NUMEROUS DOLLYS

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 88, 13 April 1935, Page 27

NUMEROUS DOLLYS

CHIEF MARIONETTE'S LINE

Among correspondence received during the week is a letter from llobart (Tas-. mania) asking for further particulars about the female ancestry of Chief Marionette. It is suggested that the great grandam Dolly might be the same mare us appears in certain pedigrees, in the Stud Book, or closely related to her,'but further research reveals that this is highly improbable, though there may be some reader better informed on the point.

The letter is as follows; —"In your notes on Saturday,. March 9,. you give a brief account of the pedigree of Chief Marionette, stating that she traces through a aiare Earned. Dolly to an unknown mare by Young Rover. . I wonder whether you could give me: further particulars, as I am interested-in a. mare (Niazoue) who is a daughter, of a mare by Maniapoto from Dolly. This mare is registered in the latest volume' of. the Stud Book, and her pedigree as registered extends to a mare named Matilda, by Zohrab from a Bay Camerton mare of unknown breeding. As I know that both Maniapoto and Doliy belonged to the Goods of Taranaki, itseems likely that the Dolly of Chief Marionette's pedigree is the same inure as the Dolly of Niazone's pedigree. In view of the shortness'of the pedigree and relative obscurity- of the taproot, I should be very interested to discover any relationship." From particulars filed with the Racing Conference the two Dollys appear to be wholly different' mares, though they were both.'bred in the Wanganui-i'aranaki district at about the same time. In the period from 1895 to 1910 there were apparently four mares named Dolly who were being bred from; one -of them being the great grandam of Chief Marionette, given as a mare by Randwick from a mare by Young 'Rover ( 1 Young Plover), and another ; being, the grandam of Nia^one (at first named Mauroti), given as a mare by Seaton' Delaval. . ■•-'". < I .

The latter Dolly was' owned by Mr. H. (_E. Good, who bredi from her, besides Niapoto (dam of Niazone), the Lupin horse Tree Lucerne, who left some useful performers about a decade back when put to, the stud. The family to which this Dolly belongs has been in the Stud Book since the first volume, but Chief Marionette's family is not admissible, though undoubtedly her breeder, Mr. J. J. O'Reilly, of Westmere, made many efforts to clear up the pedigree further back, especially alter the success of such horses as Sir Fisher (Maniappto—Dear Dolly) and Antique, both of whom, descended from the same obscure source as Chief Marionette.

A glance; back at the records of from only twenty to thirty years ago reveals how often ,the name 3of horses were then duplicated, or even used four or five times, much to the confusion of breeders now attempting .to discover the antecedents of t families that have belatedly begun, producing good-class performers. For instance, Dear Dolly, the grandam of Chief Marionette and the dam of Sir lisher, wns racing with quite a fair amount of success between,the 1905-6 and 1907-8 seasons, and iir the last-mentioned season she was given in- tho ' Turf' Register as a five-year-old marc (by Brigadier). That was' her last race season, but only' two. seasons later I here appears in the official record another Dear Dolly, by Deerstalker, also then five years, old, though her race career consisted of just a single start.,. One might have wondered if Dear Dolly, alter: foaling Dolly Fisher (dam' of Chief Marionette) in 1909, had been raced agaiiv.with a wrong pedisrree, but a search of the records with the Racing Conference reveals that the newcomer's name was correctly registered as Deer Dolly, a 1904, mare produced by one of the other numerous Dollys then existing in the country* _'<, "■ j