AUSTRALIAN TURF ACTIVITIES

Southland Times, Issue 23848, 20 June 1939, Page 10

AUSTRALIAN TURF ACTIVITIES

CHELANDRY AND HER FAMILY POOLEY BRIDGE A CHAMPION JUMPER

By

SIR MODRED

Australia’s champion hurdle racer, Pooley Bridge, is by Ornamentation (imp., and by Tracery). A programme of valuable races wih interest Melbourne turfites at Moonee Valley on Saturday. ■ Winner of the Melbourne Cup and Caulfield Cup in 1937, The Trump is again racing in promising form. Despite the fact that he won the V R.C. Grand National Hurdles (3m.) in 1936, Pooley Bridge favours two The Canterbury Park Turf Club will hold a meeting in Sydney on Saturday with New Zealanders competing. z Bourbon, who ran second to Catalogue in the last Melbourne Cup, is listed again for the. November event. Miss Bothina, a three-year-old filly by Salmagundi (imp.) recently won for the Southland sire in New South Wales. A smart juvenile colt called Bombala, by Gascony (N.Z.) was a recent winner at Hawkesbury (Sydney) last month. Absconder, a two-year-old gelding by Nightmarch from Note, by Paper Money, has been displaying useful form in Sydney. W. Sibbritt, an Australian jockey with Indian experience, is reported to be on the up-grade as a horseman in England- , „ , The value of this year’s Derby, won by Blue Peter, was £7730/10/-, and a £2OO trophy to his breeder-owner, Lord Rosebery. A three-year-old filly called Hash, by Salmagundi, has won two races in New South Wales of late, and also gained place honours.

POOLEY BRIDGE There are several successful trainers of jumpers in Southland who will be in agreement with the treatment extended to Australia’s champion hurdle racer, Pooley Bridge, in his daily round of track and home preparation. Fresh-air treatment is advanced as the secret, of success with the son of Ornamentation in the unique class in which he is listed —a jumper of battens who stands alone in the Commonwealth. Pooley Bridge is stabled at night, but is air lowed to roam at will in a paddock at his trainer’s stables during the day. He has been set to carry 11.10 in the Grand National Hurdle Race at Flemington next month, but he was obviously tiring when he won the V.R.C. York Hurdles recently over two miles under 12.2, and this may mean that old age is finding him out.

Emboldened by the success of Catalogue in the Melbourne Cup of 1938, and the performance of Royal Chief in accounting for the Australian J.C.’s rich Metropolitan Handicap of the spring season, quite a number of New Zealand owners have been tempted to engage representatives in leading early handicaps of the approaching new turf term of 1939-40. There are nearly 320 nominations for the Melbourne Cup and these include Defaulter, Dictate, Desert Chief, Elange, Malagigi, Moorsotis and Royal Order. There are also a number of New Zealand-bred performers engaged in the great race. The West Australian-owned, but New Zealand-bred horse, Footmark, by Defoe (sire of Defaulter) from Bachelor’s Picture, is now trained in Melbourne. He is engaged in the Melbourne Cup and other important handicaps, while it is announced that the W. A. Derby winner has been galloping well on the tracks at Caulfield. FAMILY OF CHELANDRY Great interest has been aroused in Australian stud circles and where students of breeding congregate in the fact that two recent classic winners in America and England respectively, are direct descendants of that English mare Chelandry, a representative of the Illuminata-Paraffin female line. The American winner was Johnstown, who accounted for the Kentucky Derby, and the filly Galatea II this month credited with a victory in the English Oaks Stakes. Presently to be proclaimed as Australia’s premier sire for the seventh

