REAPPEARANCE OF SIMBA

Taranaki Daily News, 26 March 1932, Page 4

REAPPEARANCE OF SIMBA

SYDNEY POLICE DISCOVERY TRAINER AND DEALER ARRESTED. REMAND ON .CHARGE OF THEFT. NEW ZEALAND MYSTERY HORSE, By Telegraph—Press Assn-— CopyrightRec. 8.25 p.m. Sydney, March 24. . ■ Simba, the New Zealand racehorse that caused one sensation after another after his arrival at’ Sydney last year, culn inating in his disappearance, was recovered at. Enfield. Police Sergeant Small .saw & horse poking his head out of a stable door and immediately recognised him as the missing racehorse Simba. He looked a wreck of a thoroughbred, his hips and ribs sticking through his skin. A man living in a house adjoining the paddock was arrested.. Later Albert Norman McCoy, horse dealer and trainer, was charged with having stolen the gelding, valued at £1590. He was remanded on bail of £5OO. For nearly twelve months Simba has been a “mystery horse.” A well performed two-year-old Aand three-year-old in New Zealand, he was sold at the end of last April to a Sydney buyer. At the Auckland Racing Club’s last Easter meeting he had won a good race, and. on April IS last he had been runner-up to Tenterden in the Hawke’s Bay Stakes, beating, among others, the New Plymou'h mare Lady Quex. Simba was landed at Sydney in May, and almost immediately disappeared. The colt, as he then was, was supposed to have been sold to an Australian buy- / er fat a substantial price, £l5OO and £2OOO being mentioned. Rumours began to get about, and the Australian Jockey Club’s committee interested itself in the case and asked Mr. G. Guest to appear before the commiteec. Mr. Guest told the committee that he owned Simba and had had him gelded and turned, out for a spell. The horse would not be registered until Mr. .Guest was pleased to take the necessary steps in his own good time. The Customs Department then took steps to claim extra primage and duty on account <"f Simba and, as it was proved that Simba had been undervalued when landed, certain fines were imposed. But all that time Simba was not produced. / Early in December<the Sydney ponce were. informed that Simba had been stolen from stables at Alexandria, a suburb of Sydney. On that occasion Mr. Guest informed a reporter Simba had ■been sent to Alexandria on November 5, and was to be placed in training Jis soon as his leg was right. One of his legts • had been ‘blistered, Mr. Guest explained. The owner had. placed a man in .charge of the horse, to feed him during the day and to lock him up at night. Papers in the possession of Mr. Guest and'exhibited for the information of the newspapers < ■ (1) The New Zealand Stud Book certificate on the back of which Sru<» H. Pottie, M.R.C.V.S., testified that he had gelded-Simba in the month of June, (2) A. statutory declaration-by 3. T. Jamieson stating that he, in company , with Mr. Pottie, had seen a brown gelding on November 5, 1931, at Mr. Pottie’s yards, Redfern,-and that the said gelding was Simba, which he had purchased for Mr. Guest and shipped to Mr. J. Smith, Kensington.