HAWKE’S BAY.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1453, 28 February 1918, Page 13

HAWKE’S BAY.

Estland’s Wanganui Guineas Win— Sea Lord in Work Again—Hurakia Taken Up After Lengthy Spell— Death of Popular Sportsman —Multiply Progressing Favourably. NAPIER, Monday. Estland’s victory in the Guineas at Wanganui on Saturday makes the second occasion upon which the stake has been secured by a representative of Mr. T. H. Lowry, for Bjorneberg won the race for him last season. Mr. Lowry has put up somewhat of a record in connection with the Wanganui Guineas, for he has won it in successive years with two full brothers, both of whom were bred by him. Sea Lord is again in work at Eastings. W. Thompson, who for a long period filled the position of head lad to D. Munn, has the son of San Fran in hand.

Mr. G‘. McDonald has leased Nicomar to a patron of S. Brerton’s establishment at Greenmeadows. After a long cessation from toil, Hurakia, who won the Grand National Hurdles at Riccarton in 1915, has again joined the team controlled by H. Hickey at Hastings. Mr. W. J. Douglas, of Te Mahanga Station, well-known in the world of sport as a breeder and owner of racers, “crossed the bar” on Saturday morning. Deceased, who, comparatively speaking, was a young man (he was in his 48th year), has been in a poor state of health for several months past; in fact, he has rot been in real good health for a couple of years. Brought up in the atmosphere of the sport, he early took an interest in racing, and before he was out of his teens raced Kingrose, who in his time was just some horse. On the death of his father, the late Mr. W.. Douglas, he, in conjunction with his late brother, Mr. A. F. Douglas, took over the control and management of Te Mahanga Station, one of the ideal properties in Hawke’s Bay, and still continued the breeding and racing of horses carried on by his deceased father. Though going into business in a generous fashion, his luck was not of the. bright illumating variety on the running path. Of his many representatives about the best that carried his well-known racing uniform was Kopu, who notched a Hawke’s Bay Guineas. Others that saw the light at Te Mahanga during his reign included The Spaniard, Espartere, Mahutonga, St. Elmn, Mangaroa, Ataahua, Ahuapai, Spring, Maku, Bodenham, Projectile, Opaline (dam of Trials), Concussion, Fairy Gold, Golden Sky. Hiwitapu, Voetgang, Passadena, Mahuta, Splash, Te Puia, Wawata, Jem, Hinemanu, Paramahone, Tangimoana, Atuatere, and Taumanaha. The deceased was not one- of those who paraded his doings, and the amount of assistance he gave to many a weary, bent, forlorn struggler on this planet will never be known except to those ■‘who benefitted from his liberality. Such a man was he, and his demise is greatly to be regretted. Personally I will miss him, for a friendship of a quarter of a century is not easily gotten over, more especially when it is cemented by many acts of kindness and thoughtful consideration that help one to bear up with the trials that beset one in this at times grey world of ours. He leaves a widow and six children to mourn his loss, and in their sad affliction the sympathy of a host of friends, amongst all sorts and conditions of people, will go out to them. The remaining members of the family are two sisters, Mrs. J. W. White, of Havelock North, and Miss M. Douglas, of Te Mahanga, his only brother. Mr. A. F. Douglas, having predeceased him some time back. Multiply is going along the right

way, and his owner only considers it a question of time when he will be included amongst the sound and solid members of the gee-gees owned by him.

Owing to havinig made other arrangements, Mr. Angus Keith has declined the position of starter to the Waipukurau Jockey Club, an office he has filled for the last three years, and Mr. R. E. Harley has been appointed to fill the vacancy.