year in succession Heroic (sire of Ajax) is a close-up descendant of Chelandry, while Syce (imp.) was for a number of years Queensland’s leading sire, his dam Skyscraper ranking as a daughter _of Chelandry, by Goldfinch from Illuminata by Rosicrucian from Paraffin, by Blair Athol (a mighty horse and a son of Stockwell). This female family is treasured the world over and many of the mares and their daughters at Mr W. T. Hazlett’s stud are from Simper (imp.), the dam of a long line of winners, the defunct Southland mare being by Symington from Chelys, by Sir Visto from Chelandry. But to revert to the noted American Kentucky Derby winner Johnstown. Chelandry was the dam of Bobolink 11, dam of St. James, grandsire of Johnstown, who is regarded in the United States as a second Gallant Fox. The Oaks winner, Galatea H, is out of Galady H, a mare bred in America, her third dam being Skyscraper, a daughter of Chelandry. A Derby winner and a famous sire Ladas, by Hampden, was a half-brother to Chelandry. The result of the Ascot Stakes, a sweepstake of £2O each, with £2OOO added (two miles and a-half), decided in England this month, will be welcomed by many breeders and owners in New Zealand and Australia, as the result provided several unique features. It ranks as the longest handicap of the season in the Old Country. The race was won by the five-year-old horse Frawn, by Foxlaw, with Foxchase, a flve-year-old son of Foxlaw, in second place narrowly beating the. four-year-old mare Ninas, by Son-in-Law, for place honours. The great field numbered 30 runners, and Frawn scored for the second year in succession. Established in 1839 the race has been won twice on only three other .occasions, one of these notable double winners being Musket, who came to New Zealand to establish a stud record that promises to endure for generations to come, particularly where dyed-in-the-wool stayers are concerned. It will be noted that the winner and second horse, Frawn and Foxchase, are sons of Foxlaw, by Son-in-Law, while Ninas, the mare who ran third for Sir Abe Bailey, was got by Son-in-Law- a victory for Son-in-Law blood in a field of thirty. ’ Foxlaw, sire of the first two horses home, has two sons at the stud in the North Island in Foxbridge (imp.) and Foxlight (imp.), while there are a number of . sons of Son-in-Law at the stud in the Dominion, including the successful Southland-owned sire Siegfried (imp.). It may be claimed that New Zealand is well served with sires of Son-in-Law blood to represent one of the greatest staying racehorses and sire of staying sons capable of in turn begetting gallopers of stamina, known to the turf the world over. >■

COLLIE DOG TRIALS

SOUTH ISLAND AND N.Z. CHAMPIONSHIPS (United Press Association) CHRISTCHURCH, June 19. The South Island and New Zealand collie dog championship trials began at Tai Tapu today when 50 dogs of the 63 entered in tire first event, the long pull, completed their runs. The South Island class will be concluded tomorrow morning and the seven highest scoring dogs will then re-run. the course for the New Zealand championship, - the highest aggregate in two runs to: determine the winner. The weather today was cpld. and .dull, but remained fine overhead qnd the work generally was of a high-standard. Many dogs with championship records are entered, competitors taking part from various districts of the east coast of the North Island, North,- South and Central Otago, Southland • > and Marlborough and most Canterbury districts. ' • -

LAWN TENNIS ■/ FRENCH CHAMPIONSHIPS PARIS, June 18. The results of the French tennis championships included:— MEN’S DOUBLES Final: D. McNeill and Harriss (United States) defeated J. Borotra and J. Brugnon 4-6, 6-4, 6-0, 2-6, 10-8. WOMEN’S DOUBLES Final: Mme R. Mathieu (France) and Mlle J. Jedrzejowska (Poland) defeated Mme A. Florian and Mme H. Kovac, 7-5, 7-5. MIXED DOUBLES Final. —Cooke and Mrs Sarah Fabyan (United States) beat J. Kukuljevic (Yugoslavia) and Mme Mathieu 4-6, 6-1, 7-5.

Severe Injuries

Bruce Hobbs, the boy who at seventeen won last year’s Liverpool Grand National on Battleship, is still unable to ride as the result of being kicked in the back by a horse last November, but at that he is lucky to be alive. Seven pieces of bone were taken from his shin and grafted on to his broken spine. His leg was cut open from just below the knee to the ankle to obtain the' bone, and seventy stitches had to be put in it. For three months the lad lay encased almost from head to foot in plaster of paris. He returned home on crutches in March, and although he soon discarded these for a stick he was under sentence of not riding a horse until June. This was not young Hobbs’s first close shave, as he had his skull cracked when five years old, through a fall on the hunting field.