RACING.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCVIII, Issue 18084, 11 June 1924, Page 22 (Supplement)

RACING.

ITS BEGINNING IN SOUTH CANTERBURY. AN INTERESTING REVIEW. A foreigner once wrote that the first thing Englishmen (with whom no doubt he included Scotchmen and Irishmen) did on grabbing a fresh piece of the globe was to promote a horse race. Whether this is true or not, it is certain that the settlement of South Canterbury had not proceeded very far before there was an influx of young colonists who brought with them an inherent love of all British spoi’ts, with a special fondness for the thoroughbred, and it was in the natural order of things that racing should have been early established. The first gathering in South Canterbury which could be called a race meeting is believed to have been held at Orari, where some extra events were run to supplement a match between Niger, a horse owned by the late Mr. W. K. Macdonald, and a Waimate champion owned by the late Mr. M. Studholme. Niger was ridden by Mr Martelli, and Mr Studholme’s

representative by Mr Brayton. The first meeting in the neighbourhood of the present Washdyke course was held in 1858, the track being laid off near the Point road, and a little below Stocker’s farm.

Racing grew in popular favour until local meetings sprang up at practically every township that boasted an accommodation house; and probably it will surprise many people who assert that we have too much racing nowadays to learn that at one period meetings were held at Tekapo, Fairlie, Albury, Pleasant Point, Arundel, Makikihi and Temuka, in addition to the longer-lived fixtures at Waimate, Geraldine and Timaru. Timaru at one time boasted two racing clubs—the Timaru Jockey Club and the Tradesmen’s Racing Club—which eventually joined forces under the name of the South Canterbury Jockey Club. Forty years ago the Geraldine Club held an Autumn meeting as well as a Spring fixture. The New Zealand Grand National Steeplechase had its origin in South Canterbury (a number of hunting enthusiasts banding together to establish the event), and the first two contests were decided in the environs of Timaru, one race finishing south of North Street at a point now covered by rows of houses. Some of the founders of the Grand National still take an active interest in the sport. For a time the National was something of a moveable feast, but even after it found a permanent home at Biccarton, the stewards of the meeting were mainly South Canterbury sportsmen. In connection with the Grand National an incident occurred which has become historical. The late Fred Hedge, who many years later was drowned in Timaru harboui', x’ode both first and second horses judge, going back after winning, and mounting another staidcr whose jockey had been injured. Tremendous progress has been made in the racing world since the ’sixties or ’seventies of last century, and people who are accustomed to go a-raeing in these comparatively luxurious times have little conception of the long journeys made by pioneer sportsmen to attend gatherings at which the appointments were of a primitive character. Measured by the baro-

meter of totalisator figures racing in South Canterbury has not always kept pace with the mushroom growth of the sport in some other parts of the Dominion, but events are proving that the South Canterbury Club’s policy of making haste more slowly has proved the sounder one. To-day the Club has a fine course and adequate appointments unencumbered by debt, whilst many of the bodies which were prominent in the boom time are now either shouldering a load of debt or unable to carryout necessary improvements and make provision for their patrons. Twenty-five years ago it had to be admitted that the Timaru meetings had retrograded—the value of the Cup in 1898 had receded to £IOO, just half its worth in 1884—but there have been no signs of stagnation in recent times. The Waimate Club, which originally raced on New Year’s Day, has also marched with the times, and conducts one of-the best one-day meetings in the South Island; and the Geraldine Club is offering the largest amount in stakes since its inception. The progress made by the S.C.J.C. can be estimated when it is stated that it distributed £3400, for a two-day fixture in 1923—six times

as much as in 1898, when the Cup was worth £IOO, and no other event on the card carried more than £4O, the programme being eked out by a £2O pony race, a selling race and a hack race of like value, and a trot woi'th £3O.

The first big racing stable built up by public trainers in South Canterbury was .controlled by the brothers M. and C. Hobbs, who in the 1884 season won races with Moody, Jackdaw, Hinerua, Temuka, Tramp, Milo, Our Pony, Tongariro, lonic, Leopold, Shadow, Bordcrman and Jack. Moody won a Gi’and National Steeplechase, run over a four-mile course, and on the same day, he and nearly all the other National candidates were saddled up again to contest the Tally-ho. In those days, however, it was not unusual for horses to be raced three or four times in one day, and at an Albury meeting a performer named Scaltheen, won three races. Some high-class performers were trained here during the Hobbs regime—Lady Zetland and Prince Warden being a notable pair—and one of the hottest Grand National favourites (Ahua) was beaten by Daddy-Longlegs, an outsider hailing from a stable near the top of Elizabeth Street. After M. and C. Hobbs moved north, first to Ashburton, and later to Christchurch there were no big teams in the district until S. Trilford collected a very lengthy string, which also gravitated to Riccarlon. His place was soon taken, however, by P. T. Hogan, a Southlander, who still occupies the Racecourse Stables, and since the return of S. Trilford, Washdyke has become one of the main training centres of the South Island.