HECTOR GRAY’S RECORD

Evening Star, Issue 20863, 5 August 1931, Page 4

HECTOR GRAY’S RECORD

Among tlio features of the racing season which has just closed there was nothing of greater note than the riding record of Hector Gray, who headed the winning jockeys’ list with 110 wins, a total more than twice as largo as that of his nearest rival. It was the best credited to a New Zealand jockey, easily heading off the records of C. Jenkins and B. Dceley, who in earlier years headed the list with ninety and eighty-nine wins respectively. The riding record of Gray was the more remarkable from a man over forty years of ago. It was his second season of race riding after an absence of four years, during which he kept himself in condition by hard work. The success which attended his efforts last season was the well-earned reward of a natural gift as a horseman, combined with physical fitness, without which no jockey can hope to succeed. Gray had his first ride in a race at Wanganui, in the spring of 1902, but in the intervening period, covering nearly thirty years, ho has ridden in New Zealand in only nineteen seasons. Ho spent a season in England, where ho followed his profession with success, while there were several other gaps in his career.

Ho lias ridden in nearly 4,000 races in Now Zealand, and while last season was his most successful, it marked tho sixth occasion on which ho had handled sixty winners or more during- tho twelve months. His winning rides in tho dominion total 851, while bo has been in a place on nearly 1,200 other occasions. The prize money be has won owners in these races exceeds £200,000.

Twenty-nine times during his racing career ho has done the hat trick, seven of them being credited to him last season, while on five occasions ho has been on four successivt winners.

Most of the principal events in New Zealand have been credited to this brilliant horseman. _ His record includes three wins each in such events as tho New Zealand Cup, Wellington Cup, G. G. Stead Cup, and Awapuni Gold Cup. A great judge of pace and a wonderfm finisher, he is equally at homo in long or short races, while he handies twc-yenr-olds with rare judgment

Apart from tho evidence provided during the past season in his record total of wins, Gray has shown no sign of waning powers as a horseman; in fact, it is doubtful if he has ridden better at any stage of bis career than during tho past twelve months. There seems no reason, therefore, why ho should not retain his ability as a race rider for many more seasons.