PROVING PROFITABLE

Taranaki Daily News, 15 March 1935, Page 9

PROVING PROFITABLE

RELATIVE OF ANTIQUE CHIEF MARIONETTE’S WINS. The New Plymouth-trained and Palmerston-owned Chief Marionette, who last week won the Rangitikei Cup at Bulls and the Storey Memorial at Te Rapa, is a mare who at previous times in her career has looked like turning out a more than useful performer, but after each such promising interlude there has been a lapse when she has been of little account. However, she has

raced more solidly recently, with reasonable excuses for the occasions on which she has failed, and she may now be entering on to a period of really profitable form.

The mare, now five years old, is a chestnut daughter of Chief Ruler and the Maniapoto—-Dear Dolly mare Dolly Fisher. The family traces back through Dear Dolly’s dam Dolly to a mare by Young Rover, and there the pedigree stops, but despite its short descent it has produced three or four very excellent performers in recent years, among them being Antique, Santonio and Santiago. Antique, who is from Chief Marionette’s half-sister Unique, won two Takapuna Cups and with an ounce of luck might have won both the Auckland and Wellington Cups, but since his sale to Australia he has been a disappointment. Santonio and Santiago were both sons of Dolly Fisher, among the former’s many successes being four events at Wellington meetings. including the Metropolitan and Suburban Handicaps, and among the latter’s, an even more prolific winner, valuable events on both the flat and over hurdles. Another member of this littel-known family was the speedy Mothplane. Chief Marionette was bred by Mr. J. J. O’Reilly, Wanganui, who also bred Antique, and she was sent up for sale as a yearling, but was withdrawn at 35 guineas. She was then acquired privately by Mr. R. J. McDonald, who handed her to Mrs. A. W. McDonald to train at Awapuni. As a two-yaar-old she won three small races for £195 in stakes, and the next season she was four times successful for £350 in stakes. Last autumn she was bought by her present owner, Mr. G. M. Bennett, of Palmerston North, but she had only a couple of minor placings in half a dozen starts during the term for £25 in stakes. She was transferred to H. Dulieu’s charge at New Plymouth. and already this season she has won four times and been four times placed in ten starts for £585 in stakes.