THE MARE AND THE MAN

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 120, 16 November 1929, Page 10

THE MARE AND THE MAN

AT SPRING CREEK

FIFTY YEARS AGO

(By S. Saunders.)

Fifty-ofld years ago I spent a long January morning—from daybreak to noon —with Mr. Henry Redwood tramping over the broad acres of Spring Creek, then largely covered with flax and raupo, and now, I presume, partly embraced by the suburbs of the cosy town of Blenheim, where, by and by, the principal "port" for the aerial fleets of me Dominion will be estabr lished. I can see in recollection the sturdy figure of the "Father of the New Zealand Turf" as it impressed me' on that memorable excursion. Hatless and collarless, with an unbuttoned shirt ruffled by every passing breeze nether garments hitched up by two strands of flax, clay-covered boots v that may have been 12's or H's, the remains of a once-waterproof coat thrown carelessly over his left shoulder, and a 6ft manuka sapling as a staff in his right hand, he looked every inch the wo°k--man and the gentleman he always was. He started out with a look at the horses at work under the vigilant eye of "Ted" Cutts, who at that time must have had a dozen or two of one .kind and another on his lists. , A quartet of backward two-year-olds were cantered. down the sand track for my delectation, and I was permitted to lay my hand upon Guy Fawkes, a son of Ravensworth and the Sir Hercules mare Fidget, that had won the Canterbury Joctfey Club Handicap, the precursor of the Hew Zealand Cup, and the Canterbury Cup that year, and also upon Songster, a son of imported Towton and imported Skybird, that had won the Canterbury Derby, now the New Zealand Derby, at the same meeting. Cutts, no doubt with the best of intentions, suggested that I should canter Guy Fawkes round the' track, but I fancied I detected, a twinkle'in his eye, and with some improssive experiences of the vagaries of Ravensworth's stock,----1 did not accept his hospitality. In any case I should have had no desire to display my horsemanship in such company, the two Lyfords, I think Jack Kae, and other masters of the equestrian art being among the potential spectators. A GREAT FAMILY. It was. when later 'in the dajr^we reached-the paddock in which thebrood mares with their sturdy ' foals were browsing, that my-host grew really eloquent. v I cannot remember one-tenth of the sleek ladies to wtioin I was introduced, but I recollect that the pony Awatea, who four or five years later was to become the dam' of Beresford, who"might have won the New Zealand Pup of 1887 had things gone differently, was there. Raupo, the dam of Mala, who had missed that year, also permitted me to pat her smooth neck, as did also Phoebe, the dam of Raupo, and.a score-.of other matrons to whose shades I must confess I: have forgotten their names and lineage. But my host reach--ed the height of his eloquence'when he recalled his own intimate association with Sir Hercules and Flora M'lvor, and when he subsequently produced Waimea from a secluded paddock for" my intimate inspection. It was a long story, and it would be sacrilege on my part to attempt to tell it, but one may be permitted to wonder, with all reverence, whether or not' my host of 53 years ago is permitted to know that a direct descendant of his much-beloved Sir. Hercules and Flora M'lvor woii the Melbourne Cup a fortnight back, and another the New Zealand Cup only a week ago. Sir Hercules was' brought to New Zealand by Mr. Redwood in 1852, and was accompanied by Flora M' Ivor, and four of her progeny, Flora (by Sir Hercules), Zoe (by Sir Hercules), Bay Middleton (by' Sir Hercules), and Chloe (by Lawson's Tros). After her arrival in New Zealand at the mature age of 23 or 24, Flora M'lvor presented Mr." Redwood with Chevaher (by Lawson's Tros), Io (by Sir Hercules), and Waimea (by Sir Hercules). She passed away full of years and honour at the exceptional age of 32 or 33. Her last foal, Waimea produced in 1857, became the dam of the mighty Manuka, a son of The Peer that Mr. Redwood always held to be the best horse he ever had bred. THE FIRST* RACE MARE. Under this heading Dr. W. H. Lang, m one of his delightful contributions to the "Racehorse in Australia," supplies a very interesting account of tho introduction of Flora M'lvor's grand-dam to Australia. "In 1825," he says, "arrived the first of all the race mares that have made Australian Turf history. This was Manto. It was indeed a happy day for our Turf when she, then a three-year-old, ianded in New South Wales. She was bred in England in 1822, was bought by Mr. leely, Coombing Park, and imported to Australia in 1825. . . Before leaving England, Manto had been mated with Young Grasshopper, by Grasshopper, who was by Windle, a son of Bening■borough, by King Fergus, by Eclipse. . . . Manto produced her foal a few days after setting her feet on Australian soil and the little thing was christened Cornelia." ' This "little thing," in due'course, mated with' Rous's Emigrant, produced Flora M'lvor, the wonderfully virile mare whose name occurs in the pedigrees of eighty-four of the mares appearing in the latest volume of the New Zealand Stud Book. Dr., Lang, in the course of his story, explains why there reI mains some doubt as to the precise | age of Flora M'lvor, when she was

