AN OCTOGENARIAN DRIVER

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 68, 17 September 1936, Page 13

AN OCTOGENARIAN DRIVER

RECORD OF W. ORANGE

W. Orange, who trained and drove Electric Bell for her decisive success in the Spring Handicap at Wellington last Saturday, is the! oldest trainer and driver in the country. He is said to be close on 80 years of age, but would not freely confess to it. Orange's association with light-har-ness racing goes back more than half a century. He has always followed the game in the North Island, and in his best days he was located at Epsom, where he was regarded as the "Andy Pringle" of the north. At that time Orange had a big team of horses in work, and he had no peeW -W a rider of rough-gaited trotters. He won the Auckland Trotting Cup 'in 1908 with Scotia, and agam m 1919 with Norah Creiha. During later years he has suffered considerably from asthma, and his weight has been reduced to about seven stone. He is now at Ashhurst; where he trains Electric Bell for Mr. A. B. de Malmanche. Orange has the mare .in^Kood condition, and he drove her in his best style whten she won at Hutt Park on Saturday. ";~ '