. Soon after he was switched to ’chasing to win the Waikato Hut Cup.

But on the firmish ground! l I that day Royal Mail was! ■always travelling well. He! ijumped into the lead on the far side and had enough re- ; serves to cope with late < challenges from Father Dela- i nev and Jer. 1 Named by his Irish-born ’ owner, Mr S. R. Burgess, i after a boyhood equine hero Which had won the English i Grand National, Royal Mail ; won his Grand National < Hurdles at Riccarton as < sixth favourite in a field of s eight. It was easy for him t