A TRUE SPORTSMAN

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 32, 7 August 1934, Page 6

A TRUE SPORTSMAN

LATE MR. W. H. BALLINGER

In the,:; death of Mr. W. H. ("Bill") Ballinger early ..on.'.Sunday morning,, the sport of racing in the Dominion has lost one who might well have claimed to be tho truest.and keenest enthusiast in the; land. The late Mr. Ballinger raced simply for love of1 the game. Nothing pleased him more than to win, yet he had the indomitable courage to face every setback that came along and to go on fighting still to rise above them all. In every sense of the word he was a real sports-1 man, and the country clubs in particular will- be .. tlifepoorer for his loss. Racing: in the Dominion must be something differ^ ent now | without him. ■■'"'■;. It was in the early nineties that Mr. Ballinger , first .thought about racing horses. :in those days he was at the height of his career as one of the finest rifle shots-New Zealand has ever had. He had won the New Zealand Rifle Championship Belt in 1879, and he won it again in 1895, after firing oil' a tie with his brother, ;■' Mr. .-As .S. Ballinger^ who. had won -the'•belt, tivb; years -previously,-;;,atid. was again ;tb?.siiceeed in> 1897...:and. :;j907;; It was after winning it the third time that' Mr. Arthur Ballinger presented it back for perpetual competition, and it became, known as the "Ballinger Belt." HIS FIRST RACEHORSES. So little did Air. Ballinger know about horses in those times that, one' day'./When. he saw a racehorse.: temporarily-boxed in a Mariners Street stables he remarked hbw ; thin' it looked. "And so would you be if you were fed on oats/ the stableman replied. The desire to own a horse fras hot in his blood, however, and 'filially' he decided to buy a foal. The one he obtained was out of a Day, Dawn mare, but it took ill and died. He therefore bought the Day Dawn mare's next foal,' its sire being the Leolinus horse Trickster, and he named it Morning. He first produced her; at a Petone show, and as he > was the only exhibitor in the class he,took the first prize with her. Then he had the idea of racing her, and he started to train her on the Petone beachi After a period of regular galloping her front knees began to fill, and, naively suspecting that she might be knocking her feed box during the uight, he had it padded. However, the. swelling still persisted, so he made some inquiries from wiser heads. Thus he "learned" that she had gone sore. When she was five years old Morning was sent to Otaki to be trained under an arrangement. Then she had her first races, and Mr. Ballinger used to watch her to see how many horses she could beat home. More and more she was accounting for, and finally a winning turn came at Levin, when she was ridden by one'of the stable lads, C. Pritchard. That was on New Year's Day, 1900. She was again sore at the end of the season, and she was sent to St. Hippo, but the soreness disappeared and so she was put into work again. She was in foal, but she was raced and won a hurdles at Foxton on Anniversary Day, paying a dividend of over £60. The foal appeared the following spring, and, named St. Ludlam, he wua to win many races. Mr. Ballinger was then known to the Turf by the assumed name of "H. '<Vhituey." He chose this name, as he often related; because H. Whitney was a big ammunition man in Aina'iea, who wua doing well with his horses, and he thought the name might bring him iuck. He raced under the pseudonym until such names ceased to bo permitted under the Rules of Racing. , ALWAYS "TRIERS." From that early beginning Mr. Ballinger continued to be one of the staunchest patrons of '• racing clubs throughout New Zealand and his colours were wellknown in practically every corner of the land. The South Island was a favourite uunting ground for him. but in recent years-he had confined his activities there mainly to the West Coast and yhe Nelson and Marlborougb districts. His horses were always ''triers," and although he did not have special fortune, yet he usually managed to capture a share ot racea.' The honour and glory of whining was the main thing with him.'He was' generally present when his horses were racing, and he was very happy indeed when one ot them finished in any place. One of his cherished ambitions was to win the New Zealand Cup, but it was not to be fulfilled. Year after year he had a runner, and, last November's was the first Cup for many seasons in which he was without a representative. Iv 1918 ho went very close to success, for only the great.Sasanof on that occasion finished ahead of his little mare Kose Pink. Watea ran a-great fourth in:1925. During the season just closed Mr. Ballinger Tiad one b£ his leanest terms. Early Shootist had a race or two without success, and then it was left to Flower and Purse to., carry: his colours for the '. remainder of the season. "In'all1-his team earned 'only £393, and they did a lot of travelling for that. Purse's win at Otaki iv June was to be the last occasion on which he was to be privileged in. leading in a victor. He was present on all .days: at the; recent Wellington Winter Meeting, and, he sat down in the front row of the Stewards': Stand with, some pressmen dnr-; tag the running of the Crofton Handicap on the final day so as to hear all that he could about how his representative Purse was faring. It proved an unlucky race, for Purse was interfered with at the start and was never in the picture. That was the last day's racing he was to enjoy, for it was on returning home that evening that he had the heart seizure which brought about his death. '