A BRILLIANT FAMILY

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 107, 1 November 1941, Page 14

A BRILLIANT FAMILY

At her first start as a two-year-old the Paper Money mare Francolin ran second to Speed Light in the Wanganui Guineas, and she later won two juvenile events at Invercargill and the Russley Plate at Riccarton. However, the early promise was not fulfilled at three years, but in the following term Francolin won three open sprints at successive starts at southern meetings. That she has been capable of reproducing that brilliance in her own sons and daughters has been strikingly demonstrated by the deeds of her progeny. Her first foal Night Wings, won several good races, but her next production, a colt by Lord Warden, died, and at her next visit she failed to nick. Real fame came the way of the dam per medium of her 1935 foal who, under the name of Ortyx, won the John Grigg Stakes in 47 l-ssec, time that was not beaten in the short history of the classic. Then, to Nigger Minstrel she produced Dark Flight, who later established a course record for five furlongs at Wingatui, running the distance in lmin 1 l-ssec, and he also equalled Silver Scorn's six-furlong record of lmin 9 2-ssec at Riccarton on November 8, 1939. Now, her most recent product, Winning Flight, has carried the family's record further by winning the McLean Stakes on the opening day of the Dunedin Meeting.