brought to New Zealand. "Unfortunately," he writes, "Mr. Icely, unappreeiative of the excellence and value of his importations, failed to keep anything like accurate records of his stud. He did not even take a note of the. colour of his foals. We do know, however, that Man to, subsequent to the birth of Cornelia, also foaled Chancellor, to Steeltrap, Lady Godiva to Eous's Emigrant, Lycurgus to Whisker and Emilius to Operator. She also produced a colt named Jupiter, that was sent to South Australia, but he is returned without the name of his sire attached. It is to Cornelia that we must look for the tap-root from which nearly one thousand racehorses in Australia have traced their origin." Cornelia, it may be repeated, was the dam of Flora M'lvor, the ancestress of the recent Melbourne Cup and New Zealand Cup winners. Her adoption as the taproot of the family brings Flora M'lvor a generation nearer to the "first race mare." A VIRILE FAMILY. Not that Flora M'lvor needs to displace her grand-dam to add anything to her own laurels. For evidence 'to this effect, Dr. Lang again may be quoted* "Flora M'lvor," he states, in confirmation of other reputable witnesses, "had an enormous family. For Mr. Icely she threw the fillies Fatima, Florence Fauntless, Emily, Zoe, Flora, and Chloe, and the colts Figaro, Cossack, Nutwith, The Chevalier and Bay Middleton. Mr. Icely th,en disposed of the old mare to Mr. Redwood, of Nelson, New Zealand, and for him she produced at the age of twenty-six and twenty-eight, or possibly—for Mr. Icely's lack of stud records' causes much uncertainty—at twenty-seven and twenty-nine, Io and Waimea. Flora M'lvor's pair of New Zealand children, and her children's children from these two famous mares, rose up and called her blessed." Strangely enough Manto, though" bred in the purple in England and from the very bes.t blood in the world, was. not registered in the' General Stud Book. Dr. Lang suggests that this was due to her passing as' a youngster through several hands, including those of the Marquis of Queensbury and of some of his boon companions, and to the formality of registration. The late "Mr. W. H. E. Wanklyn, whom Dr. Lang quotes and extols as "the erudite keeper of the New Zealand Stud Book" and "a prolific author in the matter of stud lore," attributes the omission to the fact that the filly was the youngest born foal of her mother, and to the further fact that the shippers of those days never dreamed of registration being required at the other end of the world." However this may be, Manto'and her descendants need no credentials from the records of the remote past. The performances of Bloodshot, Churchill, Cissy, Cuirassier, Euroclydon, Frailty, Havoc, Manuka, Newmihster, Niagara, Nonsense, Oudeis, Siege Gun, Trenton, Zalinski and Zoe, to take a few names from tho honours list of the Manto — Flora M'lvor family, now to be supplemented by the names of \Nightmarch and Chide, speak more eloquently of the 'quality of the "first race mare" than would the registration of a whole encyclopaedia of stud books.