Legacy from stud failure

Press, 7 October 1987, Page 36

Legacy from stud failure

By

J. J. BOYLE

A descendant of the great Cinna, imported to stand at a Waikato stud in the 19505, epded his days as a gelding. But, fortunately, El Mughar (son of Palestine) did not undergo that traumatic change before he sired a little grey which adorned New Zealand racing under the name of Maria Mitchell.

Maria Mitchell won 10 races from six furlongs to one mile, including the Avondale Guineas, the Auckland Railway Handicap, and two Whyte Handicaps at Trentham — a line-up that speaks volumes for her versatility. Maria Mitchell has not left one nearly as good as herself, but her influence is still being felt on the racing scene. Her name would have come up for another airing in the ranks of breeding students at Royal Randwick on Monday. She is grand-dam of Balciano, winner of the historic A.J.C. Metropolitan, a race often of value in exposing the qualities of Melbourne Cup hopefuls. Balciano is by Balmerino out of Maria Mitchell’s fifth foal, Deciana, by Decies.

Deciana was bred by Mr Nelson Bunker Hunt at the Waikato Stud and was bought by Mr J. D. Self, of Papatoetoe, for $13,000 at the Trentham sales in 1977. Deciana had limited racing without success and was sent to Taipan II for her first mating when she was a four-year-old. Balciano was her third foal. Maria Mitchell, which was foaled in 1960, was represented in the two-year-old section of this year’s South Island Sale in Christchurch by a Fras-. sino filly but the youngster was passed in at $ll,OOO, and has gone into the catalogue for the Pyne, Gould Guinness sale in Christchurch next month. The Frassino filly was Maria Mitchell’s tenth foal. Maria Mitchell’s dam,

Nantucket, was even more prolific, having 15 named foals and 12 runners, 11 of them winners. While Maria Mitchell brought out the influences for brilliance in the family, her half-brother, Lordtuckey, showed an abundance of stamina in winning races like the Grand National and Great Northern Hurdles. The South Island had a closer link with the family through Lejano. This halfbrother, by Adios 11, to Maria Mitchell won the Dunedin Guineas for the Washdyke stable of Pat Corboy. A valuable placed run on his record was a second to Teddy Doon in the New Zealand Two Thousand Guineas. Balciano’s win in the A.J.C. Metropolitan on Monday gave New Zea-land-breds their fourth

success in the race in the last five years. Last year’s winner of the Metropolitan was Born to be Queen, a New Zealand-bred daughter of In the Purple. The winner in 1983 and again in 1984 was Hayai. Hayai went on, in 1983, to win the Caulfield Cup in the hands of the Sydney horseman, Neville Voigt, who will prepare Balciano for a tilt at the first leg of the famous Cups double this year. Rising Fear provided the best value from last year’s Metropolitan going into the Melbourne Cup. He was third in the Sydney race, and runnerup to At Talaq in the Melbourne Cup. The 1950 s were good years for those who set store by Metropolitan' form for the Melbourne Cup. Delta carried off the

double in 1951, and the great Riccarton-trained stayer, Dalray, followed with a magnificent double in 1952, lumping 9 stone 81b in the Melbourne Cup after being rehandicapped for his victory under 9 stone 11b in the Metropolitan. Monte Carlo, carrying the colours of the late Mr Ken Austin, went close to the double in 1958. The Canterbury-bred stayer mastered 9 stone 31b in The Metropolitan, then carried 9 stone 61b into second in the Melbourne Cup, which was won by Baystone with a weight advantage of 111 b. Macdougal, a product of the famous Trelawney Stud, at Cambridge, achieved the Metropoli-tan-Melbourne Cup double in 1959, but such a double has not been repeated since.