CHAMPION HURDLER

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 132, 7 June 1939, Page 15

CHAMPION HURDLER

CHARADE'S RISE TO FAME

Charade's progress to her Great Northern Hurdles win- this year, ollowed by her further success in the Remuera Hurdles on the second day of the Auckland Meeting, was a steady climb to the top ranking. , There was a time when she was rather a disappointing mare, but she came more solid over middle distances as a four-year-old, and she finally found her true metier in jumping. She is a very solid stamp of mare ideally made for the jumping game. It is of interest to note that Charade is only the third mare to have won the Great Northern Hurdles, those preceding her in attaining the distinction being Melinite in 1894 and Wee Pat in 1934. Mares as a rule do not make high-class jumpers, but when they do take to the game they are often very successful.

In contrast to Survoy, the Great Northern Steeplechase winner, Charade has been racing since she was a two-year-old, and she has had a fair amount of experience over fences. It is a coincidence that both winners this year are chestnuts with a white blaze and a white hind sock, but Charade is a much deeper chestnut in colour and more solidly moulded. Charade is owned by Mr. A. W. Meikle, of Mangateretere, near Hastings, who purchased the dam, Charlady, when in foal to Lord Quev, at the Flaxmere dispersal sale in 1931 for 375 guineas. Charlady did her racing in the Auckland district and she was a good winner herself, among her "successes being the A.R.C. Ferguson Handicap, A.R.C. Islington Handicap. Te Aroha Hot Springs Handicap, c hinemun Cup. and Waikato Hamilton Handicap. Her other offspring have been the m-and-out Cleaner and Father's Choice, who were full-relatives to Charade, and Royal Minstrel, recent surprise winner at the Foxton Meeting. Charade is a six-year-old daughter of Lord Quex, and her dam (Charlady) belongs to one of the best of the Flaxmere families. Charlady was by Absurd from Lady D, an Imported' mare by the St Simon horse St. Denis. Lady D was a three-quarter-sister to Lady Grace, the dam of the Melbourne Cup winner Backwood. and her other progeny were the A.J.C. Gimcrack Stakes winner Chignon (a full-sister to Charlady), Cosmetic (a good winner). Amplifier (a winner in Australia), and Comedienne, the dam of High Comedy, Star Artist, and Rollicker. Charlady failed in her first four starts as a juvenile. The following season she was once successful, in a highweight at a Dannevirke Meeting. She was then trained by H. S. Greene, but as a four-year-old she passed under the care of J. H. Jefferd, who secured three further wins with her. in the Park Handicap, \\ miles, at Napier, and in highweights over the same distance at Manawatu and Wellington, her Trentham success being rewarded with a substantial dividend.

The next term, when she was five and a much-improved mare in appearance with age, she went back 1.0 Greene's stable, and after winning a highweight at Hastings in the autumn she was turned to jumping, a game at which, after two unsuccessful starts in Gisborne, she made good with a sequence of three victories, culminating with the Century Hurdles twelve months ago at Wanganui. It was not till December that she resumed racing, and after a second at Feilding she went north to Ellerslie at" Christmas, where she won the Grafton Hurdles, 2 miles, and was second to Hopalong in the Auckland Hurdles, 2 miles, carrying 11.1 and 11.5 respectively. In a single outing at Trentham in January she was third in the final day's highweight, and, let up then for three months, she has since won the Rangatira Hurdles at Manawatu and the two main hurdle events at Ellerslie in a row. Her success under 11.10 on Monday is all the evidence required that she is one of the best hurdlers the Dominion has had in recent years. Her record to date reads: — Stakes Starts. Wins. Places. £ At 2 years .... 4 — — ■— At 3 years 5 1 2 SO At 4 years l(i 3 2 410 At 5 years 16 4 2 000 At G years ... . 8 Jt , J 1085 Totals ..49 12 0 £3165 Charade's latest performance reveals how well she has been turned out by H. S. Greene, who has had unusual success this winter with his small team of jumpers. She is now high up in the weights, and it would not be surprising to find her tried out before long in the role of a steeplechaser, as she has the' robustness and constitution to make a cross-country performer of the first water Already she has earned the distinction of being the best mare over fences the Dominion has had since Aurora Borealis.