Bondy buys Apache

Press, 24 September 1987, Page 42

Bondy buys Apache

A horse that was a failure on the race track has been sold to the daughter of the Australian millionaire businessman, Alan Bond, for $500,000 , after a change of career. Apache is a 10-year-old chestnut entire which - earned prize money total- * ling $4O as a racehorse. But this year he established a reputation as one _ of the world’s best show- • jumpers after carrying former owner, Vicki Roy- - croft, to victory in a string ~ of blue-ribbon European ' jumping events, including ‘ the Rome Grand Prix. His clearcut superiority in the ring encouraged . Susanne Leone, formerly

Susanne Bond, to buy him for $500,000. Yet this was a horse which had cost Vicki and her showjumping husband, Wayne, $650 in 1982. Apache was a failure when he raced as a sprinter, Bold General. He earned $4O prizemoney for a third place in one of eight starts in Western New South Wales. It was not as though he had size going for him. At 15.3 hands, Apache was not a really big horse. But Vicki could never have imagined the success the pair would have. The awards came thick and fast Vicki won the

Nations Cup in Rome, was runner-up in Geneva and competed with the Australian team which was placed in every class in Paris. And in May she rode him to victory in the Rome Grand Prix, becoming the first Australian and the first woman to win the great event Apache is now resting in England and Vicki and Wayne are back in Australia looking for another champion. They sold Apache last year on a deferred sale basis so Vicki could keep riding him during the European winter season this year.