Honkin Andy to stand at Springston

Press, 2 August 1983, Page 26

Honkin Andy to stand at Springston

By

JEFF SCOTT

Honkin Andy, the sire of last season’s brilliant juvenile filly, Honkin Del, is to stand the coming stud season at Neville Benny’s Spring Park Stud at Springston. The seven-year-old Albatross entire, which took a lmin 58.8 mile record as a two-year-old, was imported from America in 1979 by the Tai Tapu studmaster, Bill Denton, and stood his first three seasons at his Russley Lodge Stud. He has been leased to Benny for three years with a right of renewal, and will join Mark Lobell and Clever Innocence at Springs Park Stud. Honkin Del, from the first crop of Honkin Andy, won her debut start at Ashburton by eight lengths over a mile in February in 2min 2.7 s and is unbeaten in two starts in Australia since being sold to New South Wales interests. She returned 2min 2.3 s when winning her Australian debut in the $15,000 Pink Bonnet Mile at Harold Park in May and won the $20,000 Waratah Stakes final for two-year-old fillies in Sydney last month. the lease of Honkin Andy marks the closing down of the stud operations at Russley Lodge after 28 years. “I’m not undermining my confidence in Honkin Andy — I just feel like a bit of a change,” Denton said yesterday.

“We just want a change training a few horses. Over the years several friends have asked me to train a .horse or two for them, but time just hasn’t allowed it,” he said. “We’ve been restricted to a very small team over the

years.” The first standardbred Denton stood at stud after the war was the Italian-bred Medoro, which met with “moderate success.” Since Medoro, other fine stallions to have been patronised at Russley Lodge include Flying Song, Fallacy, Garrison Hanover, Lumber Dream (for the first five or six years), Honest Master, Brad Hanover, Golden Fulla, Bye Bye Song and Honkin Andy. Without doubt Denton rates the highly-successful Garrison Hanover, three times New Zealand’s leading over-all sire, as the best horse he has stood over the years. “In my eyes he would have to be tops,” Denton said of the Billy Direct entire which stood his first season for him in 1955 and died two years ago. Garrison Hanover sired over 460 winners including the big winners, Speedy Guest, Apres Ski, Cardinal Garrison, Waitaki Hanover, Fort Nelson and Stewart Hanover, to name a few, while he has made his mark as a broodmare sire, having left the dams of Balgove, Tricky Dick, Classiebawn and Trojan, among others. At the end of 1980, when his oldest stock were 24, Garrison Hanover had a percentage of winners to live foals of an extremely high 46.6 per cent. Denton originally founded Russley Lodge in Pound Road, Yaldhurst, a property now owned by the successful breeder-owner-trainer, Mr Colin McLachlan, who produced the dual Derby winner, Mighty Me, last season. The stud was moved to the present David Road property in Tai Tapu, 10 years ago.