AN EMBRACE AND A KISS

Southland Times, Issue 23678, 29 November 1938, Page 10

AN EMBRACE AND A KISS

Catalogue And His

Trainer

MELBOURNE CUP WINNER ALMOST HUMAN

An embrace and a kiss in celebration of a reunion on Queen’s Wharf, Wellington, provided a knot of bystanders with the principal satisfaction for their curiosity when the Westralia, from Sydney, berthed. It was Catalogue, winner of the Melbourne Cup being given a welcome by his New Zealand trainer, Mrs A. W. McDonald Awapuni. The pair met like old friends, and delight was mutual and demonstrative, says The Dominion. “He is almost human.” That was how a waterside worker handling the sling of the horse box expressed it as he paused to watch the incident. He was referring to the horse, and he was putting into words the thoughts of many. Catalogue, always a rather nervous traveller, was reasonably quiet as he was swung up from the hold ana on to the wharf. Blit he exhibited nervousness as he stepped on to. the wharf. He swung round quickly on the lead with- the attendant who was with him throughout his Australian trip, but Mrs McDonald stepped forward and he quietened. Beside the main shed and amid the bustle of the wharf scene, he nuzzled her and was obviously as pleased to see her again as a school boy home for the holidays. The same hand from which he has had peaches and apples, his pet dish, gripped his head, and he made his enthusiasm and trust as obvious and genuine as a dumb animal is able. “Have you got the cup in there and a lot of gold-mounted whips, asked the Customs official as he inspected the luggage of Mr McDonald. Mr McDonald smiled. He is as quiet in manner and as unassuming as when he went a w a y> and in this characteristic he is matched by Mrs McDonald. He saw the race from die trainers’ stand, he said, sitting beside Lou Robertson, the trainer of Kingdom, a three-year-old considered to have a good chance. He never took his eye off Catalogue from start to finish and his one concern was that he should not have to go to the front too soon and “pull his head off/’ Catalogue did go to the front a little earlier than expected, but was very well ridden by F. Shean and won as easily as he has ever done. Shean’s hands were numb when he dismounted from holding the game old fellow.