THE CLUBMAN

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1533, 11 September 1919, Page 8

THE CLUBMAN

The Messrs. Alison, father and sons, have frequently made purchases of racing stock in Australia, and during the last two decades no other of Auckland racing men have bought quite so largely or have had anything like the same luck with their importations. One syndicate who brought over eight or nine have, as a matter of fact, not yet had the satisfaction and pleasure of seeing any of the number win a stake or run second; indeed, one only of the lot has so far secured a place, and they are waiting patiently in the hope of at least better results in the near future. By the Port Melbourne five thoroughbreds were due from Sydney when these notes went to press for the owners referred to. Three are yearlings, and, as announced last week, the other pair are the racehorses Some Boy and Khublai Khan. The last-named is a four-year-old horse, and though a maiden has shown some promise, and comes of a good family of stayers, as stated last week, being a more than half-brother in blood to that good horse Cajou, who proved himself repeatedly a bit of a champion and was purchased before the war broke out to send to Germany. Onazer, by Royal Artillery, also raced well over a distance, and Kudas, by Linacre, proved a good winner. It does not follow that everything the mare Tartar (who was got by Grafton, the half-brother to Polymelus) produced will turn out top-hole, but the four-year-old son of Aryan, son of Ayrshire and half-brother to imported St. Alwyne, may be a very capable performer as he gets older. His second to Finmark in the St. Leger at Randwick is voted about his best performance. Aryan, who belongs to the distinguished No. 5 family, was imported to take the place of Ayr Laddie in the stud of Messrs. Thompson. Probably Khublai Khan only wants a little age to make good. We shall soon see. He is a horse, and his blood should be worth something to us when he goes out of the racing arena.

Some Boy, the bright particular stai’ of the newcomers to these shores, being a horse also, the probability is that Mr. E. W. Alison, his purchaser, has an idea of using him for stud purposes when he has done racing him. If so his breeding will stand investigation, as he comes on his dam’s side of a good line, his seventh dam being Seclusion, the granddam of Stepniak, She (dam of Bobadil), Stepfeldt (dam of Eleva tion, Provocation and Reputation), Russley, Mahaki, Lady Norah, Too Soon, and half-sister to Hermit and ancestress to Minoru (Derby winners). Cyrus, sire of Some Boy, is a son of the great Cyllene from Stream of Gold, by St. Angelo from Goldstream, by Wisdom. His performances in England include the Ayr Gold Cup and nine other wins, some of his achievements being over hurdles, one with as much as 12.2 on his back. Cyrus is the sire of ten or more winners of more or less note, Some Boy, who has won £2623 at Sydney metropolitan meetings, being the best, Hitachi at Randwick and Rude in New Zealand being other winners of some prominence. On his dam’s side Some Boy, who is of the No. 5 family, has nothing wanting. He has a double cross of St. Simon, his dam, The Tart, a winner in Ceylon, being by Perigord from the Valour mare Celoeno, from the Jock O’Oran mare Bay Celia, from the Rosicrucian mare Rosalind, who was by King John from Seclusion, as mentioned above the dam of famous old Steppe, who has done so much for the Dominion and Australia through her many great descendants.

The yearlings in the consignment are a bay colt by The Sybarite, who is a half-brother to Craganour, who finished first in the sensational Derby of 1913 and had the race taken from him owing to interference during running. He was a strong favourite. Nassovian and Glorvina, both really good performers, are also from the same mare. The' Sybarites’ sire was

bot by Symington, son of Ayrshire, sire of Air Laddie and Aryan, referred to above. It was supposed that Mr. E. W. Alison, jun., had disposed ( of this colt, whose dam,' Irish Mist, was imported and won a race in Victoria shortly after her arrival, while her half-sister Faustine, also imported, was sold for 700 guineas, and her half-sister Celluloid was a winner in England. Irish Mist was got by Santry, a first-class racehorse and sire, from Film, half-sister to Wuffy and Kerman, crack performers and winners of big races in the Old Land, the last-named being at the stud in Australia. Film realised 2300 guineas at auction at Tattersall’s with Faustine at foot. The bay colt by Limelight (12) from Fleet Street (10), imported, was purchased for Mr. Ernest Alison. He is a half-brother to Quickstitch, a good performer. Limelight rah in England at two’ years old, being second three times in important races, and won and was placed second’ and third in big races on Sydney metropolitan courses. This yearling is one of his first season’s progeny. His dam, Fleet Street, was got by Speed, a great winner and sire of Velocity, from Lorna Doon, by Baliol (a noted

horse) from The Doon, sister to the dam of Sunny Lake, who is in the stud of Mr. J. F. Reid, of Oamaru.

