Kartika put down

Press, 28 August 1986, Page 32

Kartika put down

Kartika, one of the best staying mares in her day and the New Zealand Cup winner in 1971, has died on the property of her owners, Mr and Mrs Cyril Taylor, at New Plymouth. Her last foal bred by Mr and Mrs Taylor, is a yearling colt by Crested Wave. Kartika, which had to be put down after a paddock accident, was bred in 1966 and was by Fair’s Fair from Queen Hestia, an imported English mare, by Precipitation. Trained by Brian Deacon, then based at Hawera, she was a slow developer and, though a winner in the eighth of her 13 races as a three-year-old, Kartika did not produce her best form until two seasons later when she won five races, one of them the two mile Waikato Stayers’ Plate. As a six-year-old, and in her last season of racing, she won the New Zealand Cup in a close finish with Golden Sam and scored two other notable wins. They were the Wellington Handicap and the Waverley Cup. In the Te Rapa staying race Kartika was ridden by Bob Skelton and Jim Walker won the New Zeapand Cup on her, as an apprentice. As well as training Kartika right through, Brian Deacon developed one of her colt foals, Diwali, into a dashing jumper.