RACEHORSE RECOVERED

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 22 April 1935, Page 6

RACEHORSE RECOVERED

Prince Colossus Found Near Waitakere Ranges SUFFERS FROM EXPOSURE TRACKED INTO FOOTHILLS

(By Telegrapn—rress Association.) AUCKLAND, April 21. After being missing for three days, the racehorse (Prince Colossus was recovered to-day in the foothills of the Waitakere Ranges near Coatesville, where the horse had been left in an area of scrub. Prince Colussus was removed from stables in Campbell Road, One Tree Hill, on Thursday night or early on Friday morning, and he was not able to start in the President’s Handicap, run at the Aucklang Racing Club’s Easter meeting at Ellerslie on Saturday, a race in which the five-year-old was considered to have had good prospects. Concern at the treatment which .Prince Colussus had undergone was expressed by Mr A. Cameron, of Hamilton, who holds a five-year lease of the animal, and by the trainer, Mr T. M. Morris, of Cambridge, in whose hands the racehorse had been since the spring. They said the horse was in a condition which precluded early engagements, including the Avondale Jockey Club’s meeting, and at least three weeks of careful treatment would be required to restore him to form.

SURPRISING RECOVERY. The recovery of the animal came ctDout in a surprising manner. The police had been investigating the removal of Prince Colossus as a result of the complaint that the padlock of the door of his stable had been forced. Mr Cameron learned on Saturday that Prince Colossus had been taken to ilie Coatesville district, but the information was otherwise indefinite. It was too late on Saturday to take further actio*.

At 7 o’clock this morning Mr Cameron and his son, Mr John Cameron, left the city with a horse float. Detective J. B. Finlay and Constable F. X. Quin accompanied them in a police ear. About a mile and a- half from the property where the racehorse was allegedly kept during its absence, the party of investigators were attracted by the unusual behaviour of two men in a motor-ear.

STRANGERS FOLLOWED. The searchers at this stage had no point at which to commence their investigations. They decided to follow the two strangers, who suddenly proceeded up a side road. The investigators reached the property, and on© c.f the men they had followed was questioned. He said that Prince Colossus had been taken from the property some 20 minutes previously. Questioning of other people m the vicinity did not at first produce any further information, but the investigators traced hoofmarks from a near-by stable. The marks had been obliterated by the heavy rain then falling, after the searchers had followed them for some distance. A widespread search was. then made over the neighbouring hills, under arduous conditions. Settlers in tho vicinity had noticed a horse with a ♦green cover being lei through, the district, and it then agreed that Mr John Cameron should go to a particular locality on horseback. He rode seven miles to a hush camp, and m the afternoon he saw Prince Colossus m an area of ti-tree. He saw no foddet and the animal had suffered through exposure. Prince Colossus was brought back to the farm property and he was brought to the city in the evening m a horse float. It is believed that a, float was used to remove him from Auckland.