The yearling purchased for the Hon. E. W. Alison is a black filly, and is by Tressidy, imported son of Persimmon (winner of £34,726 in stakes and sire of winners of £232,805 in fourteen seasons and of winners of £36,868 in one season). Tressidy is the sire of numerous good ones, that great mare Thana being one. He was a high-class horse himself, as was his sire, who got such as Prince Palatine and Comedy King (sire of Biplane). Silvana is halfsister to the good hurdler Capintesta and dam of Vanitor, winnei’ of the Melbourne Hunt Club Cup last month, also dam of Vilia (dam of Persian Ruler), also half-sister to Duke of Portland and Fairy Land (the dam of a lot of winners). Silvana’s sire was by Carbine’s son Bundook, half-bro-ther to Seahorse from Silvia (imp.), dam of Spencer, by Thurio, tracingback to illustrious Queen Mary, who represnted the best branch of the No. 10 family. These and some other two-year-olds would have been nominated for the Avondale Stakes, to be

run at the coming meeting, and for the Avondale Guineas to be run in 1920, if the nominations '.had not closed so early, so a numbej of owners have informed the writer/

As New Zealand buyers keep going on the Australian market, and as the prizes for classic races are being increased, those clubs which have not altered the time of taking nominations so as to fit in with the other New Zealand and all Australian clubs would be consulting the interests of all breeders and owners and their own by doing so. It is very disappointing to quite a lot of owners who have three-year-olds at Ellerslie, if not elsewhere, not to be able to race them in the Avondale Guineas this '

year, for the reason that most of them were purchased after the nominations were closed. These races are commonly supposed to be provided to encourage breeders and racing men, but if those who are enterprising enough to go upon markets outside of New Zealand for what they want, and they thus bring in fresh strains of blood and do a lot of good in that way. Enterprise would be checked if all clubs adopted the same course. We

do not mean this note for the Avondale Jockey Club only, but for all clubs that have not seen fit to delay the date of taking nominations so as to let all racing men come in on the same ground floor. Apart altogether from waiting for Australian purchases, we feel sure the breeders themselves throughout New Zealand would in a majority of cases prefer to allow the buyers of their yearlings to make their own choice of races in which to nominate them.

The classic races of the Avondale Jockey Club are growing more and more valuable. We have seen the winners of these races go on and win elsewhere. Nonette, Elysian and Merry Roe are the best that have won the Avondale Stakes during the twenty years it has existed, and Nonette, Wairiki, Ropa, Gladstone, Cambrian, Pohutu, Santa Rosa, Elysian, King Soult, Miss Winsome, Bleriot, Merry Roe, Mullingar, Vagabond and Cyrisian are amongst those that have won the Avondale Guineas, and some of these proved of high class when they went further afield, the names of a fair proportion of the Stakes and Guineas winners being

found in races like the A.R.C. Welcome Stakes and G'reat Northern Guineas, to say nothing of classic races outside the province. What of the class of those engaged in the coming events? The shipping and train arrangements have made it bad for the outside owners, and the provincial ones this year comprise a number that are not engaged, through no fault of their present owners, which is bad luck for the club and for the public, who would like to see a race, if not representative of all the outside provinces, at least of the material whether bred in or imported to Auckland province.

By the Port Melbourne the nine two-year-olds purchased by Mr. Geo. Niccol at the same sales also arrived. They were dealt with in a special article in an earlier issue, and are all broken and ready to go into work, having been well done by Messrs. Inglis and Co., though sorqe of them did not escape influenza troubles that went through the stables at Randwick. They comprise five colts and four fillies. The colts are by the imported sires Prudent King, Charle-

magne 11., Flippant, and the Hotchkiss sire Gunpowder, Charlemagne 11. being represented by a brace. The Flippant colt is from Linere, a fullsister to Helene Vane (who won the first two-year-old race of the season on August 16, the Fulham Park Plate in Adelaide), by Pistol from Liane, full-sister to Linacre, one of the two leading sires in Australia. These colts and the four fillies are from the best of racing families, as will have been gathered from what we have previously written about them. Arrangements were made to place them with E. J. Rae at Greenlane until such time as they are to be disposed of. At no time in the history of racing in New Zealand have as many as a dozen two-year-olds come to this country in one shipment. Counting the four young horses of Mr. Kemball, viz., Missgold, Rebuff, Vasilkov and Raceful, and the two Taranaki horses Rewipoto and Henry Clay, which were to be shipped at Wellington this week, there would be seventeen horses in all sent from New Zealand to campaign in Australia since the opening of the new season, the horses of Messrs. Stead, Richmond and Greenwood included.